Should I use SerialNumber or MachineName as primary key for computers ?

Stephane_Bouillon

Hi, I'm about to upload a list of Hardware Assets. I seem to recall from a seminar that it's not a good idea to use the machine name as the primary key for HW assets. What is the best practice ?

Geoff_Ross

Hi Stephane,

I would use a guid. IF you are using Asset Excel to import them this is auto generated, if you are using Asset Import, you will need to generate some and paste into your CSV file.

I always use PowerShell to create them

(0..9) |  % {New-Guid}

but there's plenty of online solutions too. For example

https://www.guidgenerator.com/online-guid-generator.aspx

Geoff

damon_mulligan

GUID!

Geoff_Ross

Hi Stephane,

I would use a guid. IF you are using Asset Excel to import them this is auto generated, if you are using Asset Import, you will need to generate some and paste into your CSV file.

I always use PowerShell to create them

(0..9) |  % {New-Guid}

but there's plenty of online solutions too. For example

https://www.guidgenerator.com/online-guid-generator.aspx

Geoff

damon_mulligan

GUID!

Stephane_Bouillon

So the GUID is the primary key, and then machine name and SvcTag are just fields of the HWAsset object, correct ?

damon_mulligan

Correct

Geoff_Ross

Correct

Stephane_Bouillon

What I did was generate a csv file from a list of known machines to obtain the manufacturer, model and SerialNumber and import those with the Asset Import connector

...
loop through IP adresses ...<br id="null">$BIOS = Get-WMIOBject -namespace "root\cimv2" -Class Win32_BIOS -Impersonation 3 -Computername $($ip) -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue<br>$ComputerSystem = Get-WMIOBject -namespace "root\cimv2" -Class Win32_ComputerSystem -Impersonation 3 -Computername $($ip)<br>$Machine = [pscustomobject] @{Machine=$($ComputerSystem.Name);IP=$($ip);SerialNumber=$($BIOS.SerialNumber);Manufacturer=$($BIOS.Manufacturer);Model=$($Computersystem.Model);ID=$(New-Guid)}<br>$Machine | Export-Csv -Path "D:\Processes\Config\POS-Machines.csv" -NoTypeInformation -Append<br>