Date: Sat, 07 Apr 2007 14:53:01 -0600 (MDT) From: "M. Warner Losh" <imp@bsdimp.com> To: pjd@freebsd.org Cc: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Host ID. Message-ID: <20070407.145301.-345495730.imp@bsdimp.com> In-Reply-To: <20070407175439.GL63916@garage.freebsd.pl> References: <20070407120656.GD63916@garage.freebsd.pl> <4617CB2D.8000508@gmail.com> <20070407175439.GL63916@garage.freebsd.pl>
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In message: <20070407175439.GL63916@garage.freebsd.pl> Pawel Jakub Dawidek <pjd@freebsd.org> writes: : On Sat, Apr 07, 2007 at 06:47:41PM +0200, Pawel Worach wrote: : > Pawel Jakub Dawidek wrote: : > >Hi. : > >After initial discussion on IRC, I'd like to propose an addition... : > >I want to use it with ZFS, but I thought it may be useful in general, so : > >here it goes: : > >I'd like to assign a unique ID to the system on first boot. : > >When system starts, /etc/rc.d/hostid script checks if /hostid file : > >exists, if it doesn't, it creates it via 'uuidgen > /hostid'. : > >It will also set kern.hostuuid sysctl to this value and first four bytes : > >of MD5(kern.hostuuid) will be stored in kern.hostid. It will allow to : > >use gethostid(3). : > >If root file system is read-only, different uuid will be genrated on : > >each boot. Not sure if anything better can be done here. : > >As I said, I think it may be genrally useful. Imagine using it with : > >magic/variant symlinks, for example. : > >Comments? : > : > What about ... : > : > # kenv smbios.system.uuid : > 63F8BC81-475C-11CB-A074-CA3B9005F8F6 : > : > Not all systems have SMBIOSen but maybe it can be used instead of /{,etc}/hostid if available ? : : We thought about this, but as you noted it's not always available. I : want this to behave the same on each system. Windows almost requires this be present, so it is present in many systems. There are a number of things that we use the best source of information first, and only then do we fall back to something less suitable. I don't see why this would be any different, and it would give more systems a chance to work. Many systems that have other BIOS issues, such as: smbios.system.maker="To be Filled" smbios.system.product="To be Filled" smbios.system.serial="00000000" none-the-less have this filled in. A quick survey of all the machines I have shows that the following didn't have it: Sony VAIO 505-TS (Pentium 300MHz laptop) NEC PC9821Ra (pc98 with Pentium II 400MHz) Kwikbyte KB9202 (Atmel AT91RM9200 based eval board) AMI Mobo + dual core amd opeteron Some embedded SBCs which have smbios, but no uuid. and a bunch of 4.x and 5.x machines that pre-date the addition of the smbios code that I can't check. So it is a mixed bag. Warner
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