The FlexNet Inventory Agent generates and uses an identifier known as the "AgentID" (or sometimes the "AgentUniqueID") to uniquely identify each device in FlexNet Manager Suite / Flexera One ITAM inventory.

When virtual machines (VMs) are cloned from a master or “golden” image, any AgentID previously generated and stored in the master image may end up being shared by multiple cloned images. This causes inventory collisions, where several devices appear as a single record and overwrite each other’s data.

This article explains why collisions happen and how you can prevent them.

How the agent triggers ID regeneration

The FlexNet Inventory Agent monitors the hardware and virtual environment, and automatically regenerates a new AgentID if it detects any one of the following three types of changes:

• If the Virtual Machine Generation ID is present and changed, and all physical MAC addresses have changed.
• If the VMID is present and changed.
• If all physical MAC addresses have changed.

See FlexNet Inventory Agent Unique Identifier (AgentID) for more details.

The challenge

When a computer image is cloned from a master or "golden" image, several hardware identity keys may be replicated from the master image to the clone. Specifically, the following identifiers are often duplicated:

• BIOS UUID
• Virtual Machine Generation ID
• Physical MAC Address

Because the FlexNet Inventory Agent relies on these specific keys to determine whether it is running on a unique piece of hardware, it cannot always distinguish the clones from each other if these identifiers are not changed.

Functional impact: Inventory collisions

When hardware signatures match, the FlexNet Inventory Agent does not generate a new, unique Agent ID. As a result, when multiple cloned devices generate and upload inventory (NDI) and other types of files, they appear to be from the same device. This results in only the most recently uploaded inventory data being stored and visible in the UI, and usage data gathered from all devices is effectively merged.

Best practice

The following approaches can be considered to mitigate issues caused by AgentID values not being regenerated after an image is cloned.

Ensure hardware properties are updated during cloning

Ensuring at least one of the following values are changed during the cloning process will cause the FlexNet Inventory Agent to generate a new AgentID value the next time it runs after the image is cloned:

• BIOS UUID
• Virtual Machine Generation ID
• Physical MAC Address

As these hardware identifiers are managed at the hypervisor and infrastructure level (such as VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix, or cloud platforms), updating one of the identifiers typically requires technical support from your internal Virtualization or Infrastructure Team.

We recommend collaborating with your Virtualization Administrators to ensure that your VM templates or cloning workflows are configured to trigger a hardware identity refresh. This ensures the FlexNet Inventory Agent can automatically distinguish between clones, preventing inventory collisions and maintaining accurate asset records.

Delete existing AgentID values during cloning

Ensuring any existing AgentID value is deleted during the cloning process will force the agent to generate a new unique AgentID value after cloning.

• On devices running Windows operating systems, the AgentID can be deleted by removing the following registry entry: HLKM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft\AgentUniqueID\AgentUniqueID

• On devices running Unix-like operating systems, the AgentID can be deleted by editing the /var/opt/managesoft/etc/config.ini file and removing the following entry:
  
  [ManageSoft\AgentUniqueID]
AgentUniqueID=...

Install the agent after cloning

Another approach is to avoid installing the FlexNet Inventory Agent in the master image, but instead arrange for it to be installed only after the image has been cloned. That helps to avoid any complexities that might arise from the cloning process.

Disabling the AgentID

Use of the AgentID can be disabled on virtual machines by setting the AgentIDLevel preference to PhysicalOnly or Disabled, as described on the page at FlexNet Inventory Agent Unique Identifier (AgentID).

A drawback of this approach is that the system will fall back to using device domain and hostname details as unique identifiers for device records, but these name details are not always guaranteed to be unique.