What is best practice for keeping an accurate K1000 inventory?
Currently we are using computer name and system tag to sort our inventory in Kace 1000 but I wanted to ask what is best practice out there? I have been told that the KUID (kace unique ID) seems to be the way to go but we need to start from scratch with keeping track of these. We have 15000 plus machines. (not including servers.)
Answers (2)
You need to choose something that is unique per machine such as system tag or MAC. The KUID could accidently be duplicated thru imaging if not done properly. Even if OS, image or other software related changes occur the System Tag and Mac will stay with the motherboard.
Comments:
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I agree. Serial number of the system is usually pretty good. You may run into issues with that process as well if you swap hard drives between systems without renaming.
I'm also a fan of naming systems by serial number or something unique to the system instead of something like "Bobs-pc" as serial number will change when you replace computers and "Bobs-pc" likely would not. - jknox 11 years ago
One of the first tasks we perform on our machines when we image them/reimage them, is to change the computer name to match the service tag on the machine. As SMal.tmcc and jknox mentioned the chances of finding a duplicate with this method are relatively small. A benefit we've found is when we're trying to perform remote support we can have our end user locate the service tag and then we know for sure which machine we need to connect to. This label is already affixed to the machine, for the most part unique, and stays with the machine as it's user changes.
An added benefit to this that I've learned along the way... We only manage about 350 nodes total. For the most part I can look at a machine name and tell you what make and model it is based on the tag. This is because our batch orders that we've made on workstations tend to stick to a similar series of service tag. I know if you have 15,000 machines this probably won't work for you, but in smaller shops like mine it can offer some immediate background with the machine in question.
I hope this practice helps you as it has helped us. We've been able to avoid having to use asset tags on our machines to this point using this method. Good luck!
