Inventory Solution Plug-in

As with most solutions, Inventory Solution requires a plug-in in order to operate. For all main Inventory (not including Basic Inventory), it requires the Inventory Solution Plug-in to be installed and licensed.

This section also details how the plug-in is installed on Windows systems. This includes the file structure and what files can be used for troubleshooting.

Verify Plug-in installed

There are several places you can ensure the plugin has been properly installed. Please look through these steps if you need this verified.

1. Check the filter for the Inventory Plugin install
   1. In the Symantec Management Console browse under Settings > Agent / Plugins > All Agent Plugins.
   2. Browse under Discovery and Inventory > Windows / UNIX / Linux / Mac > and select Inventory Plug-in Install.
   3. Is this policy enabled? If not, enabled it. If so, expand the Applied to section.
   4. Change the View: to Computers. Review the list of computers in this section. Typically you should have little or no systems in this policy if it is enabled.
   5. If computers are not installing the agent, try adding an extra schedule. Click Add schedule > Scheduled Time and set it for an appropriate time. This will ensure it runs again on any system that might have failed to run the first time.
2. Check on the Server and locally on the Client
   1. For the Server, open Resource Manager for the system. On the summary page there is a list of all plugins and agents installed on the system. Ensure it lists the Inventory Plugin.
   2. On the client bring up the Agent UI (double-click on the system tray icon, or launch AeXAgentActivate.exe). Click on the Settings button. In the Agents/Plugins list ensure the Altiris Inventory Agent is listed.
       
3. Upgrade if necessary
   1. Though Inventory will typically work for out-of-date plug-in versions, some issues may occur if the plug-in version falls behind the version installed at the server.
   2. In the Symantec Management Console browse under Settings > Agent / Plugins > All Agent Plugins.
   3. Browse under Discovery and Inventory > Windows / UNIX / Linux / Mac > and select Inventory Plug-in Upgrade.
   4. Enable this policy if it is not enabled. If needed remove the Run ASAP checkbox and put on a schedule that works with your environment for upgrading agents.

Directory Structure and Files

How the Inventory plugin is installed can be very useful when troubleshooting issues. Many of the files contain inventory data, and others contain methods for how inventory is gathered. By accessing the files on problem systems often the source of the issue can be determined. The two typical install locations are:

• C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Inventory Agent
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Inventory Agent

If the Symantec Management Agent is installed to a different location, the Inventory Plug-in will also install to that drive/location.

By location, here are files that are useful, and a description of what they contain:

1. C:\Program Files (x86)\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Inventory Agent – This location contains most of the plugin files that are run when Inventory executes. It is considered the install location of the plugin.
   1. InvConfigSln.xml – This file contains WMI, Script, and Registry calls used by various data classes. You can use a data class name to see how that data class is collected.
   2. InvSoftwareScan.xml – This contains data of what will be collected during the file scan.
   3. InvData.mdb – This is an Access database that contains data on the files we have captured via the file scan.
2. C:\Program Files (x86)\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Inventory Agent\InvTaskConfig – This contains specific configurations per Policy of what to capture. It can be used to review what a policy is gathering to ensure updates are making it to the client.
   1. Each XML file inside will be specific to the policies, enabled or disabled, defined on the Notification Server.
3. C:\Program Files\Altiris\Inventory\NSI – This contains the NSE fragments for each data class defined in Hardware and Operating System, and Server Inventory. The file names will correspond to the data class. This allows you to review what has been captured for a specific data class. This contains the most recent data. Note that if data does not change with newer scans, these files are not overwritten so the date may be older.
4. C:\Program Files\Altiris\Inventory\Outbox – Files relating to the File Scan are located in this location, namely:
   1. AuditPls_diskusage.bak – This contains data summary for number of files and total space taken for selected file types.
   2. AuditPls_filescan.bak – This is the main file containing the data for captured files.
   3. AuditPls_softwarekeyexecutables.bak
   4. AuditPls_summary.bak
   5. AuditPls_deletedfiles.bak – These are files that have been removed from the system, that will thus be removed from the database.
   6. Software Discovery file, typically “CLNINV----.bak” contains data from the Software Discovery run through Inventory Solution.