KACE Product Support : K1000 Newbie here: After an asset is renamed, how do you locate the asset via service tag in the machine table?

K1000 Newbie here: After an asset is renamed, how do you locate the asset via service tag in the machine table?

I'm not even sure if I'm asking this question the right way. Basically I have an asset from the ASSET table with ID 188. I cannot link this ID with anything in another table to find the original service tag ID. I'm fairly new to K1000 and any help would be appreciated. I've located the original order number but unfortunately so many laptops were ordered on that day, I can't narrow down which one is the one I'm looking for. I feel like I've searched and searched for answers but there may not even be a way to do what I want.

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Cant you search the tag number in the device page.
Searching with the tag number will bring up the machine name.
is the machine connected to the k1000. does it have an agent on it?
You need to be more specific. - akmagnum 7 years ago
- I'm trying to find the tag number. I don't know what it is. What is an agent? Is that the person assigned to it? - ccorey 7 years ago

Answers (1)

Posted by: chucksteel 7 years ago

So, there are a few things going on here that you should know.

First, the ASSET table contains basic information on all assets in the database, regardless of type. The computer asset type ID should be 5 so if this is a computer then that will be the value in the ASSET_TYPE_ID column.

Next you should check your asset type matching settings for the computer asset type. In the admin console browse to Assets, Asset Type, Computer. Check the settings for Matched Inventory Field and Matching Asset Field. In our environment those are BIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER and NAME, this matches the computer serial numbers to the name of the asset. If that is how your environment is setup then your asset names should be serial numbers (what you might be calling service tag ID).

Once you know how you are matching the fields you know how to relate assets in the ASSET table to computers in the MACHINE table.

The other possibility here is that what you are calling "Service Tag ID" is a custom field in your computer asset type. If that is the case, then that data will be in the ASSET_DATA_5 table (for computers). You can find the field ID in the ASSET_FIELD_DEFINITION table.

Hopefully this is enough to get you started on finding what you need.

Comments:

Thanks for the reply. I found out that the Mapped Inventory Field was Login User and the Matching Asset Field was Name. I realized this was causing some problems so I changed Mapped Inventory Field to BIOS Serial Number and Matching Asset Field to Serial Number. I followed this guide https://documents.software.dell.com/kace-k1000/6.3/administrator-guide/getting-started-with-the-k1000-systems-management-appliance/configuring-assets/adding-and-customizing-asset-types-and-maintaining-asset-information/customizing-asset-types/example-add-custom-fields-to-the-device-asset-type. What I think will happen is that any new computer asset will now include the BIOS information, but so far no previous computer assets have been updated to include this information. Am I on the right track? - ccorey 7 years ago
- Yes, machines should update this when they update their inventory. You should be able to test this by selecting a computer in the Inventory and forcing it to update. At the bottom of the device's inventory page there is an Asset Information section that will show data from the linked asset. - chucksteel 7 years ago
  - Ok I really appreciate your help! I have another question. I'm looking on the asset page and I'm wondering how does an asset gets its name? I'm talking about the computer assets. What I think happened is prior to me changing the mapped inventory field, the asset got its name from the user login. If so, the asset name prior to me making that change is unreliable. - ccorey 7 years ago
  - Your previous settings were Login User matched to Name, so when the K1000 created new assets it named them accordingly. - chucksteel 7 years ago
  - So if I changed my fields to Bios and Serial number, how will it name them now? - ccorey 7 years ago
  - I'm not sure, but if you can add a test machine to your environment I would be interested in knowing what you find. - chucksteel 7 years ago
  - Finally got the opportunity to test the change and the asset name now matches what we name the computer. We don't have to populate that field, K1000 does it automatically. - ccorey 7 years ago
Actually maybe you could help me with a separate question. To give you some background, I joined our IT department 3 months ago with no experience in IT (I'm the administrative assistant) but I am so interested in databases. I've been learning SQL, made a couple ticket rules, processes, and am generally trying to improve the K1000 system as we are not utilizing its full potential. Our Asset Types are basically just "Computer" and "Switch". I think we could expand this a great deal to include much more. My ideas so far are Network Printers, Departments, Buildings, SSL Certificates, Warranties, Website Domains, basically every asset of the company regardless of affiliation to Dell. Right now this information resides in a master spreadsheet, but it would be awesome to add it to the K1000 database for queries. Does this sound like a good idea? - ccorey 7 years ago
- Yes, I think this is a good idea. One of the advantages of using the K1000 as a general database is that it is accessible via other database tools. That means you can build reports using other tools if necessary and possibly link to other databases for even more complex reporting. - chucksteel 7 years ago

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