Routerboards and Barcodes

Hardware MikroTik hardware general
1

Hi,

Why is the only information available on the barcode on the RB150 the serialnumber? This is of little or no use when deploying houndreds of pre-configured routerboards using a scanner to ensure correct MAC address during the setup…

Is there a “Serialnumber → MAC addresses” table available anywhere or could you consider applying at least one of the MAC adresses on the barcode that is on the bag the Routerboards are shipped in?

This would save us several hours of keying in MAC adresses with all the errors this will result in!

The serialnumber is of little - or absolutely no use as barcode when deploying many many Routerboards…

Cheers

/Niels

2

Granted that MFG should be the place for this… but..

Are you using NetInstall to build the routers ??

Cause I have an idea…

NetInstall knows the device ( I asume it is passed to the netinstall application ?? (or it could be)
I know the list of MAC addresses is known (if they are supported devices)

Here is what I am thinking…

In NetInstall, if the device passes off the device ID to the NetInstall application, (IE unit SN (if in firmware) and MAC addresses. (If SN is not available then scan it into a text box) then the device and NetInstall exchange information about the interfaces (MAC IDs), NetInstall at that point would have all the infromation to create a “birth certificate”
As Wireless drivers arrent loaded durring NetInstall, Provide the MAC as a sticker that can be added to the botom of the case durring installation.

IE:

RouterBoard
MN:5XX
SN:XXXXXXXX
AT:XXXXXXXX (Asset Tag Entered by user)

FirmWare: XXX.XX
Memory: XXXMB

Eth1: 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00 IP: 00.00.00.00 (If assigned by netinstall)
Eth2: 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00 IP: 00.00.00.00 (If assigned by netinstall)
Eth3: 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00 IP: 00.00.00.00 (If assigned by netinstall)

All the above could easaly be barcoded with a barcode font (Many available)
Std barcode formatting is to simply place a “*” at both ends of the barcode. (Group 3 of 9 9The mose std other than UPC))

IE: the barcode for: 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00 would be 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00 that is all it takes..

NetInstall would need to know what devices had what devices (a text file or MDB would solve this)

Anothr idea is to write a small pice of code using the V3 API once the unit is configured to gather the config and print a report.

Things that make you go Hmmmmm..

I have a nice pice of code that captures build information if you need one..
It builds devices by grouping “masters” IE “where do I go into” and the device with the same “goes into” tag as its self is the “root device”.. This lets you create whole systems from the screw up with serial numbers asset tags etc…


Craig

3

Hi Csickles,

I kan see what you mean - to some degree at least - only this is not my problem in this case.

In this specific case, we are building wired internet access to several hundred customers. All of those resceive fiberbased access to the net through a converter into a RB150 that distributes services to IP based telephony and data access.

On the ATA unit (we are using the Sipura/Linksys SPA2102) the WAN MAC address is printed on a barcode label on the unit itself. This allows for scanning the units “ID” (MAC address) barcode into our selfmade deployment application that configures the ATA with all needed information and stores this information in the central Access database.

On the Routerboard however, the only information printet by barcode is the “serialnumber” or whatever. The information does not contain any MAC address of the Board.

This means that when deploying the RB150 unit, we have to use eg. netinstall or in another way obtain the unit’s MAC address and enter this information “by hand” thus enabeling lots and lots of typo errors in this process.

IF the information about the router on the barcode was a MAC address - OR there is a “Serialnumber → MAC addresses assigned” database available, these typos could be omitted by simply scanning the unit’s barcode before Netinstalling it (or API v3 or…)

Without the barcode, we have to rely on attaching a serial cable to each and every board, setting the netboot option in bios, getting the MAC through the Netinstall (or whatever) and first then make the “dedicated” settings for exactly that user by typing the MAC address.

IF the barcode where to display the MAC address, we could simply:

  1. Scan the MAC address to “some application”
  2. Use this information to obtain the correct setup for excactly this routerboard.
  3. Based on the MAC address, register all needed information regarding this router.

A table or database containing the MAC address(es) assigned the Serialnumber on the barcode could do the same trick.

This is NOT a question of lazyness but a “quality of large scale deployment” issue because a barcode would identify the Routerboard uniquely without potential “typos”.

I can see that the “serialnumber” does that too but in our world of TFTP, MAC and IP the MAC address is the only unique number that may logically be used for this issue.

Any advice?

/Niels

4

nisse,

Contact your distributer, they should be able to provide the information you need.. Mikrotik provides all of the info in a nice exportable txt file.

-Gerard

RouterBOARD 133	1	0FFB01C86266	1TL2-FTT	00:0C:42:15:3A:D1/00:0C:42:15:3A:D2/00:0C:42:15:3A:D3
RouterBOARD 133	1	0FFB01CA59B5	G1LT-3TT	00:0C:42:17:01:02/00:0C:42:17:01:03/00:0C:42:17:01:04
RouterBOARD 133	1	0FFB01C8626D	ITL2-FTT	00:0C:42:15:3A:DA/00:0C:42:15:3A:DB/00:0C:42:15:3A:DC
RouterBOARD 133	1	0FFB01CA584E	5W3T-3TT	00:0C:42:17:00:F9/00:0C:42:17:00:FA/00:0C:42:17:00:FB
RouterBOARD 133	1	0FFB01C937F1	BPMV-FTT	00:0C:42:14:6F:46/00:0C:42:14:6F:47/00:0C:42:14:6F:48
RouterBOARD 133	1	0FFB01C937E2	CLMV-FTT	00:0C:42:14:6F:55/00:0C:42:14:6F:56/00:0C:42:14:6F:57
RouterBOARD 133	1	0FFB01C8626A	HTL2-FTT	00:0C:42:15:3A:DD/00:0C:42:15:3A:DE/00:0C:42:15:3A:DF
RouterBOARD 133	1	0FFB01C937F8	HPMV-FTT	00:0C:42:14:6F:4F/00:0C:42:14:6F:50/00:0C:42:14:6F:51
RouterBOARD 133	1	0FFB01C86263	BTL2-FTT	00:0C:42:15:3A:D4/00:0C:42:15:3A:D5/00:0C:42:15:3A:D6
RouterBOARD 133	1	0FFB01C937EF	NPMV-FTT	00:0C:42:14:6F:58/00:0C:42:14:6F:59/00:0C:42:14:6F:5A
RouterBOARD 133	1	0FFB01CA59B2	61LT-3TT	00:0C:42:17:01:05/00:0C:42:17:01:06/00:0C:42:17:01:07
RouterBOARD 133	1	0FFB01C937FB	IPMV-FTT	00:0C:42:14:6F:4C/00:0C:42:14:6F:4D/00:0C:42:14:6F:4E
RouterBOARD 133	1	0FFB01CA584B	1W3T-3TT	00:0C:42:17:00:FC/00:0C:42:17:00:FD/00:0C:42:17:00:FE
5

Thank you very much Gerard.

I have just requested this information from my distributor.

Nevertheless the “primary MAC address” would be handy on a barcode label.

/Niels

6

Nisse..

Do you have access to the database / text file durring the config?

I think the mail serial number is held within the main record.

It looks like the MACs folow in order at the end…

A scan of the SN barcode could be used to pull the main MAC address.

A simple pice of code could import the text file into a DB. from there it is just a simple select statement..

"select MAC1 from tblSN where SN = ‘XXXXXXXX’ " for example..

With a text file like this, you sould be WELL on the way to make this one a slam dunk!!

Craig

7

The VOIP companies have the mac address barcode thing down to a science. Grandstream even puts the mac address barcodes on the outside of the box. Makes our work easy and accurate for keeping track of them as they come in.

You could have a serial program do an “/int ethernet print” to get the mac addresses and parse them out to save typing and typo errors.

Keep in mind users may change mac addresses if they have access to the RB, or want to put in an address cloning router in front of the RB, so don’t use MAC addresses as a main method of security. It doesn’t work for wifi, and it doesn’t work for LAN.