Quick Tip - ESXCLI CSV --format-param options

When using ESXCLI, the output is formatted using a "default" formatter based on the type of data being displayed. However, you can easily modify the output by using one of the three supported formatters: xml, csv and keyvalue or even leverage some internal ones mentioned by Steve Jin here. When working with some of the ESXCLI 'storage' namespaces, such as listing all the devices on an ESXi host, the output can be quite verbose as seen in the example below:

~ # esxcli storage core device list
t10.ATA_____INTEL_SSDSC2BB600G4_____________________BTWL336304Z6600TGN__
   Display Name: Local ATA Disk (t10.ATA_____INTEL_SSDSC2BB600G4_____________________BTWL336304Z6600TGN__)
   Has Settable Display Name: true
   Size: 572325
   Device Type: Direct-Access
   Multipath Plugin: NMP
   Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/t10.ATA_____INTEL_SSDSC2BB600G4_____________________BTWL336304Z6600TGN__
   Vendor: ATA
   Model: INTEL SSDSC2BB60
   Revision: D201
   SCSI Level: 5
   Is Pseudo: false
   Status: on
   Is RDM Capable: false
   Is Local: true
   Is Removable: false
   Is SSD: true
   Is Offline: false
   Is Perennially Reserved: false
   Queue Full Sample Size: 0
   Queue Full Threshold: 0
   Thin Provisioning Status: yes
   Attached Filters:
   VAAI Status: unknown
   Other UIDs: vml.01000000004254574c3333363330345a3636303054474e2020494e54454c20
   Is Local SAS Device: false
   Is Boot USB Device: false
   No of outstanding IOs with competing worlds: 32

t10.ATA_____INTEL_SSDSC2BB600G4_____________________BTWL318301JL600TGN__
   Display Name: Local ATA Disk (t10.ATA_____INTEL_SSDSC2BB600G4_____________________BTWL318301JL600TGN__)
   Has Settable Display Name: true
   Size: 572325
   Device Type: Direct-Access
   Multipath Plugin: NMP
   Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/t10.ATA_____INTEL_SSDSC2BB600G4_____________________BTWL318301JL600TGN__
   Vendor: ATA
   Model: INTEL SSDSC2BB60
   Revision: D201
   SCSI Level: 5
   Is Pseudo: false
   Status: on
   Is RDM Capable: false
   Is Local: true
   Is Removable: false
   Is SSD: true
   Is Offline: false
   Is Perennially Reserved: false
   Queue Full Sample Size: 0
   Queue Full Threshold: 0
   Thin Provisioning Status: yes
   Attached Filters:
   VAAI Status: unknown
   Other UIDs: vml.01000000004254574c3331383330314a4c36303054474e2020494e54454c20
   Is Local SAS Device: false
   Is Boot USB Device: false
   No of outstanding IOs with competing worlds: 32

Usually for such a command, you are interested in a couple of specific properties and I bet you are probably spend a good amount of time scrolling up and down, I know I do. One useful option that is not very well documented (will be filing a bug for this) is the --format-param options which goes in-conjunction with the csv formatter. I always forget the syntax and can never find it when I Google for it so I am documenting this for myself but I think this would also be useful for others to know about.

The --format-param option allows you to specify specific property fields you care about. If we use the our ESXCLI example above, what I really care about are the following for each device:

• Display Name
• Is Local
• Is SSD

Using the following command, we can then extract only those fields we care about:

~ # esxcli --formatter=csv --format-param=fields="Display Name,Model, Is Local,Is SSD" storage core device list
DisplayName,Model,IsLocal,IsSSD,
Local ATA Disk (t10.ATA_____INTEL_SSDSC2BB600G4_____________________BTWL336304Z6600TGN__),INTEL SSDSC2BB60,true,true,
Local ATA Disk (t10.ATA_____INTEL_SSDSC2BB600G4_____________________BTWL318301JL600TGN__),INTEL SSDSC2BB60,true,true,
Local ATA Disk (t10.ATA_____WDC_WD4000FYYZ2D01UL1B0_______________________WD2DWMC130199689),WDC WD4000FYYZ-0,true,false,
Local ATA Disk (t10.ATA_____INTEL_SSDSC2BB600G4_____________________BTWL3183002H600TGN__),INTEL SSDSC2BB60,true,true,
Local ATA Disk (t10.ATA_____INTEL_SSDSC2BB600G4_____________________BTWL336304XL600TGN__),INTEL SSDSC2BB60,true,true,

If we now look at our output, we can easily see that we have 5 devices on our ESXi host and I can quickly see the Display Name of our device, whether it is a local device seen by ESXi and if it is an SSD. I find this filtering mechanism especially handy during troubleshooting or when you need to quickly identify a device for configuration.