Understand the reconciliation engine

When Lansweeper scans your environment, it can discover the same physical device through multiple sources. For example, an IT agent, a traffic sensor, and a WMI scan could report the same machine. Without reconciliation, each of these scans creates a separate asset record, leading to duplicates in your asset inventory.

The reconciliation engine solves this problem by automatically identifying and merging duplicate asset records into a single, unified entry. The result is a cleaner, more accurate inventory that reflects your real environment.

What problem does deduplication solve?

In environments where multiple scanning methods are active, it's common for the same device to appear more than once in your asset list. This can make it difficult to:

• Get an accurate count of the devices in your network

• Understand which data source provided which information

• Trust your inventory for compliance or security purposes

The reconciliation engine eliminates these duplicates automatically, so you always have one reliable record per device, combining the richest available data from all sources.

How does deduplication work?

When deduplication is enabled, Lansweeper compares incoming scan data across all your sources and looks for matching correlation fields. These are key identifiers that help confirm two records represent the same physical device. Depending on the scanning method, these may include:

• Make, model, and serial number: used by agent-based and WMI scans

• MAC address: used across most scanning protocols, including network visibility (CDR/Asset radar), SNMP, and OT scans

• Domain name/computer name: used by agent-based and WMI scans

When a match is found with sufficient confidence, the records are automatically merged into a single asset. The Reconciliation view in the asset details page lists all sources that contributed to that record, along with timestamps and confidence scores.

What changes when deduplication is enabled?

Once the reconciliation engine is active for your environment, you can expect the following:

• Fewer duplicate assets: records previously spread across multiple scan sources will be consolidated into single entries.

• Richer asset details: the merged record combines data from all contributing sources, giving you a more complete picture of each device.

• A reconciliation tab on asset pages: each reconciled asset will display a list of the scan sources and scan times that were merged, so you have full transparency into where the data came from.

• Automatic, ongoing reconciliation: new scans are continuously evaluated against existing records. You don't need to trigger the process manually.

Your total asset count may decrease after enabling reconciliation, as duplicates are merged. This is expected behavior and reflects a more accurate count of your actual devices.

Supported environments

Deduplication is available for environments running Lansweeper version 12.6 or later. It works across both Lansweeper Classic and Lansweeper Discovery deployments, and supports reconciliation across discovery systems and installations within the same site.

Common device change scenarios

The key principle of Lansweeper scan sources is that device identity is based on stable hardware identifiers, not IP addresses. IP-based matching rules exist but are disabled by default, and even when enabled, they are evaluated last in the matching chain.

Here's what that means in practice for common situations.

A device is replaced (same IP, different MAC address or serial number)

If a device is swapped out and the replacement happens to have the same IP address, reconciliation will create a new asset record for the new device. Because the MAC address and serial number don't match any existing record, Lansweeper correctly identifies this as a different physical device. The old asset record remains, and the new device gets its own entry.

The IP address doesn't define a device's identity, its hardware does. Two scans with the same MAC address will always be treated as the same device, regardless of IP changes.

A device is moved (different IP, same MAC address or serial number)

If a device moves to a different network segment and receives a new IP, deduplication will keep the existing asset record and update it. Since the hardware identifiers match, Lansweeper recognizes this as the same physical device and simply refreshes its data, meaning no duplicate is created.

What happens to custom fields?

Custom fields stay attached to the merged asset record, not to individual scan entries. How this plays out depends on the scenario:

• Device replaced (new MAC/serial → new asset): custom fields do not carry over to the new asset. Since it's a different physical device, any custom data from the old record shouldn't be inherited automatically.

• Device moved (same MAC/serial → same asset): custom fields remain linked to the asset and are unaffected by the IP or location change.

If you need location or other fields to update automatically when a device moves, this would need to be handled manually or through an automation tool such as Flow builder. There is no risk of custom fields being incorrectly transferred between devices, as long as no two devices share the same MAC address or serial number.