How Miradore identifies devices

About

Miradore performs device identification, as described below, only when a Miradore client connects to Miradore server for the first time. In practice, this means after each client installation or re-installation. As a result of the identification, Miradore client's GUID is associated with (a newly generated or existing) asset configuration item in Miradore. After that, Miradore uses the client GUID to identify the device during the following client - server connection sessions.

Device identification during the first connection session

When Miradore is identifying a device and checking whether it already has an Asset configuration item in Miradore, it compares certain attributes of the device to the attributes of existing Asset configuration items in Miradore. Miradore analyzes the following device attributes and compares them to the attributes of Asset configuration items saved in Miradore:

Device name
Serial number
MAC address
DNS domain

Where can I find asset identifiers?

Asset identification information is shown in "Miradore client" table at the Asset configuration item's "Inventory report > Summary" tab. Device inventory field displays some basic information, and it can be clicked to view the full details in a popup window, which also shows the history of changes for the asset identifiers.

Comparison logic and the definition of match

The comparison logic varies a little depending how many of the above-mentioned device attributes are available for Miradore to perform the identification.

If a device belongs to a domain, then Miradore associates the device with an Asset configuration item if at least three of the above mentioned attributes are equal between the device and an asset configuration item.
On the other hand, if a device doesn't belong to a domain, then Miradore associates the device with an Asset configuration item if at least two of the above mentioned attributes are equal between the device and an asset configuration item.

What happens if identification data changes?

It doesn't matter if device identification attributes change if Miradore client remains installed in the device, because Miradore uses a unique Miradore client GUID to identify the device. However, if Miradore clients is reinstalled, then Miradore needs to perform the identification process again. In that case, it will again compare the devices identification attributes to the attributes of asset configuration items stored in Miradore. If a matching asset configuration item is not found, then Miradore generates a new asset configuration item for the device.

Related to

Asset management