USER GUIDE Product

Snow Inventory Data Processor

Version

4.6.03

Release date

2015-06-17

Document date

2015-06-17

CONTENT ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT ......................................................................................................................................... 3 PREREQUISITES ........................................................................................................................................................ 3 INSTALLATION .......................................................................................................................................................... 4 CREATE DATABASE INDEXES MANUALLY ........................................................................................................................ 8 CONFIGURATION...................................................................................................................................................... 9 CONFIGURATION FILE OPTIONS ................................................................................................................................... 9 Settings ........................................................................................................................................................... 9 DataManagement ........................................................................................................................................ 12 Logging ......................................................................................................................................................... 13 Database ...................................................................................................................................................... 13 ChangeTracking ............................................................................................................................................ 14

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ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT This document describes how to install and configure Snow Inventory Data Processor 4.6.

PREREQUISITES Very important! Read before beginning the installation. 

Verify that the server meets the system requirements for this product; see the document System Requirements for all Snow products, which is available for download at www.snowsoftware.com.



Make sure that Snow Inventory server is installed and running on the same server. Snow Inventory Data Processor only supports Snow Inventory server 3.2.1 or later.



The Snow License Manager 6.2 database (or later) must reside on the same SQL server as the Snow Inventory Database prior to the installation.



Have the license key for Snow Inventory available.



Have a SQL Server administration user account and password available with db_owner access to the Snow Inventory database.



Verify that Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 is installed on the server. Before installation: o

In the Add Roles and Features Wizard, make sure that the Application Server role is enabled, and that the .NET Framework 4.5 feature is enabled. If the .NET Framework 4.5 feature is not available, the required version of .NET Framework is not installed on the server.



If Snow Inventory Data Processor is to be installed on a Windows Server 2008 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server 2012, start the setup with the Run as Administrator option.

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Upgrading from a previous version: o All previous versions of Snow Inventory Data Processor must be uninstalled before the upgrade. Uninstall using the Windows Control Panel. NOTE:



Configuration settings will be removed when a previous version of Snow Inventory Data Processor is uninstalled. Prior to the uninstallation, make a copy of the configuration file SnowIDP.ini to use as reference.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN – BACK UP ALL YOUR DATABASES!

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INSTALLATION To start the installation, double-click the setup file SnowIDPSetup.exe. NOTE:

If Snow Inventory Data Processor is to be installed on a Windows Server 2008 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server 2012, start the setup with the Run as Administrator option.

1.

The Snow Inventory Data Processor installation wizard is started.

2.

Click Next.

3.

Read and accept the terms of the End User License Agreement.

4.

Click Next.

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5.

Enter the Organisation/Company name and License Key for Snow Inventory Data Processor, as supplied by Snow Software.

6.

Click Next to verify the product license and continue.

7.

Select destination folder for the Snow Inventory Data Processor installation.

8.

Click Next.

9.

Specify the installation folder for the Snow Inventory Server.

10. Click Next.

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11. The installation program will try to automatically configure the database connection based on the information found in the Snow Inventory Server configuration (server.ini). 12. If the connection information is incorrect, or somehow inaccessible, enter the connection settings manually instead.

Enter the Server Name for the SQL Server. Enter the complete server name – it is not recommended to use localhost as server name. Enter User Name and Password of an SQL Server database administration account (db_owner access is required). Click Next.

13. Click Next to start the installation.

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14. Select to create database indexes at this point, or to do it manually after the installation (recommended for large inventory databases).

See section Create database indexes manually.

15. The installation is completed. Click Finish to exit the Snow Inventory Data Processor installation wizard.

The Snow Inventory Data Processor is installed as a Windows service – Snow Inventory Data Processor.

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CREATE DATABASE INDEXES MANUALLY For large Snow Inventory databases it is recommended to create the database indexes manually after the installation of the Snow Inventory Data Processor. Note that the process might take several hours to complete. 1. Open SQL Server Management Studio. 2. Connect to the database server. 3. Click New Query. 4. Select the database SNOWDB. 5. To remove any existing database indexes (required after an upgrade), run the following query: exec IndexesRemove

Wait for the message “Command(s) completed successfully”. 6. To create database indexes, run the following query: exec IndexesAdd

Wait for the message “Command(s) completed successfully”.

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CONFIGURATION The configuration file of the Snow Inventory Data Processor (IDP) is named SnowIDP.ini and it is placed in the following folder path during installation (default installation): C:\Program files\Snow Software\Inventory Data Processor The configuration file consists of five sections:  Settings  DataManagement  Logging  Database  ChangeTracking

CONFIGURATION FILE OPTIONS SETTINGS The Settings section includes, for example, settings for when the IDP will process inventory files and definitions of what type of software files to store in the Inventory database. Configuration parameter

Description

Company=

Organization name, entered during installation

LicenseKey=

License key, entered during installation

IncomingFolder=

Drop folder for incoming inventory files Default = C:\Program Files\Snow Software\Snow Inventory\Server\Data\Incoming

StartTime=

Time of day when the IDP will start processing of inventory files, used together with StopTime. Note that StartTime can be set to a later time of the day than StopTime. Example: When StartTime=23:00 and StopDate=05:00, the IDP will process files between 23:00 and 05:00 at night. If StartTime and StopTime are the same, processing of inventory files will always run. Default = 00:00

StopTime=

Time of day when the IDP will stop processing of inventory files, used together with StartTime. If StartTime and StopTime are the same, processing of inventory files will always run. Default = 00:00

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Configuration parameter

Description

ProcessOnStart=

Set to yes, the IDP will start processing inventory files immediately upon service start. Default = yes

EnableInvFileHistory=

Set to yes, all processed inventory files will be stored in the folder …\Incoming\HISTORY_INV. Set to no, all processed inventory files will be discarded. Default = no

EnableXmlFileHistory=

Set to yes, all processed XML files will be stored in the folder …\Incoming\HISTORY_XML. Set to no, all processed XML files will be discarded. Default = no

XmlFileHistoryOnErrorsOnly=

Set to yes and with EnableXmlFileHistory=yes, processed XML files will only be stored if errors occur. The files will be stored in the folder …\Incoming\Error Default = no

MinClientVersion=

Minimum required version of Snow Inventory Client for Windows. Inventory files from older client versions will not be processed. Default = 3.2 - Do not change.

AllowedSoftwareFileExtensions=

Definition of inventoried software file types to be processed by the IDP. Define either AllowedSoftwareFileExtensions or IllegalSoftwareFileExtensions. Default = EXE,WFD,WFI,WTD,WTI,SYS2

IllegalSoftwareFileExtensions=

Definition of inventoried software file types not to be processed by the IDP. Define either IllegalSoftwareFileExtensions or AllowedSoftwareFileExtensions. Default=[blank]

MultiProcessCount=

Allowed number of files that concurrently can be processed by the IDP. Default = 10

UseLegacyXML=

Set to yes, Legacy XML decoding will be used (slower). Set to no, built-in XML decoding will be used. Default = yes

DropDuplicateFiles=

Set to no. Set to yes only when you need to process an inventory file backlog. In case of two (or more) inventory files from the same client, only the newest file be processed. Default = no

FileProcessingBatchSize=

Maximum allowed number of files to pick up from the incoming folder at the same time Default = 10000

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Configuration parameter

Description

DataUpdateJob=

Name of the Data Update Job Default = License Manager Data Update

SuspendProcessingOnDataUpdateJob=

Set to yes, processing will be paused when the Data Update Job is running. Default = yes

UseDiskStorageForInvFileProcessing=

Set to yes, inventory files will be unpacked and decrypted on disk. Set to no, inventory files will be unpacked and decrypted in memory/RAM. Default = no

InvFileMaxSizeMB=

Maximum allowed size of an inventory file. If file size is exceeded, the file will not be processed. Default = 5

EncodingFallback=

Fallback encoding to be used if the XML file cannot be read using the encoding defined in the file. Available encodings are: UTF8, ASCII, Unicode, and Default (operating system default encoding) Default = [blank]

WeeklyClientProcessing=

Set to yes, a full update of the inventory information on the clients will be limited to once a week. The other days of the week only information regarding login user history and metering (application usage) will be updated. Consequently, Virtual Machine Host History will only be updated once a week. When this parameter is set to yes the HardwareUpdateInterval parameter will be ignored. Default = no NOTE: This setting does not apply to clients with Windows Server operating systems. They are fully updated every day.

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DATAMANAGEMENT The DataManagement section determines, for example, how often hardware information will be updated. It is also possible to limit the amount of information to be stored in the Inventory database which can be useful for SPE platforms in particular. Configuration parameter

Description

HardwareUpdateInterval=

Number of days between update of hardware information for each inventoried client. Set to 0, hardware information will always be updated. This setting will be ignored when WeeklyClientProcessing = yes. Default = 0

LicenseManagerLimitation=

Set to yes, information stored in the database is limited to only include information presented in Snow License Manager. Default = no

AllowHostnameAsDomain=

Set to yes, the computer name is allowed to be used as domain part of the logon name (logon locally scenarios). Default = yes

ClearUserDomain=

Set to yes, the domain part is allowed to be removed from the logon name. Default = no

UserNameSuffixRemoval=

Regular expression. Default = [blank] - Do not change.

DiscardEnvironmentVariables=

Set to yes, information on environment variables will not be processed by the IDP. Default = no

DiscardNTServices=

Set to yes, information on Windows services will not be processed by the IDP. Default = no

DiscardDeviceDrivers=

Set to yes, information on device drivers will not be processed by the IDP. Note also that information on device drivers will be discarded when LicenseManagerLimitation = yes. Default = no

DiscardNetworkAdapters=

Set to yes, information on network adapters will not be processed by the IDP. Default = no

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LOGGING The Logging section determines log level and log size. Configuration parameter

Description

ClearLogAtStartup=

Enable/disable clearing of log file at service startup. Default = yes

DisplayInfoMessages=

Enable/disable presentation of information messages in the log file. Default = no

DisplayWarnings=

Enable/disable presentation of warnings in the log file. Default = yes

DisplayErrors=

Enable/disable presentation of errors in the log file. Default = yes

DisplayDebugInfo=

Enable/disable presentation of debug information in the log file. Default = no

MaxLogSize=

Maximum allowed size of the log file (in KB). If file size is exceeded, a new file is created. The old is saved as an historic log file (.old), but will be overwritten the next time the log file exceeds the limit. Default = 2048

Statistics=

Set to yes, the log file will be extended with Performance statistics. Default = no

LogClientProcessingUpdates=

Set to yes, extended logging with information on each completed client processing will be written to the log file. Default = no

DATABASE The Database section includes settings for the connection to the Inventory database. All settings but Pooling are entered during the installation of the IDP. Configuration parameter

Description

Server=

Server name, entered during installation

Database=

Inventory database name, entered during installation

Username=

Username, entered during installation

Password=

Password (encrypted), entered during installation

Pooling=

Set to yes, SQL will manage the connection pooling mechanism. Default = yes

Integrated=

Set to yes, Windows Authentication will be used. Default = no

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CHANGETRACKING The ChangeTracking section determines handling of historical changes of the hardware that the IDP is running on. Use the settings to enable (yes) or disable (no) archiving of hardware information for historical tracing. Configuration parameter

Description

CustomData=

Default = no

CustomRegKey=

Default = no

EnviromentVariables=

Default = no

LogicalDisks=

Default = no

Memory=

Default = no

NetworkAdapters=

Default = no

NetworkConnections=

Default = no

NTServices=

Default = no

OperatingSystem=

Default = no

Printers=

Default = no

Software=

Default = no

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