I'm wondering if there is uniqueness of serial number accross hardware manufacturer.
For Mac address it's well know that manufacturer has prefix to ensure uniqueness.
For Motors there is a unique VIN
Is anyone aware of such thing for Servers, Network device, etc. ?
Manufacturers can do whatever they want for the serial number of their end products. Only for something that must interact with other things are there really any registered databases like MAC addresses and USB devices. Otherwise the S/N on a Compaq would resemble a Dell ID. Also, you can probably assume there isn't a standard because of all the issues Microsoft has with that @#% "authentication" of Windows that occurs when hardware changes. It collects a series of ID's to figure out the "home system" and measures a change of a number of components to verify that it's not pirated, and even then where would the ID be kept? BIOS? Changing the motherboard would negate that.
If you have a specific application in mind maybe others could have some suggestions?
Don't expect a unique number across multiple device of multiple brands. I wrote a software/hardware inventory software for a cople of cutomers. My solution was to "sign" with a random string each PC/Server, knowing that if the PC is reformatterd/reinstalled, the signature changes.
I use WMI interface to query the hardware. Many system boards return '00000000' or an empty string when you query the serial number. Some (HP, Compaq, Dell) return the actual serial number, but keep in mind that it can be changed in the BIOS configuration.
And don't expect that MACs are unique. This stopped when it first was possible to change it via software instead of having it hardcoded in the NIC, and it got worse when virtual NICs appeared along with VMWare and co.
Manufacturers can do whatever they want for the serial number of their end products. Only for something that must interact with other things are there really any registered databases like MAC addresses and USB devices. Otherwise the S/N on a Compaq would resemble a Dell ID. Also, you can probably assume there isn't a standard because of all the issues Microsoft has with that @#% "authentication" of Windows that occurs when hardware changes. It collects a series of ID's to figure out the "home system" and measures a change of a number of components to verify that it's not pirated, and even then where would the ID be kept? BIOS? Changing the motherboard would negate that.
If you have a specific application in mind maybe others could have some suggestions?
Don't expect a unique number across multiple device of multiple brands. I wrote a software/hardware inventory software for a cople of cutomers. My solution was to "sign" with a random string each PC/Server, knowing that if the PC is reformatterd/reinstalled, the signature changes.
I use WMI interface to query the hardware. Many system boards return '00000000' or an empty string when you query the serial number. Some (HP, Compaq, Dell) return the actual serial number, but keep in mind that it can be changed in the BIOS configuration.
No.
And don't expect that MACs are unique. This stopped when it first was possible to change it via software instead of having it hardcoded in the NIC, and it got worse when virtual NICs appeared along with VMWare and co.