Clean Software Inventory

Lumpy · 03-09-2005, 12:23 PM

I'm not sure if this should be in Asset Management or if an Inventory Section needs to be created.

I'm looking for a best practice on what to do when a computer is pulled off of the network. Basically my software licensing count is out of wack. If a machine is pulled off of the network, the hard drive is formated, but not put back on the network my software inventory still shows it has products installed.

How are people handling this?

Lumpy · 03-16-2005, 09:57 AM

No one out there is dealing with this? There's been a couple post for this in the Altiris forums, but no one has offered any solutions.

What do you guys do?

JAustgen · 03-16-2005, 11:42 AM

I guess it probably depends on policy --

Ours is that as long as a computer is active it is held in Notification Server, taking up licenses, whether it is being actively managed or not. That way we are able to keep tabs on it and know that it is still an active machine that will need to be lifecycled.

If that's not a concern, why don't you simply delete the record?

Lumpy · 03-16-2005, 11:49 AM

Here we're more conserned with it taking up Adobe Licenses and Macromedia licenses then Altiris licenses. We need to keep the computer in inventory so that we know what hardware we have, but we need to be able to scrub the software inventory that was taken on the machine.

Let's say 6 machines were upgraded. Those six machines had Adobe Photoshop on them. They're taken off of the network and replaced with six new machines with Photoshop on them. Altiris now shows that 12 machines have Photoshop installed. Our current practice is just formating the HD when they're brought back to the shop, but this causes the software inventory reports to be incorrect.

Does that need to change to installing a new image and re-running the altiris inventory agent so that the software inventory is currect? Is there any way to do this without going through those extra steps? Thanks for any thoughts.

JAustgen · 03-16-2005, 11:53 AM

Probably the easiest thing to do would be to jack it into Altiris and let it pull an inventory.

You could also run a manual inventory and import the NSE that's generated instead of waiting for the automated inventory to run.

Lumpy · 03-16-2005, 12:08 PM

Could you explain a little more on what you mean by import the files that are generated instead of waiting for the inventory?

I was really hoping that we didn't have to re-image the machines right when we take them off of the network. Is there any was to have a "default" software inventory file that could be sent up to the server when we're taking the computer off of the network.

For instance tell the tech to copy these files to the machine and run a process that run the inventory agent and have the data sent up to the NS?

JAustgen · 03-16-2005, 12:23 PM

I'm not an inventory guru by any means, but I know that there is a manual method that can be run on a targeted machine to send updated inventory to the NS. I'll see if I can't get Nick to chime in here with a script or something that you could run manually to send new inventory up to the server.

Lumpy · 03-16-2005, 12:27 PM

Thanks.... You have me thinking down a different path then before which is good. I was thinking I would have to edit SQL directory, but if I can create a custom inventory agent that does a \cleanbeforerun and is set not to detect anything maybe I can get this to work. If Nick could chime in that would be great. I'm a few steps away from being a guru, like a half mile.

Nick · 03-16-2005, 01:38 PM

Just got Jim's email asking me to jump in here and have a look.

I'm not an Asset Management guru but if you think that running a manual inventory (zero footprint) to collect the data off the machines is something that will work I'm sure I can put something together to detail how to do it.

It might take me a couple of days. My workload is a bit on the heavy side right now but once I get home it shouldn't be much to do.

This sound like what needs to happen?

Lumpy · 03-16-2005, 01:45 PM

Basically I would need a zero footprint inventory that does a /cleanbeforerun and then doesn't discover any software. My end game is to leave the machine in inventory with the hardware information, but to clean out all of the software information. So basically the AeXAuditpls needs to run a custom inventory set to exclude everything?

What ever you can do to help would be great. My manager freaked out when she ran the software report and the reports came up with double the amount installed because of this problem.
Thanks

jdean · 03-16-2005, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JAustgen

I'm not an inventory guru by any means, but I know that there is a manual method that can be run on a targeted machine to send updated inventory to the NS. I'll see if I can't get Nick to chime in here with a script or something that you could run manually to send new inventory up to the server.

Run the AexAuditPls.exe file to do a manual software scan.

You can also do disk only scans with the Inventory files and export the data to the NS.

JAustgen · 03-16-2005, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lumpy

Basically I would need a zero footprint inventory that does a /cleanbeforerun and then doesn't discover any software. My end game is to leave the machine in inventory with the hardware information, but to clean out all of the software information. So basically the AeXAuditpls needs to run a custom inventory set to exclude everything?

What ever you can do to help would be great. My manager freaked out when she ran the software report and the reports came up with double the amount installed because of this problem.
Thanks

I don't have my inventory solution resource guide handy, but there should be a way to run only a hardware inventory and clean out everything else in the NS.

Another thought might be to delete the computer's record completely from the NS and then repopulate it with a hardware only inventory.

Lumpy · 03-16-2005, 02:28 PM

Does /cleanbeforerun clean the server information or just the local information?

jdean,

But how do I have it do an inventory scan that doesn't inventory any software. I've been playing with the AuditPls.ini file, but nothings seemed to work.

JAustgen,

Having it run a Hardware inventory only is exactly what I want, but making this an easy process is the hard part. They dont' have access to delete the computer out of NS and I need to make it a quick solution to clean out the software inventory otherwise they won't do it. It would be nice to have a script where you enter the computer name you want and it cleans out the software inventory either by deleting it or by uploading a base software .nsi file

JAustgen · 03-16-2005, 02:42 PM

Of all the executeables in the inventory folder, isn't there one just for hardware? Cause auditpls calls the other .exe's, right? Am I remembering that correctly?

jdean · 03-16-2005, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JAustgen

Of all the executeables in the inventory folder, isn't there one just for hardware? Cause auditpls calls the other .exe's, right? Am I remembering that correctly?

Yes, aexmachinv.exe but you'll need to run the collector to upload it.

Edit the aexinvsoln.ini file and rem out everything but the aexmachinv.exe entry and the collector entry. You can also add command line switches here. Run the AexInvSoln.exe file to perform and upload the scan.

jdean · 03-16-2005, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lumpy

Does /cleanbeforerun clean the server information or just the local information?

jdean,

But how do I have it do an inventory scan that doesn't inventory any software. I've been playing with the AuditPls.ini file, but nothings seemed to work.

JAustgen,

Having it run a Hardware inventory only is exactly what I want, but making this an easy process is the hard part. They dont' have access to delete the computer out of NS and I need to make it a quick solution to clean out the software inventory otherwise they won't do it. It would be nice to have a script where you enter the computer name you want and it cleans out the software inventory either by deleting it or by uploading a base software .nsi file

the /cleanbeforerun switch will clear the inventory cache on the machine before running the scan. It doesn't touch the server.

I don't know if doing a h/w only scan would purge the s/w from the database. You'll have to test it out.

JeremyDallas · 03-16-2005, 03:47 PM

Have no fear, the new Altiris Inventory and Asset 6.1 solutions will make this a lot easier.

You can have the merge process run on a scheduled basis and it will merge any non-blank computers with matching serial numbers (and you can add exclusions for generic serial's), so if you re-image a computer and then put it back on the network you don't get duplicate entries.

If you retire a computer it does not give back a license, but you can do reporting against the asset status. If you delete a computer, then the associated data should go away.

I just listened to Duane Newman talk about this at our User Group meeting today, so if you have any more questions or if this doesn't answer what you're looking for...let me know!

Lumpy · 03-17-2005, 12:12 PM

Not sure if this will solve my problem. I really don't want to delete the computer out of Inventory. I was hoping that we didn't have to re-image the computer immediately after pulling it from the network to clean out the software inventory. Can someone explain to me what needs to be done so that when a computer re-runs inventory the inventory only shows what it found on that pass. I'm reading the documentation, but can't figure this out. Or I'm just not doing something right.

JeremyDallas · 03-17-2005, 12:16 PM

Lumpy,

I guess I'm just a little lost on what your goal is...sorry.

If you can walk us through a scenario of what you're dealing with and what you want to happen, I think that may help us all. Make it as detailed as possible please and include as many examples as you need to.

Thanks

Lumpy · 03-17-2005, 12:34 PM

Ok. My goal is to have an accurate software count… Right now if my manager would go and run the “Count of Products and Versions” report we would show double installed of what we are licensed for. Here is why…

We have 6 people running Adobe Photoshop and their machines have reported back that they are. Their machines were replaced with new ones and their old machines were taken off of the network, the hard drives formatted, and put on a shelf. These old machines need to stay in inventory with what hardware is installed because we do a lot of hand-me-down upgrades. In other words these six machines might be redeployed to another department in a month or two. During that month or two the old computers still show that they have Adobe Photoshop installed and the new Machines show they have Adobe Photoshop installed. So when my manager checks the licenses it shows we have 12 in use even though there are only 6 in use.

I need a way that when a PC is removed from the network to clean out the software inventory, but to leave the hardware inventory so that we know what we have in stock. We run a report on what machines are in stock so we can see what processors and memory they have.

I need to make this a simple solution otherwise the new process won't be followed. Here our a couple options I see, but don't know how to accomplish any of them yet.

1. Have a SQL job that would go in and delete out the software inventory for a specific computer.

2. Have a script that I could enter a computer name and it would upload a dummy software inventory to the machine that said it didn't have anything installed. I don't know if there is a way to create a set of inventory files and then have them uploaded to the NS server manually for a specific computer.

3. Have a zero foot print inventory that the techs can run before the computer is removed from the network that won't discover any software and replace the list of software held in the NS with a blank copy.

Does this help? If not please ask more questions because this is a huge problem for us right now.

jtoller · 03-18-2005, 04:19 PM

Lumpy,

Just make a copy of your existing auditpls.ini and name it something like empty-auditpls.ini. Then edit the [LocalMachine] section to exclude all possible drive letters (see below). Then run "aexauditpls.exe /hidden /output xml /file /ini Empty-auditpls.ini" on the machines before they go back into inventory and then the Audit Software table and all "Special Groups" tables will be cleared out. This of course won't do anything for any Custom Inventory you may be doing.

[LOCALMACHINE]
# These sections list the products that will be excluded from the general group
EXCLUDEDIR.1=A:\
EXCLUDEDIR.2=B:\
EXCLUDEDIR.3=C:\
EXCLUDEDIR.4=D:\
EXCLUDEDIR.5=E:\
EXCLUDEDIR.6=F:\
EXCLUDEDIR.7=G:\
EXCLUDEDIR.8=H:\
EXCLUDEDIR.9=I:\
EXCLUDEDIR.10=J:\
EXCLUDEDIR.11=K:\
EXCLUDEDIR.12=L:\
EXCLUDEDIR.13=M:\
EXCLUDEDIR.14=N:\
EXCLUDEDIR.15=O:\
EXCLUDEDIR.16=P:\
EXCLUDEDIR.17=Q:\
EXCLUDEDIR.18=R:\
EXCLUDEDIR.19=S:\
EXCLUDEDIR.20=T:\
EXCLUDEDIR.21=U:\
EXCLUDEDIR.22=V:\
EXCLUDEDIR.23=W:\
EXCLUDEDIR.24=X:\
EXCLUDEDIR.25=Y:\
EXCLUDEDIR.26=Z:\

Lumpy · 03-22-2005, 09:53 AM

jtoller,

Thank you for the post. I now have a zero footprint inventory that does what you said. That seems to fix my problem. I would still like to see a way of cleaning out the software inventory without having to involve the computer in question. The only reason why I say that is if a hard drive fails or the computer fails and it takes us a while to get it going, once again our inventory is off.

Thanks a ton,

ceasley · 03-23-2005, 09:59 AM

The way we handle this is we change the volume name of the primary hard drive to "Inventory". That way, we know which PC's we can exclude from counting.

jtoller · 03-23-2005, 05:25 PM

Sounds like another Enhancement Request is needed for the ability to selectively purge Inventory data.