How Lansweeper uniquely identifies assets

[Lansweeper]

When a network asset is being scanned, Lansweeper needs to determine whether the asset is already present in the Lansweeper database. It does this by comparing some specific data pulled from the asset being scanned with data already present in the database.

This point of comparison is called the "unique key" or "internal ID" of the asset. It's what Lansweeper uses to uniquely identify the asset. 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.

You can see an asset's unique key listed when selecting Edit Asset in the asset's Lansweeper webpage. Keys are stored in the AssetUnique field of the tblAssets database table, though you need to assign an alias to the field to view its data in a report. If no alias is assigned, the report builder automatically converts AssetUnique to an asset name or MAC address.

Depending on the asset type, the unique key is formed differently:

• Windows assets 
• Monitor assets 
• Other non-Windows assets 

Windows assets

The unique key of a Windows computer is formed as follows:

<NetBIOS domain or workgroup name>\<NetBIOS computer name>\1

As a Windows computer's name and domain are used as part of its ID, name or domain/workgroup changes of Windows computers can cause new assets to be generated. You can prevent this behavior by enabling Windows rename detection. In recent Lansweeper releases, this setting is enabled by default.

Monitor assets

When a Windows computer is scanned, Lansweeper automatically creates monitor assets for the monitors attached to the computer.
The unique key of a monitor asset generated by Lansweeper is formed as follows:

Mon:<3-letter monitor manufacturer code>:<monitor serial>

The monitor manufacturer is referenced with a 3-letter code in the monitor's unique key. A list of 3-letter codes and the monitor manufacturers they belong to can be found in this knowledge base article.

Other non-Windows assets

The unique key of other, non-Windows assets can be formed in a number of ways, based on the available data.

As a non-Windows device's name is never used as part of its unique key, name changes of non-Windows devices never cause new assets to be generated.

MAC address

If a MAC address can be found, the unique key is formed as follows:

<MAC address>

If a non-Windows device has multiple MAC addresses, Lansweeper picks one MAC as the unique key. All MAC addresses are expected to be unique, however. Devices that share a MAC are considered to be one and the same and may be merged into a single asset.

IP address

If no MAC address can be found, the unique key is formed as follows:

<IP address>\1

Device ID or UUID

If no MAC address can be found, and the asset is a mobile device, the unique key is formed as follows:

<device ID or UUID>

Manually created assets

If the asset has been manually created without a MAC or IP address, the unique key is formed as follows:

<randomly generated text string>