iMac 1TB HD recall - check recall status via Extension Attribute

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Hi - first post here - a colleague suggested I make this post as others might find it useful. Apologies if this topic has been covered already, although if it was I missed it when checking the archives.

A short while ago Apple issued a hard drive recall notice for iMacs with a certain 1TB Seagate HD, but (as far as I know) didn't provide precise information on identifying which models were affected beyond some general criteria (sale dates, HD size) and a page where a single serial number at a time could be entered to check recall status. http://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/

I was able to find the HTML query string Apple is using to return the recall status as well as the result code indicating an affected computer ('E03'), and with that was able to make a small script to look up and identify an affected computer.

To use it, create an Extension Attribute (Jss -> Settings -> Inventory Options -> Inventory Collection Preferences -> Extension Attributes -> Add Extension Attribute...) with data type 'Integer' and input type 'Populated by Script', with the following script:

#! /bin/sh
SERIAL=/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | awk '/Serial Number/ {print $NF}'
STATUS=/usr/bin/curl -sk "https://supportform.apple.com/201107/SerialNumberEligibilityAction.do?cb=iMacHDCheck.response&sn=$SERIAL" | /usr/bin/grep -c 'E03'
/bin/echo "<result>$STATUS</result>"

It will return status 1 if the computer is affected by the recall, and 0 if not. A Smart Group can then collect affected machines as they Recon in. In my environment we had about 40 iMacs that appeared to be candidates for the recall, and just two that turned out to be affected.

Hope that's useful!

Regards,

Robin Miller
NYU Langone Medical Center

3 REPLIES 3

ssmurphy
New Contributor III

Thanks for the handy extension attribute. Working great in our environment bad news we have 30+ systems that will need to be repaired.

donmontalvo
Esteemed Contributor III

The original post was from August 2011...does this cover the October 2012 recall too?!

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https://donmontalvo.com

david_yenzer
Contributor II

Thanks for the clear directions! This will enable our first foray into extension attributes to be fairly easy and productive!