Asset type: Guest or Windows/Linux/etc.

[SilviuTopoloi]

Hello,

Please, can you shed some light with respect to why some of the assets that I scan, using Lansweeper, are discovered and marked as being Guests and other Windows or any other operating system?

The situation applies for the following situation:

- There is a VMWare datacenter and an ESXi server called "abc". Under ESXi server "abc", there are some guests identified. However some of them are really marked as Guests and some of them are marked either: Windows or Linux.  Server "m" is marked as Guest and is a virtual machine under, "abc" and is using Windows Server. Server "n" is marked as Windows and is a virtual machine, under the same "abc" and is using Windows Server.

Basically both of the virtual machines are hosted on the same ESXi server and are using same type of OS. Shouldn't both of the virtual machines be identified as being Guests and marked accordingly?

In addition to that, if I try to edit the virtual machine "n", by changing the asset type from Windows to Guest, the unique ID modifies to being the same with the MAC address. In the same time, after a new scan, a duplicate of the same server "n" is added to the repository, with asset type being Windows. And after a wile, a merge is done between the two recordings and the asset type that remains is the Windows one, basically the one that is scanned takes over and in the end, virtual machine "n" will have asset type Windows and not Guest.

Please, can you help in understanding why is this happening? What would be a problem and a possible solution that I can use in my environment? 

I read a couple of posts, but I don't fully understand what should I do. Is there a problem with the unique ID? With the automatic MAC assignment from VMWare (for the duplicates problem)? 

How does Lansweeper knows when to assign asset type Guest or Windows? Normally Guest is used when a virtual ecosystem is in place and a virtual machine, hosted on an ESXi server, r?

Thank you and looking forward to your help.

Silviu

[ErikT · Accepted solution]

@SilviuTopoloi 

When Lansweeper scans a vCenter or VMware host, it will create assets for all the vm guests on that server and hands these of to the scanning logic and proceeds to scan them.

If the VM guest is scanned successfully, these details are stored in the database and Lansweeper can show them. If the VM guest cannot be scanned successfully, less details are available to show. 

[SilviuTopoloi]

Hi Erik,

I understand. Initially they are Guest. If the scan is successful and more info is found then the asset type will be defined based on the information found: Windows, Linux, etc. If not, it will remain as Guest.

Indeed in my situation, the server having asset type Guest, has less information then the other one, that is marked as being Windows (for the asset type).

Thank you for your response. Appreciate it.

May I ask one more thing?

There are a lot of duplicates in my environment and based on what I read on the community and your input, this issues might relate to the following:

- Problems at scanning. However, servers should have been merged to only one, based on the last findings, if the unique ID was ok, right?

- MAC addresses and/or IP addresses changed.

- automatic assignment of MAC address on the VMWare environment. Can this be a source of problems?

For example I have 1 ESXi server, that is doubled. The name is the same for the same 2 entries, however, both the MAC and IP are different. In other situations, for a pair of servers, that have the same name: they have the same IP, but one of them has a MAC address and the other does not. And so it goes.

Where should we look into? Should we send an e-mail to support? Because until now, no one has been able to figure it out...

Thank you,

Silviu

[ErikT]

@SilviuTopoloi 

If the unique key of the asset being scanned matches the unique key of an asset already present in the database, the existing asset page is updated with information pulled from the asset being scanned. If the unique key of the asset being scanned does not match any unique key already present in the database, a new asset page is generated for the asset being scanned.

More information on how Lansweeper uniquely identifies assets can be found in How Lansweeper uniquely identifies assets 

The VMWare severs should be all scanned successfully and if the unique id is matching these will be merged into one asset in the database. 

The duplication could also be created if a device is being targeted by different scanning targets and only one of these scanning targets has the required credentials to successfully scan the device.

[SilviuTopoloi]

Thank you very much Erik. Appreciate your time and help.

I have shared with the team, your output and see how it goes. I am an enterprise architect and tried to investigate the problem and help the Lansweeper team. Also told them that maybe is good to open a ticket to support. We will see.

Have a great day,

Silviu