]> pere.pagekite.me Git - homepage.git/blob - blog/Using_bar_codes_at_a_computing_center.html
Generated.
[homepage.git] / 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>2017
84 <ul>
85
86 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/01/">January (4)</a></li>
87
88 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/02/">February (3)</a></li>
89
90 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/03/">March (5)</a></li>
91
92 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/04/">April (2)</a></li>
93
94 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/06/">June (5)</a></li>
95
96 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/07/">July (1)</a></li>
97
98 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/08/">August (1)</a></li>
99
100 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/09/">September (3)</a></li>
101
102 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/10/">October (5)</a></li>
103
104 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/11/">November (2)</a></li>
105
106 </ul></li>
107
108 <li>2016
109 <ul>
110
111 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
112
113 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (2)</a></li>
114
115 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/03/">March (3)</a></li>
116
117 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/04/">April (8)</a></li>
118
119 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/05/">May (8)</a></li>
120
121 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/06/">June (2)</a></li>
122
123 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/07/">July (2)</a></li>
124
125 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/08/">August (5)</a></li>
126
127 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/09/">September (2)</a></li>
128
129 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/10/">October (3)</a></li>
130
131 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/11/">November (8)</a></li>
132
133 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/12/">December (5)</a></li>
134
135 </ul></li>
136
137 <li>2015
138 <ul>
139
140 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
141
142 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
143
144 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
145
146 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
147
148 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
149
150 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
151
152 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
153
154 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
155
156 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
157
158 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
159
160 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
161
162 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
163
164 </ul></li>
165
166 <li>2014
167 <ul>
168
169 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
170
171 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
172
173 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
174
175 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
176
177 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
178
179 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
180
181 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
182
183 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
184
185 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
186
187 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
188
189 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
190
191 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
192
193 </ul></li>
194
195 <li>2013
196 <ul>
197
198 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
199
200 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
201
202 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
203
204 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
205
206 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
207
208 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
209
210 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
211
212 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
213
214 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
215
216 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
217
218 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
219
220 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
221
222 </ul></li>
223
224 <li>2012
225 <ul>
226
227 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
228
229 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
230
231 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
232
233 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
234
235 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
236
237 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
238
239 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
240
241 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
242
243 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
244
245 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
246
247 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
248
249 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
250
251 </ul></li>
252
253 <li>2011
254 <ul>
255
256 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
257
258 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
259
260 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
261
262 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
263
264 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
265
266 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
267
268 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
269
270 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
271
272 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
273
274 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
275
276 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
277
278 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
279
280 </ul></li>
281
282 <li>2010
283 <ul>
284
285 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
286
287 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
288
289 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
290
291 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
292
293 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
294
295 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
296
297 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
298
299 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
300
301 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
302
303 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
304
305 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
306
307 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
308
309 </ul></li>
310
311 <li>2009
312 <ul>
313
314 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
315
316 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
317
318 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
319
320 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
321
322 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
323
324 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
325
326 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
327
328 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
329
330 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
331
332 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
333
334 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
335
336 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
337
338 </ul></li>
339
340 <li>2008
341 <ul>
342
343 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
344
345 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
346
347 </ul></li>
348
349 </ul>
350
351
352
353 <h2>Tags</h2>
354 <ul>
355
356 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (14)</a></li>
357
358 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
359
360 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
361
362 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
363
364 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (9)</a></li>
365
366 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (16)</a></li>
367
368 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
369
370 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
371
372 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (154)</a></li>
373
374 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (158)</a></li>
375
376 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook (4)</a></li>
377
378 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
379
380 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (17)</a></li>
381
382 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (24)</a></li>
383
384 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
385
386 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (359)</a></li>
387
388 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
389
390 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
391
392 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (30)</a></li>
393
394 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
395
396 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (18)</a></li>
397
398 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
399
400 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
401
402 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (15)</a></li>
403
404 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (20)</a></li>
405
406 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
407
408 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego (4)</a></li>
409
410 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
411
412 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
413
414 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
415
416 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
417
418 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (39)</a></li>
419
420 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (9)</a></li>
421
422 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (293)</a></li>
423
424 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (189)</a></li>
425
426 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (33)</a></li>
427
428 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
429
430 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (66)</a></li>
431
432 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (104)</a></li>
433
434 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (2)</a></li>
435
436 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
437
438 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
439
440 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
441
442 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (10)</a></li>
443
444 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
445
446 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (5)</a></li>
447
448 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
449
450 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (53)</a></li>
451
452 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
453
454 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (5)</a></li>
455
456 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (55)</a></li>
457
458 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (6)</a></li>
459
460 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (12)</a></li>
461
462 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (52)</a></li>
463
464 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (4)</a></li>
465
466 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
467
468 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (9)</a></li>
469
470 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (59)</a></li>
471
472 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
473
474 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (40)</a></li>
475
476 </ul>
477
478
479 </div>
480 <p style="text-align: right">
481 Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
482 </p>
483
484 </body>
485 </html>