How to record the serial number and version of every network device
To record the serial number and software version of every network device, you read them from each device, with one command per vendor, and keep the result somewhere a support contract, an audit or a CVE check can use it. NacTrack reads both at every collection and lists them in one table for the whole fleet, with the stack members and the hardware modules of each device on its own page.
What you need
- Module required: inventory.
- Permission required: view_inventory.
- Every collected platform; the serial is empty until a collection has read it.
In NacTrack
- 1
Open Inventory, then Devices
The device list carries a Model column, a Software column with the version, and a Serial column. One row per managed device, for the whole fleet.
Screen: app.nactrack.com/devices
- 2
Export the table
The Excel and CSV buttons above the table export the rows loaded in the page. Hide the columns you do not need first with the column visibility button, so the file holds hostname, model, version and serial only.
Screen: app.nactrack.com/devices
- 3
Open a device for its modules
Open a device and go to the Details tab. Stack Information lists each stack member with its model and serial; Hardware Inventory lists the chassis, line cards, power supplies, fans and optics with their part number and serial. Both tables export the same way.
Screen: app.nactrack.com/devices
By hand, without NacTrack
On Cisco Catalyst switches, Cisco's note on serial numbers gives "show version" for the system serial on IOS and IOS XE platforms such as the Catalyst 9000, which also prints the software version, and "show module" for a shorter view. On a stack, "show version" lists the serial of each member.
On Huawei, the command depends on the model: see the Huawei serial number guide. Whatever the vendor, the hand method gives one device per login, and the list ages from the day it is written.
What this view does not tell you
- The device list has no Vendor column; the vendor shows through the model and the Software column. Module serials are per device only: there is no fleet-wide table of line card or optic serials.
- A serial is only as good as the command that returned it. On some Huawei models the chassis serial is only in the electronic label output, and a device that never answered that command shows no serial.
Further reading
Network device inventory: models, serials, free ports
Models, software versions, serial numbers, used and free ports, across a heterogeneous estate. Collected over SSH, with no agent and no manual entry.
How-to guideHow to read the serial number of a Huawei device
Read the serial number of a Huawei device: display esn, display sn or display elabel depending on the model, with Huawei's documentation cited.
How-to guideHow to find the end-of-support date of a Cisco Catalyst 2960
End-of-support dates for the Catalyst 2960, 2960-S, 2960-Plus, 2960-X and 2960-XR, read from Cisco's notices, and how to check your own models.