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q155344 asked a question.

March 25, 2019 at 7:00 AM
Same computer MULTIPLE unique SNOW ID's HELP
Snow is assigning new unique identifiers every time that a device gets un-quarantined and it also assigns a new unique ID anytime a device falls out of snow and get put back in. If snow is using the following criteria to determine if a device is new why would this be happening?   In Inventory 5, the computer identity is calculated by the Inventory server using the following fields: BIOS serial number BIOS vendor Hostname UniqueID (MachineSID on windows, Serialnumber on macOS and AIX, MachineID on HPUX and HostID on Solaris) Site name These fields are only used for identity if they have a value.   If any two values are different then this will be considered unique and a new record will be created.
  • 22 answers
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  • Portal User

    Hi Andrew, Can you please specify what you referr to when you say Unique Identifier?  There are a few different in Inventory and License Manager, but the primary ones are:  * ClientID is the unique identifier in Snow Inventory, and is also transferred to License Manager as reference.  * ComputerID is the unique identifier in License Manager.  Computers should NOT get a new clientID or ComputerID when they are coming back from Quarantine, it should be the same record in both databases, just a status change in License Manager: active, inactive or quarantined.  Computers WILL have a new clientID AND a new ComputerID  if the computer has been deleted from both databases, and the computer  reports in again later.   The applications do not keep the historical ID data for deleted computers, and will just assign a new ID to any incoming computer that we cannot find in the active, inactive or quarantined computers. 
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    • q155344

      I am referring to the ComputerID that snow is assigning to computers. I cant seem to find any documentation on how this number is generated or if there is any naming convention when assigning a computerID. Is the only solution to the problem enabling HostName only mode? I believe after reading David Hobbs post there is no way to do an inner join of the old device computerID and the devices that would report in with HostName only. I would like to use HostName only mode but if we are going to get duplicates of our 20,000+ machines this will be a mess. 
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      • Portal User

        ComputerID is just a counter. It will get one number higher than the number of the previous highest number. Applying Hostname only should not create duplicates of previous computers anymore. You can verify this by applying hostname only on one computername. Then verify that you dont get duplicates.

        • DavidH

          Hi ‌,  I'm very interested in what you say above, especially the comment: "Applying Hostname only should not create duplicates of previous computers anymore." We switched on hostname only mode with an existing Snow installation, and from that point onwards got duplicates when hardware changes were made to computers.  We were told that's because those machines were already in Snow before hostname only mode was turned on.  We have a ticket open about this, Snow Support were considering writing a script to 'convert' all of our old computers to avoid this problem. I mentioned it here on the community too. Does your comment above mean that this is not an issue anymore?  Perhaps we're waiting for a script that's not needed. Please let me know, it would be very helpful to know!  Thanks. Regards, David
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          • Portal User

            The behavior has changed from when hostname only was introduced. As you understand its not a good situation where you get duplicates. You should not need a script for it anymore. You can verify in the table [AgentIdentityLookup] if there is a version of your computer that looks like "/a/SiteName/computername" Then that rule will hit your hostname only computer. Even if the format in the table AgentIdentityTopological (this is the active successful match) has the normal identification. You can theoretically add more recognition rules to the AgentIdentityLookup for the same AssignedId. That is probably what any script that adds additional recognition would do. You should also note that operatingsystem and isvdi will be deprecated as ways to assign the hostname only rule.
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          • Portal User

            The behavior has changed from when hostname only was introduced. As you understand its not a good situation where you get duplicates. You should not need a script for it anymore. You can verify in the table [AgentIdentityLookup] if there is a version of your computer that looks like "/a/SiteName/computername" Then that rule will hit your hostname only computer. Even if the format in the table AgentIdentityTopological (this is the active successful match) has the normal identification. You can theoretically add more recognition rules to the AgentIdentityLookup for the same AssignedId. That is probably what any script that adds additional recognition would do. You should also note that operatingsystem and isvdi will be deprecated as ways to assign the hostname only rule.
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            • Portal User

              Hi Johan, May i know what version are running on? I'm running on 6.0.4 and still have some issues with HostNameOnly. Case has been raised for months and now I'm waiting for the fix to be released by end of this month. Previously when running on v5.3.0, i have similar issue like  . After upgrade to a later version, we were hit with another issue that caused duplicate Inventory Server and further caused duplication at SLM. I hope you can share, what the difference between your setup and mine.
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              • Portal User

                I have both a inventory 5.4.2 and a 6.0.5 beta. Not a good environment for comparing to yours. In your screendump we can clearly see that snowtest2 has generated an identity without hostname only. The solution to this problem has been released in 5.4.2 and will be in 6.0.5 However make sure that you do not rely on operating system or isVdi to apply hostname only before you update. Because that rule will not apply and you will get the generic identity model. 
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                • Portal User

                  Hi Johan, Yes, i've been informed to take note on the recent changes on HostNameOnly. All these while, since version v5.3.0, i've only been using SiteName, ConfigName and HostName as rule for HostNameOnly mode.  Then again, your previous statement that saying there is no longer issue with HostNameOnly, is kind of misleading and confusing. v6.0.5 not yet publicly released and not all/everyone are running on latest version. Applying Hostname only should not create duplicates of previous computers anymore. You can verify this by applying hostname only on one computername. Then verify that you dont get duplicates. I've tested v5.4.2 on my development environment. It seem the fix is working. Since my production environment is running on v6.0.4, i haven't got the chance to see the result in real production environment. I did not dare to say that there is absolutely no issue would arise from recent fix. This had been proven from our previous experience on upgrading from v5.3 to v5.4. It solve one issue, but creates another.
                  Expand Post

          • q155344

            I too would like to be sure that if we turned this mode on that it would not be an issue. 
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Same computer MULTIPLE unique SNOW ID's HELP