sub LookupServerID
{
    # get the servername that was passed into the function
    my $serverName = shift;

    # build the sql to select the server_id
    my $sql = "select server_id from server_tbl where server_name = '$serverName'"

    # execute the sql with the open $perms_db object
    if ($perms_db->Sql($sql))
    {
        # error during sql!
        print "Error:" . $perms_db->Error() . "\n";

        # return a value anyway and let the caller check for -1 
        return -1;
    }

    # process the result set
    $perms_db->FetchRow();

    # get the first row within the result set
    my(%data) = $perms_db->DataHash();

    # return the server_id to the caller
    return $data{'server_id'};

    # PLEASE NOTE:  this code does not watch out for the case where the server_name does not exist.  you should code for this case.
}