1. A method comprising: at a master node of a multi-node computing system, the multi-node computing system comprising the master node and a plurality of member nodes: assigning a pre-assimilation value to a hardware instance identifier of a hardware component of a member node before the member node is assimilated into the multi-node computing system, wherein the pre-assimilation value is usable by the master node to assimilate the member node into the multi-node computing system, and wherein the assimilation of the member node into the multi-node computing system corresponds to assigning the member node a position of member node in the multi-node computing system; sending a post-assimilation value to the hardware instance identifier of the hardware component of the member node to transition the member node from a local only mode to a distributed mode and to update the pre-assimilation value with the post-assimilation value by one of: updating at least one of a first translation table of the master node or a second translation table of the member node to indicate that the pre-assimilation value maps to the post-assimilation value; or encoding at least one bit of a member node identifier portion of the hardware instance identifier of the hardware component with the post-assimilation value, wherein the post-assimilation value is usable by the master node to assimilate the member node into the multi-node computing system; and merging data of a database of the member node into a distributed database to assimilate the member node into the multi-node computing system, wherein the distributed database includes data from multiple member nodes of the multi-node computing system.