Using just one single command prompt will fetch it for you. If you’re not familiar with command prompts, it is a dos window where you type commands. Below I list below how to start the windows command prompt window as well as the command that will retrieve the serial number.

How to Open Command Prompt:

1. Click the “Start” icon (Windows Icon) in the lower left-hand corner of your screen.
2. In the search field type “cmd” (without the quotes).
3. Hit “Enter” on your keyboard.

Command for finding Dell Service Tag:

1. Type “wmic bios get serialnumber” (without the quotes).
2. Hit “Enter” on your keyboard.

You will see the 3 new lines appear:

Serial Number

44ABCD (example)

C:\Users\UserName>

The line with the numbers and letters is the service tag number, also known as the serial number.

I was futzing about with a “new-old” (Ebay) Dell PowerEdge R905 box (Debian Squeeze of course) earlier today, and happened to notice very odd messages in my kernel log.

Immediately I was flummoxed; until I looked a little closer and realized that it was related to the on-board USB adapters. I knew that absolutely nothing was plugged into the USB ports on the box, so what could it be?

After various Googles I saw people say to set the USB ports in BIOS to Legacy Mode (which my version doesn’t offer), others saying the adapter itself is on the fritz, while others that the cable in use (which none was on my box) has a short.

When all else fails, I always say update the BIOS

So I proceed to the Dell Support site and look up firmware for my particular box, and find low and behold, they want you to use a floppy disk? Yes, it’s been awhile for me. In my days as a professor I had tech people I could layoff such mundane tasks to, but nowadays I have to do such things myself

So I began thinking, surely there must be a better way to update a server’s BIOS than to see if someone still sells floppy disks (using a USB drive immediately came to mind). More searching on Dell’s web site lead me to the Dell OpenManage Toolkit (no thank you), Dell System Build and Update Utility (omg the horror! lol), and a few other nefarious options.

However, after a little more digging the rays of the sun peaked over the horizon with Angels singing, birds chirping, and children frolicking through the fortune of goodwill. What did I find? Let the trumpet fanfare begin!

Libsmbios

As far as I can tell (granted I didn’t do a great deal of digging) it was written by Dell (link), but they certainly do not mention it in an obvious location. So now let me introduce you to the easy way of doing things

Dell PowerEdge Server Bios Upgrade (on Debian-Lenny)

1. Login to your server, and su – to root.

2. run: “aptitude update”

(always update everything beforehand)

3. run: “aptitude safe-upgrade”

4. run: “aptitude install libsmbios-bin”

(retrieve and install the package)

5. run: “getSystemId” (yes capitalize as written!)

(this is a new Libsmbios command)

Here we need to look closely at the output, notice the graphic below.

I’ve highlighted two specific variables that you will want to pay attention to. First is the “System ID.” Most Dell users are accustomed to the Service Tag number (yes, this is an easy way to find your Service Tag instead of trying to get around to the back of your box) serving as their System ID, but in this case, it is manufacturing specific. A way for Dell to refer to the boxes in a simple manner to determine product driver groupings and such.

Now notice that my system ID is 0×0223. This is where it gets a little tricky, and requires manual work on your part. You need to lookup from the Dell Repository, your specific BIOS firmware directory, based upon those numbers. Also, notice this BIOS version, as it will come into play shortly.

From this URL (link):

You will see a large array of directories, don’t let it intimidate you. Notice the graphic below. Only concentrate on the ‘column’ in the directory names that deal with your specific System ID. Then once you find your system, choose the latest BIOS revision. You can see in the graphic where I clicked my version: 4.2.1.

Once you’ve determined your correct directory, click the link, and you will see a small listing of files consisting of the license, release notes (worth a look) and so forth. What you are interested in is the file: bios.hdr

I find it best to maintain a directory of my bios firmware off my home user’s directory. From here we need to download the firmware so we can update it:, so we’ll use the old wget.

6. run: “wget http://linux.dell.com/…” etc.

(use the link to bios.hdr from above)

Now that we have the firmware on the system, let’s install it!

7. run: “modprobe dell_rbu”

(ensure that the device driver is installed)

8. run: “dellBiosUpdate -u -f bios.hdr”

It should run fairly quickly, and your output should end with something stating:

9. run: “reboot” or “shutdown –r now”

(time to reboot your machine!)

10. After everything reboots, verify that the proper BIOS revision is loaded. Notice in the graphic below that in my case, revision 4.2.1 did indeed load!

run: “getSystemId” (yes capitalize as written!)

And that’s all she wrote! Upgrading the BIOS for a Dell PowerEdge server on a Debian Lenny box could not get any simpler! I was so excited that I immediately upgraded the BIOS on my many other boxes, without fail!

Good Luck!

cheers,

–patrick

1. Open an administrative command prompt
2. Locally: Type in wmic csproduct get vendor,name,identifyingnumber and press enter
3. Remotely: From your workstation type in wmic /user:administrator /node:remote-host bios get serialnumber and press enter

You’ll be prompted for the admin password.

The other day I was faced with a simple little issue to solve.  I had the Serial Number/Service Tag for a Dell server but I had no idea where it was physically located nor did I know the name of the server.  This would have not been a problem with our clients because we name our clients the same as the Service Tag.  But, our servers are named differently.

System Center Configuration Manager to the Rescue…Again!

So I decided to use SCCM reporting to solve this problem since SCCM collects all sorts of data anyway.  I created a custom report called Computers with a specific Dell ServiceTag.  The following is the SQL statement that I wrote.

SELECT SYS.Netbios_Name0, SYS.AD_Site_Name0, SYS.Operating_System_Name_and0
FROM v_GS_PC_BIOS BIOS
JOIN v_R_System SYS on SYS.ResourceID = BIOS.ResourceID
WHERE BIOS.SerialNumber0 LIKE @serialNumber
ORDER BY SYS.Netbios_Name0


1. Click the Prompts button and add a prompt property
2. Name: serialNumber and Prompt text: Serial Number
3. Check the Provide a SQL statement box and enter the following:
   
begin
if (@__filterwildcard = '')
select distinct SerialNumber0 from v_GS_PC_BIOS order by SerialNumber0
else
select distinct SerialNumber0 from v_GS_PC_BIOS
WHERE SerialNumber0 like @__filterwildcard
order by SerialNumber0
end


That should do it.

Using the Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC) you can pull this information right from the command prompt. Simply type the following:

wmic bios get serialnumber

You can also do something similar in Linux..  In my case I use Ubuntu and type:

dmidecode -s system-serial-number

Please note that in both systems you may need to elevate your rights to issues these commands.

On Linux –
dmidecode -s system-serial-number

On Windows –
wmic bios get serialnumber

I’m screwed you think? Well, as it turns out, both numbers actually represent the same value. Only one is Base 10 (the Exp Service Code) and the other is Base 36 (the Service Tag). Which means, if I’m froggy enough, I can write a conversion tool that takes one and outputs the other.

Here is my first crude perl version of the code.  This Perl code will take a file full of Service Tags and spit out the Express Service Codes.

USAGE: ./dell_converter.pl mylist

mylist is just a file with a list of Service Tags. Be aware they have to currently be in upper case.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

#——————————————————————
# Written by Richard Hickey
# richard.a.hickey@saic.com
# 5 July 2011
#——————————————————————

#——————————————————————
# This program will take a Dell Service Tag and convert it
# into a Dell Express Service Code.
#
# The Service Tag is a Base 36 copy of a Base 10 Service Express Code
# So Server Exp Code 24692084176 base 10, is Service Tag ABC1234 base 36.
# numbers 0-9 are 0-9. Letters A-Z are 10-36.
#
# Service Tag ABC1234 converts to 22453156048
#     A = 36^6 * 10 = 2176782336 * 10 = 21767823360
#     B = 36^5 * 11 = 60466176 * 11 = 665127936
#     C = 36^4 * 12 = 1679616 * 12 = 20155392
#    1 = 36^3 * 1 = 46656 * 1 = 46656
#    2 = 36^2 * 2 = 1296 * 2 = 2592
#    3 = 36^1 * 3 = 36 * 3 = 108
#    4 = 36^0 * 4 = 1 * 4
#
#    21767823360 + 665127936 + 20155392 + 46656 + 2592 + 108 + 4 = 22453156048
#
# So the Service Express Code for ABC1234 is 22453156048
#
# usage dell_converter.pl myfile <enter>
# myfile is a file with a listing of Service Tag Numbers
#——————————————————————

#——————————————————————
# Read in the file
#——————————————————————
while(<>){
chomp;

#——————————————————————
# Variable initialization
#——————————————————————
my $ServiceTag;my @ServiceTag; # just initializing the arrays
my %value; @value{“0″..”9″,”A”..”Z”} = (0..35); #set each character to it’s value
my $base;my @base = (2176782336,60466176,1679616,46656,1296,36,1); #set each location to a 36base value

#——————————————————————
# Main body of the converter will  make sure the first line matches
# what we expect a service tag to look like and do the conversion
#——————————————————————

if(/^[0-9A-Z]{1,7}$/){           # Make sure the line looks like what we expect for a Service Tag
@ServiceTag = split //;      # split the line into component characters

my $ExpressServiceTag = 0;         # set the Express Service Tag value to zero for each iteration
for (my $i=6; $i>=0;$i–){         # count backwards through the arrays  BEWARE the minus minus, or – -  on the $i– looks like a single – not sure why
$ExpressServiceTag = $ExpressServiceTag + $value{$ServiceTag[$i]} * $base[$i];
}

print “$_ $ExpressServiceTag \n”; # $_ still references the Service Tag that was read in.

}
}

I couldn’t find a Powershell converter for this task on the internet, but lots of VB and JS variants. So I went ahead and made one.

function convertfrom-base36 {

    [CmdletBinding()]
    param ([parameter(valuefrompipeline=$true, HelpMessage="Alphadecimal string to convert")][string]$ToConvert="")
    $CharList = "0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
    $inputarray = $ToConvert.tolower().tochararray()
    [array]::reverse($inputarray)

    [long]$result=0
    $pos=0

    foreach ($c in $inputarray)  {
        $result += $CharList.IndexOf($c) * [long][Math]::Pow(36, $pos)
        $pos++                
    }
    $result


<#
.SYNOPSIS
Converts an alphadecimal (base36) string to a decimal (base10) number.

.DESCRIPTION
Primarily made to convert Dell Service Tags to Dell Express Service Codes, 
this function will convert alphadecimal strings to int64.

Not much (nothing) has been done to validate inputs or catch overflows.

V 1.0 Mirko Schnellbach 10 June 2011

.PARAMETER ToConvert
The alphadecimal string to convert.

.INPUTS
String. The alphadecimal string to convert.

.OUTPUTS
int64. Base10 representation of input.

.LINK
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/my_systems_info/express_service_code?c=us&l=en&s=gen

.EXAMPLE
"BQHW92J" | convertfrom-base36

25546784491

.EXAMPLE
convertfrom-base36 "BQHW92J"

25546784491

#>
}

wmic bios get serialnumber

More info on WMIC can be found here: WMIC – Take Command-line Control over WMI
More WMIC examples can be found here: Examples of WMIC commands for Windows .NET SERVER Family

switch to root level

[server@abc1 ~] # dmidecode | egrep -i “serial|product”

output example:

Product Name: PowerEdge R710
Serial Number: AB8CDE1
……..
Product Name: 0abc13
Serial Number: ..ABC123CDE2345XYZ.
Serial Number: AB23XYZ
Serial Number: Not Specified
Serial Number: Not Specified
Port Type: Serial Port 11204A Compatible
……

Hope this will save your trip to datacentre.

Sh

Reference:  How to Find Dell Service Tag

root@vmhost:~# dmidecode | grep "Serial Number" | head -n1
        Serial Number: DJ6GH3H


SELECT DISTINCT
BIOS.SerialNumber0,
SYS.Netbios_Name0
FROM
dbo.v_GS_PC_BIOS BIOS
INNER JOIN
dbo.v_R_System SYS
ON
BIOS.ResourceID = SYS.ResourceID
WHERE
SYS.Operating_System_Name_and0 LIKE '%Workstation%'
ORDER BY
SYS.Netbios_Name0



# dmidecode -s system-serial-number

The “-s” option didn’t work on the Kernel 2.4-based ESX service console, but this should:


# dmidecode | grep --extended-regexp Serial[[:space:]]Number:[[:space:]]*[A-Z0-9]{7}$ | uniq


Credit to Noah@Noah.org

Anyway, it’s very very simple. All you have to do is install dmidecode (from Alan Cox) with:

FreeBSD

portinstall dmidecode

or whatever manner you use to install FreeBSD’s ports :)

Debian/Ubuntu

apt-get install dmidecode


Gentoo

emerge dmidecode


NOTE: this work as well with HP servers’ serial numbers and, I suppose, with IBM, Sun etc too.

Once installed, all you have to do is execute

# dmidecode -s chassis-serial-number

et voilà, you will get your service tag printed on screen. Moreover if your server is in the datacenter and you cannot remember the exact model

# dmidecode -s system-product-name
PowerEdge 1750

for example.

Just a note: dmidecode is the program used by OCS Inventory client to collect all these data.