Service Tags

C H A P T E R 5

Service Tags

This chapter describes the use of service tags with Lustre, and includes the following sections:

5.1 Introduction to Service Tags

Service tags are part of an IT asset inventory management system provided by Sun. A service tag is a unique identifier for a piece of hardware or software (gear) that enables usage data about the tagged item to be shared over a local network in standard XML format. The service tag program is used for a number of Sun products, including hardware, software and services, and has now been implemented for Lustre.

Service tags are provided for each MGS, MDS, OSS node and Lustre client. Using service tags enables automatic discovery and tracking of these system components, so administrators can better manage their Lustre environment.

Note - Service tags are used solely to provide an inventory list of system and software information to Sun; they do not contain any personal information. Service tag components that communicate information are read-only and contained. They are not capable of accepting information and they cannot communicate with any other services on your system.

For more information on service tags, see the Service Tag wiki and Service Tag FAQ.

5.2 Using Service Tags

To begin using service tags with your Lustre system, download the service tag package and registration client. The entire service tag process can be easily managed from the Sun Inventory webpage.

5.2.1 Installing Service Tags

Service tag packages (for RedHat and SuSE Linux) are downloadable from the Sun Lustre downloads page. To download and install the service tags package:

1. Navigate to the Sun Lustre download page and download the service tag package, sun-servicetag-1.1.4-1.i386.rpm ^[1], for Lustre.

2. Install the service tag package on all Lustre nodes (MGSs, MDSs, OSSs and clients).

The service tag package includes several init.d scripts which are started on reboot (/etc/init.d/stosreg and /etc/init.d/psn start).

This package also adds entries in the [x]inetd’s configuration scripts to provide remote access to the nodes needed to collect information. The script restarts [x]inetd (killall -HUP xinetd 1>/dev/null 2>&1).

3. If this is a new installation, format the OSTs, MDTs, MGSs and Lustre clients.

4. Mount the OSTs, MDTs, MGSs and Lustre clients, and verify that the Lustre file system is running normally.

5.2.2 Discovering and Registering Lustre Components

After installing the service tag package on all of your Lustre nodes, discover and register the Lustre components. To perform this procedure, Lustre must be fully configured and running.

1. Navigate to the Sun Lustre download page and download the Registration client, eis-regclient.jar.

2. Install the Registration client on one node (the collection node) that can reach all Lustre clients and servers over a TCP/IP network.

3. Install Java Virtual Machine (Java VM) on the collection node.

Java VM is available at the Sun Java download site.

4. Start the Registration client, run:

$ java -jar eis-regclient.jar

The Registration Client utility launches.

FIGURE 5-1 Registration Client

Note - The Registration client requires an X display to run. If the node from which you want to do the registration has no native X display, you can use SSH’s X forwarding to display the Registration client interface on your local machine.

The registration process includes up to five steps. The first step is to discover the service tags created when you started Lustre.

The Registration client looks for Sun products on your local subnet, by default. Alternately, you can specify another subnet, specific hosts or IP addresses.

5. Select an option to locate service tags and click Next.

The Product Data screen displays Sun products (that support service tags) as they are located. For each product, the system name, product name, and version (if applicable) are listed.

FIGURE 5-2 Product Data

If the list of located products does not look complete, select Back and enter a more accurate search.

Note - Located service tags are not limited to Lustre components. The Registration client locates any Sun product on your system that is supported in the Sun inventory management program.

6. Register the service tags or save them for later use.

There are two options for registering service tags.

Click Next to continue with the remaining steps 3-5 of the registration process, including authentication to the Inventory management website and uploading your service tags.

Save the collected service tags and register them on another machine. This option is good if the system used to collect the service tags does not have Web access. Click Save As and enter a file where the tags should be saved. You can then move this file (using network copy, a USB key, etc.) to a machine with Web access.

On the Web-access machine, navigate to Sun Inventory and click Discover & Register to start the Registration client. Select the ‘Locate Product on Other Subnets, Specific System or Load Previously Saved Data’ option and check the ‘File Name’ box. Enter (or navigate to) the file where the collected service tags were saved, click Next and follow the remaining steps 3-5 to complete the registration process, including authentication to the Inventory management website and uploading your service tags.

7. If you wish, navigate to Sun Inventory and log into your account to view and manage your IT assets.

Note - For more information about service tags, see https://inventory.sun.com, which links to the http://wikis.sun.com/display/ServiceTag/Home wiki. This wiki includes an FAQ about Sun’s service tag program.

5.2.3 Information Registered with Sun

The service tag registration process collects the following product, registration agentry and system information.

Data Name		Description
Product Information
	Lustre-specific information	Node type (client, MDS, OSS or MGS)
	Instance identifier	Unique identifier for that instance of the gear
	Product name	Name of the gear
	Product identifier	Unique identifier for the gear being registered
	Product vendor	Vendor of the gear
	Product version	Version of the gear
	Parent name	Parent gear of the registered gear
	Parent identifier	Unique identifier for the parent of the gear
	Customer tag	Optional, customer-defined value
	Time stamp	Day and time that the gear is registered
	Source	Where the gear identifiers came from
	Container	Name of the gear's container
Registration Agentry Information
	Agentry Identifier	Unique value for that instance of the agentry
	Agentry Version	Value of the agentry
	Registry Identifier	File version containing product registration information
System Information
	Host	System hostname
	System	Operating System
	Release	Operating system version
	Architecture	Physical hardware architecture
	Platform	Hardware platform
	Manufacturer	Hardware manufacturer
	CPU manufacturer	CPU manufacturer
	HostID	System host ID
	Serial number	System chassis serial number

^{1 (Footnote) This is the current service tag package. The version number is subject to change.}