You can use a property other than computer name. To do this you need to use the “-p” option when you run the tool. Given that you have some many machines with duplicate names you should certainly use caution when using this tool.
-p : Specify a property to be used when identifying duplicate computers instead of computer name. (MAC Address for example)
I had a question regarding -E switch. It says in the ibm site that -E option will not remove the actual data of the computers from the “COMPUTERS” table of DB.
What are my options if i do not want to run -A option. Many of the bigfix clients crash in our environment. So they are not reporting for several days but are completely active(ping).
If i delete all “non-reproting older than x days” for example, that may delete a legitimate computer from the DB. And since the client has crashed for some reason it may not report back till a user reboots (trust me, this happens a lot).
Thus, i only wanted to delete duplicate computers 1st to reduce the workload. It seems, -e -D -E shud have done the trick. However, after reading about -E i am trying to search for alternatives.