[geeks] generating unique systemids

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Brian Dunbar <brian.dunbar at liftport.com>
>Date: 2007/08/28 Tue PM 11:07:36 CDT
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] generating unique systemids

<snip>

>At some point you have to trust your customers.
>
>Being treated as a thief is a huge turn-off.  One of our vendors insists
>on putting their keys on a USB dongle because with a software key we
>could (potentially) install a new server and not pay for it.
>
>Which isn't a big deal except this is a specialized print server doing
>print jobs across the world, 24x7.
>
>Part of our disaster recovery plan reads "drive to the data center,
>switch the dongle to the backup server .... ".  Rrrrr.

They make devices to "share" USB peripherals:

http://microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0180968

http://microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0180969

You can control them from a Windows PC, and set which computer has access to the USB device:

Manual: http://www.iogear.com/support/manual/GUBx01_QSG.pdf

Lionel