Automox UUID Generation Guide

Automox uses its own formula to generate and identify devices by generating a fingerprint of a device using these criteria:

const HARDWARE_ID_UUID = 'uuid'; // windows
const HARDWARE_ID_MACHINE_ID = 'machine-id'; // non-windows
const PROCESSOR_HASH = 'processor-hash';
const MEMORY_HASH = 'memory-hash';
const BIOS_HASH = 'bios-hash';
const SYSTEM_HASH = 'system-hash';
const HOSTNAME_INFO = "hostname-info";
const IP_ADDRESS_ID = 'ipaddress-info';
const MAC_ADDR_INFO = 'macaddr-info';
const DISK_INFO = 'disk-info';
const MINIMUM_MATCH_PERCENT = 40;

This set of criteria is what we use to generate an Automox UUID. The last line lists the variable (Minimum_Match_Percent) with the value 40. This means that if two devices have 40% or more matchable variables (meaning they're the same), Automox is not able to tell them apart. However, if the two devices have 39% or less of the same variables, then Automox is able to discern it as a unique device.

What if I have two devices that have the same Automox UUID?

There are multiple ways to address this issue:

• You can, for example, change the hostname.
• You can change the machine-id of the device (see: Linux Devices Share a UUID).
• You can change your BIOS, but this should be done by advanced users as this can have major impacts for the device.

How to see a device's fingerprint

The Automox agent writes the fingerprint to its log every time it generates one at startup, so the easiest and most reliable way to see exactly how Automox is identifying a device is to read it straight from amagent.log:

• Windows: C:\ProgramData\amagent\amagent.log
• macOS and Linux: /var/log/amagent/amagent.log

Look for the line where the agent generated the fingerprint. It contains the same variables listed at the top of this guide (it is a single line; fields may appear in any order):

time=YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.mmmZ level=INFO msg="generated instance fingerprint" uuid="<uuid>" system-hash="<system-hash>" memory-hash="<memory-hash>" processor-hash="<processor-hash>" bios-hash="<bios-hash>" disk-info="<disk-hash>" hostname-info=<hostname> ipaddress-info=<ip-address> macaddr-info=<mac-address> device_uuid=<device-uuid>

To diagnose duplicate or colliding devices, pull the generated instance fingerprint line from each affected device and compare the values. The components that match between the devices are what push them over the match threshold and cause Automox to treat them as one device. The device_uuid also works as a search key in the Device Explorer to confirm which console record a device is resolving to.

If you cannot get onto the endpoint to read the log directly, you can return amagent.log with the Automox Forensics worklet or ask Support to retrieve it. See Retrieving Automox Agent logs.

If a device is missing from the console or its hostname looks wrong because of a fingerprint collision, see My Device Is Missing from the Automox Console.