Question

In SMP 7, some computer resources are merging - sometimes into a single resource even though they have a different computer GUID. This may appear to be a shared guid issue but it is actually different. In this case, it is a 'shared mac address' issue.

Note: This will apply to not just merge issues but will also apply to the createresource process for new client computer resources.

Answer
This problem seems common in Macintosh environment but it may also occurs in Windows or UNIX. Merging of Macintosh resources has been found to occur when Parallels or VMWare fusion is installed on the Macintosh clients. These virtualization applications create interfaces that use identical mac addresses on each host computer. NS merges computers on a variety of data points, including the mac address. Since every host has an identical mac address created by the virtualization application, the resources are merged. This is also referred to as a shared guid situation.

Option 1:

This method is global for all platforms - Windows, Unix, Linux and Macintosh. 

To prevent any resource from merging based on the 'macaddress' resource key, delete the following specific record from "resourcetypemergekey" table. The syntax for this is:

delete from resourcetypemergekey where resourcetypeguid = '493435F7-3B17-4C4C-B07F-C23E7AB7781F' and keyname = 'macaddress' 

Following is a query to view the records in this table for this resource type:

select rtmk.*, rt.name, rt.description
     from resourcetype rt
     join resourcetypemergekey rtmk on rtmk.resourcetypeguid = rt.guid

     where resourcetypeguid = '493435F7-3B17-4C4C-B07F-C23E7AB7781F' 

Note: The resourcekey: "uniqueid", which we create, has also been known to cause unwanted merges. This is likely due to the identical mac addresses. This resourcekey may also need to be removed.  

Option 2:

This may be the more refined option, given that it applies only to mac addresses found in this setting rather than to all mac addresses. 

The coresettings.config file contains pipe-delimited (|) entries of mac addresses to exclude from the merge process. Wildcards can be used in these values.

The coresettings.confg file can be found at: 

7.0:   \Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Config\coresettings.config
7.1:   \ProgramData\Symantec\SMP\Settings\coresettings.config

Here is an example from a 7.1 system. Note the use of wild cards in the mac address values. 

   <customSetting key="InvalidMacAddresses" type="local" value="(01-00-5e.*|00-53-45-00-00-00|00-50-56.*|00-00-0c-07-ac.*|00-00-21-00-00-00|00-00-22-00-00-00)" />

The resolution to this issue is to add the Parallels and Fusion mac address values, listed below, to the "InvalidMacAddresses" entry in the coresettings.config file. Then, save the file and restart the altiris service.

The current known invalid mac addresses are:

    Parallels:   00:1C:42:00:00:08   en2
                      00:1C42:00:00:09    en3
    Fusion:      00:50:56:C0:00:01   vmnet1
                      00:50:56:C0:00:08   vmnet8