Virtual Machine Inventory Report

Inventory reports are useful to provide an offline overview of your virtual machines. When you submit an inventory report request, a CSV or JSON file will be generated with the selected attributes.

The command vss-cli compute inventory provides the sub-commands to generate and download inventory files:

Usage: vss-cli compute inventory [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

  Create or download an inventory file of your virtual machines hosted.
  Inventory files are created and transferred to your VSKEY-STOR space and
  are also available through the API.

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  dl  download inventory report
  mk  create inventory report

Create

Creating inventory files is as simple as running vss-cli compute inventory mk and all supported attributes will be included in the default format CSV. However, the following options area available:

Usage: vss-cli compute inventory mk [OPTIONS] [ATTRIBUTE]...

  Submits an inventory report request to generate file in JSON or CSV of
  your virtual machines.

Options:
  -f, --fmt [json|csv]        report format  [default: csv]
  --transfer / --no-transfer  Transfer report to personal store  [default:
                              False]
  -a, --all                   include all attributes
  --help                      Show this message and exit.

Every attribute included in the report is passed as an argument, but as already mentioned, “no argument” adds all attributes. Attributes are dynamic and provided by the API, thus we strongly recommend setup autocompletion to have them listed as follows:

vss-cli compute inventory mk <tab-tab>

admin             -- Admin
cdBacking         -- CD/DVD unit backing
client            -- Client
clientNotes       -- Client Notes
cpu               -- CPU Count
diskCount         -- Disk Count
diskTotalSize     -- Disk Total Size
disks             -- Hard Disks
domain            -- Fault Domain
folder            -- Folder
guestOsId         -- Guest OS Id
haGroup           -- HA Group
hardwareVersion   -- Hardware Version
hostName          -- Host Name
inform            -- Inform
ipAddress         -- IP Address
isTemplate        -- Is Template
memory            -- Memory GB
networkIds        -- Network IDs
nicCount          -- NIC Count
nics              -- NICs
options           -- Vss Options
osId              -- OS Id
provisionedSpace  -- Provisioned Space
requested         -- Requested
service           -- Vss Service
snapshot          -- Snapshot
state             -- State
status            -- Status
uncommittedSpace  -- Uncommitted Space
usedSpace         -- Used Space
vmtRunning        -- VMware Tools Running Status
vmtVersion        -- VMware Tools Version Status

For example, to generate an inventory file in CSV format which includes: memory, provisionedSpace, folder and domain, the command should look like:

By default, the vss-cli won’t transfer the file to your personal space at VSKEY-STOR, however if you wish to have a copy of the report stored there, add the --transfer option to the command as follows:

Once the request is completed, the file should be downloadable wit the vss-cli compute inventory dl command or via the web interface of VSKEY-STOR.

Download

To download the inventory file generated by the mk command, the vss-cli compute inventory dl provides the tools to specify a target directory -d/--directory or open -l/--launch the downloaded file with the default application (Excel, Numbers, Calc, etc.).

For example, to download an open the file with the default application:

Create and Download

Creating and downloading inventory files is now possible with the --wait option that checks for the request complete and prompt for downloading the file as follows: