System and method for providing a mechanism to virtualize a perpetual, unique system identity on a partitioned computer system

A non-transitory computer readable storage media, having encoded thereon program code, wherein, when the program code is executed by a machine, the machine implements a method for providing a persistent, unique identifier associated with authorizing an operational configuration of a software partition executing within a computing system, the computing system having a server control module, a plurality of cells each having at least one processor, a system ID, a licensing cell serial number, and a list of hardware component serial numbers, the method comprising:

• generating a system ID key based upon the system type, the system ID, and the licensing cell serial number;
• and
• stores the system ID and licensing cell serial number within the server control module when the system type and cell serial number match the system type and a corresponding cell serial number associated with the operational configuration of the computing system;
• installing the software partition within one or more cells, the software partition corresponding to an instance of an operating system executing within the one or more cells;
• installing system ID key information within the server control module, the server control module decrypts the system ID key to extract the system type, the system ID and the licensing cell serial number;
• retrieving the list of hardware component serial numbers currently present within the computing system from the server control module;
• periodically validating permitted operation of the software partition by the software partition during execution of the software partition comparing licensing cell serial number stored within the server control module against the list of present hardware component serial numbers in order to validate the system ID stored within the server control module.