How do I change a devices IP Address?

johnbielot9684 · 2010-07-01T06:00:06.000Z

I have a number of devices in inventory where the IP address has changed (DHCP enviornment). When I try to re-scan them, the scan fails. I can find the device’s current IP address by doing an NSLOOKUP, but there does not appear to be a way, at least through the Spiceworks GUI, to change it so that (hopefully) a rescan would work? I’m running Spiceworks v4.7.51900. Scanner sends all data instead of deltas is set to true.

Thanks!

yasaf · 2010-07-01T06:10:22.000Z

Make sure incremental scanning is also disabled and scan speed is set to slow.

franciscan1509 · 2010-07-01T06:25:16.000Z

If you are scanning by IP range, the next scan should pick up the devices at their new IP address. If you are only trying to scan some of the devices on the network, scanning by name is better because the change of IP address will not matter, assuming that DNS is working. If individual IP addresses are the only option, add the new addresses in the scan table and delete the old ones. Then delete the individual devices in the Spiceworks GUI so that they don’t show up as “missing.”

johnbielot9684 · 2010-07-01T08:41:52.000Z

Incremental scanning was disabled and scan speed was set to slow.

johnbielot9684 · 2010-07-01T09:07:26.000Z

I have a scheduled scan by IP Range running every 12 hours.

Here’s an example. I setup PC1 on my local LAN and Spiceworks added it to inventory using an IP address of 192.168.0.100. I then connected to a different LAN segment and it now has an IP of 172.20.20.54. It’s all part of the same Windows network/forest/domain, so the authentication credentials do not need to be changed. This example happened weeks ago. Yet, when I open inventory and look, it has a 192.168… IP. If while in the Inventory details, device summary, rescan, it fails. If I ping it’s IP or DNS name it’s OK.

I have a similar problem with a few HP Procurve network switches. They were setup on one lan segment and added to inventory. They were moved and their management IP changed (on the device), but spiceworks doesn’t find them scanning by IP. If I create a specific scan rule for the device and scan by dns name, it works. It appears that there needs to be a way to either manually change the IP that Spiceworks has in inventory for a device, or a way to make it ‘forget’ the IP associated with a device. I thought that was what disabling incremental scanning and having the scanner send all details, but it appears that is not the case.

johnbielot9684 · 2010-07-08T12:43:10.000Z

I ended up deleting the problem objects and then rescanning. I lost history, but it solved the problem.

larrylloyd3002 · 2010-10-15T02:58:30.000Z

Does anyone else have a more practical answer please?

angussf · 2011-01-18T15:04:13.000Z

You could try the following:

Shut down the Spiceworks service in the Services control panel (or CMD prompt / “net stop spiceworks”).
Back up spiceworks_prod.db from %ProgFiles%\Spiceworks\db
Open spiceworks_prod.db in your favorite SQLite editor – I use the SQLite Database Browser from http://sqlitebrowser.sourceforge.net/
Browse to the “ip_address” field in the “devices” table for the problematic device.
Change the IP address in that field – you’ll have to create a text file with the new IP address and [Import] it if you’re using SQLiteDB.
Save and exit from your editor
Restart Spiceworks from Services (or CMD prompt / “net start spiceworks”)

The device’s IP address should be correct now.

raddish · 2011-02-03T03:52:25.000Z

There really must be a better answer than to delete the device or hand edit the SQL file?!

I have devices that I need the history of, not to mention all the other associated data, and deleting then re-adding the device, just to change the IP address, is a severe handicap.

I will raise a feature request, if one isn’t already on the cards.

angussf · 2011-02-03T17:00:12.000Z

RaddishIoW wrote:

There really must be a better answer than to delete the device or hand edit the SQL file?!

I have devices that I need the history of, not to mention all the other associated data, and deleting then re-adding the device, just to change the IP address, is a severe handicap.

I will raise a feature request, if one isn’t already on the cards.

Agree 110%. Device IPs should be tracked, should be editable by hand, and should be blank if the device is offline. If you find or create a feature request, post its link back here so we can spice it up.

miltonlopez4230 · 2011-08-13T19:40:15.000Z

Agree with the above. There is to room to improve the connection between the inventory UI how devices “behave” in real life.

M.

darius1832 · 2011-08-31T01:20:53.000Z

There is (or was) a setting that would Lock the devices IP address and change the info around the IP address, but never the IP address.

I unfortunately cannot remember its name or where it is.

Basically is ensured that the IP would never change.

FOUND IT

In your Pro settings you need to turn on address to name resolution during scans. This should provide the updates when addresses and names change, and prevent duplicate entries based on DHCP changes within the network.

You can find the setting by going to Settings > Advanced Options > scroll down to the bottom left and click on the link Looking for additional settings?

From within the Pro settings, locate the entry: Resolve all addresses to names when scanning and set it to true.

Note that this setting location may change based on your current version of SW.

Hopefully that helps

justingseiwi · 2011-11-17T12:33:02.000Z

DariusVW,

I made the setting change you recommended and did another scan of the device. The IP address did not update. Did I miss something?

I am looking for a solution for this issue as well. Did anybody else have success with getting devices to update after their IP address changed with DHCP?

Justin

stuartsmith4725 · 2012-03-01T07:40:03.000Z

Has there been any update on this issue? we have noticed with an establishment having around 700+ desktops, and every now and again SW will create a duplicate device entry in the inventory, leaving the original with it’s old IP address. pinging the device to establish the new IP and setting an individual scan on that address sometimes rectifies the error, sometimes not, it would be far simpler to have an editable IP field in the device information. Did anyone put this in as a feature request?

Stuart

dyoung1984 · 2012-05-11T10:04:32.000Z

I also have this issue - if there is a link to a feature request I can spice up - I do not like the “locked” IP address - this messes me up when a machine gets replaced.

Thanks

David

manuelmedina0443 · 2012-06-19T07:58:46.000Z

Same problem, i want to use software for several customers with same ip range. Would be good if could delete the ip address. I need the Software only for inventory of customers hardware…

Thanks

Manu

jasongreb6432 · 2012-07-26T05:55:49.000Z

I find it just silly that since at least 4.7, this is STILL not an option. Rescanning doesn’t work if it isn’t a Windows device or other option. We have devices that don’t have logins or SNMP and we’ve just finished a massive IP address change. Of course, SpiceWorks didn’t update the IP address since they are not in DNS. And we have manually added information to their records, so if Spiceworks picks them up on the new IP and creates a new records, then we have to transfer that information. It just doesn’t make sense.

angussf · 2012-07-26T08:52:41.000Z

Jason5593 wrote:

I find it just silly that since at least 4.7, this is STILL not an option. Rescanning doesn’t work if it isn’t a Windows device or other option. We have devices that don’t have logins or SNMP and we’ve just finished a massive IP address change. Of course, SpiceWorks didn’t update the IP address since they are not in DNS. And we have manually added information to their records, so if Spiceworks picks them up on the new IP and creates a new records, then we have to transfer that information. It just doesn’t make sense.

Why can’t Spiceworks log the MAC address – that at least is a physical property which doesn’t change. Some devices like laptops will have more than one MAC address, just as they can have more than one IP address, so the database needs to support that.

getfuzy · 2012-09-20T11:55:53.000Z

Need to get this in the feature requests, we should be able to manually change an IP assigned to a device, not have to delete, lose history, rescan. Manually being able to would be extremely helpful and then when the next scan runs hopefully it will pick it up and not flag it as an issue.

esniper · 2012-10-17T17:19:42.000Z

OK, I too am joining the ranks of the IP inflicted. I am running an older 5.3 version. Does 6.1 address the IP issue?

If not does anyone have a better solution than manual changes? The reason I ask is one of our major groups just went through a large lab change and I have this problem across 20+ subnets and 2000+ nodes. I am running a central server with 3 remote collectors that report into it for this customer. I will have this problem with our other customers in the near future.

Stop reading here: conversation with myself - (:

------ Why don’t I upgrade?

------- I have 8 sites world wide running Spiceworks with 1 ~ 4 deployments at each site. Some deployments are not just stand alone installs. Some have 3 or 4 systems per deployment to keep up with the load. 1000 - 2000 nodes. I keep them all at the same revision. I will upgrade if it is necessary, but to do so will take a significant amount of time I don’t have.