How do you get the System Serial Number on a running VMS Server

[Karen Lee_3]

Does anyone know how to get a serial number off a running OpenVMS 7.3-2 server?

[Martin Vorlaender · Accepted solution]

Karen,

I guess it depends on the hardware, but on our ES45 I can get it through

$ analyze/system
SDA> clue config
.
.
Serial Number AY...

HTH,
Martin

[Bill Hall]

Karen,

$SHOW CPU/FULL will show you the serial number if the server supports the SRM serial number environment variable and of course, it has been set correctly.

Bill

[Karen Lee_3]

clue config did it - thanks

[Andreas Vollmer]

Hello Karen,

The lexical function listed below works on AlphaServers...
sn = F$GETSYI("SERIAL_NUMBER")

Kind Regards
Andreas

[Kris Clippeleyr]

Karen,
All the solutions given by my learned colleagues are correct, provided that the console environment variable "sys_serial_num" is filled in correctly. If that variable contains bogus info, you're out of luck. You then have to check the box itself for a label stating the serial number.
Regards,
Kris (aka Qkcl)

[The Brit]

Would I be right in assuming from Kris' response above, that the output from f$getsyi("SERIAL_NUMBER") is just a reflection of whatever is set in the console environment variable "sys_serial_num"!!

Is this correct????

Dave

[Volker Halle]

Dave,

$GETSYI("SERIAL_NUMBER") reads the data from the HWRPB (Hardware Restart Parameter Block). The console decides what it puts there.

$ ANA/SYS
SDA> READ SYSDEF
SDA> FORM @BOO$GA_HWRPB/type=hwrpb
or
SDA> exa @BOO$GA_HWRPB+HWRPB$B_SYS_SERIALNUM
SDA> EXIT

Volker.

[Hoff]

Yes, the serial number is a value set on the console. You can select whatever you want.

(I'm aware of a site that stuffs what amounts to a contact telephone number and a site-local serial number in there. That data is then used to look up the real serial number and model number, if/when that detail is needed. Yeah, probably better to use SNMP here, but that's not what these folks chose.)

The usual request for this is either filling in a license application (eg: for the OpenVMS hobbyist program), or an approach toward software licensing.

In the former case, others have answered this. Or look at the sticker on the box. For licensing, do look at the PAKGEN PAK that can be acquired from the HP DSPP program. (If you want to experiment before going through the HP DSPP approach, there's a PAKGEN PAK and associated documentation available on the Freeware that can be used for testing.)

A better approach toward a serial number for the purposes of licensing can be based on the NIC address; this is unique, and most every Alpha system now has at least one NIC. Details on retrieving that detail -- full source code -- are in the left navigation of the old Ask The Wizard area.

Some OpenVMS systems -- whole classes of VAX boxes come to mind -- might well have the same serial number for a gazillion different boxes.

There's a section on system serial numbers in the OpenVMS FAQ. www.hoffmanlabs.com/vmsfaq
"How do I get a unique system ID for licensing purposes?" (It's not easy to find if you're searching for the obvious string here, but I'll queue a fix for that for the next edition.)

[Dean McGorrill]

Note it is not always unique, eg on my 2 node
cluster..

ENGDS1::MCGORRILL_1 10:29:11 SDA CPU=00:00:00.26 PF=404 IO=1165 MEM=424
SDA> exa @BOO$GA_HWRPB+HWRPB$B_SYS_SERIALNUM
FFFFFFFF.91D4C040: 38313038.3239494E "NI928018"



ENGDS2::MCGORRILL 10:25:56 SDA CPU=00:00:19.15 PF=14834 IO=220224 MEM=445
SDA> exa @BOO$GA_HWRPB+HWRPB$B_SYS_SERIALNUM
FFFFFFFF.92A2E040: 38313038.3239494E "NI928018"

[Jan van den Ende]

Karen,

from your Forum Profile:


I have assigned points to 70 of 183 responses to my questions.

Some date back to 2005.

Maybe you can find some time to do some assigning?

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/helptips.do?#33

Mind, I do NOT say you necessarily need to give lots of points. It is fully up to _YOU_ to decide how many. If you consider an answer is not deserving any points, you can also assign 0 ( = zero ) points, and then that answer will no longer be counted as unassigned.
Consider, that every poster took at least the trouble of posting for you!

To easily find your streams with unassigned points, click your own name somewhere.
This will bring up your profile.
Near the bottom of that page, under the caption "My Question(s)" you will find "questions or topics with unassigned points " Clicking that will give all, and only, your questions that still have unassigned postings.
If you have closed some of those streams, you must "Reopen" them to "Submit points". (After which you can "Close" again)

Do not forget to explicitly activate "Submit points", or your effort gets lost again!!

Thanks on behalf of your Forum colleagues.

PS. - nothing personal in this. I try to post it to everyone with this kind of assignment ratio in this forum. If you have received a posting like this before - please do not take offence - none is intended!

PPS. - Zero points for this.

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[Volker Halle]

Dean,

note that the HWRPB$B_SYS_SERIALNUM field in the HWRPB is 16. bytes long, so my example command should have been:

SDA> exa @BOO$GA_HWRPB+HWRPB$B_SYS_SERIALNUM;10

This should show a unique system serial number, if this value has been correctly set at console level.

Volker.

[Wim Van den Wyngaert]

It gets translated to HEX and reversed. Setting the console variable to WIM results in serial number 000...4D4957 (57 is the W).

Wim