Did you know? 2D barcodes on System x servers

Have you noticed that on the front of our System x M5 servers, we provide a small barcode. Here's a photo of the barcode on the front of the System x3650 M5.

The barcode isn't the typical two-dimensional matrix barcodes you may have seen such as QRcode. This style is a Data Matrix barcode. You'll probably find an app for your smartphone that will read Data Matrix codes.

So what can you do with this? Scanning this code returns the following as a text string:

[)>06 31P5462AC1 S06BNFZL 3V000435

The text string is actually formatted to the ISO/IEC 15434 Barcode Specifications which is a specification and syntax for automatic identification and data capture techniques.

The string contains three pieces of information that very useful when doing an inventory of your computer room:

• Machine type (4 chars) and model (3 chars), prefixed by “31P”: 5462AC2 in our example
• Serial number, prefixed by “S”: 06BNFZL in our example
• Enterprise Identifier, prefixed by “3V”: 000435 in our example

The 4-digit machine type and serial number together are unique. The Enterprise Identifier (EID) is 000435 for all Lenovo System x systems.

Basically, you can use this barcode to retrieve the asset information, without having to type anything in, and the scanned string is in an internationally recognized syntax, which means you'll be able to use just about any inventory management application.

A second barcode on our servers is located on the service label. The service label contains a lot of useful parts and service information, and also includes a two-dimensional barcode, this time a QRcode barcode. Here’s the one on the lid of the x3650 M5 server:

Scanning this barcode results in a URL that provides additional service information. You’ll get access to additional content including a parts list and a link to service videos. In the photo above, the URL you get when you scan the barcode is:

http://ibm.co/WgqxvF

This URL resolves to:

https://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/mobile_qr?qr=5462&fi=5475549

Which gives you this page on a smartphone:

So there you have it, two barcodes on System x servers that you may not have noticed before but provide an easy way to do asset inventory and to find out more information about your server.