Patent ID: 7502793

Claim:
A method for assigning a role to a computing device in a network data processing system, the method comprising: providing at least a first physical token, wherein the first physical token includes at least one visible characteristic, wherein the first physical token has role information associated therewith, and wherein the at least one visible characteristic is indicative of at least a first role associated with the first physical token; placing at least the first physical token in a physical relationship with a first computing device; associating the first computing device with the first physical token; receiving, by the first computing device, the role information from the first physical token; responsive to the role information being received, assigning the first role to the first computing device based on the role information; and installing, by the computing device, the first role on a storage of the computing device, wherein the first role comprises a number of bits, wherein the number of bits is associated with the first physical token, and wherein the number of bits distinguishes the first role on the computing device.