Resolving Duplicate Software Resources

Duplicate software resources occur when two software resources represent the same software but have different identifiers. When you resolve duplicate software resources, both of their unique identifiers are associated with one software resource and the other software resource is deleted. If the duplicate software resource contains any information that is not in the original one, you can merge the data before the duplicate is deleted.
Each software resource in the Software Catalog has a unique identifier. Two software resources can represent the same software but have different identifiers. Such duplicate software resources can occur when the same software is added to the Software Catalog by different methods. For example, you import a package to create a software resource for Adobe Reader 9 from Adobe. Then a Software Discovery finds an incidence of Adobe Reader 9 from Adobe Systems on a client computer. You know that the two software resources are the same but because they have different company names, they have different identifiers.
Review the Software Catalog periodically to look for duplicate software resources. Look for the software resources that have identical or similar names or company names. For example, Microsoft Office 2008 professional and Office 2008 Professional. When you find duplicates, you can resolve the duplication.
  1. To resolve duplicate software resources
  2. In the
    Symantec Management Console
    , on the
    Manage
    menu, click
    Software
    .
  3. In the left pane, click
    Favorites > Discovered Unreviewed Software
    , right-click the software resource that is a duplicate of another one and click
    Actions > Resolve Duplicate Software Resources
    .
  4. In the
    Resolve Duplicate Software Resources
    dialog box, specify how to resolve the duplication, select the software resources to merge or associate, and click
    OK
    .
  5. If you selected the option to merge the software resources, complete the series of
    Merge Software Resources
    pages that appear. Click
    Next
    to advance to each page.
    These pages let you define the information that is copied from the duplicate software resource to the original one.
  6. When you complete the
    Merge Software Resources
    pages, click
    Merge Software
    .
    You can complete the merge process at any point as you step through the pages. For example, if you want to merge the packages only, you can complete the merge process after you complete the
    Packages to include
    page.