Help – All my CE devices have the same SCCM ID!

Yes, this is bad and it happens when all devices have the SCCM client included in the image. Meaning that it was cloned together with the image onto the target device. The device ID normally is generated during setup of the client.

Here is a snippet from the SCCM device manager documentation that helps you out:

 

Alternative unique device ID functionality

All currently available consumer Pocket PC devices support a unique hardware ID that the Device Management Agent uses as the SMS unique identifier, and the device management functionality works as designed.

Certain industrial devices do not report a unique device ID, so multiple devices share the SMS unique identifier, rendering the devices individually unmanageable by SMS. The result is that only a single device discovery data record (DDR) appears in the SMS Administrator console, even though multiple devices are successfully communicating with the SMS device management point.

WORKAROUND: Use alternative Device Client registry settings to change DeviceID behavior. To do this, create a registry script or use other means to change two registry keys on the device as follows:

Create this registry value: HKLM\Comm\ApplicationDownload\SimDeviceID with a type DWORD.

Set the value to one of the following (values 1-3 change the behavior of the Device Client Agent):

Value 0 : Default hardware ID functionality
Value 1 : Generate an ID based on a random numbers.
Value 2 : Generate ID from MAC address, if this fails return ID "NO_MAC_ADDR_DEVICE"
Value 3 : Generate ID from MAC address, if this fails generate an ID based on random numbers.

Set this value as a blank string to trigger the Device Client Agent to reset the DeviceID: HKLM\Comm\ApplicationDownload\DeviceID

These steps can be carried our prior to device installation, or subsequent to Device Client Agent installation, even when the Agent is running. If the Agent is running, then the next HTTP request to the device management point will generate a new device ID. The Device Client Agent will set the new device in the ‘DeviceID’ registry value, and not change this value again.

Caution Use of options 2 or 3, blanking of the device ID and subsequent reset of the device might result in the Device Client Agent being unable to acquire a MAC address because device networking components are still initializing. It is recommended that options 2 or 3 are not used in a reset scenario.

 

 

Alexander