Asset and Device are not linked (or recommended to link) even though the serial number is the same

[bleepie]

Hello. Most of the times in our FNMS environment devices (All Inventory) and assets (All Assets) are linked automatically because they have the same serial number. Sometimes they do not automatically link but we link them manually through the Inventory Without Assets page because they have a recommended asset link (because of matching serial numbers).

Now, we found a few assets/devices that do have the same serial number, but they do not link. They also do not have a recommended link to each other. Why could this happen? I thought that serial number is the only matching factor required to link.

[mfranz]

The online help gives a potential idea: https://docs.flexera.com/FlexNetManagerSuite2024R1/EN/WebHelp/index.html#topics/Asset-Props-General-Tab.html

It mentions that duplicate serial numbers can interfere with the linking and recommendation process. Could you check if your serial numbers are unique?

[bleepie]

For reference I picked one device that occured only once in "All Inventory" and its serial number does not occur with any other defice meaning there is no duplicate serial number on the device end.

I've also looked for the serial number on the asset side in "All Assets" and only found one which is the asset that belongs to the device. Meaning that there are no duplicate serial numbers on the asset end either.

So the serial numbers are unique.

[adrian_ritz1]

Please check what do you have in asset type and status, there are standard Flexera value, if you import something that is outside of this value, the automatic linkage will not work, as they have unmanaged status.

Like you import device aaa with asset type mobile device instead of laptop, the linkage will not work.

[erwin_lindemann]

Technically, the linking of Inventories to Assets when a new Inventory is created is done using a trigger on the Inventory ([ComplianceComputer_MT]) table.

The name of this trigger is [ComplianceComputerMatchToAssetOnInsert]. As the trigger is implemented in SQL, you can review the code for analyzing which requirements must be met for the Inventory to be linked to an existing asset.

To summarize the algorithm used in case the Inventory is created after the Asset (this analysis is using the trigger code used in FNMS 2024 R1):

• Linking of Inventories to Assets depends on matching serial numbers (SNs)
• Any Virtual Machines (VMs) will be linked to an asset only if the FNMS system setting "Link virtual machine to the same asset as VM host" is NOT set
• Inventories with 'invalid' (blocklisted) or empty serial numbers will not be linked to any Asset
• The Asset 'inventory date' property must be empty or older than the 'inventory date' property of the Inventory
• There are no other existing Inventories with the same serial number (SN)

Basically, you can run/debug the SQL code used in the [ComplianceComputerMatchToAssetOnInsert] trigger for analyzing why certain Inventories and Assets in your system are not linked, despite of having matching serial numbers.