There are several vSphere API which requires datastore UUID as one of its important properties. Some examples of such APIs are MountVmfsVolume(),mountVmfsVolumeEx(), UnmountForceMountedVmfsVolume(), unmapVmfsVolumeEx(), DeleteVmfsVolumeState(), unmountVmfsVolumeEx & unmountVmfsVolume(). Without vmfsUUID we can NOT operate on any of these APIs. Now question is how to get/know the datastore UUID of the VMFS datastores connected to hosts using vSphere APIs. I thought its better to write the vSphere API script to solve this. The script that I am sharing is going to get all hosts and all of its associated datastores and each datastore and its associated UUID. Here we go.

[java]
package com.vmware.vijava;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Map.Entry;
import com.vmware.vim25.DatastoreInfo;
import com.vmware.vim25.VmfsDatastoreInfo;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.Datastore;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.Folder;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.HostDatastoreBrowser;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.HostSystem;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.InventoryNavigator;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.ManagedEntity;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.ServiceInstance;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.VirtualMachine;

public class findVMFSUUIDs {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
ServiceInstance si = new ServiceInstance(new URL(
"https://10.120.30.40/sdk"), "administrator@vsphere.local",
"Administrator!23", true);
// Get the rootFolder
Folder rootFolder = si.getRootFolder();

// Get all the hosts in the vCenter server
ManagedEntity[] hosts = new InventoryNavigator(rootFolder)
.searchManagedEntities("HostSystem");

if (hosts == null) {
System.out.println("Host not found on vCenter");
si.getServerConnection().logout();
return;
}

// Map to store the datastore name as key and its UUID as the value
Map< String , String> vmfsdatastoreUUIDs = new HashMap< String , String>();

// Map to store host as key and all of its datastores as the value
Map< ManagedEntity , Datastore[]> hostDatastores = new HashMap< ManagedEntity , Datastore[]>();
for (ManagedEntity hostSystem : hosts) {
HostDatastoreBrowser hdb = ((HostSystem) hostSystem)
.getDatastoreBrowser();
Datastore[] ds = hdb.getDatastores();
hostDatastores.put(hostSystem, ds);
}

System.out.println("Hosts and all of its associated datastores");
for (Map.Entry < ManagedEntity , Datastore[]> datastores : hostDatastores
.entrySet()) {
System.out.println("");
System.out.print("[" + datastores.getKey().getName() + "::");
for (Datastore datastore : datastores.getValue()) {
System.out.print(datastore.getName() + ",");
DatastoreInfo dsinfo = datastore.getInfo();
if (dsinfo instanceof VmfsDatastoreInfo) {
VmfsDatastoreInfo vdinfo = (VmfsDatastoreInfo) dsinfo;
vmfsdatastoreUUIDs.put(datastore.getName(), vdinfo
.getVmfs().getUuid());
}

}
System.out.print("]");
}
System.out.println(" ");
System.out.println("Datastore and its UUID");
for (Map.Entry< String , String> dsuuid : vmfsdatastoreUUIDs.entrySet()) {
System.out.println("[" + dsuuid.getKey() + "::" + dsuuid.getValue()
+ "]");
}

}
}
[/java]

Program Output::

Hosts and all of its associated datastores

[192.168.1.1::DS3,DS2,Local DS,DS4,NFS1,]
[192.168.1.2::LocalDS2,LocalDS1,LocalDS3,]

Datastore and its UUID

[LocalDS1::55d9b324-bad019fa-147a-f04da20356f7]
[Local DS::55b5dee1-ebd2895d-1263-002219574957]
[DS2::51e3e9f7-8ab3eac5-4715-00221957495d]
[LocalDS2::5592e051-da224dfc-ad16-f04da20356f7]
[LocalDS3::55d9b367-d145aef6-dcfe-f04da20356f7]
[DS3::51398f9b-e591008a-1b35-002219574a65]
[DS4::55cc410f-604db805-6fc0-002219574a65]
[/java]

Now you could enhance this code to operate on any vSphere API that requires VMFS UUID as one of parameters. Please do comment if you have any doubts or need any help.

If you have still not setup your VI JAVA Eclipse environment:Getting started tutorial
Important tutorials to start with: Part I & Part II

Note: VI JAVA open source project is forked into YA VIJAVA(Yet another VI JAVA), it will have support to all the new APIs introduced in vSphere 6.0. VI JAVA itself works fine even on vSphere 6.0 (except the new features in vSphere 6.0). Please do stay tuned my post on YA VIJAVA.

Vikas Shitole

Vikas Shitole is a Senior Tech Lead at VMware by Broadcom, VCF division, India, where he leads system test efforts—including scale, stress, and resiliency testing—and drives product quality across VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), Broadcom’s flagship private cloud platform.
He is an AI and Kubernetes enthusiast, and is passionate about VMware customers and automation around vSphere and VCF. Vikas has been honored as a vExpert for 12 consecutive years (2014–2025) for his sustained technical contributions and community leadership.

He is the author of two VMware Flings, holds multiple industry certifications, and is one of the top contributors to the VMware API Sample Exchange, where his automation scripts have been downloaded over 50,000 times.

Vikas has shared his expertise as a speaker at international conferences such as VMworld Europe and VMworld USA, and was selected as an official VMworld 2018 blogger. He also served as lead technical reviewer for the Packt-published books vSphere Design and VMware Virtual SAN Essentials.

Beyond tech, Vikas is a dedicated cricketer, cycling enthusiast, and a lifelong learner in fitness and nutrition, with the personal goal of completing an Ironman 70.3