OS4X-ID

The so-called "OS4X-ID" is an installation and hardware dependant hash of your system running OS4X. OS4X needs a valid license which is based on this ID. In order to receive a license, the OS4X-ID is the basis for this encrypted file.

At least, the following parameters are the basis for the OS4X-ID:

• local hostname
• resolved IP address of the local hostname
• MAC address of device which is uses the resolved IP address of the local hostname, or (if not resolvable) the device of the kernel presented as first device, based on TCP/IP, which offers a MAC address
• CPU-ID where applicable

retrieving OS4X-ID via web interface

In the administrative web interface, click in the left menu on "Tools". The OS4X-ID will be displayed in the main screen right under the "backup" options:

If the license file is writable by the web server user, an upload of a valid license is possible via the "choose file" and "upload license" buttons. A pre-check of validity is done before exchanging the license file.

retrieving OS4X-ID via command line

The program "os4xlic" is used for commandline interaction.

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constantly changing OS4X-ID

If your OS4X-ID is changing sometimes and you're really sure you didn't change the machine configuration, you should check that the name resolving works constantly. This can be done by editing the file

/etc/nsswitch.conf

on most Unix systems and the file

/etc/netsvc.conf

on AIX systems.

In order to obtain the same information every time, you should configure the first host name resolving method as "local" and add a static IP address and hostname for your machine to "/etc/hosts". This should fix your problem.

An example for a working entry in the file

/etc/nsswitch.conf

is:

hosts:          files dns

A working AIX configuration file

 /etc/netsvc.conf

is:

hosts = local, bind

In both cases, the local file "/etc/hosts" is asked first, then the configured DNS server. This also speeds up the name resolving mechanism.

AIX licensing

The OS4X ID is obtained in AIX using the following list of devices (first available will be used for MAC address calculation):

• ent0
• ent1
• ent2
• first available other device

If you need a special handling, please contact us.