Hi guys,
I have a question regarding the uniquness of identity attributes. I had read https://docs.mender.io/overview/identity and https://docs.mender.io/api/#management-api-device-authentication-schemas-identitydata.
In https://docs.mender.io/overview/identity you write possible device identity attributes can be “all pieces of data that: … form a 1:1 relationship with the device”. This would mean that each value of each device identity attribute (of maybe many attributes) is different on each device. And that would make it impossible to use a “device type id” as device identity attribute beside the MAC address because there may be thousands of devices with that “device type id” (where a device is a physical instance of a device type).
On the other hand you write: “However, Mender imposes the following requirements for device identities: The combination of the attribute values must be unique to each device, so that identities are not ambiguous when deploying software.” This would imply that it is possible to use a “device type id” as device identity attribute in addition to the MAC address because the MAC address makes the “overall” identity unique.
All of this together is a bit confusing. Because if the first one is correct, the second one will also be correct - always and forever. So if the first is correct, the second becomes redundant and unnecessary.
Thanks
Sven