Patent ID: 8239666

Claim:
A system for managing hardware resources, comprising: a computer system including hardware; and a management server computing device; wherein said computer system includes: a first authentication key generation unit implemented at least by the hardware and that detects hardware resources mounted on said computer system and generates authentication keys including attribute information on the detected hardware resources, respectively, each of the authentication keys being for judging whether or not each of the hardware resources is able to be installed in said computer system; a second authentication key generation unit implemented at least by the hardware and that requests said management server to arrange for the hardware resource and transmit an activation key by extracting the authentication key related to the hardware resource having a type instructed by an adding instruction from a system authentication key that is a set of the authentication keys of the hardware resources installed in said computer system, generating an installation authentication key including the attribute information included in the extracted authentication key and transmitting the installation authentication key to said management server; a first additional hardware resource authentication unit implemented at least by the hardware and that judges whether or not a new hardware resource is an unauthorized hardware resource which is not permitted to be installed by comparing the authentication key of said new hardware resource generated by said first authentication key generation unit with the activation key sent from said management server at the time of addition of said new hardware resource; and a second additional hardware resource authentication unit implemented at least by the hardware and that judges whether or not said new hardware resource is an unfitted hardware resource which potentially has a negative effect on said computer system by comparing the installation authentication key generated by said second authentication key generation unit with the activation key sent from said management server at the time of addition of said new hardware resource, and wherein said management server includes: an activation key generation unit that transmits the activation key including the attribute information included in the installation authentication key sent from said computer system, to said computer system.