About Merging Process, Altiris Agent Resource Keys and Resource Creation in SMP

Products

• IT Management Suite
• Client Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

How does the Merging Process, Altiris Agent Resource Keys and Resource Creation in SMP work?

Environment

ITMS 7.x & 8.x

Resolution

Here is some information to consider in the Merging process:

1. When Machine GUID is reset, the agent will request a new one from the server with help of CreateResource.aspx request.
2. On server side resource merging is performed based on keys: “name.domain”, “fqdn”, “uniqueid” and “macaddress”. So if one of the keys is corresponding to the resource existing on NS, such resources are considered the same.

Key “uniqueid” is generated based on “Computer UUID”+”Base Board Serial Number”+”MAC address”.

Key “macaddress” is not generated by SMA. Most probably created by some plug-ins would generate them.

 

As a result, for example, if you change the MAC and leave the name or change the name and leave the MAC, such resources will match. In order to “show” the resource as a totally new one, need to ensure that there are no identical keys of types listed in point 2 above.

 

Regarding Agent Resource Keys sent to the Server for resource identification:

 

Agent sends resource keys to Server:

• • ""name.domain""  computer name and domain name
  • ""fqdn""  computer fully qualified DNS name
  • ""uniqueid""  unique computer hardware identification string made from combination of Computer UUID, Motherboard Serial Number and Network card MAC address. A single computer can have as many ""uniqueid"" values as many physical NIC are present.

The resources are created in the SMP by the CreateResource.aspx. The URL of this page on a SMP installation is http://localhost/Altiris/NS/Agent/CreateResource.aspx. 

This page is an xml page, it accepts xml as input, either from xml= get parameter, or as post data. It returns an xml fragment as output.

This page is used by the Symantec Management Agent to create the resource in the NS representing the managed client machine.

 

If a resource already exists in the SMP with the specified guid or the specified resource keys then the existing resource will be updated.

 

Note: On (Apple) Mac clients, the 'uniqueid' resource key is based solely on 'mac address' since the other values are blank on mac computers. Therefore, if the 'macaddress' resource key must be excluded, the 'uniqueid' resource key must also be excluded. 

Note: On (Apple) Mac clients, the 'macaddress' resource key is generated by the SMP agent. Run 'aex-helper info resource' to see resource keys generated by the Unix, Linux and Mac SMP agent and their corresponding values.