How is the hostid (uname -i) determined

[Glen Jaster]

This is a very trivial question, but I have not been able to formulate the answer. On SUN's the hostid is determined by the MAC address of the primary network interface.
How is this determined on HP-UX? My guess is that this comes from some firmware value. Below is my host's information.

Here is my hostid: 287814301

Here are my interfaces with MAC Addresses:
8/12/2/0 0x0060B0597E44 2 UP lan2 UP 4 ETHER Yes 76
8/8/1/0 0x00306E04517C 3 UP lan3 UP 5 ETHER Yes 77
10/12/6 0x080009DAB4E9 0 UP lan0 UP 6 ETHER Yes 52
8/12/1/0 0x0060B0597E43 1 UP lan1 UP 7 ETHER Yes 76

Here are the ip address (if needed):

167.233.160.210 - lan0
167.233.168.210 - lan1
167.233.152.210 - lan2
167.233.11.210 - lan3

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[John Carr_2]

Hi

I believe the hostid is set in the hardware probably on the motherboard and is not changeable like the Sun hostid.

John.

[Jeff Schussele]

Glen,

Appears that HP also uses the MAC address to generate the hostid - see the following doc:

http://dsportal.eservices.hp.com/dspp/tech/tech_TechSingleTipDetailPage_IDX/1,2366,1171,00.html

Appears they cut chars 12-23 from the address.

HTH,
Jeff

[Jeff Schussele]

BTW what you're seeing via the uname -i command is the SPU (Service Processor Unit) ID....NOT the hostid.
See the following thread:

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xfcad4e49c5cdd5118ff40090279cd0f9,00.html


Rgds,
Jeff

[John Carr_2]

Hi Glen

such confusion on a hpux box doing a man on uname says the -i Displays the machine Identification number which is the SPU ID on a Sun box its also a machine identification number just generated a different way.

John.

[maros]

Hi,

I believe you need the hostid for software licensing purpose.

Some software is bound to a hostid established by a utility called Flexlm (www.globetrotter.com)- you have to first install flexlm and then run the lmhostid command.

Usually the sw vendor should be however able to bound sw to a so called HW address which is acquired by the lanscan command and it is in fact the ethernet card address.

Hope this helps.

maros

[maros]

Hi Glen,

sorry - I overlooked your hostid first - I would bet the hostid you put in your question was established by the Flexlm utility - see my message above.

maros

[Bill Hassell]

The uname -i value is unique to every computer and is a combination of the serial number, the CPU type and family. It is provided by HP to allow licensing software to uniquely identify the system. It cannot be changed by anyone except HP service and authorized repair facilities.