blog/Using_bar_codes_at_a_computing_center.html

   1 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
   2           "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
   3 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="ltr">
   4   <head>
   5     <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
   6     <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: Using bar codes at a computing center</title>
   7     <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/style.css" />
   8     <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/vim.css" />
   9
  10
  11   </head>
  12   <body>
  13     <div class="title">
  14  <h1>
  15      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  16
  17  </h1>
  18
  19 </div>
  20
  21
  22     <div class="entry">
  23       <div class="title">Using bar codes at a computing center</div>
  24       <div class="date">20th February 2009</div>
  25       <div class="body"><p>At work with the University of Oslo, we have several hundred computers
  26 in our computing center.  This give us a challenge in tracking the
  27 location and cabling of the computers, when they are added, moved and
  28 removed.  Some times the location register is not updated when a
  29 computer is inserted or moved and we then have to search the room for
  30 the "missing" computer.</p>
  31
  32 <p>In the last issue of Linux Journal, I came across a project
  33 <a href="http://www.libdmtx.org/">libdmtx</a> to write and read bar
  34 code blocks as defined in the
  35 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Matrix">The Data Matrix
  36 Standard</a>.  This is bar codes that can be read with a normal
  37 digital camera, for example that on a cell phone, and several such bar
  38 codes can be read by libdmtx from one picture.  The bar code standard
  39 allow up to 2 KiB to be written in the tag.  There is another project
  40 with <a href="http://www.terryburton.co.uk/barcodewriter/">a bar code
  41 writer written in postscript</a> capable of creating such bar codes,
  42 but this was the first time I found a tool to read these bar
  43 codes.</p>
  44
  45 <p>It occurred to me that this could be used to tag and track the
  46 machines in our computing center.  If both racks and computers are
  47 tagged this way, we can use a picture of the rack and all its
  48 computers to detect the rack location of any computer in that rack.
  49 If we do this regularly for the entire room, we will find all
  50 locations, and can detect movements and removals.</p>
  51
  52 <p>I decided to test if this would work in practice, and picked a
  53 random rack and tagged all the machines with their names.  Next, I
  54 took pictures with my digital camera, and gave the dmtxread program
  55 these JPEG pictures to see how many tags it could read.  This worked
  56 fairly well.  If the pictures was well focused and not taken from the
  57 side, all tags in the image could be read.  Because of limited space
  58 between the racks, I was unable to get a good picture of the entire
  59 rack, but could without problem read all tags from a picture covering
  60 about half the rack.  I had to limit the search time used by dmtxread
  61 to 60000 ms to make sure it terminated in a reasonable time frame.</p>
  62
  63 <p>My conclusion is that this could work, and we should probably look
  64 at adjusting our computer tagging procedures to use bar codes for
  65 easier automatic tracking of computers.</p>
  66 </div>
  67
  68       <div class="tags">Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.</div>
  69
  70
  71     </div>
  72
  73
  74
  75
  76     <div id="sidebar">
  77
  78
  79
  80 <h2>Archive</h2>
  81 <ul>
  82
  83 <li>2016
  84 <ul>
  85
  86 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
  87
  88 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (2)</a></li>
  89
  90 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/03/">March (3)</a></li>
  91
  92 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/04/">April (8)</a></li>
  93
  94 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/05/">May (8)</a></li>
  95
  96 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/06/">June (2)</a></li>
  97
  98 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/07/">July (2)</a></li>
  99
 100 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/08/">August (5)</a></li>
 101
 102 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/09/">September (2)</a></li>
 103
 104 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/10/">October (3)</a></li>
 105
 106 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/11/">November (8)</a></li>
 107
 108 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/12/">December (1)</a></li>
 109
 110 </ul></li>
 111
 112 <li>2015
 113 <ul>
 114
 115 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
 116
 117 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 118
 119 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
 120
 121 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
 122
 123 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 124
 125 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
 126
 127 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
 128
 129 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
 130
 131 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
 132
 133 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
 134
 135 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
 136
 137 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 138
 139 </ul></li>
 140
 141 <li>2014
 142 <ul>
 143
 144 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 145
 146 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
 147
 148 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
 149
 150 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
 151
 152 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
 153
 154 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 155
 156 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
 157
 158 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
 159
 160 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
 161
 162 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
 163
 164 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 165
 166 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
 167
 168 </ul></li>
 169
 170 <li>2013
 171 <ul>
 172
 173 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
 174
 175 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
 176
 177 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
 178
 179 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
 180
 181 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 182
 183 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
 184
 185 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 186
 187 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 188
 189 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
 190
 191 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
 192
 193 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
 194
 195 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 196
 197 </ul></li>
 198
 199 <li>2012
 200 <ul>
 201
 202 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
 203
 204 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
 205
 206 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
 207
 208 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
 209
 210 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
 211
 212 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
 213
 214 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
 215
 216 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 217
 218 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
 219
 220 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
 221
 222 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
 223
 224 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 225
 226 </ul></li>
 227
 228 <li>2011
 229 <ul>
 230
 231 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
 232
 233 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 234
 235 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
 236
 237 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
 238
 239 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 240
 241 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 242
 243 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 244
 245 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 246
 247 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
 248
 249 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 250
 251 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 252
 253 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
 254
 255 </ul></li>
 256
 257 <li>2010
 258 <ul>
 259
 260 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 261
 262 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
 263
 264 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
 265
 266 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
 267
 268 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 269
 270 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
 271
 272 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
 273
 274 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
 275
 276 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
 277
 278 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
 279
 280 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
 281
 282 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
 283
 284 </ul></li>
 285
 286 <li>2009
 287 <ul>
 288
 289 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
 290
 291 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
 292
 293 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
 294
 295 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
 296
 297 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 298
 299 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
 300
 301 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
 302
 303 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 304
 305 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
 306
 307 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 308
 309 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 310
 311 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 312
 313 </ul></li>
 314
 315 <li>2008
 316 <ul>
 317
 318 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
 319
 320 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 321
 322 </ul></li>
 323
 324 </ul>
 325
 326
 327
 328 <h2>Tags</h2>
 329 <ul>
 330
 331  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
 332
 333  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
 334
 335  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
 336
 337  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
 338
 339  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (9)</a></li>
 340
 341  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (16)</a></li>
 342
 343  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
 344
 345  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
 346
 347  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (141)</a></li>
 348
 349  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (158)</a></li>
 350
 351  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
 352
 353  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (16)</a></li>
 354
 355  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (23)</a></li>
 356
 357  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
 358
 359  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (333)</a></li>
 360
 361  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
 362
 363  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
 364
 365  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (29)</a></li>
 366
 367  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
 368
 369  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (18)</a></li>
 370
 371  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
 372
 373  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
 374
 375  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (13)</a></li>
 376
 377  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (19)</a></li>
 378
 379  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
 380
 381  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
 382
 383  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
 384
 385  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
 386
 387  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
 388
 389  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (39)</a></li>
 390
 391  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (8)</a></li>
 392
 393  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (284)</a></li>
 394
 395  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (182)</a></li>
 396
 397  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (26)</a></li>
 398
 399  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
 400
 401  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (62)</a></li>
 402
 403  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (95)</a></li>
 404
 405  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
 406
 407  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
 408
 409  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
 410
 411  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
 412
 413  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (10)</a></li>
 414
 415  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
 416
 417  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (5)</a></li>
 418
 419  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
 420
 421  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (52)</a></li>
 422
 423  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
 424
 425  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (5)</a></li>
 426
 427  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (49)</a></li>
 428
 429  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (5)</a></li>
 430
 431  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (10)</a></li>
 432
 433  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (43)</a></li>
 434
 435  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (2)</a></li>
 436
 437  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
 438
 439  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
 440
 441  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (59)</a></li>
 442
 443  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
 444
 445  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (38)</a></li>
 446
 447 </ul>
 448
 449
 450     </div>
 451     <p style="text-align: right">
 452  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
 453 </p>
 454
 455   </body>
 456 </html>