Pull version info from an ESXi machine without needing to login.

esxi_info.py

import re
import argparse
import requests
import urllib3

def get_version_info(ip):
    req = '<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"><soap:Header><operationID>00000001-00000001</operationID></soap:Header><soap:Body><RetrieveServiceContent xmlns="urn:internalvim25"><_this xsi:type="ManagedObjectReference" type="ServiceInstance">ServiceInstance</_this></RetrieveServiceContent></soap:Body></soap:Envelope>'
    resp = requests.post('https://{}/sdk'.format(ip), data=req, verify=False)
    if resp.status_code != 200:
        raise Exception('Did not get 200 OK back from target, instead got {}'.format(resp.status_code))

    check_pattern = re.compile('')
    if not check_pattern.match(resp.text):
        raise Exception('Did not get expected response from target, unable to parse version info.')

    return {
        'name': re.search('(?<=<name>).*(?=</name>)', resp.text).group(0),
        'full_name': re.search('(?<=<fullName>).*(?=</fullName>)', resp.text).group(0),
        'vendor': re.search('(?<=<vendor>).*(?=</vendor>)', resp.text).group(0),
        'version': re.search('(?<=<version>).*(?=</version>)', resp.text).group(0),
        'build': re.search('(?<=<build>).*(?=</build>)', resp.text).group(0),
        'os_type': re.search('(?<=<osType>).*(?=</osType>)', resp.text).group(0),
        'product_line': re.search('(?<=<productLineId>).*(?=</productLineId>)', resp.text).group(0),
        'api_type': re.search('(?<=<apiType>).*(?=</apiType>)', resp.text).group(0),
        'api_version': re.search('(?<=<apiVersion>).*(?=</apiVersion>)', resp.text).group(0)
    }

def main():
    urllib3.disable_warnings(urllib3.exceptions.InsecureRequestWarning)
    
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser('Get verion info from a VMware machine.')
    parser.add_argument('ip', help='IP address to probe.')
    args = parser.parse_args()

    info = get_version_info(args.ip)
    for key in info.keys():
        print('{}:\t{}'.format(key, info[key]))

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Can be used as follows:

1

$ python3 esxi_info.py <ip addr>

2

import esxi_info
data = esxi_info.get_version_info(ip)