6033/6066 (250-0403/0404) Management Support Tools Faxback Doc. # 3548 Five programs are provided which demonstrate and use the management support features of the 6033s/6066d. These utilities are designed to be run from an MS-DOS command prompt (the "C>"). They seem to work under the Windows 3.1 "DOS window" but success is not guaranteed. The first four programs are designed to provide the system administrator with information about the machines connected to a network. The fifth program permits the system BIOS to be updated without having to use a floppy diskette. Note, the BIOS ROM cannot be updated in this manor on the 6033s or 6066d. The following gives a detailed description of each of these programs. The administrator information programs use two features of the 6033s/6066d, the Serial Number and the Asset Tag. The Serial Number is set at the factory and is the same one that appears on the back of the system enclosure. The Asset Tag is left blank. Note: In the setup screen, graphics characters may appear in the Asset Tag field. This indicates the Asset Tag is not set. The asset tag is intended for use by administrators to do equipment tracking, etc. Two of the programs, AT and SNAT, provide the ability to read and modify these values. With AT, you can view the Asset Tag and Serial Number as well as change the Asset Tag. This utility is intended for use by system administrators. With SNAT, you can change both the Asset Tag and the Serial Number. The Serial Number is stored in battery backed-up CMOS RAM and may be lost if the system's battery fails. Otherwise, the Serial Number should not be modified. This utility is intended for use by technical support. Two other programs form a part of what we call the Very Simple Node Monitor. They work together to record and then view some statistics, including the Asset Tag, Serial Number, processor type, and cache status of systems. If used across a network, a database can be built of the assets contained in various 6033s/6066d systems. AT - Asset Tag Utility The Asset Tag is 16 characters long and is intended for use by administrators to mark systems according to whatever requirements they may have. The AT program provides access to the Asset Tag. The asset tag can be viewed in Setup also. AT can be used in 3 ways. AT /? gives information on how to use the program. AT prints the system's Serial Number and Asset Tag. You can save the results to a file by using "AT > file.txt". AT newtag makes the system's Asset Tag "newtag". The new tag can contain anything other than space, "<", ">", or "|". Example: AT GeraldFord would set the Asset Tag to "GeraldFord". The program will also tell you what the old tag was (if there was one). SNAT - Serial Number and Asset Tag Utility The Serial Number is a factory-set value. It is useful when requesting technical support and is a unique way of identifying a system. As noted above, the Serial Number configured at the factory is the "system" or enclosure Serial Number. If the motherboard is moved from one enclosure to another, the Serial Number should be changed. Also, if the CMOS battery fails, the Serial Number will become blank. SNAT provides technicians a way to change the Serial Number and Asset Tag. The Serial Number and asset tag may be viewed in Setup or by using the AT program, above. SNAT can be used in the following ways: SNAT gives a brief summary of how to use the program SNAT A newvalue changes the Asset Tag to newvalue. SNAT S newnumber changes the Serial Number to newnumber. SNAT A newvalue S newnumber changes both the Asset Tag and Serial Number at one time. newvalue and newnumber don't have to be just numbers. You can use any characters except ">", "<", "|", and space. The "A" and the "S" can be upper or lower case. Example: SNAT a Fred's s 012346 sets the Asset Tag to "Fred's" and the Serial Number to "012346". Very Simple Node Monitor (VSNM) VSNM consists of two parts: a recorder and a viewer. The recorder is installed in the log-in scripts of systems to be monitored. The viewer turns the recorded information into a report. The systems are tracked by Serial Number. VSNMREC - Very Simple Node Monitor Recorder VSNMREC records information about a 6033s/6066d system in a database. The proper syntax is as follows: VSNMREC where: is the name of the database. The user must be able to write to the file. In a network environment, this will almost always be a shared network file. is the physical address of the node on the network. is the user's login id. On most systems, this is the sequence of characters the user must type, along with his password, to gain access to the network. is the user's full name. This can be several names (or parts of a name), separated by spaces, or contain other useful information. For Novell NetWare, use, e. g. #VSNMREC q:database.vsn %P_STATION %LOGIN_NAME %FULL_NAME in the login scripts. NetWare will fill in the correct values. VSNMVIEW and VSNMREC aren't very picky about the contents of the last 3 (or more) parameters. As long as they don't contain >, <, or |, it's OK. For other networks, the information provided by NetWare may not be available. It can be installed "manually" instead: VSNMREC q:database.vsn 1234 CalC Calvin Coolidge The Node Id would be "1234". The User Id is "CalC" and the full name is "Calvin Coolidge". VSNMVIEW - Very Simple Node Monitor Viewer Syntax: VSNMVIEW where is the same file name that appears in the VSNMREC lines. The following is an example of a report generated by VSNMVIEW. AST Very Simple Node Monitor (VSNM) Viewer Rel. 1.00. Copyright (C) AST Research, Inc., 1993. All Rights Reserved. VSNMVIEW Report for file "b:database.vsn". Report generated Wed Jan 13 17:08:26 1993 Serial number: PrFv0026, Asset Tag: ABCInc000846. System: AST Premmia. Processor: 486DX2 at 33 MHz (*2 internally). Memory: 8MB RAM, 256KB cache. Revs: BIOS: 1.00. Flash Loader: 1.00. Node: 415253001234. User name: Dan Fortmuller. (DanF) Last modified: Fri Jan 08 16:58:25 1993 Serial number: PrFv0859, Asset Tag: ABCInc000844. System: AST Premmia. Processor: 486DX at 33 MHz. Memory: 4MB RAM, 256KB cache. Revs: BIOS: 1.00. Flash Loader: 1.00. Node: 415253009876. User name: Larry Sheppard. (LarryS) Last modified: Mon Jan 11 9:08:55 1993 The example report describes two systems. The system descriptions are not printed in any particular order. Most of the lines are self-explanatory. The "Serial number" is the system Serial Number as set at the factory or by SNAT (above). The "Asset Tag" can be modified using AT or SNAT above. The processor speed (33 MHZ) is printed before being "doubled" in an e. g. 486DX2. If the speed is doubled, "(*2 internally)" is appended to the end of the processor line. The "Memory:" line only concerns memory on the motherboard (i. e. provided by the integrated SIMMs). The cache size does not include any cache internal to the processor itself. The text in parenthesis on the "User name" line (e. g. "(DanF)") is the user id. The rest of the text on that line ("Dan Fortmuller") is the full name. The "Last modified" line is the last time any of this information changed which is not necessarily the last time the user logged in. To print the results to a printer use, e. g. VSNMVIEW database.vsn >LPT1 To save it as a file so it may be incorporated into a report (created, say, in a word processor): VSNMVIEW database.vsn >file.txt Import the file into your word processor as "ASCII" or "Text". The fifth program permits the system BIOS to be updated without using a floppy diskette. Instead of using a floppy diskette, this program reads a file that contains the new system BIOS and automatically updates the BIOS, beeps a success or failure code and halts the machine. By using this program the system administrator can place a new BIOS file on the network and each user can update the BIOS without having to handle floppy diskettes. DEVICE=UPBIOS.EXE [flags] filename [filename ...] This program is a device driver that will update the BIOS and/or MODULE support code. The program should be executed first in the CONFIG.SYS file. This driver will not take any memory space. The filenames passed to the driver must reside on the users local hard disk. By copying the BIOS image from a network drive to the local hard disk the BIOS updates placed on the network will propagate to the hard disk and then the user will update his BIOS on the next reboot. If an update is necessary, the user will be prompted for a password (either the administrator or user password may be used) then the system will display instructions about what is going on. In about 20 seconds the system will beep twice, indicating the update has been completed and the user may reset the system using the reset button. The following flags may be used to alter the operation of UPBIOS.EXE. /? Display a help message indicate what the command line syntax is. /q[uiet] Display only error messages and prompts. /f[orce] Force an update even if the update is an older revision. But do not do an update if the update is the same as what is running. /n[eed] Display the status of the update, but do not update. This is used as a diagnostic tool to determine why an update is or is not taking place. /h[alt] Halt if the user does not enter the proper password within five tries. This can be used by the system administrator to force the user to update the BIOS before using the system. If the system beeps more than twice after an update, an error has occurred. Example: In CONFIG.SYS Device=C:\BIOSUTIL\UPBIOS.EXE /halt C:\BIOSUTIL\BIOS.NEW (the reset of the config.sys file follows) In AUTOEXEC.BAT or SYSTEM LOGIN SCRIPT COPY N:\UGBIOS\BIOS.NEW C:\BIOSUTIL\BIOS.NEW Disclaimer: Where used (Windows, NetWare, Intel processor names), companies' trademarks are their own. (jjs/all-12/09/94)