Duplicate UUIDs problem

BigFix Inventory requires unique virtual machine UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) numbers to calculate the capacity for all virtual machines and to detect virtualization hierarchy. If there are computers with duplicated UUIDs, a message is displayed in the To Do list. The import log also shows a warning about duplicate UUIDs.

Possible root causes

The duplication occurs when incorrect or duplicate UUIDs are assigned to some virtual machines. The problem occurs most frequently on VMware and is usually caused by one of the following reasons:
- Virtual machines are deployed from catalog templates in vCloud Director. By default, such machines are assigned the same BIOS UUID. For more information, see: BIOS UUIDs in vCloud Director are not unique when virtual machines are deployed from catalog templates.
- Virtual machines were cloned without changing their UUIDs. For more information, see: Changing or keeping a UUID for a moved virtual machine.
Duplicates might cause incorrect PVU, RVU, MPAC values because BigFix Inventory cannot create a valid virtualization hierarchy. In duplication, the devices have mixed information and it leads to an incorrect representation of cores and calculation of metrics.

Action: See the documentation for your virtualization type to learn how to assign unique UUIDs to each virtual machine. For information about VMware, see: Editing a virtual machine with a duplicate UUID.bios.

After you fix the issue, wait for the next capacity and VM manager scans and BigFix Inventory data import.
Duplicates come from machines where BigFix client is reinstalled or reset (Data Source Computer ID is different but host names and IP addresses are the same) but the old computers which are no longer valid have not been removed from BigFix console. In such case, software discovery is reported for each of such computers.
Action: Remove the computers which are no longer valid from BigFix console. Wait for the next data import in BigFix Inventory.

After the duplicates are corrected, the related notification is no longer included in the To Do list.