You can use the inventory scanning utility to add devices to the core database and to collect devices' hardware and software data. You can view, print, and export inventory data. You can also use it to define queries, group devices together, and generate specialized reports.
Read this section to learn about:
When you configure a device with a management agent, the inventory scanner is one of the components that gets installed on the device. When creating an agent configuration, you can specify when the inventory scanner runs on the device.
The inventory scanner runs automatically when the device is initially configured. The scanner executable is named LDISCN32.EXE for Windows and LDISCAN for Linux. The inventory scanner collects hardware and software data and enters it into the core database. After that, the hardware scan runs at the interval you specify; on Windows devices it also runs each time the device is booted. To configure the software scan settings, on the core server, click Start > Program Files > LANDesk > LANDesk Configure Services.
After the initial scan, the inventory scanner can be run from the console as a scheduled task. The standard management agent must be running on remote devices to schedule an inventory scan to them.
NOTE: A device added to the core database using the discovery feature has not yet scanned its inventory data into the core database. You must run an inventory scan on each device for full inventory data to appear for that device.
You can view inventory data and use it to:
Read the sections below to learn more about how the inventory scanner works.
After the initial full scan is run on a Windows device, subsequent running of the inventory scanner only captures delta changes and sends them to the core database. Use the scanner option /RSS to gather software information from the Windows registry. (This option does not apply to Linux devices.)
If you want to force a full scan of a Windows device's hardware and software data, you can delete the existing delta scan file and change a setting in Configure Services. (This option does not apply to Linux devices.)
Inventory scans performed by the Windows inventory scanner (LDISCN32.EXE) are compressed by default. The scanner compresses full scans and delta scans with approximately an 8:1 compression ratio. Scans are first built completely in memory, then compressed and sent to the core server using a larger packet size. Scan compression requires fewer packets and reduces bandwidth usage. (Scan compression is not used on Linux devices.)
Inventory scans on Windows devices are encrypted (TCP/IP scans only). You can disable inventory scan encryption by changing a setting in Configure Services.
You can offload inventory scans onto a machine that is not your core server, provided that the machine has an inventory service installed. This can offload traffic and storage space requirements from your core server.
Once a device has been scanned by the inventory scanner, you can view its system information in the console.
Device inventories are stored in the core database, and include hardware, device driver, software, memory, and environment information. You can use the inventory to help manage and configure devices, and to quickly identify system problems.
You can view inventory data in the following ways:
You can also view inventory data in reports that you generate.
Summary inventory is found on the Summary page in the server information console and provides a quick look at the device's basic OS configuration and system information.
NOTE: If you added a device to the core database using the discovery tool, its inventory data isn't yet scanned into the core database. You must run an inventory scan on the server for the summary inventory feature to complete successfully.
This information appears when you view summary inventory for a managed device.
devices that are IPMI-enabled display additional IPMI-specific data. Linux devices also display similar information in the Summary view.
A full inventory provides a complete listing of a device's detailed hardware and software components. The listing contains objects and object attributes.
You can view attribute properties for a device's inventory objects from the inventory listing. Attribute properties tell you the characteristics and values for an inventory object. You can also create new custom attributes and edit user-defined attributes.
To view an attribute's properties, click the attribute in the left pane.
To print this information in Internet Explorer, right-click in the frame and click Print. To print in Mozilla, right-click in the frame, click This Frame > Save Frame As, click Save, then open the file in an application and click Print.
From the real-time inventory console, you can view and modify the device's system information. Information in the Hardware, Software, Logs and Other categories is either stored data or real-time data. When you click an information link you can view detailed information about the selected component and, in appropriate cases, set thresholds and enter information.
Normally, the core server processes inventory scans from managed devices. If you're concerned about the demand this scan processing is placing on your core server, you can install an off-core inventory server. This off-core inventory server contains a special version of the LANDesk Inventory Server service that will accept inventory scans and insert scan data into the database. Once you've configured an off-core inventory server, when the inventory scanner on a Windows-based device pings the core server, the core server replies telling the scanner to send its scan file to the off-core server.
The off-core inventory server only processes scans from Windows-based devices. The core server still processes scans from these devices:
The off-core inventory server has these system requirements:
WARNING: Don't use
the inventory Encrypted Data Transport option with off-core
inventory servers
The Configure LANDesk Software Services
dialog's Inventory tab has an Encrypted Data
Transport option. Encrypted transport isn't compatible with
off-core inventory servers. If you're using an off-core inventory
server, make sure this option is disabled.
NOTE: Any time you make changes on the Configure LANDesk Software Services dialog's Inventory tab, you need to restart the LANDesk Inventory Server service on both the core server and the off-core server. Restarting the off-core service allows it to load the configuration changes you made.