Laptop service tags being incorrectly changed by KACE
We've been having an issue where the service tag of a laptop asset is getting changed (incorrectly). When I check the machine, the serial number in the BIOS has not been changed. The agent seems to be pulling the new (and incorrect) service tag from another machine that was or is assigned to the same user, so I end up with 2 assets that have identical service tags (but one of them is wrong).
Any ideas on why this is happening?
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Answers (1)
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Posted by:
chucksteel
7 years ago
Top Answer
My first thought is that you have duplicate KUIDs on your systems. Do you image machines, and if so, do you remove the KUID before creating your image?
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Thanks for answering! Yes, we do image machines. However, KACE is installed during the imaging process, i.e. it's not installed when creating the base image, so it's not duplicated during the process. So I wouldn't imagine that there is a KUID on the image, since Kace isn't installed at that point. (Sorry I'm not super familiar with imaging terms so I hope that makes sense how I'm explaining it.) - neumeg 7 years ago
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KACE stores the KUID either in the registry at HKLM\Software\Dell\KACE, HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Dell\Kace, or in c:\ProgramData\Dell\KACE\kuid.txt. I would check the locations on those machines and double check if they have duplicate KUID values. - chucksteel 7 years ago
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Actually... I think you're on to something. I just tested out deleting the KUIDs on this exact machine (JQH3N32), and after reboot the agent picked up the correct machine name with the correct service tag. However, it also created a completely new entry in our Assets, with just the machine name and an asset tag of 0. It's not associating to the correct Asset entry (I assume because the correct Asset entry has the wrong service tag).
What's the best way to merge these two entries? - neumeg 7 years ago-
Merging assets isn't really possible. It also sounds like you have your computer asset settings set to use computer name and not serial number. That will create a new asset when the machine name is changed. - chucksteel 7 years ago
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Ahh gotcha. Do you know how I would change that setting? This has been driving us crazy for months now. The original staff member that setup Kace isn't here anymore, and I've been the one tasked with figuring all this stuff out. - neumeg 7 years ago
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Assets, Asset Types, Computer. We have our appliance set with the following:
Mapped Inventory Field: BIOS Serial Number
Matching Asset Field: Name
For us, we consider an asset the physical piece of equipment, so this theoretically maintains a better relationship between computers in the inventory and the assets. The biggest issue we see right now with this setup is our dual boot computers end up creating duplicate assets because the appliance creates the asset for each OS that reports to the inventory. - chucksteel 7 years ago
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@chucksteel - THANK YOU SO MUCH. I've been talking with KACE support on the phone for over TWO MONTHS and, aside from being extremely slow, they could not figure this out. You rock!!
If I haven't used up all your goodwill yet, I have a final question.. is there some sort of report that will catch duplicate values in the service tag field? - neumeg 7 years ago-
You should be able to look in the ASSET_HISTORY table to find computers that have changed their serial number. You might even be able to do this with the wizard. That is really what you are looking for in this scenario, I think. I don't have my appliance set to retain service tag in my asset history so I'm not sure what the field will be called. - chucksteel 7 years ago
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Sounds good, I'll look into that. Thanks again for all your help! - neumeg 7 years ago
