Re: Getting a unique ID for a system?
On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 06:13:13PM +0100, Richard Hartmann wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 12:20, Tom Allison <tom@tacocat.net> wrote:
>
> > I've absolutely no idea what you are trying to do here or why. I'm a little
> > curious about that.
>
> I want to assign all hosts a unique id that is consistent across all
> monitoring and accounting solutions.
> The existance of VMs makes a simply solution like /etc/hostid
> imossible to use.
>
>
> > But if you are trying to find a unique id that isn't tied to hardware or
> > pretty much anything else then why not just make one up.
>
> Actually, I do want an ID that is unique and tied to the hardware.
What about virtual hosts that may migrate from one piece of hardware to
another? Wouldn't VMs mean that you need a unique host ID separate from
hardware?
Why not just assign sequential IDs as new hosts are created, never
duplicating them? In this sense, all hosts would be virtual, whether
actually virtual (VMs) or single host on/in a single box.
It could be used as a database key, which links virtual hosts to what
they are running on. The database could also contain an entry for each
component that makes up a host (if you wish), e.g. brand-model-serial
for a case (e.g. what I see in front of me: HP-D6131-60200-US84700448
[HP NetServer LPr PII/450).
What you are describing is just part of the larger issue of namespace
managment. Work out exactly what you want, the criteria not the method.
Doug.
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