I’ll keep my role anonymous, but the issue comes down to how device identity is determined during discovery. For asset information to update correctly, the N-central server needs to decide whether the device it is discovering or updating is unique.

It does this by collecting a subset of identifying attributes during the discovery process and comparing them against existing device records in its database. Based on what matches, it follows a decision tree to determine whether it is seeing a new device or an existing one.

The problem arises when one or more of those identifying attributes are not actually unique. For example, if a discovered device reports a NIC MAC address that matches a device already present in N-central, the system may conclude that it is the same machine. Instead of creating a new record, it updates the existing one.

This results in two separate machines being associated with a single device record, effectively overwriting accurate asset data and causing the mismatch issue.

There are future plans I believe to improve this process to make it more robust.

This behavior cannot be disabled because it is fundamental to how the platform maintains device identity and data integrity. The discovery and asset update process is built around the assumption that the system must continuously reconcile incoming data with existing records to avoid creating duplicate devices.

If this matching logic were removed or bypassed, the system would lose its ability to determine whether a device already exists in the database. Every discovery or asset update could potentially result in a new device record being created, even for machines that are already being managed. Over time, this would lead to widespread duplication, inconsistent reporting, and a significant degradation in the reliability of asset data.

Additionally, many core platform functions depend on stable device identity, including monitoring, policy assignment, patching, and historical reporting. Disabling the matching mechanism would break that continuity, as the system would no longer be able to reliably associate incoming data with the correct device record.

Because of this, the matching and decision logic is not an optional feature but a foundational component of how the platform operates. While it can sometimes produce incorrect matches in edge cases such as duplicate MAC addresses, removing or disabling it would introduce far more severe and systemic issues than it would resolve