Slashdot Mirror
Finding Lost IT With RFID
CWmike writes "Vendors are increasingly trying to sell users on the idea that they need to stick RFID tags on IT equipment to keep track of it. Users are interested in this technology because they would much rather automate inventory tracking then go server-to-server with a bar code scanner and clipboard. But the new push for RFID tags in data centers also hints at a larger issue: There may be a significant amount of equipment that can't be located. And while out-of-sight, out-of-mind is not always bad, there's a least one nagging problem: 'Ghost server' systems, which may still be drawing power but perform no work and may be difficult to locate. One vendor at the Afcom data center conference suggests IT shops get some 'GPS for your assets.'"
2) Stick RFID tag to rack...
3) ???
4) Profit!
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
don't data centers have poor gps signals and have lots of systems in same area makes it easy for the RFID signal to be drowned out.
Obligatory bash.org quote:
#5273 +(30069)-
<erno> hm. I've lost a machine.. literally _lost_. it responds to ping, it works completely, I just can't figure out where in my apartment it is.
[alk]
And there's Sheldon, putting RFID tags on all the mice and keyboards in the server room (after he finishes RFIDing his socks).
"With all due respects, Dr. Cooper..."
Free Martian Whores!
I suppose GPS would work for outdoor data centres, but I haven't run across many of those ...
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
in location: Waiting for satellite...
I wonder why? I'm in in the bunker, with all the servers...
Â_Â
While GPS is a poor solution for most data centers (weak satellite signals), active wireless tracking systems (Awarepoint being but one example, but there are many others) often pay for themselves the first time one avoids the purchase of a capital item. Plus, being able to tell the PHB where all the XYZ units are at any instant, and why they can't be used for some new application you have in mind, is great evidence when you want to purchase something.
Find stuff that migrated to somebody's apartment?
"Common sense will be the death of us all"
A decade ago I heard about an office move where they found a locked closet that nobody knew about.
They opened it up and there was an OS/2 server that hadn't been rebooted in 2 years.
Try active RFID as opposed to passive.
Passive is when did this tag last get scanned or pass by a reader field (remove tag and walk past reader avoiding cameras = shiny new kit).
Active is within RF range (30' or so) of a ceiling mounted RF reader, within line of sight of an IR Reader, or in physical proximity to an exciter. Remove tag from equipment or press button equals alarm plus location info plus PTZ nearest camera to cover area plus lock doors until authorized tag enters.
Installed this is a hospital and worked great, until the unions got involved.
Seems the same tag that can actively track your equipment and provide a wireless duress for staff can also tell you when the janitor has been at lunch for the last two hours or when the doctor left early for golf.
And, no, you can't remove the tag or the clothing it is attached to as it also your name tag and your RFID card for Access Control.
I think the idea is to track it when it leaves the building. As long as it isn't out of the building you can have some assurance that it's somewhere in the building. Not that the approach is perfect, GPS tends to suck around here for some reason, more so downtown with all the buildings.
Its a bit like those Japanese soldiers they used to find periodically on Pacific islands, thinking the war was still on. That poor little OS/2 server, not knowing netcraft had long ago declared victory, and that there was nobody left to talk to it.
Assumes a link between inventory management and operations, which probably does not exist at most locations.
Making inventory management easier isn't going to help if there is no link at all between inventory and operations.
Most of the numerous places I've worked at ran inventory on a spares system.. Thou shalt have one spare device at every major POP and datacenter, or the technique used was purchasing depts job was to keep the supply cabinet full of routers.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
...then how is knowing that the server you're looking for is (or more likely is not) somewhere within X meters going to help?
There's no failure quite as dissatisfying as a complete and total solution to the wrong problem.
The RFID systems I have seen in the field are poorly implemented. Most were thick, think 9v battery, tags that were either attached via zip ties or velcro. Even if it was securely attached, most were attached to removable face plates, while others were attached to the rear and would actually prevent you from pulling out the server and/or damage the cabling if you did, as it tended to hang down and catch on stuff. (snap off fibers, pull out power cords, etc.) They offered no assurance that that piece of equipment was in the room since they could easily be separated from the tag. Even with this system, you'll still need people to visually verify it anyway.
How often do you actually lose a piece of hardware? This is a solution to a problem that does not exist.
Barcode or your own SN sticker followed up by visual inspections is cheaper, safer, and more reliable compared to the RFID solutions I have seen out there.
erno: "hm. I've lost a machine.. literally _lost_. it responds to ping, it works completely, I just can't figure out where in my apartment it is."
Submitter, type out 500 times: 'I will not type "then" when I mean "than"'
From an IT perspective that really does sound like a nifty inventory/tracking system. Though I do understand the unions argument. If I were an orderly and need a break because I just cleaned up my seventh puddle of vomit for the day. I'd hate to have someone from accounting pitching a fit because I took a break when I "didn't need one". /shudder
Can't wait for the fun explaining the boss that the server that does job X can not be inventoried because it does not exist (virtual).
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=6505527
By John Rendleman
InformationWeek
April 9, 2001 06:58 AM
The University of North Carolina has finally found a network server that, although missing for four years, hasn't missed a packet in all that time.
Try as they might, university administrators couldn't find the server. Working with Novell, IT workers tracked it down by meticulously following cable until they literally ran into a wall. The server had been mistakenly sealed behind drywall by maintenance workers.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
It's not about that, really. It's about jettisoning expensive in-house techs with their pesky 'oral traditions' of knowing where things are. RFID tags make it a lot easier for contractors and "interns" to find kit.
Even if inventory and operations live together in perfect harmony, the tags identify PHYSICAL servers. Thanks to the magic of virtualization, you might have several zombie virtual machines along with [maybe] one that is truly needed -- all in the same physical box.
Even if the tags do their job and you think you have positively identified a defunct box to be shut down and removed, what level of confidence do you have that NONE of the virtual machines are still necessary?
The primary motivation for this technology -- last time I was told about it -- was in hospitals. Expensive equipment is wheeled around a lot, and people sometimes need to know where it is now. An RFID scanner in rooms/doorways and tags on the equipment could tell you this -- so long as the tag was resistant to being bashed against a doorway.
just put the where abouts in 'finger'?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/04/12/missing_novell_server_discovered_after/
"And while out-of-sight, out-of-mind is not always bad, there's a least one nagging problem: 'Ghost server' systems, which may still be drawing power but perform no work and may be difficult to locate."
Performing an audit once or twice a year could solve this problem.
just virtualize RFID tags. hilarity^Wchaos ensues.
ok, so this would require some sort of RFID <-> network bridge, but just imagine the fun things that could be done with such a device...
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I developed and managed systems like this for a living in the 2000's in Europe. The resolution of the realtime location of assets for the RFCode hardware was probable the best in the market, but suffers a lot from reflections and too expensive readers, last I heard from them was trying to lower the price for the Mantis receivers.
Hosting 20G hd, 1Tb bw! ssh $7.95
Starts with the boss explaining, "This is an important server, don't take it home and use it for games. I'll be watching!" Ends with the Boss following the RFID signal into the tape safe.
and how often are emergency equipment swaps / replacements done with the inventory part being a much lower on the to do list then getting the system working again how often is inventory messed up by fat fingers? poor management that does not do there part?
We had this problem in the mid-90s. We had a Sun server in the building which was regularly used by remote logins (I think it was a build machine so just used to build the Sparc version of the software), but one day we had to find for a hardware upgrade and no-one could remember where the heck it was... we eventually had to get it to play music so we could walk around the building and listen for it.
See, servers process so much information that over time, they become sentient enough to be repulsed by all the hentai, scat and amputee porn that pass through their innards. So disgusted are they, that eventually, they will themselves out of our dimension into the "e-Space", a subset dimension of what the great theoretical physicist and visionary, Sir Terry Pratchett calls the "L-Space". There at least, the extradimensional horrors are more tolerable.
Yeah with hospital equipment I can see it, as you say it's moved about a lot and it's generally pretty obvious whether it is in use or not.
With servers in the datacenter they tend to stay in one place and it's much harder to tell if they are in use for something unless records are kept religously. A server may only be used once a month yet have some crucial task when that time of the month comes up.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
They weren't saying it would have actual GPS tracking. It would just be "like" GPS, or as they said "Think of it as a GPS for your assets,"
TFA says each tag is $14, and a rack cost is $200 to $400.
If you had actual GPS tracking, it's one thing to capture the coordinates. It's another thing to send them somewhere. If someone walked out of your datacenter with a machine, it can't exactly talk over the network. It would need an embedded cell phone solution. It could be done for about $50 to $100 each, plus data service for the tracking, but the device would kind of stand out on a 1u server. :)
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Netware 3.x in particular (before it got "complicated" with version 4) was famous for being ridiculously reliable. Unless you had a disk failures, uptimes in the years was expected. And since it was in a simpler time and generally didn't need to be connected to the internet, you could let things slide when it came to security patches. Again, aside from disk failures, the most common cause of these boxes needing work was "old age", that is, power supplies and their fans clogging up with lint and hair, leading to overheating.
Let me guess, the server dispenses midol and chocolate.
I'll be here all week!
Put RFID tags on Post-It notes. Do you have any idea how many of those pads walk away and how much they cost?
As an electrical engineer, I frequently have to work with IT folks to provide data gathering systems on the equipment we install in our manufacturing facilities. Some of these plant floor networks are huge, and have tentacles that reach into every machine and sub-system processor. I never cease to be amazed at the complete lack of documentation that the IT folks put into physically mapping their network equipment. They will quite literally wave their flashlights and point to where they want the central network switches installed. While we and the mechanical engineers draw plans which show general equipment arrangements, and draw up network diagrams showing how our equipment is to be networked, and we label our equipment and electrical panels, the IT guy typically will typically tell me that yes, he thinks there's a switch around here somewhere I can use, and starts hunting around for it.
In my world, while it is quite possible to build and erect a machine without any prints or plans, any future maintenance or additions to such machines would prove to be doubly expensive since it would require a not inconsiderable amount of detective work to come to understand what exists so that it can be modified or changed. (Indeed, back in the early days of engineering, that's how things were built, and it took many decades before the value of making plans and documenting them was recognized.)
It seems to me that creating and maintaining a complete set of documents which map and explain the equipment and network should be adequate, and would prove to be simpler to keep up to date than any sort of RFID system of tying cowbells to servers. Granted, it requires resources and consistent effort, but this has long been the norm in the field of manufacturing engineering. If it works for machines and manufacturing equipment, why wouldn't it work for IT systems?
I work at a steel maker... On the shop floor equipment is tucked away all over the place to keep it from getting hit by fork trucks, dropped steel, hot steel,etc. There are small "fanless" machines tucked inside electrical boxes, stuck in the rafters, or access panels of equipment. Even when you do get there they can be covered in 2 years of dirt and slime... because you put them "out of the way" and you wouldn't recognize them.
I believe CISCO has a technology and equipment that does precisely that. Allows you to track your RFIDed equipment with their APs.
They even have a controller to process all the info.
It "breaks" and you play Excel Doom while you're fixing it.. keeps you a way from the P.M.S. grenade.
Where I used to work, their "IT Dude" is always somewhere sleeping.
Would be good to put one on him.
From a talk I gave on Manageability at ISCA 2009:
http://3969255347524280195-a-1802744773732722657-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/masdtutorial/Home/Taliver-Google.pdf?attachauth=ANoY7cpUKrZObrmnpq0PF70-mhH6KjHt-hHOf5vUMzSERjoLjzPP_VFXFj7-ywkc8OJGcHLxWvvyd8jx4hxJl1nexmgGzIoPrb-p-34GuBFLP8FtFys4DTyp7E7KgBtWV2ehbarefRiaOW-KSahx7golh5V2Uu3qVbJpuVxKLx-BwlqvsG86d5e8rKHANl6GwpBFxEqObLTXIdb8IANfINRkZCWUcJZUnw%3D%3D&attredirects=0
Basically, yes, finding things in a big data center is very hard, and people that haven't worked in the environment tend to not appreciate the difficulty.
lock doors until authorized tag enters.
In a data center.
With Halon based fire suppression.
Bad plan.
"You want to know how to help your kids? Leave them the fuck alone." -George Carlin
A related class of servers I once found was the old powered down, no longer in use type. Not a big deal until I found that the vendor still happily collecting 7/24 4-hour response time maintenance fees type...
every server room I working in is RF shielded from the outside world. GPS wont work, as they barely working indoors without shielding....
* lock doors and activate Halon based fire suppression.
* keep locked until authorized tag enters, activate fans.
Thanks for remembering that important step
No system, RFID or otherwise, will compensate for poor asset and resource management.
I work in a factory that, no joke, accounts for each and every inventory item literally down to the nut, bolt and washer level.
We asset tag at the lot (bin of bolts, bag of washers) level. It is considered a Big Deal if a lot goes missing or finds its way to the wrong location.
Every year I find the 5 oldest systems in the data center and turn them off.. No outages so far, Hehe.
We had tags for people and assets (printers, photocopiers, overhead projectors, computer manuals) that were used for location information, for door access, for having your computer screen follow around (they built an X-proxy and later developed it into VNC). This was 1992-1999 at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory in cooperation with the Olivetti Research labs (was changed to AT&T research labs or the other way around), who manufactured the devices. The tags worked on infrared, so putting them in your pocket would hide them. The people tags had rapid updates (few seconds) and the asset tags seldom updates (minutes). It was a voluntary experiment and I estimate 2/3 of the staff had them. Today I'm a privacy zealot.
I think the idea is to track it when it leaves the building
I don't know. The first thing I thought of when I saw the headline was this guy. I used to think it was funny, but these days I'm getting dangerously close to it myself. if I could just tag all the different power-supplies I have in the house it would be a start. It would be great to go to the hard-drive pile and easily pick out the one that actually corresponds to "used to be stuffed in the beige Sempron box I used as a firewall back in 2005".
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Unlike most of the people posting here, I've been tasked with obtaining an inventory of installed machines at a major transportation company. Here's the real truth: you can never locate / inventory all of the installed machines. The more time and effort you spend the closer you can come to an accurate audit - but you'll never get closer than 90% or so no matter how hard you try.
What never gets considered in these schemes is how often someone moves "their" computer or server to their new location. Joe Blow changes office locations from Peoria to Podunk and he takes his PC, printer, and a few other devices along with him. Maybe his departmental server too - it's so hard to get approval from IT, so just move the stuff and don't say anything. Those RFID tags are short range and won't find anything that's more than 10 feet away.
The joker in the deck is that these unscheduled and unknown moves are taking place all the time - while you're busily auditing, the items you're auditing are getting up and moving around. Each time we audited we'd discover ancient machines in unlikely places that should have been replaced / scrapped years ago. This is just the way things are - auditing IT resources is like nailing jelly to a wall (or herding cats).
When you finally understand this simple truth then you'll realize that there's also no way you can audit or manage software licenses. Not just because of those phantom machines that show up from time to time, but also because of all the employees who bring in a useful program CD from home or download something handy from the internet. You can tell them this isn't permitted - we actually put big red labels on the front of every machine that reminded them that this was prohibited. That didn't slow them down a bit. Keep this in mind next time BSA wants to come audit you...
Umm.. everyone has a tag. So anyone in the room can get out.
And you would not use this control in a hazardous situation without safeties.
Like lock power supplies controlled by fire alarm (or halon release) relay in fail safe mode.
Finally has panic hardware on doors. Press the button and it will open after a short delay, but fixed cameras are trained on the door.
Nothing comes before life safety. Worst case is you lose some equipment.
And we know everyone backs up their systems and tests the backups, right?
I recall reading a more elaborate story (tho thanks for reminding me about the bash.org quote, as i think i read it years ago) where a university had a old Unix server that would happily do its thing, but they had no clue where on campus it was located. End result was that they traced it by following the cabling, and discovering that it was behind a drywall that had been set up when the building was redecorated.
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
When you finally understand this simple truth then you'll realize that there's also no way you can audit or manage software licenses. Not just because of those phantom machines that show up from time to time, but also because of all the employees who bring in a useful program CD from home or download something handy from the internet. You can tell them this isn't permitted - we actually put big red labels on the front of every machine that reminded them that this was prohibited. That didn't slow them down a bit. Keep this in mind next time BSA wants to come audit you...
That's why Ernie Ball won't allow Microsoft products in their offices or factories.
Free Martian Whores!