X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/a23c322df805e9cce278bfd6f29f01a504dbd6ed..83f5e530a72887d485c647593c24dea454690a5b:/blog/index.rss diff --git a/blog/index.rss b/blog/index.rss index e1f9861a6c..4dc5fbc390 100644 --- a/blog/index.rss +++ b/blog/index.rss @@ -6,11 +6,162 @@ + + Checking server hardware support status for Dell, HP and IBM servers + Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html + Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html + Sat, 28 Feb 2009 23:50:00 +0100 + +<p>At work, we have a few hundred Linux servers, and with that amount +of hardware it is important to keep track of when the hardware support +contract expire for each server. We have a machine (and service) +register, which until recently did not contain much useful besides the +machine room location and contact information for the system owner for +each machine. To make it easier for us to track support contract +status, I've recently spent time on extending the machine register to +include information about when the support contract expire, and to tag +machines with expired contracts to make it easy to get a list of such +machines. I extended a perl script already being used to import +information about machines into the register, to also do some screen +scraping off the sites of Dell, HP and IBM (our majority of machines +are from these vendors), and automatically check the support status +for the relevant machines. This make the support status information +easily available and I hope it will make it easier for the computer +owner to know when to get new hardware or renew the support contract. +The result of this work documented that 27% of the machines in the +registry is without a support contract, and made it very easy to find +them. 27% might seem like a lot, but I see it more as the case of us +using machines a bit longer than the 3 years a normal support contract +last, to have test machines and a platform for less important +services. After all, the machines without a contract are working fine +at the moment and the lack of contract is only a problem if any of +them break down. When that happen, we can either fix it using spare +parts from other machines or move the service to another old +machine.</p> + +<p>I believe the code for screen scraping the Dell site was originally +written by Trond Hasle Amundsen, and later adjusted by me and Morten +Werner Forsbring. The HP scraping was written by me after reading a +nice article in ;login: about how to use WWW::Mechanize, and the IBM +scraping was written by me based on the Dell code. I know the HTML +parsing could be done using nice libraries, but did not want to +introduce more dependencies. This is the current incarnation:</p> + +<pre> +use LWP::Simple; +use POSIX; +use WWW::Mechanize; +use Date::Parse; +[...] +sub get_support_info { + my ($machine, $model, $serial, $productnumber) = @_; + my $str; + + if ( $model =~ m/^Dell / ) { + # fetch website from Dell support + my $url = "http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/emea/shared/support/my_systems_info/no/details?c=no&amp;cs=nodhs1&amp;l=no&amp;s=dhs&amp;ServiceTag=$serial"; + my $webpage = get($url); + return undef unless ($webpage); + + my $daysleft = -1; + my @lines = split(/\n/, $webpage); + foreach my $line (@lines) { + next unless ($line =~ m/Beskrivelse/); + $line =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm; + $line =~ m%;(\d{2})/(\d{2})/(\d{4});+(\d{2})/(\d{2})/(\d{4});%g; + my $start = "$3-$1-$2"; + my $end = "$6-$4-$5"; + $str = "$start -> $end"; + my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time)); + tag_machine_unsupported($machine) + if ($end lt $today); + } + } elsif ( $model =~ m/^HP / ) { + my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new(); + my $url = + 'http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/ewarranty/warrantyInput.do'; + $mech->get($url); + my $fields = { + 'BODServiceID' => 'NA', + 'RegisteredPurchaseDate' => '', + 'country' => 'NO', + 'productNumber' => $productnumber, + 'serialNumber1' => $serial, + }; + $mech->submit_form( form_number => 2, + fields => $fields ); + # Next step is screen scraping + my $content = $mech->content(); + + $content =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm; + $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm; + $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm; + $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm; + + my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time)); + + while ($content =~ m/;Warranty Type;/) { + my ($type, $status, $startstr, $stopstr) = $content =~ + m/;Warranty Type;([^;]+);.+?;Status;(\w+);Start Date;([^;]+);End Date;([^;]+);/; + $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty Type;//; + my $start = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", + localtime(str2time($startstr))); + my $end = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", + localtime(str2time($stopstr))); + + $str .= "$type ($status) $start -> $end "; + + tag_machine_unsupported($machine) + if ($end lt $today); + } + } elsif ( $model =~ m/^IBM / ) { + my ($producttype) = $model =~ m/.*-\[(.{4}).+\]-/; + if ($producttype &amp;&amp; $serial) { + my $content = + get("http://www-947.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/warranty?action=warranty&amp;brandind=5000008&amp;Submit=Submit&amp;type=$producttype&amp;serial=$serial"); + if ($content) { + $content =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm; + $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm; + $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm; + $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm; + + $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty status;//; + my ($status, $end) = $content =~ m/;Warranty status;([^;]+)\s*;Expiration date;(\S+) ;/; + + $str .= "($status) -> $end "; + + my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time)); + tag_machine_unsupported($machine) + if ($end lt $today); + } + } + } + return $str; +} +</pre> + +<p>Here are some examples on how to use the function, using fake +serial numbers. The information passed in as arguments are fetched +from dmidecode.</p> + +<pre> +print get_support_info("hp.host", "HP ProLiant BL460c G1", "1234567890" + "447707-B21"); +print get_support_info("dell.host", "Dell Inc. PowerEdge 2950", "1234567"); +print get_support_info("ibm.host", "IBM eserver xSeries 345 -[867061X]-", + "1234567"); +</pre> + +<p>I would recommend this approach for tracking support contracts for +everyone with more than a new computers to administer. :)</p> + + + Using bar codes at a computing center Using_bar_codes_at_a_computing_center.html Using_bar_codes_at_a_computing_center.html - Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:30:00 +0100 + Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:50:00 +0100 <p>At work with the University of Oslo, we have several hundred computers in our computing center. This give us a challenge in tracking the @@ -302,27 +453,5 @@ oppløsning.</p> - - ODF-bruk i staten, ikke helt på plass - ODF_bruk_i_staten__ikke_helt_p___plass.html - ODF_bruk_i_staten__ikke_helt_p___plass.html - Thu, 22 Jan 2009 23:00:00 +0100 - -<p>I går publiserte -<a href="http://universitas.no/nyhet/52776/">Universitas</a>, -<a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1588462.ece">Dagens-IT</a> -og <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article118622.ece">Computerworld -Norge</a> en sak om at de ansatte ved Universitetet i Oslo ikke følger -regjeringens pålegg om å publisere i HTML, PDF eller ODF. Det er bra -at det kommer litt fokus på dette, og jeg håper noen journalister tar -en titt på de andre statlige instansene også.</p> - -<p>Skulle ønske det var en enkel måte å sjekke om ODF-dokumenter er i -henholdt til ODF-spesifikasjonen, og en måte å teste om programmer som -hevder å støtte ODF forstår alle delene av ODF-spesifikasjonen. -Kjenner kun til ufullstendige løsninger for slikt.</p> - - -