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SMBIOS Filter

Sometimes, system identification values obtained from the BIOS may report dummy text, such as "To be filled by O.E.M." or "No asset information." Some BIOS manufacturers use these placeholders instead of empty fields to indicate that no meaningful value was specified and expecting original equipment manufacturers to update them. However, not all original equipment manufacturers do that, and you certainly don't want these dummy values reported as they may affect the accuracy of your inventory.

The most important is to avoid dummy values in the Serial Number field, which is a computer identification field. Among with other data, Alloy Discovery uses the Serial Number value to uniquely identify computers and prevent duplicates. So when a batch of custom-built computers have the same dummy Serial Number such as "To Be Filled By O.E.M." or "None," your inventory would contain multiple computers with the same identification value, and Computer records in the Alloy Discovery database could overwrite each other when their snapshots are processed. To address this issue, dummy values should be replaced with empty values, because empty values do not participate in the identification process. For details, see Conflict Resolution.

The SMBIOS filter makes the Inventory Analyzer to replace dummy values obtained from the BIOS with empty values during the audit.

NOTE: The SMBIOS Filter is applicable only for Windows and Linux computers. When auditing Mac computers, this filter is ignored.

Alloy Discovery has a built-in SMBIOS Filter with standard dummy values to ignore. If your inventory contains other dummy values, add these values in the SMBIOS Filter section of your Audit Profile, and they will no longer be reported.

NOTE: The SMBIOS Filter is case-insensitive.

To add a user-defined value to the SMBIOS Filter:

  • Type it in the text box at the bottom, then click Add.

NOTE: You can use standard wildcard characters * and ? to match text patterns.

To modify an existing user-defined filter value:

  • Select the value, edit it in the text box at the bottom, then click Replace.

To remove a user-defined filter value:

  • Select it and click Remove.