Any entity that has counters or generates events is assigned a unique identification (UID) value. A UID is a 16-byte entity attribute that is unique throughout the network and for all time; that is, because the creation time of the entity is included as a portion of the UID, no two identical UIDs will ever be created. A UID identifies a unique instance of an entity. For network management, UIDs provide a guaranteed way to track the characteristics and status of that precise entity instance. Each entity having counter attributes also has a creation timestamp identifying, simply, when the entity was created. The UID is included in any response or event from an entity that has a UID. Any entity that generates events or has counters must have a UID, which is also visible as a status attribute. Both the UID and the creation timestamp are included in any event logging report that returns one or more counters in its argument list. By default on Tru64 UNIX, UID values are not displayed. The UID value for an entity is not always needed and can clutter a show display or an event-logging report. Use the enable ncl uid display command if you wish to see this attribute. To turn UID displays back off, type disable ncl uid display.