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Adding SMBIOS information to AHV VM

  • August 13, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 300 views
R

I am conducting a qualification of an application on AHV which requires certain SMBIOS values are set for the host VM to properly identify the platform and ensure operation. 

Specifically, values of smbios type 2 (baseboard) for “Manufacturer” and “Product Name” need to be set. 

This is normally populated by default in VMware. In Proxmox (another QEMU KVM based hypervisor) this can be easily set using the qm tool and passing the args string to update the values as needed. 

qm set <VmID> --args "-smbios type=2,manufacturer=<vendor>",product=<model>"

Exhaustive searching leads me to acli vm.update “extra_flags” option but I don’t see any options to add SMBIOS information. 

Looking for guidance from the community while also working with Nutanix Support. 

Thanks! 

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3 replies

JeroenTielen
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  • JeroenTielen
  • Vanguard
  • August 15, 2025

You want the actual information? Not vendor=nutanix and model=ahv??? 

As this is being populated by default. 

Get-WmiObject Win32_ComputerSystem Manufacturer
Manufacturer     : Nutanix

Get-WmiObject Win32_ComputerSystem Model
Model            : AHV


 

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R
  • RossG
  • Author
  • Voyager
  • August 15, 2025

You want the actual information? Not vendor=nutanix and model=ahv??? 

As this is being populated by default. 

Get-WmiObject Win32_ComputerSystem Manufacturer
Manufacturer     : Nutanix

Get-WmiObject Win32_ComputerSystem Model
Model            : AHV


 

The VM being deployed is Ubuntu 24.04 based. There is an acli command to disable Nutanix branding which will also revert the “Manufacturer” and “Model” to the actual information. 

My issue is populating SMBIOS values that are not set by default, specifically in block 2 “baseboard”
This is my current VM, where the values are not set. 

admin@vm-node1:/# sudo dmidecode -t
dmidecode: option requires an argument -- 't'
Type number or keyword expected
Valid type keywords are:
  bios
  system
  baseboard
  chassis
  processor
  memory
  cache
  connector
  slot
admin@vm-node1:/# sudo dmidecode -t baseboard
# dmidecode 3.5
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.8 present.

This is the output on a Proxmox VM where I’ve added the following to the <VMiD>.conf

args: -smbios type=2,manufacturer="ASUS",product="WS-960A"
admin@vm-prime-n1:/# sudo dmidecode -t baseboard
# dmidecode 3.5
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.8 present.

Handle 0x0200, DMI type 2, 15 bytes
Base Board Information
        Manufacturer: ASUS
        Product Name: WS-960A
        Version: pc-i440fx-9.2
        Serial Number: Not Specified
        Asset Tag: Not Specified
        Features:
                Board is a hosting board
        Location In Chassis: Not Specified
        Chassis Handle: 0x0300
        Type: Motherboard
        Contained Object Handles: 0

I am searching for the way to update the SMBIOS VM configuration on a Nutanix AHV VM. The Proxmox method does not apply here. Also, there are no options in acli except “extra_flags” which are undefined. 

C
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  • ChrisVG
  • Adventurer
  • August 16, 2025

You want the actual information? Not vendor=nutanix and model=ahv??? 

As this is being populated by default. 

Get-WmiObject Win32_ComputerSystem Manufacturer
Manufacturer     : Nutanix

Get-WmiObject Win32_ComputerSystem Model
Model            : AHV


 

Hi ​@JeroenTielen,

We need to be able to see the smbios type 2 Manufacturer and Product fields.  There are different types  of information available within the smbios tables.  Here is a table https://gist.github.com/smoser/290f74c256c89cb3f3bd434a27b9f64c that shows the smbios type vs data fields.  The data in these tables are different based on the smbios type that is queried. smbios type 2 is information available for the baseboard.

We are qualifying software for operation on AHV that needs these fields to be populated because the software is checking whether it is running on proprietary hardware.  VMWare ESXI by default reports values in this field, Proxmox with qemu can be modified as ​@RossG mentioned to report values in the type 2 fields.  AHV does not report values in these fields and this is causing a problem.  So, we are looking for a mechanism on how to have the smbios type 2 manufacturer and product fields populated with values or values of our choosing.

We have been assuming that these values can be set, since the underyling machine emulation in AHV is provided by qemu; same as ProxMox.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

ChrisVG

 

 

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