Prepare Remote Inventory Agent Dialog Box

Getting There

You can use the remote agent package to collect inventory on a machine that is not connected to the network. You can also use it to collect inventory on Mac OS machines that do not have one of the operating systems listed here installed on them. (Otherwise, using the Linux/Unix/Mac OS discovery feature is more efficient for collecting data from Mac OS machines.)

Two remote agent packages are installed with Cherwell Asset Management: one for Windows machines and one for Mac OS machines. This dialog box lists the locations of both packages.

To use the remote agent package:

  1. Note the location of the package you need, based on the operating system of the remote machine you want to inventory.
  2. Copy the contents of this folder to a USB drive or other portable media you can use with the remote machine.
  3. Take the media to the disconnected machine and then do one of the following:
    • If the remote machine is Windows-based, run the Standaloneinventory.bat file.
    • If the remote machine is running a Mac OS, run the Inventory Mac.app file.
  4. Windows machines only: Copy the generated inventory .xml files onto portable media and take the media back to the CAM Administrator machine.
  5. Use the Machine/Remote Inventory/Import menu item to import the inventory data from the portable media.

Running a Full Scan on Remote Windows Machines

By default, a normal, non-extended inventory is run by invoking the StandaloneInventory.bat file. If you want to collect extended file information (in other words, perform a full scan) during a remote inventory, do the following:

  1. Locate the line in the batch file that starts with: 
    start /w eminvcli.exe /ondemand /forceremote /nocleanup /limited
  2. Remove the /limited switch at the end of this line and save the file.

The above is equivalent to setting the Collect extended inventory information option in the Options tab in the Machine Properties dialog box.

You can do this for a single machine by modifying the batch file after you have copied it to the machine, or for any remotely inventoried machine by modifying the batch file found in the CAM Administrator\AgentInstallPackage folder of your Cherwell Asset Management installation. Note that if you do this, you'll need to modify the batch file again when you upgrade CAM.