VMware vCenter Server top level inventory – MoRef ID

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Recently I wrote an article about a new VMware fling VM Resource and Availability Service which can be used to simulate failure of one or more ESXi hosts. In this article I’ll describe how to associate the DRS dump with the particular cluster, using the Managed Object Reference ID (MoRef ID).

DRS dump can be found here:

  • vCenter Server 5.x and earlier versions on Windows XP, 2000, 2003: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs\drmdump\
  • vCenter Server 5.x and earlier versions on Windows Vista, 7, 2008: C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs\drmdumb\
  • vCenter Server Appliance 5.x: /var/log/vmware/vpx/drmdump/

 

When you open the location where the DRS dump is stored you’ll find similar folder structure:

clusters

These folders with some numbers don’t tell you anything which cluster it represents. This ID belongs to Managed Object Reference ID (MoRef ID).

To match the MoRef ID with cluster name open the following page https://vCenter_Server_IP/mob/?moid=group-d1 and it will load a list containing all the managed object by vCenter Server, which are under group-d1 folder (Datacenters).

Select the datacenter where the cluster is located:

child entity

then select host folder group:

host folder

and in the child entity find the ID which corresponds with the cluster:

child entity clusters

 

This is not the only case where MoRef ID is used. vCenter server creates for each and every object in the inventory an unique ID.  MoRef ID is a vCenter identifier which is assigned to every single entity, introduced in vSphere 4.0.

Every object has it’s own address https://vCenter_server_IP/mob/?moid=<OBJECT_ID>

An example how it can be used is a vCloud Director which reads the vCenter objects leveraging API.

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Jan Hosek is a Virtualization Engineer focusing on the VMware and IBM cloud portfolio. He started with the virtualization in 2009 and since that time gained experience in several T&T projects as IT Administrator, Technical Lead and IT Architect. Jan holds several certifications from VMware (vExpert 2015, VCAP5-DCD, VCAP5-DCA), Microsoft and IBM.

About Jan Hosek

Jan Hosek is a Virtualization Engineer focusing on the VMware and IBM cloud portfolio. He started with the virtualization in 2009 and since that time gained experience in several T&T projects as IT Administrator, Technical Lead and IT Architect. Jan holds several certifications from VMware (vExpert 2015, VCAP5-DCD, VCAP5-DCA), Microsoft and IBM.
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