text: Hello. Sorry for posting this multiple times, but I have not found a solution to fix this other than manually editing the database.
  When I re-image a workstation and rescan it using Spiceworks (incremental disabled and push all data, not deltas true), the server name changes to the new name, but the device name remains the same. It is annoying because I do this multiple times a week, and have to manually change it in the db.
  Please help! I love Spiceworks!
  33 Replies
  May 28, 2010 at 3:35 UTC
  akp982 is an IT service provider.
  May 28, 2010 at 3:36 UTC
  Hi Gareth,
  Thanks for creating a new thread for this issue.
  I'm not clear on the difference in the two names you are referring to.
  If a device with the same serial number has a Windows Computer Name change, you can perform a Rescan in Spiceworks and the new name should automatically update the device with the respective serial number.
  Which names are and are not being updated in Spiceworks? Perhaps posting up a screenshot would be helpful.
  May 28, 2010 at 3:42 UTC
  akp982 is an IT service provider.
  walks back into the dark
  May 28, 2010 at 3:46 UTC
  Sure, here is a screenshot. As I've said, I have done many rescans with incramental scanning disabled, but this problem persists on many computers after pushing a new ghost image to them.
  In the screenshot you can see that the server name of the computer has changed correctly, but the name field is old, and this is the name displayed in spiceworks.
  May 28, 2010 at 3:53 UTC
  Andy, I have tried the steps suggested in that post except for disabling collect events. However, I dont feel like this is really a scan issue because the scans are discovering new software changes for the device in question.
  May 28, 2010 at 3:58 UTC
  Try performing a Rescan from the Inventory of an individual device with this problem. The Rescan is always more in depth than scheduled scans are (regardless of settings).
  Just find the device in the Inventory and click the Rescan link/button. If nothing changes use nslookup to confirm the device's forward/reverse lookups are correct.
  - nslookup arbacknurse2182
  - nslookup garethf
  - nslookup <ip of arbacknurse2182>
  - nslookup <ip of garethf, if it still exists>
  Is everything else in Spiceworks updating correctly to correspond with the new image on the device (i.e. software, disk usage, etc.)?
  May 28, 2010 at 4:11 UTC
  I just did a rescan on the individual device, but the name is still old. Just to clarify, arbacknurse2182 was the name of the computer before I re-imaged it. It is now called garethf. However, it is still named arbacknurse2182 in Spiceworks.
  All other information is correct (diskusage, last logon, last reboot, software, etc.)
  All dns records seem to be correct:
  - nslookup arbacknurse2182 - can't find
  - nslookup garethf - 172.20.1.69
  - nslookup <ip of arbacknurse2182>
  - nslookup <ip of garethf, if it still exists> -garethf
  Thanks for looking at this with me.
  May 28, 2010 at 5:17 UTC
  If you delete the device from the Inventory and rescan the network does the device get picked up with the correct name?
  May 28, 2010 at 5:34 UTC
  Yes, it does. I just wanted to avoid doing this if possible.
  Jun 2, 2010 at 3:26 UTC
  This approach probably makes the most sense, don't you think?
  The device itself has had its OS reinstalled, so other than the hardware it is no longer the same device. Deleting it and allowing it to be rescanned in to the Inventory allows the new device's information to come in clean, and also wipes out the old history from the previous OS installation (like disk usage, etc.).
  This would also clean up any related links between the "old" device and Help Desk tickets.
  Jun 3, 2010 at 3:53 UTC
  this has happened to me finally as it has been fine up until now! 1 computer shows same issue as Gareth States..
  It is not a good idea for us to delete the device as we have a need to keep the Ticket History attached to the device regardless of OS reinstall or re-image!
  I have tried all the aforementioned steps also and to no avail! again this is the 1st time it has happened as all other times it has updated successfully both the server name and device name! Could this be due to the new SW versions as I am on the newest!??
  Jun 3, 2010 at 4:17 UTC
  I agree with Kevin, I would rather not have to delete a computer each time i re-image it, but it does solve the problem for now. I would rather keep the notes in there, etc.
  Jun 3, 2010 at 4:30 UTC
  Gareth - I manually updated the Device Name of the laptop I had this issue with -- just hit Edit and updated the "Name" Field - thus I don't have to delete the device at all..
  oddly enough it seemed to forget one of the group exclusions I made for the previous NAMED PC (although other exclusions were still there) to where I just had to re-exclude it from this group that it technically is a part of, I just put it in an unused group while re-imaging for quicker finding of PC's I am rebuilding..
  other than that- the manual name change took just fine and kept all old data!
  hope this gets solved, I will continue watching these types of threads and updating with my findings as we often re-image pc's
  Jun 3, 2010 at 5:50 UTC
  Yea I thought about manually updating the name, but I just like everything to be automatic and easy :)
  I agree, hopefully this does get solved, because I feel that it is a bug. Thanks for all your help guys.
  Jun 4, 2010 at 3:09 UTC
  If I can get some more details from you guys we might be able to add something like this in the future. If there is an easy way to identify when a device has been "imaged" or the OS rebuilt, it might not be too complicated to deal with this type of situation.
  So both of you would like to keep any historical information (i.e. related entries in the Help Desk that point to the device)?
  For example, hardwareA is running with name oldOS. You decide its time to image hardwareA, so you do so and rename the device newOS.
  Now in Spiceworks you want this to happen:
  - On a future scan Spiceworks identifies hardwareA (by its constant serial number) and notices some OS identifier (see below WMIC) has changed.
  - You receive some kind of UI notification "hardwareA has been detected as newOS, and was previously seen as oldOS. Did you rebuild the OS?"
  - You say "Yes, I did rebuild the OS." quietly to yourself.
  - You now click "Yes" on the onscreen notification.
  - Spiceworks proceeds to create an entirely new device for hardwareA, using the new name newOS, whilst keeping oldOS and marking it as "historical" somehow.
  Moving forward oldOS is never updated/changed again, but you are able to delete it at any time. newOS permanently becomes the "device" of choice whenever Spiceworks scans hardwareA.
  Thoughts?
  Could you test this WMIC on a piece of hardware, both before and after "imaging" or rebuilding its OS?
  wmic path win32_operatingsystem get installdate
  Jun 4, 2010 at 3:27 UTC
  Ben.B -this sounds exactly like something that could resolve this issue..
  BTW- I happened to image a desktop (DELL) since my last post/issue and it worked fine just as before whereas it updated the Server and Device Name in SW and still everything is tied to the new device name properly!
  [The difference this time around was that this desktop (updated perfectly) was imaged through WDS using a premade image for that model..
  the laptop previously that didn't update the Device name was imaged from a Dell WinXP Pro SP3 disk and manually installed everything from there..]
  However as stated before neither ways of imaging caused this for me before..
  Also, I thought that not having the old device anymore would be fine but as you describe having the device there and being referenced in that device that it no longer is existing and has since been reinstalled as "newOS" would be nice for seeing what PC's had installed(software history) and how were configured before re-install.. thus we can compare a before and after install (so devices would need to continue to be linked til "oldOS" got deleted!!
  WOW - I am excited for these features already- thanks for the suggestions and for looking into this!
  --this weekend I will
  1. reimage the laptop that didn't auto-update Device name and rename it to see if it doesn't update a second time!
  2. I will then attempt to create a .WIM for it in order to reimage next time through with premade install.. and see if it updates name properly that way!
  3. also, each time I reimage before and after I will test the WMIC you listed and track my results..
  I will hopefully have these done and post findings by next week.
  Jun 8, 2010 at 5:58 UTC
  Again, thanks for helping me with this. Ok, this is very strange. I just tried renaming two computers in Windows and rescanning them manually in Spiceworks. Once again, the server name is changing but not the device name (see attachment).
  The server name changed to arxpspare1328, which is what I renamed the computer to, but the device is still listed under its old name in Spiceworks. This has nothing to do with a new OS, I just renamed the computer in windows, which we do from time to time.
  So how is the 'name' field in the 'devices' table in the db updated? It seems to me that 'server_name' is simply the DNS name, correct?
  Thanks,
  Gareth
  Jun 8, 2010 at 6:39 UTC
  hmmm.. good test Gareth - I haven't gotten to my aforementioned testing yet (which Ben.B's suggested update possibilities still look promising though), I have been pretty swamped with DBase restructuring,
  but anyways that is a very good point, now we know it is no longer the OS rebuild causing that lack of update to the Device name.
  As stated in last post my SW install successfully identified the new name on the next laptop I re-imaged since the issue happened - I will now rename the device and rescan the old device from SW and see if it updates properly as it seems to have reoccurred for you by just simply renaming the PC!
  Jun 9, 2010 at 1:58 UTC
  Update - this seems to be happening more often for us now..
  Server name changing -- now I am being forced to manually change the device name on at least 30 Thin Clients in SW..
  (still working on re-imaging tasks but seems this is taking too much effort to update names manually)
  Jun 16, 2010 at 9:15 UTC
  Let me test this out for you guys - it sounds like we also have a problem updating device names when the Windows name changes.
  Maybe this has really been the issue all along?
  Jun 16, 2010 at 1:45 UTC
  This tested out ok (i.e. both "name" and "servername" updated properly when only the Windows name changed on the device).
  However, Spiceworks had quite a few things at its disposal that you guys may or may not have available to Spiceworks on your networks:
  - DNS forward record updated name properly
  - NetBIOS returns updated name properly
  - LDAP query returns AD listing, including updated name
  In my case the reverse lookup still had the old name, but this didn't prevent Spiceworks from properly updating the name.
  It looks like both of you are having this same problem.
  - Gareth, in your case are these true workstations or thin clients like Burn? Based on your description it sounds like they're standard XP devices.
  Try testing again, and confirm that the forward DNS record, NetBIOS and LDAP are updated properly.
  - Are these devices on your domains?
  - Check the DNS forward/reverse lookup zones for the updated records that reflect the device's new name
  - Use something to check the NetBIOS name
  Lastly, run this wmic to check LDAP:
  wmic /namespace:\\root\directory\ldap path ds_computer get ds_cn,ds_DNSHostName,ds_OperatingSystem,ds_OperatingSystemServicePack,ds_OperatingSystemVersion,ds_distinguishedName
  Jun 16, 2010 at 3:51 UTC
  Thanks for the constant support Ben! I took a while to get to this but here are the tests I have run so far per your suggestion
  it is all in the attached photo..
  (EDIT) for quick reference so you don't have to open photo..
  Imaged laptop with Dell SP3 WinXP disk and installed all drivers…resulting LDAP and install date checks are next
  IT-LOANERLT2 CN=IT-LOANERLT2, CN=Computers, DC=UHC, DC=local
  it-loanerlt2.UHC.local Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 5.1 (2600)
  --------------------------------Install Date: 20100601160657.000000-420
  After name change the above WMIC install date check was the same result…
  Here are the results for the LDAP check after the name change
  IT-LOANERLT CN=IT-LOANERLT, CN=Computers, DC=UHC, DC=local
  it-loanerlt.UHC.local Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 5.1 (2600)
  --------------------NSLOOKUPs
  after name change both Forward lookup and Reverse lookup are showing the right info of IT-LoanerLT and 192.168.100.90
  ---------------------NBLOOKUPs
  after name change-Successful NetBios lookup
  IT-LoanerLT resolved to 192.168.100.90
  Default Server 192.168.100.90
  -------------------
  After all that worked – the Servername updated in SW but the Device name again stayed the same! (all I did was device name change while still on the Domain!)
  Server Name changed on IT-LoanerLT2
  Server Name was it-loanerlt2.uhc.local, now it-loanerlt.uhc.local
  AHHHHH - still not working!!
  NOTE: I accepted that this issue occurred for some thinclients as they aren't full PC's but since for a WinXP SP3 Dell laptop it is reoccurring than something is not working as it should!
  I am willing to reimage the laptop and try again from scratch- but since the name didn't update this way I am not sure it matters much that I continue sine the issue is apparent! I will however do so and check all the same info after full reimage!
  thanks again
  Jun 17, 2010 at 3:07 UTC
  Took a look at this with one of the developers (I was able to reproduce the problem last night).
  You should be able to correct this issue by finding the incorrectly named/old name of the device in the Spiceworks Inventory and delete the Name from the Name field, then Save.
  I will test to confirm that works.
  If you have loads of devices with this problem we can take care of this for you by editing all of the affected entries in the database at once.
  Thanks for all of your help, guys!
  Jun 17, 2010 at 3:16 UTC
  that's fine and all but that requires user intervention, defeats the whole purpose of updating info by scanning! - the problem is that it's a 50/50 thing.. I am quite capable of editing the DB and would definitely appreciate SW's help if it became too abundant in how many machine it occurred on, but again it is about half of devices doing this, PC's/laptops/thin clients and shouldn't require manual changing
  deleting the name is just the same as manually changing it to what it should be which is what I have been doing here and there for 30 items a week or so...
  thanks anyway.. hope this gets fixed in later builds as it is quite a pain!