Duplicate guid (computer-id) NS6

[Migration User]

Hi,

Is there some kind of report which gives you info about clients with the same Guid. Or maybe a sql query to see which clients have the same Guid.

I have a lot of clients which are installed with the same image and they didn't perform a resetguid. This results in clients who aren't checking in anymore because another client with the same guid already did.

Hope for some help!

Thanks in advance.

[Migration User]

Hello again,

I've found this article which is working perfectly showing the duplicate GUID.

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO8090

But the strange thing is when you run the AeXAgentUtil.exe /resetguid the client comes up with the same GUID again, so it isn't solving anything. Anyone ideas?

Cheers!

[Migration User]

it will most likely grab the exact same guid. If you show multiple systems with the same guid, it needs to be run on all of them at roughly the same interval. That way, they will all check back in and get new\different guids. Regardless, at least one of them will get the orginial guid.

[Migration User]

So basically if the clients with the same guid ask for a new guid they will receive a new unique guid?

I found an other way where the clients (with the same guid) reveive an unique guid.

After you delete all the client computers (with the same guid) from NS and that means from every collection whatsoever, then you can perform an /resetguid and the clients get a new/different guid.

[Migration User]

The reset guid actually blanks out the registry keys that contain the guid. Then the clients check in and get a new one (with one of them always getting the old guid). As for your 'solution', I think it is unnecessary, it is the reset guid task that is doing the work. By deleting your systems, you are just losing whatever data was populated.

[KSchroeder]

You may also want to look at the Shared Guid Diagnostics Guide.  It has a whole "kit" for identifying (reporting on) and fixing this issue.  I have had to break this out several times at my company.

[Migration User]

I now its not a perfect solution but this was the only way that is working for me. 

I'm going to test the proces again where I'm going to perform a resetguid at exactly the same time.

[Migration User]

GUID's are assigned based on the combination of computer name and domain name. So if you run the /resetguid on a machine and immediately do a configuration afterwards it will get the same guid (because the machine is still in the ns with his name & domain).

If you schedule the job through a software delivery policy then the machine will get the policy, run the reset guid and the waits until it needs to do it's check for an updated configuration (as set in you agent policy). In that timeframe it's most likely that another machine with that same guid checks in so the first machine disappears from the ns. When the first machine now checks in it's not known to the NS so it will get a new guid. Over time this process will resolve your duplicate guid issue.

[Migration User]

Thanks for the info, sounds convincing :) I'm going to give this option a try using the Reset Guid Task applying to my collections.

Thanks!

[Migration User]

Is this also valid for NS 7, I've used it on NS 6 but I'm not sure if this is working on NS 7 to.

[mgarza896]

I run this script via DS.  It resets the GUID, and then I merge the resources in NS.  I don't remember where I found this script, but I did not come up with it.

<CODE>

'vbscript Change GUID then force client to update configuratin and send basic inventory
Dim WshShell
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell" )
Dim TypeLib, sNewGuid
Set TypeLib = CreateObject("Scriptlet.TypeLib" )
sNewGUID = TypeLib.Guid
Set TypeLib = Nothing
sNewGuid = left(sNewGUID, len(sNewGUID)-2)
' wscript.echo " # Guid Generated " + sNewGuid
WshShell.RegWrite "HKLM\Software\Altiris\Altiris Agent\MachineGuid" ,sNewGuid, "REG_SZ"
WshShell.RegWrite "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Altiris\Client Service\NSMachineGuid" ,sNewGuid, "REG_SZ"
WshShell.RegWrite "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Altiris\eXpress\MachineGuid" ,sNewGuid, "REG_SZ"
WshShell.RegWrite "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Altiris\eXpress\NS Client\MachineGuid" ,sNewGuid, "REG_SZ"
WshShell.RegWrite "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Computing Edge\Notification Server\MachineGuid" ,sNewGuid, "REG_SZ"
 
Dim client
Set client=WScript.CreateObject ("Altiris.AeXNSClient" )
ignoreBlockouts=1
sendIfUnchanged = 1
client.SendBasicInventory sendIfUnchanged, ignoreBlockouts
client.UpdatePolicies ignoreBlockouts

</CODE>

HTH

Marco

[Migration User]

This is what we do in our enviornment...the bad thing is that the you lose all history of the system when you do this, but in our case if two systems have the same GUID, it's more important to get them unique as the history can easily be rebuilt.  One other thing I do in my DS job is to have it stamp the Uninstall registry hive with a note that the GUID was checked to be unique.  I then use a filter to filter out all systems that don't have this check, and then from there I run a checker script which pulls the GUID out of its registry, and uses the ASDK to query the NS server for the workstation name that is on record for that GUID. if it doesn't match, then I reset the GUID to a new one using code like the one found above.