Overview

When you clone VMs or deploy machines from a golden image, the clones can end up sharing one agent identity. Liongard then treats them as a single agent: the agent record flips between hostnames, IP addresses, and versions, Inspectors run on whichever machine checked in last, and the other machines never show up at all.

Duplicate Agent Detection and Auto Resolve closes that gap. Liongard watches agent check-ins, flags any agent that more than one machine is reporting as, shows you the evidence, and lets you split the machines into their own agents in a few clicks. No support ticket, no wrapper script, and no changes to the operating system's machine ID.

• How agent identity works
• How detection works
• Find duplicate agents
• Review the evidence
• Resolve duplicates with Auto Resolve
• Finish setting up the new agents
• Designate a Golden Image
• Prepare a machine image
• Activity log events
• FAQ

How agent identity works

Starting with Agent 5.5.0, every fresh install gets its own Liongard-managed identity instead of reusing the operating system's machine ID. Machines cloned before the agent was installed now register as separate agents automatically.

The identity survives an uninstall, so reinstalling the agent on the same machine into the same Environment reconnects it to the same agent record. Liongard never changes /etc/machine-id or the Windows MachineGuid.

Duplicates can still happen when a machine image is captured with the agent already installed, or when identities collided on Agent 5.4.x and earlier. Detection and Auto Resolve handle those cases.

How detection works

Each time an agent checks in, Liongard confirms that the check-in came from the same machine as the last one. When two or more machines share one identity, their check-ins conflict, and Liongard flags the agent as a suspected duplicate.

• Detection needs the machines sharing the identity to be online and checking in at the same time, typically for 10 to 20 minutes.
• A flag clears when an Auto Resolve round completes, when the identity is designated as a Golden Image, or on its own after 72 hours with no new evidence. Disarming Auto Resolve does not clear a flag.

Find duplicate agents

Go to Admin > Agents.

• Duplicate IDs card: shows how many agents are flagged. It's green at 0 and orange otherwise. Click it to filter the list to flagged agents (filter chip Duplicates: Matches 'Yes').
• Duplicates column (Self-Managed tab): shows one of three statuses for each agent.

Review the evidence

Click the agent's name to open it. A flagged agent shows a warning banner:

More than one machine appears to be reporting as this agent — strong evidence, not proof.

Click Show more to open the Duplicate Identity window. It lists the agent's identity, the hostnames and IP addresses Liongard has seen, when the evidence started, when the agent was flagged, and what triggered detection. Use the hostnames and IP addresses to confirm that these really are different machines before you act.

The Agent Details section also gains five rows:

Resolve duplicates with Auto Resolve

Auto Resolve tells every machine sharing the identity, except one, to re-enroll as its own new agent.

1. Open the flagged agent.
2. Click Auto Resolve in the warning banner or in the header toolbar.
3. Read the confirmation, then click Arm Auto Resolve. You'll see an Auto Resolve armed confirmation, the banner changes to Auto Resolve is armed., and the agent's Duplicates status changes to Resolving.
4. On each machine's next check-in, the extra machines re-enroll as new agents named {Agent Name} (1), {Agent Name} (2), and so on, in the same Environment. The original agent's Agents Regenerated row links to each new agent.

What happens while Auto Resolve is armed

• The arm lasts 7 days. Each machine has to check in during that time to be moved.
• Liongard moves one fewer machine than the number of hostnames or IP addresses it recorded. The machine left behind keeps the original agent record, its history, and its Inspectors.
• Before re-enrolling, each machine waits up to 60 minutes for running inspections to finish, keeps its local configuration (URL, proxy, and agent name), then restarts as the new agent.
• Agent self-updates are held for that identity until the round finishes.

Disarm Auto Resolve

To stop the round, open the agent and click Disarm in the armed banner, then confirm. Machines that already re-enrolled keep their new agents.

Finish setting up the new agents

New agents created by Auto Resolve or a Golden Image copy the original's Description, Platform, Type, Auto Update setting, Environment, and hostname, and get a fresh agent launchpoint when the original has an Environment.

They do not get the original's Inspectors, release train, or update schedule. They start with no Inspectors and follow your organization's defaults. After a round completes:

1. Open each new agent and confirm its Inspectors are where you expect them.
2. Set a release train or update schedule if the agent needs something different from the organization default. See Agent Auto-updating.

Designate a Golden Image

If you maintain a golden image with the agent already installed, designate its identity as a Golden Image. Every machine that checks in with that identity re-enrolls as its own new agent automatically, with no detection wait and no arming.

Golden Image differs from Auto Resolve in three ways:

• It moves every machine reporting the identity, including the one the agent record currently belongs to.
• It applies to machines that don't exist yet, and stays on until you remove it.
• Designating it clears any duplicate flag on the agent.

To designate a Golden Image

1. Go to Admin > Agents and open the agent created from the image.
2. In the About card, turn on the Golden Image toggle.
3. Review the warning and confirm in the Designate Golden Image window.

A Golden Image tag appears next to the agent's name. To remove it, turn the toggle off and confirm in the Remove Golden Image window.

Prepare a machine image

If you'd rather capture images with no agent identity at all, clear the identity before you capture the image.

Activity log events

Duplicate detection and resolution add six activity log events:

FAQ

• Why isn't an agent I know is cloned showing as a duplicate? - Check that every machine is on Agent 5.5.0 or later and that the machines are online at the same time. Detection typically takes 10 to 20 minutes of both machines checking in. Liongard-Managed agents are never flagged.
• Can I choose which machine keeps the original agent record? - No. Which machine keeps it is left to chance. Move Inspectors afterward if needed.
• Can I undo Auto Resolve? - No. Disarming stops further re-enrollment, but new agents aren't merged back.
• Will reinstalling the agent on the same machine create a duplicate? - No. The identity survives an uninstall, so a reinstall into the same Environment reconnects to the same agent record.
• An agent got a (1) after its name when I installed it. Is that a duplicate? - Not necessarily. Installing an agent with a name that already exists also adds a (1) suffix. That's a name collision, not a shared identity.
• I can see the Duplicates column but can't open the agent. - Opening the agent and resolving duplicates requires the Edit Agent permission on the agent's Environment.

Related

• Agents Overview
• Agent Management
• Moving Inspectors between Agents
• Agent Auto-updating
• Mass Deployment of Agents