Overview for Identifying and Cleaning Up Merged Unix, Linux and Mac Resources

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Article ID: 181853

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Updated On:

Products

Management Platform (Formerly known as Notification Server) Notification Server Agent for Macintosh (Altiris) Notification Server Agent for Unix/Linux (Altiris)

Issue/Introduction

Resolution

Merging is based on resource key names and values. Typical causes of merging are:

Common mac addresses from virtualization software or other predefined NICS
DNS cache providing the wrong computer name from stale leases
Common resource key names and values, which are used to identify unique computer resources
Computers with the same hostname, usually from imaging processes
Other causes may exist

Step 1: Identify common resource keyname and keyvalue values on Unix, Linux and Mac managed computers:

Run the following command on two or more computers and compare the name/value pairs. If any name/value pair matches on two or more computers, the computer resources will merge on the NS server.

aex-helper info resource

Sample output:

# aex-helper info resource

Resource GUID: {ECBCB670-E433-4870-8B53-DF6E8266092B}

Resource Type: Computer ({493435F7-3B17-4C4C-B07F-C23E7AB7781F})

Resource keys:

name.domain=mycomputer

name.domain=mycomputer.mydomain

fqdn=mycomputer.mydomain.com

name.domain=mycomputer.mydomain.net

uniqueid=AbxYcJiaO14XeVHrECC+bw==

uniqueid=cDmt/m/pGkOZTo3rg04tQQ==

uniqueid=Ef1aNYVyyvwH1rng9djIOA==

uniqueid=Ghw3+t2d5w8idNkA/haXgQ==

Step 2: Prevent the creation or use of specific resource keys or values:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO21641 - How to exclude or ignore certain "mac address" values as resource keys on the NS
http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO60919 - Configuring the SMP Agent to ignore specific resource keys on Unix, Linux & Macintosh clients
www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO100988 - Merged Computer Resources and DNS Scavenging

Step 3: Cleanup currently merged resources:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO84072 - How to Unmerge and Assign a New Resource Guid to a Unix, Linux or Mac Client Computer