Asset Review

🔍 Asset review - when two records might be the same thing

FreeITSM matches the machines that report in against the assets it already has, and it was built never to guess. Two assets with the same serial number are never chosen between. A new laptop given an old one's name becomes its own asset. A device a tool reports that matches nothing is never invented. That keeps the records honest, but until now those cases ended in silence or a line in an asset's history, and nobody saw them.

Now they wait in one place for a person to decide. Alongside them come three things that make the records easier to keep straight: merging two records into one without losing anything, protecting a corrected value from being overwritten by the agent, and showing one maker's several spellings as one name.

Requested by @Dr4inder in #200. This is part D of the design.

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🧭 At a glance

	Where	Who
The review list	Assets → Settings → Review	Anyone with the Discovery & reconciliation permission
Merging two assets	A case in the review list → Merge	The same permission
Protecting a value	The padlock beside Name, Manufacturer or Model on any asset	Anyone with access to Assets
One name per maker	Assets → Settings → Discovery & reconciliation → Manufacturer and model names	The Discovery & reconciliation permission

Run Database Verification after upgrading.

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📋 The review list

Assets → Settings → Review lists the open cases for the company you're working in. There are four kinds:

Case	What it means	What you can do
Same serial	Two assets have the same serial number. Usually one machine recorded twice: once by the agent, once by hand or by an import	Merge, Different, Ignore
Name reused	The agent found a machine with a new serial wearing a name an older asset still has. Usually a replacement laptop, which is correct; sometimes the same machine after a motherboard swap	Merge, Different, Ignore
Unknown device	A tool reported a device connected to an asset (see Connected assets), and no asset has its serial	Create, Ignore
Ambiguous device	The same, but more than one asset has that serial. Decide the Same serial case first	Ignore

• Different says they really are two assets. They won't be asked about again.
• Ignore puts it aside without a decision.
• Create adds the unknown device as an asset, with the serial and model the tool reported, and connects it where the tool saw it.
• Switch the list to Decided to see past decisions, who made them, and Reopen any except a merge.

A case that sorts itself out closes on its own. For example, one of the twins is given its real serial, or an asset appears with the unknown device's serial.

An asset in the list says so on its Key info tab (In the review list: Same serial: LAPTOP-0142 (5CG1234XYZ)), with a link to the Review tab.

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🔗 Merging two assets

Merge opens both records side by side. Choose the one to keep. FreeITSM suggests the one that reported most recently.

Everything on the other record moves to the one you keep:

• its history, which ends up together with a line saying what was merged
• tickets, contracts, documents, projects and leases it was on
• who holds it, and its custody log
• connections, both ways, and other assets' custom fields that link to it
• its custom field values
• its inventory: software, drives, network adapters and devices, and each reporting tool's link to it

Where both records have the same thing, such as the same ticket, the same holder or the same custom field, the one you keep wins and nothing is doubled. The kept record's own fields win too, and an empty one is filled from the other: a missing asset tag, warranty date or model, say.

The other record is then removed. What pointed at it still finds the one you kept:

• its printed QR label
• a link to it, from a ticket, an email or a bookmark
• a tool still reporting to its id through the REST API

A merge cannot be undone, and both assets must be in the same company. If both are out on a lease, take one off its lease first.

Which one to keep after a "Name reused" case? If it really is the same machine with a new serial, keep the newer record. It holds the serial the agent now reports, so the agent keeps recognising it.

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🔒 Corrections that stick

The agent and Intune write an asset's name, manufacturer and model on every report. That's right for a machine nobody has touched, and wrong for one somebody corrected: "Hewlett-Packard", typed to match the purchase records, became "HP" again at the next sync, with nothing to show it.

Click the padlock beside one of those fields to protect it:

• No reporting tool overwrites it.
• If a tool reports something different, the asset shows it under the field (The agent reports "HP".) with Release, which lets the tool win again.
• Correcting one of these fields on an asset a tool reports protects it automatically. If your team would rather the tools stay in charge, untick Protect a corrected value under Settings → Discovery & reconciliation.
• Protecting and releasing are written to the asset's history.

The serial number can't be protected. Matching machines depends on it, and a serial frozen against what the machine reports would split it into two assets.

A protected value stops the tools, not people. Someone editing the asset, an integration using the REST API, or a spreadsheet import can still change it.

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🏷️ One name per maker

The same maker arrives spelled several ways: HP, HP Inc., Hewlett-Packard. A dashboard chart by manufacturer then shows three slices for one maker.

Under Settings → Discovery & reconciliation → Manufacturer and model names, choose the name to show for each spelling. The box suggests the names already in use, with how many assets have each. Models work the same way.

The chosen name is used in:

• the table view, its columns and its filters
• the asset list's search (searching "HP" finds the Hewlett-Packard ones)
• dashboard charts by manufacturer or model

Each asset keeps what was reported or typed. Its Key info says Shown as HP under the field, and deleting a line on the settings page undoes it completely. Labels, handover documents and other printouts show the stored value.

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Related

• Connected assets · Inventory freshness · Asset type layouts
• Asset reconciliation - Developer Guide - how matching works
• For developers: Asset review - Developer Guide