Summary
The Serial number is not displayed for Host ESX servers via vCenter even though the VMware infrastructure and a full inventory has been performed.
Symptoms
When view vCenter inventory the serial number for the Host machine is not present even though VMware infrastructure and a full inventory has been performed and imported successfully, why is this?
Cause
The cause of the issue is related to how vCenter stores the serial number, the serial numbers are stored in a cache that expires, if this cache has expired and the before the inventory tasks are completed no serial number will be reported.
Workaround
To workaround this issue please restart the "vCenter Management Agent" this restores the cache that contains the serial number, for steps on doing this please consult with the vCenter Administrator.
Additional Information
The Inventory tasks collect the Host serial number from the "ServiceTag" property, the following steps can used to determine if this value is populated in vCenter.
1. Navigate to "https://vcenterservername/mob" where vcenterservername is the vCenter server.
2. Login using an appropriate vCenter account
3. Navigate to HostHardwareInfo/HostSystemIdentificationInfo data on the host machine missing the serial number
4. Verify the "ServiceTag" attribute is populated.
