Determining the ESXi installation Type

To determine the type of ESXi installation:

1. Connect to the host via SSH.
2. Run this command:

# esxcfg-info -e

You see an output similar to:

boot type: visor-thin

You can determine the ESXi type based on the output of this command.

For example:

o visor-thin indicates an installable deployment
o visor-usb indicates an embedded deployment
o visor-pxe indicates a PXE deployment

Alternatively, you can use the information from the bootbank UUID to determine the ESXi installation type.
 
To determine the ESXi installation type from the bootbank UUID information:

1. Connect to the host via SSH.
2. Run one of these commands to get the UUID of the current bootbank:
 # esxcfg-info -b

You see an output similar to:

1dea2675-c0686df9-7215-8f89688644ea

# esxcfg-info | grep “Boot Filesystem UUID”;
You see an output similar to:

|—-World Command Line……………………………grep Boot Filesystem UUID
|—-Boot Filesystem UUID……………………………….1dea2675-c0686df9-7215-8f89688644ea

3. Examine the 7th character in the UUID returned by these commands 

o If the character is e, it is an Embedded deployment.
o If the character is anything but e, it is an Installable deployment.
o If there is no UUID and the character is empty, it is a PXE deployment.