1

I’m having some issues with MAC address searching and hoping that someone might have some insight.

On a daily basis I have a number of “Unknown” devices that are added to my devices inventory and the only information is a serial, IE: 2DDB3DD0D4.

The number however is actually the MAC address of another system, but just missing the two preceeding 0’s. So the address in the above example would be: 002DDB3DD0D4

If I do a search for the MAC address 00:2D:DB:3D:D0:D4, it will actually pull up the “Unknown” Entry and list the “matching” criteria as the MAC address (which it is). However, when I get info on the device, nowhere does it list the MAC address (except improperly in the serial# field as mentioned above). Furthermore the device that the MAC address DOES belong to will NOT show up in any searches, even though when I go to the device details, the MAC is properly listed.

I have tried to figure out why sometimes searching for the MAC address yields no results (even though it is listed on a Device) and I keep getting a number of random “Unknown” devices.

Any help/insight on this would be greatly appreciated!

1 Spice up
2

First, you should resolve the unknowns. (Troubleshooting Spiceworks Inventory Inconsistencies - Spiceworks …)

What happens if you delete the unknown device (serial, IE: 2DDB3DD0D4) and start the search again?

3

I’m telling you I know what the unknowns are, they are the MAC of systems that are already listed in the database (which are listed correctly WITH that MAC)

If I delete them , as I constantly do, they just re-appear, I haven’t been able to narrow down which devices exactly as a search will not find the MAC (which is properly listed on the device). And if I search right after I delete it, it turns up no results (even though it’s listed under the device)

I can start deleting known devices to see if it occurs again, but as I can’t search for systems via the MAC (the “unknown” entries) deleting all entries is clearly not a preferable option, nor is manually going through each one.

let me know if that made sense or if I just confused the matter further.

4

Which version of SW do you have installed?

Do you have a name or IP of the unknown device in the inventory?

Could you provide a screenshot of General Info from this device?

What happen when adding this device manually in another group?

5

I have the latest build of SW installed: Version 4.6.49368

First off, I tried finding an instance to show you by using a report, but when running the report, all devices only report ONE MAC address even though both “network interface” cards are listed. See the following images.

Picture1.png

6

Correctly showing both network interfaces as listed under the device.

Picture2.png

7

Note, as both interfaces are “Reported” as having the same MAC address (from the Ethernet card), if I try to search for the Wireless card “00:1c:b3:bf:d2:3b” It says no results, even though it’s clearly listed on the device.

I couldn’t find an “unknown device” entry for this particular instance as I’d previously deleted most of them, but you can clearly see the issue if I’m searching for a MAC.

8

OK, you are looking for how to handle multihomed devices.

Read more here: Handling Multi-homed devices

Or start a search for similar questions here: http://community.spiceworks.com/search?query=multi+homed+devices