Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
44 Posts
2
3171
host id changed after OS update
We were surprised to see that, after an update of the OS (SLES 10 to SLES 11), Networker server complained:
NetWorker registration: (notice) invalid auth codes detected.
The auth codes for the following licenses enablers are now invalid.
The cause may be that you moved the NetWorker server to a new computer.
You must re-register these enablers within 15 days to obtain new codes.
Support pointed us to KB 94837.
"The hostid is generated based off a combination of elements including the NW server's hostname, the NIC card, the CPU and the OS kernel.
Any of the aforementioned change may result in the hostid change."
I'm really surprised that we need to re-activate after an OS update.
Comments welcome,
Thomas
Deb_PS
156 Posts
0
March 31st, 2015 01:00
Not to Worry on that, yes post format if the host ID is changed, Please write an email to licensing@emc.com to transfer the licenses to new Host ID from the old Host ID
Hope this helps
Deb_PS
156 Posts
0
March 31st, 2015 01:00
Oh sorry, I read somehow you were to change NIC. With IP change it should not matter.
HP used to have this information on their site, but link I have doesn't work anymore. However, the rule of thumb so far was:
Windows -> Since NW 5.7, Security ID (SID)
UNIX -> via the command gethostid
Linux -> from the IP address
NetWare -> from the OS serial number
Solaris : From the hostid man page: gethostid() returns the 32-bit identifier for the current host, which should be unique across all hosts. This number is usually taken from the CPU board's ID PROM.
HP-UX : http://dsportal.eservices.hp.com/dspp/tech/tech_TechDocumentDetailPage_IDX/1,1701,1171,00.html
"There is no hostid or sysinfo command on HP-UX, but there are various ways to retrieve the host id--the 48-bit MAC address on the system network card." BTW - The Celestra product for HP-UX ships with a hostid command since the operating system does not supply one.
AIX: http://www.rs6000.ibm.com/idd500/usr/share/man/info/en_US/a_doc_lib/libs/commtrf2/gethostid.htm#QF390cher
"The gethostid subroutine allows a process to retrieve the 32-bit identifier for the current host. In most cases, the host ID is stored in network standard byte order and is a DARPA Internet address for a local machine" There is the function sethostid() available for AIX which allows changing the host id.
SGI : The man page on hostid indicates that SGI will normally derive its host ID from the IP address. It also refers to the /etc/init.d/network file, where the host id is set upon startup. You can also use the hostid -h option, or the sethostid function to change the host id on SGI.
Tru-64: The gethostid function returns a host id derived from the IP address.
Of course, that used to be the fact during 6.x era and I didn't hear things have changed since...
swadm
44 Posts
1
March 31st, 2015 01:00
Deb, thanks. I think the old info you posted is not really relevant any more.
More hopeful was KB 94837 I already mentioned.
The issue is that we did not change the NIC, and die not change the IP, and only updating the OS forces us into re-authentication. This appears to be owing to the fact that even OS kernel version is drawn when calculating the host ID.
This is at least not customer-friendly.
Regards, Thomas
Deb_PS
156 Posts
0
March 31st, 2015 02:00
Hi Thomas
The host id is generated based off a combination of elements as below
If any of these are changed the host ID will be changed, as you have formatted and upgraded to Solaris 11 from Solaris 10 the Kernel version is also changed and that resulted the host ID to a new one. If the host id changes, the enabler codes will go into eval mode.
I would say this is more secure rather than saying "Not Customer Friendly", to be honest the chance of misusing the licenses is reduced very much, and in case you have a new host ID in the same environment EMC Licensing Support team will be happy to transfer the existing licenses to new host ID.
bingo.1
2.4K Posts
1
March 31st, 2015 06:00
To the best of my knowledge, on Linux (PC servers) depends exclusively on the IPv4 address.
Just convert the IP numbers from the hostid to hex and swap numbers 1 with 2 and 3 with 4.
This at least was valid for years.
BTW - a wrong hostid will not 'put the enablers in Eval Mode'. If so, they would expire after 45 days.
But the Host Transfer Period is only 15 days. Time enough to re-request new auth codes.
ble1
2 Intern
2 Intern
•
14.3K Posts
0
March 31st, 2015 08:00
As bingo said, on Linux it is IP address. What could have happened is:
a) on multihomed system brief swap happened which was enough to break things
b) /etc/hosts was altered which again messed up primary IP
If this was temporary glitch, it is possible that right now old auth codes can be re-applied without getting any new ones (as they would be the same as old ones). Worth checking out.
swadm
44 Posts
0
March 31st, 2015 23:00
bingo, your hint with computing "Just convert the IP numbers from the hostid to hex and swap numbers 1 with 2 and 3 with 4" helped find the root cause of my re-registration:
My new host ID was 007f0200, which is equivalent to 127.0.0.2: SLES's Yast has somehow associated a loopback address to the hostname: What previously was
had become
We added the line containing 127.0.0.2 a long time ago to avoid Networker messages complaining about "Reverse DNS lookup failed for address 127.0.0.2".
Now I repaired /etc/hosts, and after restarting Networker services, I had my old host ID back. Of course I had to go back to my previous auth codes, too.
Thanks and regards, Thomas