> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://helpdocs.getthread.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Liongard VMware Read

> Interrogate a client's vCenter/ESXi estate through Liongard — host versions/build levels, datastore capacity, snapshot sprawl, VM inventory and placement. Use for "what's on their VMware", capacity questions, snapshot hygiene, or host-version currency during triage and QBR prep.

<Info>
  **Category:** Liongard Inspectors · [View source ↗](https://github.com/bryan-getthread/skills/blob/main/skills/liongard-inspectors/liongard-vmware/SKILL.md)
</Info>

**Connectors:** `Liongard`

**Role:** [Technician](/start-here/roles/technician)

**Outcome:** Faster Resolution & Response, Risk & Compliance

**When to use:** "How full are \<client>'s datastores?", "any old snapshots lying around?", "what ESXi versions/builds are their hosts on?", "what VMs do they have and where do they run?", or "what changed in the virtual estate?".

**Run it:** on one client — name the client and the VMware question.

## Prompt

```
Read VMware estate state (vCenter/ESXi) for CLIENT_NAME from the Liongard VMware inspector. Read-only — never delete snapshots, migrate VMs, or change host config.

1. Resolve the client's environment, then find the VMware inspector(s) and confirm each ran recently — carry "as of <timestamp>." A client may have a vCenter inspector plus standalone-host inspectors — enumerate.
2. Read the values from the latest dataprint for the angle you need, verifying every field angle against the live dataprint (schemas vary by inspector version):
   - Datastores: name, capacity, free — compute % free and flag <20% (warning) and <10% (urgent).
   - Snapshots: VMs with snapshots, age and size where present — flag snapshots older than 72h and any chain deeper than 2; snapshots on high-churn VMs (mail, SQL) get called out even younger. Backup software often owns transient snapshots — recommend "review for deletion," never "delete," and flag that consolidation on a near-full datastore needs free space.
   - Hosts: ESXi version + build per host — mixed builds within a cluster is a finding; report versions verbatim and recommend verifying support status against VMware/Broadcom lifecycle notices rather than asserting EOL from memory.
   - VM inventory: name, power state, host, datastore — the placement map; powered-off VMs consuming large disk are a cleanup lead.
3. "What changed?" → check what changed: VM adds/deletes, host changes, datastore changes ordered against the window. New-snapshot detections right before a space alert tell the whole story (time-adjacency, not proven cause).
4. Capacity numbers are as-of the last inspector run — on an active space incident, state the age and defer to live tooling for the current number. Output: capacity table, snapshot findings, host-version table, flags with severity, source + data age. Offer to leave a plain-text note. Degradation: inspector absent → documentation → ticket history.
```


## Related topics

- [VMware vSAN and vMotion](/skill-library/troubleshooting-playbooks/vmware-vsan-vmotion.md)
- [Hypervisor Alert Triage](/skill-library/devices-and-infrastructure/hypervisor-alerts.md)
- [Liongard Duo Read](/skill-library/liongard-inspectors/liongard-duo.md)