[syslinux] Syslinux using Asset Tag (from Dell or Compay) instead of MAC Adress

[Ryan Go]

On Wed, 4 Feb 2004, H. Peter Anvin wrote:

> huber at hsn.at wrote:
> > I am using PXELINUX to unattened install our machines with XP.
> >
> > It is a not very easy to handle with mac adresses because mac adresses
> > can change when a motherboard is changed, but the asset tag from dell
> > (or also from compaq) will be also updated when the motherboard is
> > changed to the original value, so our unique key here is the asset
> > tag.
> >
>
> Well, presumably you have a database somewhere of which MAC address go
> with which machine.
>
> >
> > So my idea is to change the behaviour so that it will not check
> > for the configuration file on the server by using the mac adress, instead
> > of this i want to read the asset tag from the bios and use this key
> > to determine the pxelinux config file.
> >
> > Has anyone maybe already done this?
> >

I looked into this briefly before. But decided it was too much work for so
little gain. Motherboard replacements happen infrequently.

>
> Is there a spec for obtaining the value of this asset tag?

I know `dmidecode` can get this value. I am only sure it works on DELL
poweredge servers.

>
> The big problem I see with it is that it's state kept local on the
> machine, so if it's wrong it could be hard to fix, but I guess that's
> not my problem :)
>

Yeap. It is such a pain when the tech would forget to change the asset
tag.

	<< ryan