How to find the serial number of cards that are inserted in slots are not detected or show 'empty' in 'show chassis inventory' output

• The article provides information on how to get the serial number of a Network card when it fails to come up in the chassis.
• This helps in cases where RMA is needed as the serial number is required to initiate an RMA.

• PA-5400 Series firewalls
• PA-7000 Series Firewalls
• Supported PAN-OS

1. Run the command 'show chassis inventory' command.
2. If the card is faulty or has not yet been up, the output will show 'empty' for the respective slot.

admin@PA-5450> show chassis inventory

Slot       Component            Serial Number   Ports  Revision  Power (w)
           Chassis              XXXX01003514           1.0
           PA-5400-BC-A         XXXX01003503    0      1.4       195

1          PA-5400-NC-A         XXXX01004844    26     1.2       100
2          PA-5400-NC-A         XXXX01004904    26     1.2       100
3          PA-5400-DPC-A        XXXX01004827    0      1.0       335
4          empty  <<<<       

3. Run the following command and you will be able to find the SN of the cards based on slot number, slot 4 and slot 6 in our case.  
   • For PAN-OS versions prior to the PAN-OS 10.2 release, use the following command to retrieve the serial number.

admin@PA-5450> grep pattern "slot4: initialize" mp-log masterd_detail.log

2023-06-02 16:51:02.102 -0700 DEBUG: slot4: initialize {'dp-count': 2, 'power': 335, 'backplane-reg': 16, 'board_type': 20036, 'version': '1.0', 'serial': 'XXXX01006503', 'model': 'PA-5400-DPC-A'}

• • For PAN-OS versions starting from PAN-OS 10.2 release, use the following command to retrieve the serial number.

admin@PA-7080> grep pattern "slot6: initialize" mp-log md_detail.log

2026-05-31 22:27:30.822 -0700 DEBUG: slot6: initialize {'board_type': 20024, 'model': 'PA-7080-SMC-B', 'power': 500, 'serial': 'XXXX1000903', 'version': '2.1'}
admin@PA-7080> 

4. Here we can see the model and serial number of the card inserted in slot 4 and slot 6.

• To find the serial number of multiple cards in a single command, the below command can be used.
  • For versions prior to the PAN-OS 10.2 release, please execute the following command to retrieve the serial numbers.

admin@PA-5450> grep after-context 20 pattern "slot1: initialize" mp-log masterd_detail.log

• • For versions starting from PAN-OS 10.2 release, please execute the following command to retrieve the serial numbers.

admin@PA-7080> grep after-context 20 pattern "slot1: initialize" mp-log md_detail.log