Retrieve the Dell PowerEdge Service Tag remotely from Windows or Linux

Have you ever wanted to get the Dell Service Tag from a PowerEdge machine that you don’t have physical access to? Well it’s actually quite easy as Dell make this available through the standardised Desktop Management Interface (otherwise known as DMI) framework, so you don’t even have to install any of Dell’s OpenManage tools to view it!

On a Linux system, you just need to run the following as root:

/usr/sbin/dmidecode -s system-serial-number

On a Windows box, you can accomplish the same thing from the command prompt with:

wmic bios get serialnumber

Both of these tools should be installed by default on the respective operating system. If you have some kind of super stripped down installation, then they are available from the vendor’s original media.