Prerequisites

• SSH access to the ESXi host
• Administrative privileges
• Knowledge of storage device identifiers (e.g., eui.*, t10.*)

1. Retrieve NVMe Temperature Information

Using NVMe SMART Log

esxcli hardware nvme smart log get -d eui.<device_id>

Example:

esxcli hardware nvme smart log get -d eui.3643563054b143140025384e00000001

Using Storage Core SMART Data

esxcli storage core device smart get -d eui.<device_id>

To extract only temperature:

esxcli storage core device smart get -d eui.<device_id> | grep Temperature

2. Retrieve SMART Data for Specific Devices

Example using a device identifier:

esxcli storage core device smart get -d t10.<device_id> | grep Temperature

This provides key SMART attributes including drive temperature.

3. Full SMART Output Example

Parameter                 Value  Threshold  Worst  Raw
------------------------  -----  ---------  -----  ---
Health Status             OK     N/A        N/A    N/A
Power-on Hours            19445  N/A        N/A    N/A
Power Cycle Count         530    N/A        N/A    N/A
Reallocated Sector Count  0      90         N/A    N/A
Drive Temperature         61     80         N/A    N/A

Key fields:

• Health Status – overall drive condition
• Power-on Hours – total runtime
• Power Cycle Count – number of power cycles
• Reallocated Sector Count – disk health indicator
• Drive Temperature – current operating temperature

4. Collect SMART Data for All Storage Devices

The following shell script loops through all storage devices and extracts key SMART metrics:

#!/bin/sh

storList="$(esxcli storage core path list | grep 'Device:' | sed 's/ *Device: *//')"
echo "$storList"

printf "%s\n" "$storList" | while IFS= read -r storItem; do
  echo "Processing device: $storItem"

  esxcli storage core device smart get -d "$storItem" | grep "Health Status"
  esxcli storage core device smart get -d "$storItem" | grep "Power-on Hours"
  esxcli storage core device smart get -d "$storItem" | grep "Power Cycle Count"
  esxcli storage core device smart get -d "$storItem" | grep "Reallocated Sector Count"
  esxcli storage core device smart get -d "$storItem" | grep "Drive Temperature"

  echo ""
done

This script:

• Enumerates all storage devices
• Queries SMART data per device
• Outputs key health and performance metrics

5. Optional Output Formatting Enhancements

For improved readability, additional formatting can be applied using sed:

sed 's/   */\t/g' | sed 's/N\/A/#/g'

This replaces multiple spaces with tabs and substitutes "N/A" values.

Best Practices

• Monitor drive temperature regularly to prevent overheating
• Track reallocated sector counts for early failure detection
• Automate SMART checks using scheduled scripts
• Correlate SMART data with storage performance issues
• Maintain backups before acting on failing drives

Summary

Using esxcli and shell scripting, administrators can efficiently monitor NVMe and storage device health on ESXi hosts. Regular monitoring helps detect hardware issues early and maintain system stability.