That is why it is being belittled. That is why I said:
You can do this method to cover lots of servers though, which will reduce the number of people you phone up.

Maybe it is a custom box and so does not have one manufacturer?
What would happen when a server is constructed of parts cannibalised from other servers? Is a VM? A cluster?
What if the server admin does not want people remote probing the machine like this?

You have yet to comment on the method I suggested in post #2.

I think that means the system was not put together by a major brand system integrator, such as you listed in the first post (IBM, Dell or HP).

At the moment, I only have Dell computers that I can compare. Their dmidecode info lists "Dell" for each of the system, "base board", Bios, and chassis.

I expect some other brand might list the brand name on some of those things even if it isn't listed for "system".

I would do dmidecode | less and scroll through all the output looking for hints at the manufacturer.

But that server might just be a collection of odd parts some employee of your company in Canada put together. There might not be any correct answer to the question of which brand the system is.

When I get requests to identify computers, it is usually because someone in a distant F&A office needs to identify which fixed assets are still in use. They probably have a list of which fixed assets were in use the last time they asked, but as a matter of policy they don't send that list when asking for updates. Maybe sending a list makes it too easy for someone to just guess rather than actually check.

If some of the servers can't be identified by dmidecode alone, you might need to backtrack the source of the original request within your organization. If you identify a bunch of other systems by dmidecode alone, that takes those out of the list of unknowns and shows you really looked. Then they might be willing to send you the list of possibles (systems in previous F&A records whose current status or location is unknown). Then CPU model and memory size and BIOS date and many other generic details are usually enough to distinguish a specific non brand name server among a list of possibilities.

I agree you will only get a manufacturer in that output of those commands from the major OEM's like Dell, HP, IBM, etc..

If you have a white-box system that you built yourself then the manufacturer will not be filled in.. you would be lucky to even get the name of the motherboard manufacturer..

I've never played with Linux on any of the big boxes, (old compaq, hp, IBM Mainframe style systems) but I would doubt they would respond with a manufacturer either.

so while very useful for new systems, dmidecode, and lshw will have limited use on older, or homebuilt hardware. yes they should be able to query the components that make up the system to some extent, but if the manufacturer didn't put the info into the BIOS in the first place, you won't be able to retrieve it.


in case you run into any Compaq or IBM systems..

The box may not be owned by the company, it may be owned by another party and bandwidth is being rented by the company. There is a lot of loose talk when it comes to "my server".

Rules out the "lying" option I suggested - darn, they are on to me...

Presumably a computer in another country is not there by itself - someone is looking after it. Perhaps it is possible to ask them to go read the name off the box?

If it is a large HaaS or SaaS company, the "server" software may not even live inside a box - and the system could be facing the internet via any number of systems ... if there are two physical boxes in a failover you may even get different brands at different times or for different services.

There are just so many ways to set up servers.

Of course, in the audit case, it may be acceptable to put "unknown" or "unbranded" on the list for "canada" attached to the report. This is another reason for asking what the information is for - it tells you what sort of report to make.

Sometimes you cannot solve a computer related problem with a computer.

I know we faced this issue and what we did was asking our account manager and sending us the list of machine we have ordered.

On top of that, often the server are shipped with cards, such as DRAC from Dell or iLO from HP (I never worked with IBM servers but I am sure they have the same kind of tools), that are giving you low level access to the server. Allowing you reboot the machine, watching it while it is booting ...

And if you do not have those tools, call your data center and ask for a Remote Hand and Eye support.

So you have ways to find it, maybe not from Linux...

HTH.
Gael

Well All Gentleman here,
In quick, what is the summery of all these discussion here. What are the major steps that we can do to avoid this in future. What are the best steps to resolve the issue like this.

Its great to see there are some good command that works with branded servers.

Again thanks to all, work is not over yet and hopefully we can do much more good things.

thanks a lot .

Oh yes, a lot is impossible. If the info is NOT in the system, you can NOT get it out; end of story.

Please note that I'm not saying that it can't be done but it depends on the hardware (and how 'open' it is).

And to add something positive, you might be able to get some info out with ipmi. I hardly know anything about it, but there is talk of a ManufacturerID in the documentation. See this thread to get started and the links that are provided there.

that excludes me... but since I'm no gentleman I'll comment anyway
Um - think outside the box? If something has not been set up, then an improvisation is unlikely to be 100% effective. Remember that there are non-computer ways to handle problems.

I think the method that suits you best you already know.
Most of the rest was about why a complete solution is not to be expected.

Avoid what?

Issues like what? Please be specific.

Being unable to ID all boxes?
You can avoid this is future by configuring each server to identify it's hardware to your queries. I know businesses that put the info you wanted in the server hostname.

Your company could purchase only brand-name boxes and deploy only in simple configurations. Hire bandwidth from companies who do the same.

@Wim Sturkenboom
Oh How great you are? Thanks for useless advice here.
Nothing is imposible. If the info is not in the system we can put info
into the system. After all these systems are operate by us.
So it's not the end of story but a new story is begin.



Yes we all knows it there is nothing new.

Well thanks for this its really usefully. If you dont know much more about it go through it. We will discuss.

@Simon Bridge
From my point of view i am not excluding anyone. If you think so, i hope so one day you will become Gentleman.

Yes you are right there are lots of non techinical stuffs that can be handled out side the box.


As i already said its not about you or me. Its a open forum for all the Linux lovers.So we have to think for them.

If you still don't know about which topic or issue we are taking then
i dont think you have to work anymore for this forum. Most of your argumets are useless and it has nothing to with the actual problem.


You most welcome can you please tell me the name of company?

First of all, I'm fully aware of the fact that I'm the best thing since the invention of sliced bread.
Second, you asked how to get the info out of the system.

I just pointed you in a direction that you might have overlooked; why the heck (to put it politely) must I do the work for you?

The most procative way of addressing your issues will to set up a Monitoring System which can act as an inventory for all your servers. Good monitoring systems like zenoss can discover most hardware information of your servers via snmp. If you invest good amount of time learning about snmp, zenoss etc, then you can make your life easier. There are other systems (like OCS) which can make for a good inventory of computer systems.
As pointed out ealier, if the computer is a whitebox or some nameless brands, then you will not get suich info and im sure your boss would not ask you to get manufacture infor of a box that he ordered from the roadside market.
Some white boxes cases do not even have logos or names witten, some boards are just marked generic, so Newton's laws hold "you cant create something from nothing" - unless you are God, or until the LHC prove the Higgs Bosson, fact, live with it.

I really thanks a lot to all the people who involved in this discussion and give there precious advice. It was like great journey. I hope we all enjoyed here in this discussion.

During this whole discussion if someone hearted or feel bad, i am really say sorry to them.
It's whole thing is the part of journey and this is how discussion are going on where the people with different mindsets meet at one place and give there great advice.

Its really good for linux, good me, good for all the lovers of linux all over the world.


More suggestions will be welcomed and appreciated.I am sure much more solution will come in coming future.

Finally I thanks a lot Linuxquestons.org for making such a good plate form for Linux Lovers.
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