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Vultr profile image Sanskriti Harmukh
Sanskriti Harmukh for Vultr

Posted on with Aashish Chaurasiya Originally published at docs.vultr.com

Generating System Hardware Report in Linux

#linux #hardware #sysadmin #cli

Understanding your system's hardware configuration is essential for developers and system administrators, whether you're verifying hardware compatibility, diagnosing performance issues, or planning upgrades. Linux provides several built-in tools to inspect and report detailed hardware information. This guide demonstrates how to use common Linux utilities to generate system hardware reports, interpret the collected data, and export it in different formats for documentation or troubleshooting. By the end, you'll have a script that generates and archives a complete hardware report for any Linux system.

The Short Answer Version

To quickly view your system's hardware details without generating full reports, use these commands:

$ sudo lshw -short
$ sudo inxi -Fxz
$ sudo dmidecode -t system
$ lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,FSTYPE,MOUNTPOINT
$ sudo hwinfo --short
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  • sudo lshw -short — concise hardware tree
  • sudo inxi -Fxz — readable system summary (serials redacted)
  • sudo dmidecode -t system — BIOS/system info from firmware
  • lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,FSTYPE,MOUNTPOINT — disks/partitions at a glance
  • sudo hwinfo --short — compact, per-device summary from kernel probes

1. Install Common Tools to Generate Hardware Reports

Most distributions include some of these tools by default, but you can install all of them using your package manager.

On Debian and Ubuntu

1. Update the package list and install the required tools:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install -y lshw inxi dmidecode hwinfo
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On AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, and RHEL

1. Enable the PowerTools repository:

$ sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled powertools
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For RHEL, the repository name differs. Enable the CodeReady Builder repository instead:

$ sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled codeready-builder-for-rhel-$(rpm -E %rhel)-$(arch)-rpms
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2. Install the perl-JSON-XS dependency:

$ sudo dnf install -y perl-JSON-XS
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3. Install the hardware reporting tools:

$ sudo dnf install -y lshw inxi dmidecode hwinfo
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Tools Overview

  • lshw: Displays detailed information about all hardware components, including CPU, memory, storage, and network devices.
  • inxi: Provides a summarized, human-readable system overview while hiding sensitive identifiers such as serial numbers.
  • dmidecode: Retrieves hardware and BIOS information directly from system firmware (DMI tables).
  • hwinfo: Offers comprehensive device-level data, useful for diagnostics and driver verification.

2. System Hardware Deep-Dive: Commands & Examples

CPU

1. View CPU architecture, model, core/thread count, and available instruction sets:

$ lscpu
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Output:

Architecture:             x86_64
  CPU op-mode(s):         32-bit, 64-bit
  Address sizes:          40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
  Byte Order:             Little Endian
CPU(s):                   4
  On-line CPU(s) list:    0-3
Vendor ID:                GenuineIntel
  Model name:             Intel Xeon Processor (Skylake, IBRS)
......
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The lscpu utility gathers data from /proc/cpuinfo and system firmware. Key fields include Architecture (32-bit, 64-bit, or both), CPU(s) (total available logical cores), and Model name / Vendor ID (useful for identifying virtual CPUs in cloud environments).

Memory (RAM)

1. View real-time memory usage and swap utilization:

$ free -h
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Output:

               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           7.7Gi       459Mi       6.2Gi       1.3Mi       1.3Gi       7.3Gi
Swap:          8.0Gi          0B       8.0Gi
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The "available" field shows the total memory that applications can still use without swapping.

2. Retrieve detailed information about installed DIMMs from system firmware:

$ sudo dmidecode -t memory
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Output:

# dmidecode 3.5
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 3.0.0 present.

Handle 0x1000, DMI type 16, 23 bytes
Physical Memory Array
        Use: System Memory
        Maximum Capacity: 8 GB
        Number Of Devices: 1

Handle 0x1100, DMI type 17, 40 bytes
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x1000
        Size: 8 GB
        Type: RAM
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This extracts firmware-level data (DMI tables) that includes slot information, maximum capacity, and manufacturer details — useful for verifying the physical memory layout or identifying faulty modules.

Disks & Filesystems

1. List all block devices with their size, type, filesystem format, and mount location:

$ lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,FSTYPE,MOUNTPOINT
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Output:

NAME     SIZE TYPE FSTYPE MOUNTPOIN
sr0     1024M rom
vda      160G disk
├─vda1   512M part vfat   /boot/efi
└─vda2 159.5G part ext4   /
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Key fields: TYPE (physical disk, partition, or virtual block), FSTYPE (filesystem type, e.g. ext4, xfs, vfat), and MOUNTPOINT (where each partition is mounted). Append -f to lsblk to display filesystem UUIDs and labels.

2. Display mounted filesystems and usage statistics by type:

$ df -hT
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Output:

Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
efivarfs       efivarfs  256K   19K  233K   8% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
/dev/vda2      ext4      328G   16G  298G   6% /
/dev/vda1      vfat      511M  6.2M  505M   2% /boot/efi
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Key options: -h displays sizes in human-readable format, -T includes the filesystem type.

Network

1. List all network interfaces with assigned IP addresses:

$ ip -br addr
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Output:

lo        UNKNOWN    127.0.0.1/8 ::1/128
enp1s0    UP         192.2.0.56/23 2001:db8::5400:5ff:feb2:2f70/64
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ip displays and manipulates network interfaces, routes, and addresses; -br enables brief mode; addr lists IP address information for each interface.

2. Display hardware-level details for network interfaces:

$ sudo lshw -class network
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Output:

  *-network                 
       description: Ethernet controller
       product: Virtio 1.0 network device
       vendor: Red Hat, Inc.
       ......
       capabilities: msix pm pciexpress bus_master cap_list fb
       configuration: depth=32 driver=virtio-pci latency=0 mode=1280x800 visual=truecolor xres=1280 yres=800
       resources: iomemory:80-7f irq:22 memory:85200000-85200fff memory:800000000-800003fff
     *-virtio0
          description: Ethernet interface
          ......
          serial: 56:00:05:ba:75:dd
          configuration: autonegotiation=off broadcast=yes driver=virtio_net driverversion=1.0.0 ip=155.138.194.201 link=yes multicast=yes
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-class network filters lshw output to only show network-related devices.

Whole-System Summaries

1. Readable, redacted system summary:

$ inxi -Fxz
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Output:

System:
  Kernel: 6.8.0-79-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.3.0
  Console: pty pts/4 Distro: Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS (Noble Numbat)
Machine:
  Type: Microsoft System: Cloud-VM product: Standard-PC v: pc-q35-8.2 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: N/A model: N/A serial: N/A UEFI: Generic v: N/A date: N/A
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: Intel Xeon (Cascadelake) bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Cascade Lake rev: 6
    cache: L1: 512 KiB L2: 16 MiB L3: 16 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2993 min/max: N/A cores: 1: 2993 2: 2993 3: 2993 4: 2993 5: 2993 6: 2993
    7: 2993 8: 2993 bogomips: 47887
......
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-F displays full system information (CPU, memory, disks, network, etc.), -x adds extra details like kernel and driver versions, and -z redacts sensitive information (serial numbers, MACs, etc.) for safe sharing.

2. View hardware tree (complete system details):

$ sudo lshw
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Output:

demo-server      
    description: Computer
    product: Standard-PC
    vendor: Generic
    version: pc-q35-8.2
    serial: 89766525
    width: 64 bits
    capabilities: smbios-3.0.0 dmi-3.0.0 smp vsyscall32
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sudo ensures access to restricted firmware and system data; lshw generates a detailed, hierarchical view of all detected hardware.

3. Compact high-level snapshot of hardware components:

$ sudo hwinfo --short
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hwinfo probes and lists system hardware components; --short summarizes output into concise, per-device lines.

3. Exporting Hardware Reports

This section scripts the data collection using lshw, inxi, dmidecode, and hwinfo, storing the output in a timestamped directory. It captures hostname, kernel version, operating system, CPU information, memory usage, and network configuration.

1. Create a new shell script file:

$ nano generate-hw-reports.sh
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2. Add the following script to the file. It collects detailed hardware information, organizes the reports, and compresses them into an archive:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

TS=$(date +"%Y-%m-%dT%H-%M-%S")
HOSTNAME=$(hostname)
REPORT_DIR="hwreports-${HOSTNAME}-${TS}"

echo "==> Creating report directory: ${REPORT_DIR}"
mkdir -p "${REPORT_DIR}"

echo "==> Capturing basic system and network information"
ip route show > "${REPORT_DIR}/routes.txt"
cat /etc/resolv.conf > "${REPORT_DIR}/dns-config.txt"
sudo dmidecode -t bios > "${REPORT_DIR}/bios-info.txt"
uname -a > "${REPORT_DIR}/kernel.txt"
lsb_release -a > "${REPORT_DIR}/os-release.txt" 2>/dev/null || cat /etc/os-release > "${REPORT_DIR}/os-release.txt"
sudo dmidecode -t chassis > "${REPORT_DIR}/chassis.txt"

{
echo "System Hardware Report"
echo "======================="
echo "Host: ${HOSTNAME}"
echo "Generated on: ${TS}"
echo
echo "Files included:"
find "${REPORT_DIR}" -type f | sed 's|^|  - |'
} > "${REPORT_DIR}/INDEX.txt"

cat <<EOF > "${REPORT_DIR}/metadata.json"
{
"hostname": "${HOSTNAME}",
"timestamp": "${TS}",
"kernel": "$(uname -r)",
"os": "$(grep PRETTY_NAME /etc/os-release | cut -d= -f2 | tr -d '"')",
"cpu_count": "$(nproc)",
"cpu_model": "$(lscpu | awk -F: '/Model name/ {print $2}' | xargs)",
"total_memory": "$(free -h | awk '/Mem:/ {print $2}')"
}
EOF

echo "==> Generating human-readable summary (inxi)"
inxi -Fxz > "${REPORT_DIR}/system-summary.txt"

echo "==> Generating hardware tree reports (lshw)"
sudo lshw -sanitize > "${REPORT_DIR}/lshw.txt"
sudo lshw -sanitize -html > "${REPORT_DIR}/lshw.html"
sudo lshw -sanitize -json > "${REPORT_DIR}/lshw.json"

echo "==> Dumping firmware/DMI data (dmidecode)"
sudo dmidecode > "${REPORT_DIR}/dmidecode.txt"

echo "==> Capturing component-specific snapshots"
lscpu > "${REPORT_DIR}/cpu.txt"
free -h > "${REPORT_DIR}/memory-usage.txt"
lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,FSTYPE,MOUNTPOINT > "${REPORT_DIR}/disks.txt"
ip -br addr > "${REPORT_DIR}/net-addr.txt"

echo "==> Generating full hwinfo report (large)"
sudo hwinfo --all > "${REPORT_DIR}/hwinfo-full.txt"
sudo hwinfo --short > "${REPORT_DIR}/hwinfo-short.txt"

echo "==> Compressing reports into archive"
tar -czf "${REPORT_DIR}.tar.gz" "${REPORT_DIR}/"

echo "==> Done! Archive: ${REPORT_DIR}.tar.gz"
echo "    To extract: tar -xzf ${REPORT_DIR}.tar.gz"
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Save and close the file.

3. Grant execute permissions to the script:

$ chmod +x generate-hw-reports.sh
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4. Run the script to generate the hardware reports:

$ ./generate-hw-reports.sh
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Output:

==> Creating report directory: hwreports-K8s-Cluster-Master--01-2025-10-28T18-06-29
==> Capturing basic system and network information
==> Generating human-readable summary (inxi)
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The script creates a timestamped directory containing all hardware reports, then compresses it into a .tar.gz archive for easy backup or sharing.

This script uses -sanitize (for lshw) and -z (for inxi) to remove serial numbers and MAC addresses from the output. Review the generated files before sharing them if your environment treats device IDs or hostnames as sensitive data.

Next Steps

  • Schedule the script with cron to generate hardware reports on a regular cadence for drift detection.
  • Diff successive reports to catch unexpected hardware or firmware changes over time.
  • Feed the metadata.json output into a configuration management database (CMDB) or inventory tool.
  • Extend the script to capture GPU details with nvidia-smi or lspci on systems with dedicated accelerators.

For the full guide with additional tips, visit the original article on Vultr Docs.

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