Detection requests are handled by the Collector, a standalone program which periodically searches the database and attempts to execute any new requests. If any machine cannot be detected, e.g. it may be switched off, the request will be postponed and the Collector will return to that request later. Executing the detection and evaluation requests can be planned. This means, you can set up the Collector in such a way that it does not put excessive load on your SQL server or on your computer network during your business hours and works at night instead.
The Collector can be launched as an interactive application or as a system service. The shortcut for running the Collector in the interactive mode is added to the Windows Start menu during the Console installation process.
The system service mode is usually used on servers, but it can be used on workstations too. The advantage of the system service mode is the fact that the Collector is launched automatically at each Windows start-up. The Collector then runs in the background even if no interactive user is currently logged in to the respective machine.
The Collector can run on multiple machines in the network simultaneously. In this case, the Collector instances will share all detection requests and will handle these together.
Another Collector feature is the automatic software products library (SwLib) update. The Collector periodically checks for new libraries and if a new library is found, the Collector will download it from the Internet and loads it into the database. Please note that the Collector must be running on a machine that is connected to the Internet for this feature to work correctly.
The Collector also enables to search for new computers on the network using the Network Scan feature. This feature is used to search for new machines connected to the corporate network. Any new machines are created in a special folder – Computers found – in the Asset Management tree. Network scanning configuration can be edited under Actions – Settings on the Network Scan tab. You can figure multiple Collectors to scan only a certain part of your computer network. This may speed up the regular scanning process of large corporate networks. The scanning period can be set up individually for each range. The time settings specify the time elapsed between two consecutive scans of a certain part of your corporate network.
Automatic loading is the next of the Collector features. It automatically loads manual detection files (*.CXM) from a specified folder on your hard drive. The detections that are loaded will be either moved to the "Processed" subfolder, or deleted from the hard drive. This can be selected in the automatic loading settings.
The Collector also sends requests with unrecognized software and add new product requests to the library (if this feature is enabled). Please note that this feature requires active Internet connection in order to work correctly.
Note:
Collector settings are saved in the following system registry section: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/ALC/ALVAO Asset Management/Collector.
Launching Collector interactively
Go to Start – ALVAO Asset Management Collector to launch the Collector in the interactive application mode. A status icon will display in the Windows taskbar in the bottom-right corner of the screen 
. Double-clicking the status icon will open the Collector main window containing a list of detections being executed, including any error messages.
Tip:
Once the Collector has processed all requests in the database, it will switch over to the stand-by mode. In this status, the Collector will check the database for any new requests every two minutes. You can skip the waiting period by clicking the 
button.
Tip:
Once the Collector has finished scanning all network ranges that were configured for a particular machine, the "NetScan" feature will switch over to the stand-by mode, until the scan of the next range is due. You can skip the waiting period by clicking the 
button.
The Collector can only detect data from Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 based machines without Agent, if it is launched from under a Windows user account with administrator permissions for the machines that you wish to detect. In other words, the user who launches the Collector must be the administrator of the machines which will be detected. The second method to launch the Collector as a different user is to
hold the Shift key, right-click on the Collector item in the Start menu and select - Run as in the context menu. You can then enter the login name and password of the respective user.
Another way is to use the Collector main window, go to Actions – Settings on the Passwords tab and create a list of user accounts to be used by the Collector to detect data from the machines. The account list is especially suitable in situations where different administrator accounts are used for different computer groups in the network. The Collector then goes through the accounts in the list one by one and uses the first account that allows to perform the detection.
Note:
If you wish to detect hardware of the IBM AIX operating systems over SSH, the list of accounts must include the login information of the user who has enough permissions to execute commands on remote computers over SSH.
Installing Collector as service
Note:
The Collector can only be installed as a service on computers using Microsoft Windows XP (Server 2003) or later.
Launch the AlvaoAssetCollector.msi installation package. The Installation Wizard will open that will guide you through the installation process.
Open the list of services with Start – Control Panels – Administration Tools – Services and stop the ALVAO Asset Management Collector X.X.X service.
Double-click the item. This will open the service set-up window. Go to the Logon tab and set up the service to run under one of the accounts with administrator permissions.
Launch Collector from Start – ALVAO Asset Management (if the Console is installed), or use run the AMCollector.exe file from the application installation folder.
Double-click the status icon on the Windows taskbar to open the Collector main window. Go to the Actions menu and select - Settings.
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Click on the Basic tab and set up the database connection.
Tip:
Since the Collector window will not be available as a service, we also recommend that you define the file logging options on the Basic tab. The recommended settings for the log detail level are Status and errors.
Warning:
If you set the log detail level to Detailed, the Collector will send large amounts of data to the log file. This will slow down the detection process considerably. We therefore recommend using the Detailed level for troubleshooting purposes only. This option should be disabled during normal operation.
If the computers need to be detected using a different account than the one on which the Collector will be running, or if the computers need to be detected using multiple administrator accounts, use the Passwords tab to create a new file with administrator passwords for computer detections. Protect this passwords file with suitable access permissions to prevent the passwords from being used by unauthorized persons. The file must be accessible for the account under which the Collector will be running. Setting up the login information is also necessary if you need to detect the hardware in machines running under the IBM AIX operating system.
Close the Collector.
Run the ALVAO Asset Management Collector X.X.X service again from the list of system services.
Use the Actions – Settings menu to set up the Collector in the interactive mode. The Settings window will open with the following tabs: