Deployment Solution

We recently moved to DS6.9 from DS6.8, this was a new install and not an upgrade. I am finding a lot of computers duplicated in the DS - they mostly appear to be Windows 7 computers but also some XP.

I have found sql query's to search for duplicate's and to remove duplicates (second query has not been tested as yet).

My global settings for Primary lookup key are set to MAC address as we add new computers to the DS with a text file based on MAC address.

Can someone tell me what causes these duplicates and is there a way of preventing it - some computers display 60 or more times.

Thanks, Catherine

My experience with DS has been that computers are sometimes renamed and have been able to exist in the DB with both names even though the MAC address is the key field.

I would approach the problem you describe from the SQL side first.  Backup the DB, then Reindex it.  Finally shrink the DB and take a look.

If there is still a problem, remove the client from one of the machines that shows up multiple times and then manually delete it from the DS console.  Wait an hour and then reinstall the client.  It should only appear one time.

It's been my experience that using the MAC by itself can cause lots of duplications.  A lot of us use more than one PLK.  I've had good luck with just serial numbers, however, it should be noted that you need to keep on your repair techs (i.e. Dell, HP, etc.), if they replace a board, they have to put the s/n back in if you do it that way.

I think once you change your PLK to something in addition to MAC or instead of MAC your problem will get better, you will, however, need to delete the duplicates.

If I use both Serial number and MAC does this mean a new computer would have issues if say the serial number is not known ie in the case of a VM?

It should not pose any issues as VM's will have their own serial number.

We are using DS 6.9 SP2 and use Mac and Serial as Primary lookup keys. We still have this issue on some machines, and the machines with the issues are all laptops. This is only on a few machines, and I have had cases in with Altiris and have not really found out why it still happens from time to time.

Below is from Symantec Support - in our case I think it is due to item number 3, I have checked some of the duplicates and found both aclient and dagent installed. This has happened over time with our move to Windows 7 and images now having the dagent installed. Previously we have had a group policy to deploy aclient and some windows machines have been imaged in the wrong OU getting the aclient install.

There are several causes and remedies for this issue. Please try the following: