Hardware and Software Detection
Before the hardware and software detection in computers connected to a network can be run for the first time, the administrator first has to issue software and hardware detection requests for the selected computers. These requests are then stored in the database. The Collector, a standalone program, will handle those requests and saves the detection results back into the database where they can be viewed from within the Console.
Hardware and Software Detection in Computers Connected to a Network
The hardware and software detection in computers connected to a network can be run automatically and remotely, without the need to install Agents on the individual machines, which is a recommended detection method. This method requires that the system administrator (or a different users with the respective permissions) is granted remote access to the following services in the machines to be scanned:
- WMI
- remote registry
- administration access to hard drives (\\computer_name\C$)
In standard Windows network domain environments, it should be enough to go to Group Policy of Windows Firewall and to enable the "RemoteAdmin" service.
If detection without Agents is not possible, we recommend installing Agents on all machines using Group Policy (see e.g. here for more instructions)
Select the Detection Method
The Collector can use different ways to process requests. The selected detection method depends especially on the possibilities of the operating system installed in the respective machines. The following table contains a list of available detection methods.
Table 2. Detection Method
| Detection Method |
Description |
| automatically (default) |
This option represents a combination of the without Agent, Agent over TCP/IP options. The Collector first sends a ping command in attempt to connect to a remote machine. If the remote machine is active, the Collector will attempt to detect the machine with the Agent over TCP/IP detection method. If no Agent is installed on the remote machine, the Collector will attempt to run a scan without the Agent. |
| Agent over shared folder |
The Collector communicates with the Agent over a shared folder. This option is only recommended to detect machines with Windows 95/98/ME where the Agent is run from the login script. |
| manually |
The Collector does not process requests with this detection method. The detection must be run manually by launching the Agent.exe program on the machine to be detected. The program generates files with the .cxm file extension which you can later on load in the Console with the command Detection – Utilities – Load from file.
Use this option also for machines that cannot be detected (Linux, Apple etc.).
|
| without Agent |
This option was used in the legacy system versions and has been replaced with the option automatically.
This detection method can only be used on machines running Windows 2000/XP. It is not necessary to install the Agent on the machines to be detected. The detection uses DCOM, WMI and remote access to the system registry.
|
| Agent over TCP/IP |
This option was used in the legacy system versions and has been replaced with the option automatically.
The Collector first sends a ping command in attempt to connect to a remote machine. The Agent must be installed on the machines to be detected. The Collector and the Agent communicate over TCP/IP. If you use Agent, we recommend that you use this detection method.
|
| over SSH (Unix) |
This option represents an experimental feature to detect IBM AIX based machines.
To run detection over SSH successfully, the IBM AIX operating system must be installed and SSH must be running on the remote machine. It is also necessary to use a list of remote login accounts in the Collector with login details of a user with the permissions to run commands over SSH. It is currently only possible to detect hardware on IBM AIX operating systems.
|
The default settings for all machines (in Detection Settingsthe Global Detection Settings) is the method automatically, which meets the detection requirements of Windows 95, 98, Me, and NT with Agent over TCP/IP and Windows 2000 and XP without Agent or with Agent over TCP/IP. Set the manually detection method for machines that are not connected to a network or that cannot be detected.
Note:
If no connection can be established over the computer name within the detection in the "Agent over TCP/IP" mode, the system will attempt to connect over the IP address.
Tip:
The Collector uses the ping command to find out whether the computer detected is switched on. For the detection method "Agent over TCP/IP" the ping command can be set inactive by setting the item AgentTcpipPing in the system registry path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ALC\ALVAO Asset Management\Collector to 0 (dword) or in the Collector settings.
Detection method based on operating system
It is recommended to detect machines connected to a computer network based on the operating system they use and in the following way.
- Windows 2000 and later – Detection method: automatically
-
The Collector can detect data by using standard operating system components. It is not necessary to install the Agent on the workstations to be detected.
Note:
Detections without Agent may not work, if the network security settings do not allow to use the DCOM protocol. If this is the case, the Agent must be installed on the respective machines. The Agent must be installed by the system Administrator. The Windows 2000 OS requires Agent v5.10 or lower.
- Windows 95/98/Me/Windows NT
These machines can be detected with Agent 5.0 – please refer to the Manual for Machines Management 5.0 for more information. - IBM AIX Unix – Detection method: over SSH (Unix)
The Collector can only detect hardware. SSH must be running on the machine and the login credentials for user with the permissions to run commands over SSH must be defined in the Collector. - Other operating systems – Detection method: manually
The information on machines running other operating systems such as Linux or Apple, cannot be detected automatically. For such machines, please use the detection method manually. The necessary information must be entered in the system manually, see Inserting machines that cannot be detected.
When creating a request for hardware and software detection (see Create detection requests), you can set up the detection range (e.g. hardware only) and the detection method (with or without Agent etc.), or use the Apply saved settings option. The Detections Global Settings option will be used by default for the saved settings. The detections global settings are common for all computers in the database. Individual detection settings can be used for individual machines too. If individual detection settings exist for a machine, then these will be used instead of the global settings.
Detections global settings will be valid for all computers which do not use their own individual detection settings. Global settings will also be used for all new machines entered in the database. Detections global settings can be set up in the Admin program. Please refer to the Admin Manual for more information.
You can define individual detection settings for individual machines. These settings will be used instead of the global settings. If you wish to create the individual settings, go to the Objects tree, right-click on the machine for which you wish to change the settings and select the following command from the context menu
- Detection settings. Command
- The detection settings can be also used on a computer in the list of computers on the Objects tab.
Note:
The detection settings will be used to create detection requests. Any later changes to the detection settings will not affect the requests created earlier.
Tip:
If, for any reason, you do not wish to run detection for a particular machine (e.g. the machine may run on Linux, Novel or Apple), go to the Detection method window and uncheck both hardware and software detection. These detection settings mean that no detection requests will be created for that particular machine when mass detection requests are created.
Create Detection Requests
Use the following procedure to create detection requests for multiple machines:
Go to the Objects tree and select an organizational part where you want to detect software. In upper-right corner of the main window select the Objects tab and then the tab Computers. The tab will display a list of all computers available in the selected organizational part. Use the list to select the computers that you wish to detect. (Press Ctrl+A to select the entire list.) Then right-click and select - Detect from the context menu. The New detection – Basic window opens where you can specify the detection range and the detection method. In most cases, you can leave the option Apply saved settings enabled and continue by clicking on OK. This will use the global or individual detection settings, see Detection settings. You can follow the request processing progress in the Status column on the Detection tab in the upper-right corner of the main window. The tab displays all requests related to all computers in the organizational part selected in the tree.
Tip:
The -Detect command can be also used in the Objects tree on a specific machine.
Entering a new computer in the asset management will only create the pair of objects Assembly – Computer. Once the hardware detection has been completed, both the assembly and the computer will include other objects representing other assembly components, in other words the computer components.
If you detect the computer hardware later again using the default detection settings, the current computer components will be removed and replaced with the newly detected ones. Such objects that are updated automatically based on the hardware detection are highlighted with a yellow triangle in the list. Assembly components will not be updated. If you connect e.g. a printer to the computer, this will only create new objects in the list.
You can define for each object in a computer assembly whether or not you wish to update this object automatically. Double-click the object in the Objects tree. The Object – Basic window will open where you can enable or disable the Update automatically based on detection option.
The image shows standard set-up based on the object templates settings. All components in the computer will be updated automatically. Assembly components will not be changed.
Any objects that are not updated automatically must be updated manually. If you right-click on a computer in the tree and select Hardware – Details from the context menu, the Detail – Hardware detection window will open containing a detailed overview of the last hardware detection which can be used as a hint.
Warning:
Since the objects are updated by removing existing and creating new objects, do not use any notes or create any Links to vouchers etc. for objects that are updated automatically. If you do so, you will use this information next time the hardware detection is started. If you wish to keep a component, e.g. a hard drive, as a standalone asset including any notes and vouchers, make sure to disable the Auto update feature for this object first.
Note:
If the computer includes two or more hard drives and you disable the Auto update feature for any of them, the remaining hard drives will not be updated either. The reason for this behavior is the fact that the system cannot assign detected drives to the drives in the records. Thus, the system does not recognize which drives should be updated and which should not.
Note:
The objects in the tree will be updated automatically based on the hardware detection, only if the Update objects in the tree option in the Detection settings is enabled.
Note:
If the key components of a computer have a serial number that contains duplicate or nonsensical values (e.g. multiple motherboards with the S/N 000000), you can add these values to the HW Blacklist.
If the Update installation register is enabled in the Detection Settings, the detection result will be evaluated automatically once the detection has been finished according to the Software products library, and records are automatically saved in the Installations Register about newly installed or uninstalled products so that the registered status corresponds to the detected status. The records are created with the detection processing date.
If you disable the option Update installation register, you will be able perform the Installations register updates manually: go to the respective software detection on the Detection tab in the upper-right corner of the main window, right-click on the detection and select Software – Compare to installation status from the context menu. The Installations register vs. Software detection window opens and contains all records that need to be created in the Installations Register. Select the individual items as necessary and have them created by the system.
For correct software detection evaluation it is therefore advisable to load the updated software products library before entering a new detection request. You can do this in Utilities – Software products library – Load updated library. If you execute this command after the software detection has been finished, the last detections will be re-evaluated for computers based on the updated library and the Installations register will be updated too, if necessary.
Tip:
If the system does not detect some applications and unrecognized records are displayed on the Software tab, select the unrecognized records and select Send SW for identification... from the context menu. A wizard will open where you can provide additional information regarding the unrecognized records. Once the wizard is completed, a new request will be created which will be sent by the Collector to our technicians. They will add the unrecognized products to the standard library. The updated library will then be available for download from the Internet in the Software – Software products library – Load updated library menu. Once the new library has been downloaded, the respective records will be recognized.
Tip:
To view details about the last computer detection (Software detection details), right-click the computer in the tree and select Software – Details from the context menu.
Did not find what you were looking for? Ask our technical support team.
|