Troubleshooting: Environments with Mixed Agent Machines

In "mixed" environments, where inventory is run on some machines using the Microsoft SCCM client while others use the CAM Agent, you may run into an issue with the client machines. Once a CAM Agent has collected inventory, that data will not be overwritten with data from SCCM during the import process. When the CAM Agent is working properly, this is usually what you want. However, in some cases, the CAM Agent does not send data on a regular schedule (example: the database or access point was moved, or the inventory was collected on demand and the agent is not installed).  In these cases, you may want to use the data collected by SCCM instead. If you want to switch to using the SCCM client for a machine that also ran the CAM Agent, you should do the following:

  1. In CAM Administrator, move the affected machine to the Deleted folder. This will free up an inventory license for the machine and attempt to uninstall the CAM Agent.
  2. After the CAM Agent is successfully uninstalled, restore the machine from the Deleted folder. If the uninstall fails, see Problems Uninstalling the CAM Agent.
  3. To continue using the metering features in Cherwell Asset Management, you can open the Machine Properties dialog box and disable inventory on the Options tab. Then reinstall the CAM Agent.
  4. From the CAM External Connector, import SCCM data.
Mixed environments like this are rare, but can occur when organizations use the Microsoft SCCM client to track most hardware attributes and installed applications, and the CAM Agent was used in a small test environment. Typically, for any given machine, you will collect inventory data from only one source: SCCM or the CAM Agent