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Registering Your Gear With the Sun Connection Inventory Channel

Tim Smith, August 24, 2007

This Tech Tip explains how to register your hardware and software, or gear, with the Sun Connection Inventory Channel so that you can more fully realize the benefits of its features.

The Sun Connection Inventory Channel

When you register your gear, the Sun Connection Inventory Channel can discover the gear in your environment and collect information about the gear, such as the gear name, release version, host name of the system on which the gear is installed, and other basic gear information. This information is transmitted securely to the Sun Connection Inventory Channel and matched with your Sun online account information. You can then use the Sun Connection Inventory Channel to organize, group, and manage your gear, and keep informed of the latest gear information and updates.

To Discover Your Gear

Registration often requires that Sun Service Tags are embedded in your gear. Service Tags are small software modules (digital identifiers) that are installed in your gear software or firmware to uniquely identify the gear and allow the gear information to be shared over a local network. You can download a service tag package for Solaris 8, 9, or 10 Operating System (Solaris OS). For more information about service tags, see the Sun Service Tag FAQ. Registration and any downloading can all be done in three easy steps.

1. Service tags are embedded in many recent versions of Sun gear. If you want to register Solaris 8, 9, or early versions of Solaris 10 OS, you can download a service tag package for your Solaris OS version. To see if service tags are embedded in your gear, go to Step 2.

   Enable your gear to communicate with the Sun Connection Inventory Channel.

   1. In your Web browser, go to the Sun Connection Inventory Channel at https://sunconnection.sun.com/inventory.

   2. To download the required packages to install Service Tags on your Solaris OS, click Download Service Tags.

2. Discover the gear in your environment.
   1. Click the Discover & Register button.

      The Gear Registration Wizard is displayed.

   2. Identify the location to be scanned for gear by selecting one of the following:

      • Locate Gear on Local Subnet

      • Locate Gear on Other Subnets, Specific Systems or Load Previously Saved Data button. Specify any additional subnets, host names, or IP addresses to scan.

   3. Click Next to bring up a screen that allows you to identify the gear on your specific system or systems.

      The Gear Data screen is displayed.

   4. Review the results of the scan.

      The Gear Data screen displays the hardware and software Service Tags for specific gear. Roll your cursor over gear to view information about an gear. You can also save preferences (location data) of selected gear for future use.

3. Register your gear with Sun.
   1. Click Next to bring up a screen that allows you to log on to or create a Sun account.

      Click one of the following:

      • I already have a Sun Online Account.

      • I don't have a Sun Online Account. Sign me up!

   2. If you have multiple teams, select the team to which you want to register your gear.
   3. Click Next to log in and bring up a screen that allows you to determine which gear to register.
   4. Select and edit the gear data before registration.

      • If desired, enter gear tag data for any Service Tag.

      • Choose to register some or all of the gear by selecting the check boxes in the far right column.

   5. Click View Terms of Use and select the check box if you agree.
   6. Click Next to finish the registration process.

More Information

For more information about Sun Connection, go to the Sun Connection information hub.

To get an inside perspective of Sun Connection, Sun Management Center software, Sun N1 Service Provisioning System, and Sun N1 System Manager, visit the Sun Connection blog. Contributors to this blog include members of the Sun Connection Field Enablement team. The goal of this blog is to share information with customers who either have already implemented or will implement these products in the future. The blog also provides important information about training and other key enablement activities.

Here are additional resources:

• Sun training at http://www.sun.com/training/:

  Sun Update Connection - Enterprise Technical Essentials (WET-1451)

• Support:

  • Sun Services and Solutions
  • SunSolve Online

• Developer forum for Sun Connection

• Sun Product Documentation at http://docs.sun.com:

  Sun Update Connection - Enterprise

• Sun Connection wiki

• Sun.com: Manage Your IT Inventory With Sun Connection

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