vCenter 6.5 known issue with duplicate serial numbers - how do others handle this issue?

[Ralph_Crowley]

We have a major issue in our environment of vms missing host relationships due to a known issue with vCenter 6.5 having duplicate serial numbers for esx hosts. Having our infrastructure team manually create unique serial numbers isn't really viable, so I'm curious how other FlexNet customers are handling this situation in their environment.

[kclausen]

@Ralph_Crowley  - Can you provide more context around the "known issue" with vCenter 6.5 having duplicate serial numbers for ESX Hosts?  I have not really encountered/seen this.  

[Ralph_Crowley]

ESX hosts within the same vcenter can have duplicate serial numbers, especially if cloned or vmotioned. I'm working with Flexera support & they state this is root cause why our vms missing host information.

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/esxi-host-serial-number/m-p/2760612

[Ralph_Crowley]

Support's response is that since this is a known issue, I should post up here to ask how other customers are handling the situation

[dbeckner]

@Ralph_Crowley Did you find a resolution? I am seeing a bunch of ESXI hosts with duplicate serial numbers and we have about 1600 VMs that can't be linked to a host.