Smbios guid

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

seang86s

Member
Feb 19, 2013
164
16
18
Hi everyone. I'm installing Windows Server 2012 on my Dell C6100 and I have a problem when adding the nodes to System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 SP1. The process errors out stating the nodes do not have a unique SMBIOS GUID. I have flashed my nodes with the latest BIOS and BMC firmware. How does the C6100 derive the GUID? Has anyone else had this kind of issue?
 

seang86s

Member
Feb 19, 2013
164
16
18
Well, from what I've gathered on the net is that the Service Tag is used to form the SMBIOS GUID. Of course, the service tag is attached to the chassis and all the nodes then have the same value. This would be a problem for ESXi as well.

Nobody else has run into this issue when trying to cluster the nodes?
 

seang86s

Member
Feb 19, 2013
164
16
18
So I've spent most of my free time trying to figure this out and haven't had any luck. Could some of you with C6100s please check a couple of things for me?

In the BIOS, is the Service Tag identical for each node? It should be located in two places. The Main tab and in the IPMI tab.

If you do a network boot, is the GUID the same on each node?
 

cafcwest

Member
Feb 15, 2013
136
14
18
Richmond, VA
So I've spent most of my free time trying to figure this out and haven't had any luck. Could some of you with C6100s please check a couple of things for me?

In the BIOS, is the Service Tag identical for each node? It should be located in two places. The Main tab and in the IPMI tab.

If you do a network boot, is the GUID the same on each node?

I've run into the exact same problem with the same use case - SC VMM and C6100's.

As I've still got some support remaining on my servers, I am going to call Dell and see if they have any recommendations.

For what it is worth, all my Googling also lead me to zilch! I see a similar problem with SCCM 2007 and some reg hacks to switch identification from UUID to MAC, but that exact workaround isn't available in VMM.
 

seang86s

Member
Feb 19, 2013
164
16
18
Sorry to report that I've already been down this road. Basically, their response is that the machine was never designed for any management solution that requires the use of unique GUIDs. Supposedly they had the cloud engineers look into it and came up with nothing. They suggested upgrading to C6220s.

There is a Dell utility called asset.com which is used to change the service tag on a newly installed motherboard (the GUID is based on the service tag). From what I gathered, the service tag can only be entered once if the field is blank. Once it is set, it cannot be changed.

I have at least three 4 node machines so I'm going to swap around sleds to make at least one machine with unique GUIDs. It's the only solution I can think of for now.
 

cafcwest

Member
Feb 15, 2013
136
14
18
Richmond, VA
Dell doesn't have a lot of experience with these except to the cloud world - as they were marketed.

I wonder if SuperMicro would have any feedback. If we opened a support request for a first generation device (that Dell made their first C6100 from, which was almost exactly just a re-badge) to see if they had a wider user base with the servers, had received this type of request before, and had any feedback to offer. Doesn't mean that it would necessarily apply to our servers, but it is a thought.
 

seang86s

Member
Feb 19, 2013
164
16
18
It just occurred to be that if the firmware was modified to use the asset tag instead of the service tag to generate the SMBIOS GUID, it would solve the issue. The asset tag is easily set by the Dell asset.com utility. It would be easy to make the asset tag/GUID unique.
 

seang86s

Member
Feb 19, 2013
164
16
18
I have another 4 node C6100 sitting in the box that I haven't fired up yet. It's one of the older units. The sleds do not have the cutouts for the infiniband mezzanine card and it has one of the first firmwares for the BIOS (the background is white!) and BMC. I turned it on this weekend and guess what? Each node has a unique service tag in the form of service tag.1, .2, .3 & .4. So it looks like some of the systems, possibly the older ones, are better suited for managed VM solution like vCenter or SCVMM.

FWIW, the firmware is so old it doesn't recognize 5600 series Xeons. The Windows flash fails cuz it's not a "C6100 cloud" machine so you have for force flash it from DOS.
 
Last edited:

seang86s

Member
Feb 19, 2013
164
16
18
Looks like there is an easier solution to this after all. You can indeed change the service tag once it's been flashed. There are some hidden switches for ASSET.COM that lets you delete the tag and then you can put whatever you need in there. You can get ASSET.COM from here: Driver Details | Dell US

And the full list of switches (/s /d is what you want to delete the service tag):

ASSET — Version 2.09 (C) Copyright 1993-2004 Dell Inc.

Usage:
ASSET new_asset_tag Specify new asset tag
ASSET /d Delete asset tag
ASSET /o new_owner_tag Specify new owner tag (if applicable)
ASSET /o /d Delete owner tag (if applicable)
ASSET /? This help screen
ASSET /s new_service_tag Specify new service tag
ASSET /s /d Delete service tag
ASSET /b Specify new system board tag
System board tag must be “ssssssssssssssssssss-vvv-”, where
s..s is the 20 digit system board Part number string,
vvv is the 3 digit system board rev,
– is a don’t care character, but must be present
ASSET /b /d Delete system board tag
ASSET /k Fix 2000:0000 memory issue
ASSET /f [other_options] Force Affirmative response
ASSET /x [other options] eXtended display – displays all tags
 

cafcwest

Member
Feb 15, 2013
136
14
18
Richmond, VA
I had not had the chance to do any further digging on this project, so you are the man! Thanks for following through on the post as well!
 

NetWise

Active Member
Jun 29, 2012
596
133
43
Edmonton, AB, Canada
Looks like there is an easier solution to this after all. You can indeed change the service tag once it's been flashed. There are some hidden switches for ASSET.COM that lets you delete the tag and then you can put whatever you need in there. You can get ASSET.COM from here: Driver Details | Dell US

And the full list of switches (/s /d is what you want to delete the service tag):

ASSET — Version 2.09 (C) Copyright 1993-2004 Dell Inc.

Usage:
ASSET new_asset_tag Specify new asset tag
ASSET /d Delete asset tag
ASSET /o new_owner_tag Specify new owner tag (if applicable)
ASSET /o /d Delete owner tag (if applicable)
ASSET /? This help screen
ASSET /s new_service_tag Specify new service tag
ASSET /s /d Delete service tag
ASSET /b Specify new system board tag
System board tag must be “ssssssssssssssssssss-vvv-â€, where
s..s is the 20 digit system board Part number string,
vvv is the 3 digit system board rev,
– is a don’t care character, but must be present
ASSET /b /d Delete system board tag
ASSET /k Fix 2000:0000 memory issue
ASSET /f [other_options] Force Affirmative response
ASSET /x [other options] eXtended display – displays all tags

Were you able to get this to run? I was able to boot from a 32bit diags ISO with v2.09 and it indicated "this system cannot be updated with this tool" or something similar.

Can it be done with ipmitool perhaps?
 

mrkrad

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2012
1,244
52
48
yeah folks use the old asset tag 12:34 trick to enable slic 2.0 or slic 2.1
 

TehSuk

New Member
Nov 15, 2013
1
0
0
I ran into the same issue as the other posters in this thread with SCVMM 2012 R2. All blades in the same chassis as shipped have the same Service Tag. It looks like Dell uses the Service Tag when generating the SMBIOSGUID.

We were having some issues with the MegaRAC on one of our blades in a remote datacenter, and weren't able to mount the Dell technician ISO that i've seen floating around elsewhere that has the asset tag modification utility. We are a Windows shop so the c6100 BMC tool was not an option either.

Fortunately, I was able to edit the asset tag using the windows build of ipmiutil.

Install it following the instructions in the readme, and run the following command to change the service tag:

ipmiutil.exe fru -s %newassettag%

After running it, reboot, and the SMBIOSGUID will change.

I've been incrementing the last character/number on each of the other 3 blades & documenting what the old & new ones are in our asset tracking database. If we need warranty service on a blade we've changed we'll just switch it back to the original before sending it out.