3.8 Inventory Credentials

To inventory discovered machines, select the Inventory check box in the Discovery and Inventory dialog boxes and then provide login credentials for Windows, UNIX, Virtual Center, VMware ESX, Novell NetWare, or Citrix XenServer machines, depending on the type of machines in use. For the Inventory From CSV File dialog box, the Default Inventory Parameters area is disabled if the CSV file contains credentials for its machines.

To provide inventory credentials, in the Inventory area, select credentials from the Credentials for Inventory drop‑down list on the appropriate tab. For every machine in the list or range, PlateSpin Recon tries each type of credential provided until it finds one that matches. If the credentials are not valid, the machine is not inventoried. To learn more about adding credentials, refer to Section 4.5, Credentials Manager.

For inventorying UNIX or Citrix XenServer machines, select the Use Sudo check box to use superuser privileges for connections. Local policies can sometimes prevent you from establishing an SSH session as a root user. A user with sudo privileges can get around this restriction by establishing an SSH session as a non-root user and then using sudo to temporarily “switch” to root user privileges.To do this, create the credentials using that user’s username and password. PlateSpin Recon will use the sudo command to perform any operations that require root privileges.

For inventorying a Virtual Center, credentials must have a minimum read-only user status for the Virtual Center. Virtual Center automatically includes as users any user with Administrator privileges for the machine where Virtual Center is installed.

For inventorying Novell NetWare, do the following:

  1. In the Novell eDirectory of the NetWare server you want to inventory, create a user with the same login credentials as that of the PlateSpin Recon server administrator.

  2. Associate the local security policies to the PlateSpin Recon server administrator.

    1. On the PlateSpin Recon server, click the desktop Start menu > Settings > Control Panel.

    2. Double click Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy.

      The Local Security Settings window is displayed.

    3. Click Local Policies, then double-click User Rights Assignment.

    4. Associate administrator with following policies:

      • Act as part of the operating system

      • Create a token object

      • Log on as a batch job

      • Log on as a service

      • Replace a process level token

  3. Ensure that the recommended Novell Client is installed on the PlateSpin Recon server.

    For more information on the recommended Novell Clients, see Supported Novell NetWare Platforms.

  4. Through the Novell Client, log in to the PlateSpin Recon server as the administrator user created in Step 1.

  5. Launch the PlateSpin Recon Client.

  6. In the Inventory drop-down list (located at the top left corner), click Machines.

    The Inventory Machines dialog box is displayed.

  7. Click the Novell NetWare tab.

  8. In the Credentials for Inventory drop-down list, select <New Credential>.

    The Create Stored Machines dialog box is displayed.

  9. Specify the login credentials of the NetWare administrator, and select Novell NetWare Inventory as the validation type.

    Ensure to specify the username in the Username.Context format.

    Ensure that the administrator has permission to write to the Novell SYS: volume. Also, ensure that TCP port 524 is open on the firewall. For more information see Section 1.3, Supported Platforms.

  10. In the Launch Inventory Process as User drop-down list, select <New Credential>.

    The Create Stored Machines dialog box is displayed.

  11. Fill in the fields:

    Username: Specify the administrator username created Step 1. You must specify the username either in the hostname\username or the domain\username format. If you choose to specify the username in the hostname\username format, ensure that the hostname is the local hostname.

    Password: Specify the password of the administrator.

    Validation Type: Select Netware LSA.

    Hostname or IP of machine to validate against: Specify it as localhost.

  12. Click Save.

  13. Click Inventory.