#Product Hardware Enhancement Request: A place to put asset tags and show serial numbers

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

calm fog
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I just went through a grueling afternoon of crawling around with our asset management people putting barcodes on a bunch of our NetApp gear. None of it seems to have a pull-out tab with the serial number, or a good spot to stick an asset tag - keeping in mind that easily removable plastic trim pieces are not suitable.

Please do similar to what Dell does and add little pull-out tabs with the model and serial info on one side, and a space for a 0.75"x1.5" barcode sticker on the other. :)

bleak mirage
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I think there is a label on the top of the controller chassis with the SN... at least on European systems..

calm fog
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Equipment in question
4x A900 HA
8x NSM100 NVMe shelves
1x FAS9500
A bunch of DS460 shelves which are at least large enough on the drawers, but if I ever have to replace the top drawer, I'll have to re-tag.

calm fog
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The SN isn't the main problem here.

bleak mirage
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correct 🙂 you pretty much need to login to the system to get the SN...

calm fog
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Well you can usually find the SN on a handle or back panel or front rack ear. But it's not consistent and most are very small.

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The A900 controller handles for example... that's torturous.

bleak mirage
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to be honnest it's not something the I have ever been looking for.... and I have been working with the stuff for over 20 years now 😉

calm fog
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The bigger problem here is where do my asset management people put their tags that is a permanent part of that unit.

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Well, if you ever have to do physical asset management, you have to show the physical assets (ideally at delivery, but that didn't happen) with the model and serial numbers visible.

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Of course I put together a spreadsheet with the SNs taken right from Ontap, that's relatively easy.

bleak mirage
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another issue is the the SN is actually on the controllers and not the chassis.. and there are typically two controllers so the tags would have to be at the back and one on each controller... and no I have never worked with asset manage.. I only use the SN to lookup licenses, warranty or a support case... 🙂

calm fog
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Yes - and I steered them to controller serial numbers because it's the one thing we actually care about. I explained that they were removable and independent, but logically this is how we think about them.

calm fog
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This is a Dell server, for example. Their equivalent of a serial number is here. The other half of the front and entire back of the plastic tag is available to apply your sticker to.

image.png
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They started doing this when machines got dense enough that it was getting harder to print and read this information off front panels.

bleak mirage
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Maybe the OEM'ed NetApp's from Lenovo has this.. not sure, but I remember when IBM OEM'ed NetApp back in the day, they had serials on everything, even empty shelfs, PSU etc.. 🙂

calm fog
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You can make them even slimmer than this. I was just looking at a Juniper switch where they squeezed it in the front panel.

calm fog
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I'm asking for a $0.50 piece of plastic on my $250K NetApp. :)

bleak mirage
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I agree, but maybe Lenovo has these tags on their hardware... because it is a little different than the NetApp hardware

calm fog
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Well for the benefit of everyone who doesn't buy rebadged Lenovo, this is an easy feature to add that costs almost nothing and makes everybody's lives better.

rough flame
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HPE has the toe tags as well. Would love to see those added to our systems myself. It's one thing to have the info on top on a sticker, but I'm not decabling and sliding it out on the rails just to check that. Even if we had a little piece of square to sticker behind the bezel would work.

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@pearl rampart @warm oxide something we've considered before?

celest flax
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from what I have seen at our customers, among those few that actually do tag their hardware, there are 2 main methods:

  1. put the tags on the left or right side of the chassis, at the rear. those can be quite large and they can then be seen by looking through the racks next to the device in question. A bit awkward but if you only have to look at the tags maybe once in 2 years I guess it's okay for them.
  2. there are some sort of attachable tags with a zip-tie mechanism (although they are more "flexible" or "soft" than regular zip ties) that they just put on some accessible hinge or hole in the back and let it hang there
rough flame
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That's what i used to do, the zip tie tag with a hard plastic case

calm fog
calm fog
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But, NetApp folks if you need more justification for the higher-ups, just tell them that Dell does this, which means EMC does this, and do you really want EMC to have an edge? (troll emoji here)

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But yeah we ended up putting tags up on the top edge of the NSM100 IOMs, meaning if that IOM ever needs replacement I'll have to get the tag replaced. (note to self, ask AM how to request that)

calm fog
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One final gripe: the little square model number badges on the front panel are hard to read. Bring back embossed/painted lettering!

rough flame
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This is all great feedback @calm fog thank you!

calm fog
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And as expected, yes it's a hassle (but do-able) if I have to get something retagged because I had to replace an IOM or DS460 tray.

sturdy mulch
calm fog
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Yesterday I had to walk around the asset management people again to find a few disk shelves they didn't scan in... and a Dell server with their pullout tab. Everyone went "oooh!" when I showed them that. :)

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The day I started this thread, a person on another team had to shut down a server and tear it apart to get an Nvidia GPU out to show to asset management - it was expensive enough that they had to record it, but they all agreed that this process was terrible and the card wasn't going to walk away. They did something so we wouldn't have to do that again. So glad we didn't get stuck with that with the more pricy NetApp cards like the 2x100Gb NICs.

celest flax
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you can see the serial numbers comfortably from your desk in Intersight/UCS Manager, without even going to the datacenter, which is much mode convenient imho than having to pull out some plastic strip between dozens of cables while 50 fans are blowing hot air in your face 😉

calm fog
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They need to see the physical thing and tag it, and verify that it's where they say it is and not like, in the trunk of my car. :)

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Also that's why you put this tag on the front of the thing where you're in the cold aisle and not having your eyeballs hair-dryered around back :)

cloud zealot
celest flax