Excluding/Controlling what Client MAC is reported to the DS Server

Many computers have multiple NICs, which can cause problems in Deployment Solution. For instance, a computer may only have one NIC connected, and Deployment Solution may report on the second NIC with no IP address, thus showing a missing IP address in the console. Clustered computers may have a single assigned MAC given to multiple computers, again causing problems within Deployment Solution if the incorrect MAC is tracked.Computers reporting multiple NICs may also encounter Deployment Server licensing issues when each NIC is assigned a separate license.
Environment
DS 5.x and 6.x all versions
Cause
Because DS tracks a computer based only on a single NIC/MAC address, sometimes human intervention is necessary to prevent conflicts or incorrect data.
Resolution
A CustomData.ini file can be created to exclude NICs or MACs so that DS will only track the remaining NIC/MAC option. This file is created by duplicating the Dynamic.ini file, and renaming the duplicate to CustomData.ini. This can either be performed on the client computer directly, or on the server and then sent out with a job to the client computers.First, be sure there is a [Filters] section in this file. Since DS combines the contents of both the Dynamic.ini and CustomData.ini files, the CustomData.ini file does not need to have all the same information as the Dynamic.ini. However, for this exercise, at least the [Filters] section is required.In this section, a line may be modified (or created) with "FilteredAdapterNameList" to include custom/unique types of adapters which should be excluded or ignored by DS (such as dial-up adapters, or WiFi adapters). The line should look something like this: FilteredAdapterNameList=Dial-Up Adapter,VPN,PPP AdapterAlternatively, a "FilteredMACAddresses" line may be used to exclude certain the MAC addresses on adapters that may be otherwise legitimate. This would be the case for duplicate NICs, such as having two identical Intel NICs, where the above option would end up excluding both. This line is used to exclude specific MAC addresses, rather than a type of connection. This line should look something like this: FilteredMACAddresses=CCCCCCCCCCCC,FFFFFF000000,00038A000011Finally, for those who may need it, there is one other way to filter, and that is based on user. By default, we already exclude one user, but you may add others. The FilteredUserNames line looks like this (additional entries, as with the above options, should be seperated by commas): FilteredUsernames=SMSCliSvcAcct&,IWAM_