How Machine ID Accounts are Created in Discovery

The creation and grouping of machine ID accounts using Discovery depends on how machines are organized in the domain and whether the machine ID accounts already exist in the VSA.

  • A single organization is specified for each domain in Discovery. The organization selected determines the organization assigned to newly created machine ID accounts when installed using Discovery.
  • The appropriate hierarchy of machine groups for a new machine ID account are created, if the machine group hierarchy doesn't already exist, matching the machine's location in the OU hierarchy in the domain.
  • Newly created machine ID accounts initially display as "empty" machine ID template accounts—identified with a Word 50% / HTML 50% check-in icon—meaning there is no corresponding agent for this machine ID account.
  • If no agent exists on the domain machine, then a new agent is installed after a reboot of the computer using the newly created machine ID account.
  • If an agent already exists on a managed machine in a different machine group, then Discovery creates an "empty" machine ID template account—identified with a Word 50% / HTML 50% check-in icon—and no agent ever checks in. The new machine ID template account displays a machine.ID / group ID / organization ID based on the computer's canonical name in the Active Directory domain. You can merge these duplicate accounts. The existing, active agent account adopts the name of the new machine ID template account, then the new machine ID template account is deleted. No data is lost by the merge and the machine ID account now matches its location in the domain hierarchy.
  • Select a Duplicate Exists row in the Discovery > Computers page then click the Synchronize Machines button.

    Warning: Use the Synchronize Machines method to merge duplicates rather than merging accounts using Agent > Manage Agents > Rename.