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The Connection Management Tab

In the Connection Management tab you define the default settings for how connections to devices are managed.

Modifying any of these values affects the entire operation of CM . It is therefore strongly recommended to make the definition of these settings part of the initial planning before any deployment to your network. If, however, you execute any changes later on, you must restart the agent service on the master server before launching a network rollout process.

Be very careful when modifying these values after the initial installation and rollout; this can lead to parts of the device population having a different GUID generation which might cause problems in the communication between the database and the agents.

For each device registered in the database a unique identification, called GUID, is created. This unique ID can be generated by using various attributes of a device. If you use several attributes for GUID generation you must however be careful because if the value of one of these attributes changes, the device is considered a new device and will be created as such in the database.

After you defined the unique identification mechanism, it is strongly recommended not to make any modifications, because this could create communication problems between the database and the agents. If you make modifications to it, all new devices will be created according to the new scheme, all already existing devices will update their naming scheme at the next identity upload to the master.

The GUID can be defined through the following attributes. When deciding which attribute(s) to select, ensure that you use at least one which is guaranteed to be unique. Possible values for all of them are Yes, generate GUID through this attribute and No, don't use attribute for generation .

Parameter

Description

Use the host name to uniquely identify device

Defines if the GUID for the device is to be created through its host name. For most companies this attribute would be the most recommended, because in their networks the host names of the clients are in almost all cases unique. If the names are not unique but this option is nevertheless to be used for identification, make sure to select the Complete Name option for the Client Identification Type , otherwise one or more of the devices with the same name cannot be recognized as different clients if you have not activated the following option Allow Duplicate Device Names .

Use host ID to uniquely identify device

Defines if the GUID for the device is to be created by using its host ID. Do not use this option if you do not have a system with exclusively new devices, because this attribute is only unique if the clients have WMI. If the clients do not have WMI the value returned is empty.

Use the NetBIOS name to uniquely identify device

Defines if the GUID for the device is to be created by using its NetBIOS name.

Use the MAC address to uniquely identify device

Defines if the GUID for the device is to be created by using its MAC address. Do not use this option if you switch network cards between devices or you have devices with several network cards.

Use the disk serial number to uniquely identify device

Defines if the GUID for the device is to be created by using the serial number of its hard disk. To not use this attribute if you use ghosts in your network.

Automatically Update Device Name

Defines if the device name is to be automatically updated when it has changed. The default value is Yes . If this functionality is disabled (No ), only the NetBIOS name will be updated to the device's new name if it is changed. This functionality should only be used in environments in which a lot of name changing takes place such as through regular ghosting, to ensure consistency in device tracking and identification as well as reliable queries.

Case of Device Name

Specifies if the names of the devices are to be case sensitive. By default this option is set to Indifferent , indicating that the name will be entered into the database in exactly the way it was entered by the user. If for example, the option Upper Case is selected and the name is entered in a mixture of upper and lower case letters the name will be automatically stored in the database with upper case letters only, and vice versa for the option Lower Case .

Client Identification Type

The value in this field specifies the identification type used when a new client is installed. If the value entered exists already in the database, the client is regarded as an already existing device and will not be added again. The possible types of identification are the following: Complete Name , Host Name , IP Address and NetBIOS Name . If the network names of your clients are not unique and you are using the host name to uniquely identify the devices, this variable must obligatorily be set to Complete Name . Otherwise one or more of the devices might not be recognized as different clients. Also, if you are using a super master architecture this value is strongly recommended to be used, to avoid cases in which two devices could have the same short name in two different sites. In such a case the super master would regard these two devices as one, therefore only store one device and each new upload from one or the other site master will overwrite the previous data in the database

Lost Client after Delay of

Defines the time interval which can elapse after the last update from a client agent before it is declared as lost. The default value is 24 (hours) .

Unit for Lost Client

The value in this field defines the unit for the value defined in the preceding field. Possible values are Seconds , Minutes , Hours , Days and Weeks .

Lost Relay after Delay of

Defines the time interval which can elapse after the last update from a relay agent before it is declared as lost. The default value is 24 (hours) .

Unit for Lost Relay

The value in this field defines the unit for the value defined in the preceding field. Possible values are Seconds , Minutes , Hours , Days and Weeks .

Allow Duplicate Device Names

This option allows you to specify if devices with the same name and IP address are considered as the same device or as different devices. If this option is deactivated, that is, set to No, a second device with the same name and IP address will be considered to be the same device as the first one and thus will update the old data with its new data. If the option is activated, the second device will be created as a new device with the same name as the first suffixed by a number, that is, scotty for the first device, scotty (1) for the second.

Automatic Agent Version Upgrade

Check this box to ensure that the environment's agent are automatically upgraded once the master is upgraded to a new version.

List of banned GUIDs

Allows the administrator to provide a comma separated list of prohibited GUIDs. The Identity module on the devices regulary checks if this list has changed. When a device generates its GUID it verifies that the generated GUID is not part of the list. If this should be the case the GUID generation is cancelled.

 

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