76.7 Removing Redundant Inventoried Workstations from the Inventory Database

You can remove the unwanted, redundant, or obsolete inventoried workstations from the Inventory database using the Inventory Removal service.

The Inventory Removal service is a manual service that runs on the Inventory server. The service removes the inventoried workstations from the Inventory database using the inventoryremovallist.txt file, which contains a list of inventoried workstations that must be removed from the Inventory database.

IMPORTANT:You must make sure that the Inventory Service Manager is loaded when you run the Inventory Removal Service.

You can run the Inventory Removal service on the Intermediate Server only if the Intermediate Server has either inventoried workstations or database attached to it.

To remove the inventoried workstations from the Inventory database:

  1. Create inventoryremovallist.txt by using any of the following methods:

    • To automatically create inventoryremovallist.txt, use the NDS Lookup for DB utility. By default, this utility creates a lookup file, deletewslist.txt, that contains a list of the inventoried workstations. For more information about the NDS Lookup for DB utility, see Section 76.7.1, Understanding the NDS Lookup for DB Utility.

      After generating a lookup file, do the following:

      • Rename the lookup file to inventoryremovallist.txt.

      • (Optional) In the lookup file, add the DNs of any other inventoried workstations that must be removed from the Inventory database and that have not yet been listed in the lookup file.

    • To manually create inventoryremovallist.txt, use any text editor to create the file with the following contents:

      DN of the inventoried workstation (as stored in the Inventory database) to be removed from the Inventory database
      DN of the inventoried workstation (as stored in the Inventory database) to be removed from the Inventory database
      ...
      ...
      DN of the inventoried workstation (as stored in the Inventory database) to be removed from the Inventory database
      

    A sample inventoryremovallist.txt file is as follows:

    CN=WS1.OU=WORKSTATIONS.OU=WEST.O=XYZ.T=XYZ-TREE
    CN=WS99.OU=WORKSTATIONS.OU=NORTH.O=XYZ.T=XYZ-TREE
    CN=WS50.OU=WORKSTATIONS.OU=EAST.O=XYZ.T=XYZ-TREE
    

    To generate the list of inventoried workstations that must be removed, you can either perform a query on a selected criteria or manually enter the names of the inventoried workstations. For more information on Query, see Section 77.1.3, Viewing Inventory Information by Querying the Database.

  2. Copy the inventoryremovallist.txt file to the ZENworks_installation_path\zenworks\inv\server\wminv\properties directory.

    For Linux, copy the inventoryremovallist.txt file to the /etc/opt/novell/zenworks/inv/ directory.

  3. In the ZENworks_installation_path\zenworks\inv\server\wminv\properties\inventoryremoval.properties file, make sure that the value of FilePath is the location of inventoryremovallist.txt (specified in Step 2).

    For Linux, in the /etc/opt/novell/zenworks/inv/InventoryRemoval.properties file, make sure that the value of FilePath is the location of inventoryremovallist.txt.

    NOTE:Make sure that the path separator is a forward slash ( / ) and not a backslash ( \ ).

  4. At the server console prompt, enter StartSer RemoveInventory to start the Inventory Removal service.

    For Linux, at the server console prompt, enter /opt/novell/bin/StartSer RemoveInventory to start the Inventory Removal service.

The Inventory Removal service operates in the following order:

  1. The Inventory Removal service reads each line of the inventoryremovallist.txt file and creates a delete str file for each inventoried workstation that is listed in the inventoryremovallist.txt file.

    The delete str file is saved in the scandir directory if the Selector is running, else it will be placed in the dbdir or entmergedir directories depending on the Inventory server role.

  2. The Selector validates the delete str file and copies it into the dbdir and entmergedir directories.

  3. The Storer reads the delete str file from dbdir and deletes the inventoried workstation from the attached Inventory database.

  4. If the inventory deployment rolls up scan data, the delete str is also rolled up to the next level Inventory server.

    The inventoried workstation is deleted from the Inventory database at all Inventory servers deployed at the enterprise level.

76.7.1 Understanding the NDS Lookup for DB Utility

NDS Lookup for DB automatically generates a list of inventoried workstations that are stored in the Inventory database but do not have a corresponding entry in eDirectory. By default, this lookup file is named deletewslist.txt.

The excess workstations in the Inventory database exist because these workstations have been deleted from eDirectory but their corresponding entries were not removed from the database.

The list generated by NDS Lookup for DB helps you in identifying the redundant workstation objects to be removed from the Inventory database by using the Inventory Removal Service.

IMPORTANT:You must run this utility only on the Inventory server to which an Inventory database is attached. Also, you must make sure that the Service Manager is loaded when you run this utility.

To run this utility:

  1. Specify the path of the lookup file in inventory_server_installation_path\inv\server\wminv\properties\ inventoryremoval.properties.

    For Linux, specify the path of the lookup file in /etc/opt/novell/zenworks/inv/InventoryRemoval.properties.

    NOTE:Make sure that the path separator is a forward slash ( / ) and not a backslash ( \ ).

  2. (Optional) Configure the lookup filename in the server role property file, which can be any of the following files, depending on role of the Inventory server: root_db_wks.properties, root_db.properties, int_db_wks.properties, int_db.properties, leaf_db_wks.properties, or standalone.properties.

    The server role property file contains the [NDSLookupForDB Service] section with the lookup filename in the ARGUMENTS parameter. The default lookup filename is deletewslist.txt.

    IMPORTANT:The lookup filename should consist of alphanumeric characters only.

  3. At the server console prompt, enter startser NDSLookupForDB.

    For Linux, at the server console prompt, enter /opt/novell/bin/StartSer NDSLookupForDB.