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Hello,



I am working on an integration between casper and our IT Asset management system (servicenow).
I was able to query the computer reports resource url to pull in data, this is working great!



We were planning on using the Serial Number as the unique identifier for the system to recognize whether to create a new record or update a record. However, I noticed that the Serial Number is blank for a subset of computers.



Question: Will the JSS Computer ID be sufficient as a truly unique identifier across the casper system?



Also, does the Computer ID get re-generated when a computer is re-imaged? That is the current issue we are having with the SCCM integration, basically the “unique” ID in SCCM is re-generated any time the computer is imaged, so this means duplicates are created after a computer is re-imaged.



Would anyone have any ideas on how to solve the unique ID issue?



Thanks!

The JSS Computer ID will be unique across all Macs in a single JSS. No 2 machines would have the same ID unless your database is pretty messed up.



They also never get reused to my knowledge. Meaning if you have 250 Macs in the JSS, and computer ID 100 is deleted, the next enrolled Mac takes ID 251, not the now available ID 100.



In short, I'd say using the JSS ID is about as good a unique identifier you can get.



Hope that helps.



EDIT: Forgot to add that, the ID stays with the Mac through re-images as well. The reason is, Casper uses the UUID from the Mac to know if it's already in the system. So even if the OS gets totally wiped and reloaded, it will see it's the same piece of hardware upon enrollment and assign it back to that same record. Only if the original record in the JSS gets deleted as part of s special reimaging task would that present a problem for you.
Another case is hardware repairs. If the mobo on the Mac gets replaced, it needs to be re-enrolled as if it was a new piece of hardware. It won't pair up with its old record when it gets reconnected to the network.

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