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Feature request: Discover Serial Numbers (AKA Service Tags)

Brook Powers
Level 1
Level 1

There is nothing more important to most SMB's than equipment serial numbers or service tags.

Its how we identify devices by site (you have to logon to determine the DNS name) Its also how we inventory, determine warranty status and create configurations in AutoTask and ConnectWise to track support tied to particular hardware.

Its also the first thing the Cisco TAC or STAC wants to know when we call for support.

The serial number or service tag is simple to get via WMI or SNMP. Here is how;

Cisco Devices

http://tools.cisco.com/Support/CPI/index.do

Dell Service Tags

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/servers/f/177/t/4493685.aspx

Lenovo PC's

http://projectdream.org/wordpress/2007/09/14/retrieving-type-and-serial-number-from-lenovo-machines-through-wmi/

For bonus points, you can even include the warranty expiration of Dell, HP, Lenovo/IBM, Apple, Toshiba, Gateway and Acer hardware:

http://www.updatewarranty.com/

5 Replies 5

Hi Brook,

We support this feature already (serial number extraction). You can find this information under the "Info" tab. Here is what it looks like for a UC500:

Here is the S/N of a computer, extracted using WMI:

Notice that we do not collect S/N of all Cisco devices, yet. A phone connected to a UC500, for example, won't show this information. For that, we would have to poll the phone directly (using HTTP for example, or SNMP) in order to extract it. That part is not done yet, but we'll get to it.


As far as warranty information, I can now safely say that it looks like we are going to have it for First Service Availability (FSA). It is a mandatory item and the team has made great progress in getting it incorporated. Notice that I am talking about Cisco devices. 3rd party devices are, obviously, lower priority. Once we get a confirmation from CSPO (formerly known as Infosec) that our system complies with all IT security standards, I will organize a demo for the Trial participants so you can see what that's going to look like. Apart from warranty information, we are looking to also have:

1) Service Contract status (if applicable)

2) End of X information (X=Life, Sales, Support)

3) PSIRT information (product vulnerability reports)

You will be able to create alerts and automatic notifications based on entitlement criteria, so you won't miss any of the above events or information.

I hope this helps. Thanks,


Marcos

Hi Brook, thanks for sharing these links. I'm currently looking at extending WMI discovery support for Windows-based machines with 2 additional WMI classes, Win32_SystemEnclosure and Win32_BaseBoard - in order to gather additional information that Win32_OperatingSystem doesn't provide such as hardware serial number, SKU, SMBIOSAssetTag (service tag), product, and manufacturer. The serial number currently discovered for Windows machines when WMI is enabled and the portal is given the proper credentials for it is the Windows serial number, which may or may not be all that helpful - but we'll continue to include it as part of the discovery information in the future.

-mike

Hi Brook, just closing the loop on this thread. We added the recording of BaseBoard and SystemEnclosure manufacturer, product, serial number, and asset tag to the WMI discovery during a patch update to release 5.5 on Friday. Thanks for your feedback on this feature request, I'm really excited that that we were able to turn it over to you folks so quickly to test out in the trial.

-mike

Still not working for us, on Dell or Cisco equipment. David Horne is coordinating an inquiry.

Brook,

I don't believe that we've yet added the feature to Thunderbolt to collect Cisco device Service Tag information up to the portal. Dell Service Tags should be collected if they are recorded by Windows WMI as SystemEnclosure -> SMBIOSAssetTag. 

We'll have to wait for SNMP support in Thunderbolt before the TBA can collect these tags directly from the devices.