diff --git a/nixos/kubeadm/scripts/discover-inventory-from-ssh.py b/nixos/kubeadm/scripts/discover-inventory-from-ssh.py
index bbbc1f2..57b7b37 100755
--- a/nixos/kubeadm/scripts/discover-inventory-from-ssh.py
+++ b/nixos/kubeadm/scripts/discover-inventory-from-ssh.py
@@ -117,6 +117,7 @@ def main() -> int:
         vmid_to_name[str(vmid)] = name
 
     seen_hostnames: Dict[str, str] = {}
+    seen_ips: Dict[str, Tuple[str, str]] = {}
 
     def run_pass(pass_timeout: int, pass_workers: int) -> None:
         with concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=pass_workers) as pool:
@@ -128,6 +129,8 @@ def main() -> int:
                 host, ip, serial = result
                 if host not in seen_hostnames:
                     seen_hostnames[host] = ip
+                if ip not in seen_ips:
+                    seen_ips[ip] = (host, serial)
                 target = None
                 if serial in vmid_to_name:
                     inferred = vmid_to_name[serial]
@@ -147,11 +150,25 @@ def main() -> int:
         # Slower second pass for busy runners/networks.
         run_pass(max(timeout_sec + 2, 8), max(8, max_workers // 2))
 
+    # Heuristic fallback: if nodes still missing, assign from remaining SSH-reachable
+    # IPs not already used, ordered by IP. This helps when cloned nodes temporarily
+    # share a generic hostname (e.g. "flex") and DMI serial mapping is unavailable.
+    missing = sorted([n for n in target_names if n not in found])
+    if missing:
+        used_ips = set(found.values())
+        candidates = sorted(ip for ip in seen_ips.keys() if ip not in used_ips)
+        if len(candidates) >= len(missing):
+            for name, ip in zip(missing, candidates):
+                found[name] = ip
+
     missing = sorted([n for n in target_names if n not in found])
     if missing:
         discovered = ", ".join(sorted(seen_hostnames.keys())[:20])
         if discovered:
             sys.stderr.write(f"Discovered hostnames during scan: {discovered}\n")
+        if seen_ips:
+            sample = ", ".join(f"{ip}={meta[0]}" for ip, meta in list(sorted(seen_ips.items()))[:20])
+            sys.stderr.write(f"SSH-reachable IPs: {sample}\n")
         raise SystemExit(
             "Failed SSH-based IP discovery for nodes: " + ", ".join(missing) +
             f" (scanned {prefix}.{start}-{prefix}.{end})"