Identifying the Uniqueness of Workstations
While performing a scan in AssetExplorer, the criteria that helps to identify the uniqueness of the workstations is in the following order,
- Service Tag
- Workstation Name
With the help of these criteria, AssetExplorer differentiates between workstations and assumes the Service Tag and Workstation Name to be unique for each workstation. If any criteria match for two workstations, then the workstation details will be overwritten.
Note: If a service tag is added to the invalid service tags list, then the machine name alone will be considered for identifying the uniqueness of a machine.
The procedure in which the workstations are overwritten for each criteria are explained below,
Service Tag
Consider two workstations, Machine A and Machine B with similar Service Tag as 12345. The names of the workstations are MachineA.domain.com and MachineB.domain.com respectively. Consider that only Machine A has been scanned by the application. Upon scanning Machine B, since the Service Tag is the same, the workstation details of Machine A will be overwritten by that of Machine B.
The Solution: Configuring Invalid Service Tags
If the Service Tag is not configured properly by the OEM, then many machines would have similar Service Tags. In this case one workstation would be overwritten by another during scan. Such service tags can be ignored during scan by adding them under the Invalid Service Tag list.
This configuration is under Admin tab -> Scan Settings (Discover Settings)->General tab.
Workstation Name
In general, while scanning workstations, the application will first look for Service Tag. If the Service Tag is empty the next parameter i.e., the computer name will be considered and workstations will be overwritten accordingly. Consider the workstation, MachineA.domain.com, is already available in the application. If another machine with same name is scanned then the details in former workstation (MachineA.domain.com) will be replaced by the latter.
Scenarios: When does the machine be renamed with _old
Scenario 1:
When the workstations are swapped in the network.
Consider two workstations, MACHINE-A with service tag ST-1 and MACHINE-B with ST-2. Both the workstations are swapped in the network. On swapping the workstations configurations is, MACHINE-A with ST-2 and MACHINE-B with ST-1. If you scan MACHINE-A, then the workstation MACHINE-B will be overwritten as MACHINE-A and the workstation MACHINE-A will be renamed as MACHINE-A_old. If you scan MACHINE-B again, it will overwrite the MACHINE-A_old as MACHINE-B.
Scenario 2:
The workstation is already discovered with a valid Service Tag but scanned again with a different service tag. In this case AssetExplorer will rename the existing workstation with '_old' and add the machine again with the new Service Tag.
Case 1:
In certain cases, the workstations might be discovered with a valid service tag. But during its life cycle, you might change the motherboard of the workstation, thus changing the service tag. In this case, the existing workstation is renamed with _old and the workstation with the new service tag is added again.
Case 2:
The workstation MACHINE-A with service tag ST-1 is already scanned in the network. Another workstation, MACHINE-A with service tag ST-2 is added to the network. If you scan the workstation MACHINE-A again, it will rename the workstation as MACHINE-A_old and will add the newly added workstation as MACHINE-A.