3.5 Troubleshooting the Inventory Scanner or Inventory Agent on Windows Servers

Is the Inventory Agent installed?

Source: ZENworks Server Management; Server Inventory; Inventory Scanner or Inventory Agent on Windows Servers
Action: Check to see if invscan.exe was installed in ZENworks_path\pds\bin. If invscan.exe is not installed, reinstall the Inventory Agent. For more information, see Policy-Enabled Server Management Installation in Installation in the Novell ZENworks 7 Server Management Installation Guide.

The Inventory Agent has not been properly installed

Source: ZENworks Server Management; Server Inventory; Inventory Scanner or Inventory Agent on Windows Servers
Action: On the inventoried server, ensure that invscan.exe and invnatve.dll have been installed in ZENworks_path\pds\bin.

If any of the files have not been installed, reinstall the Inventory Agent. For more information, see Policy-Enabled Server Management Installation in Installation in the Novell ZENworks 7 Server Management Installation Guide.

Action: If the invsetup.ini file has been accidentally tampered with or deleted, reinstall the Inventory Agent. For more information, see Policy-Enabled Server Management Installation in Installation in the Novell ZENworks 7 Server Management Installation Guide.

The Inventory Agent is not being enforced by the policy engine

Source: ZENworks Server Management; Server Inventory; Inventory Scanner or Inventory Agent on Windows Servers
Action: Check to see if the Inventory Agent plug-in (invagentnt.jar) was installed in the ZENworks_path\pds\smanager\plugins directory.
Action: At the ZENworks Server Management console prompt, enter policy plugins and ensure that invagentexecutent is loaded as a registered enforcer entry.
Action: If the problem persists, reinstall the Inventory Agent. For more information, see Policy-Enabled Server Management Installation in Installation in the Novell ZENworks 7 Server Management Installation Guide.

Stopping, resetting, or replacing the current instance of the Inventory Agent

Source: ZENworks Server Management; Server Inventory; Inventory Scanner or Inventory Agent on Windows Servers
Action: To stop the current instance of the Inventory Agent, execute Inventory_Agent_installation_directory\ invagentstop.bat from the inventoried server system console. Executing invagentstop.bat terminates the current instance of the Inventory Agent and resets the preferences for fresh executions.

If you want to replace any of the Inventory Agent files, execute invagentstop.bat and stop the Novell ZfS Policies services.

The Inventory scan results are not available

Source: ZENworks Server Management; Server Inventory; Inventory Scanner or Inventory Agent on Windows Servers
Action: Refer to the following log files for details:

  • The status information about the Inventory scan is logged into the invagent.log and invnatve.log files, located in the windows or the windows temp directory.

  • If the Inventory scan is being enforced by the policy engine, refer to the invagentpolicyenforcer.log file to see the status of the current installation.

Action: In the Windows_installation_directory\invsetup.ini file, set the value of the forceDebug parameter to True. Re-execute the inventory agent. For more information, see Immediately rescheduling the Inventory Agent by using the policy engine.

Refer to the Windows_installation_directory\invscan\ invagentstrtransfer.log file for additional information. The invagentstrtransfer.log file provides the information about the .str transfer.

The initialization of the Inventory Agent failed

Source: ZENworks Server Management; Server Inventory; Inventory Scanner or Inventory Agent on Windows Servers
Action: Ensure that the Inventory Agent has been properly installed. The invagent.log file (located in the windows or the windows temp directory) does not report the message, “The previous instance of the Inventory Agent is still active...”. This message indicates that the previous instance of Inventory agent execution has not yet been completed and the new instance will not run.
Action: Stop or reset the current instance of the agent and reschedule a new instance.
Action: Reinstall the Inventory Agent. For more information, see Policy-Enabled Server Management Installation in Installation in the Novell ZENworks 7 Server Management Installation Guide.
Action: If the problem persists, contact Novell Support.

The Inventory scanning procedure failed

Source: ZENworks Server Management; Server Inventory; Inventory Scanner or Inventory Agent on Windows Servers
Action: Check to see if the Inventory Agent has been properly installed.
Action: Ensure that sufficient system resources such as disk space and memory are available.
Action: Ensure that you have the Write rights to the \windows, Windows' \temp, and the Windows_installation_directory\invscan directories.
Action: If the problem persists, refer to the invagent.log and invnnatve.log files for additional information. The log files are located in the windows or the windows temp directory.
Action: In the Windows_installation_directory\invsetup.ini file, set the value of the forceDebug parameter to True. Re-execute the Inventory Agent. For more information, see Immediately rescheduling the Inventory Agent by using the policy engine.

Refer to the Windows_installation_directory\invscan\ invagentstrtransfer.log file for additional information. The invagentstrtransfer.log file provides the information about the .str transfer.

Action: If the problem persists, contact Novell Support.

Successful scans are not being transferred to the Inventory server

Source: ZENworks Server Management; Server Inventory; Inventory Scanner or Inventory Agent on Windows Servers
Action: In the Windows_installation_directory\invsetup.ini file, set the value of the forceDebug parameter to True. Re-execute the Inventory Agent. For more information, see Immediately rescheduling the Inventory Agent by using the policy engine.

Refer to the Windows_installation_directory\invscan\ invagentstrtransfer.log file for additional information. The invagentstrtransfer.log file provides information about the .str transfer.

Action: Ensure that the Scan Collector service is running on the Inventory server. For more information, see Understanding the Inventory Service Manager in Server Inventory in the Novell ZENworks 7 Server Management Administration Guide.

If the Scan Collector service is not running, start the service. For more information, see Understanding the Inventory Service Manager in Server Inventory in the Novell ZENworks 7 Server Management Administration Guide. Then, re-execute the Inventory Agent. For more information, see Immediately rescheduling the Inventory Agent by using the policy engine.

If the Scan Collector service is running and the problem persists, refer to Error Messages and Troubleshooting .Str and .Zip File Transfer.

Successful scans are not reaching the Inventory server

Source: ZENworks Server Management; Server Inventory; Inventory Scanner or Inventory Agent on Windows Servers
Action: Ensure that the Scan Collector service is running on the Inventory server. For more information, see Understanding the Inventory Service Manager in Server Inventory in the Novell ZENworks 7 Server Management Administration Guide.
Action: Ensure that the Scan Collector service is creating .str files in the scandir directory on the Inventory server.
Action: Check the status log for any messages indicating failure in transfer of .str files. For more information, see Error Messages and Troubleshooting .Str and .Zip File Transfer.

Successful scans are not reaching the Inventory database

Source: ZENworks Server Management; Server Inventory; Inventory Scanner or Inventory Agent on Windows Servers
Action: Ensure that the Scan Collector service is running on the Inventory server. For more information, see Understanding the Inventory Service Manager in Server Inventory in the Novell ZENworks 7 Server Management Administration Guide.
Action: Verify whether Selector and Storer are processing .str files in the dbdir directory.

Immediately rescheduling the Inventory Agent by using the policy engine

Source: ZENworks Server Management; Server Inventory; Inventory Scanner or Inventory Agent on Windows Servers
Action: To reschedule the Inventory Agent immediately without waiting for an elapse of the scheduled time:

  • At the ZENworks Server Management console prompt, enter policy refresh or policy enforce all or policy enforce policy number.

  • Ensure that the Inventory Agent is enforced immediately.

Explicitly executing the Inventory scanner without using the policy engine

Source: ZENworks Server Management; Server Inventory; Inventory Scanner or Inventory Agent on Windows Servers
Explanation: You can explicitly execute the Inventory scanner without using the policy engine to verify whether the installed software can report hardware and software inventory of the inventoried server.
Action: Do the following:

  • If the ZENworks 7 Server Management is not running the Inventory Agent or if the Inventory Agent is not being enforced, execute invagentstart.bat.

  • Verify whether invagent.log reports the message “The Inventory Agent's scanning procedure successfully completed.” This message indicates that Inventory scanning is successful on the inventoried server.

Multiple instances of the same Inventory server are reported in the Inventory Scan Listing

Source: ZENworks Server Management; Server Inventory; Inventory Scanner or Inventory Agent on Windows Servers
Explanation: This error occurs if ZENworks 7 Server Management and ZENworks 7 Desktop Management are installed in the same setup, and the Server Management and Desktop Management Inventory agents send the inventory scan results to the same Inventory server.
Possible Cause: The ZENworks Server Management Inventory Agent running on a Windows server retrieves the Inventory server name from the eDirectory or the DNS. When an Inventory server has eDirectory installed, “-NDS” is appended to the server name. For example, if the server name is SYSTST-ZEN-207, the eDirectory name for this server is SYSTST-ZEN-207-NDS.

The ZENworks Server Management Inventory Agent running on the Windows server does not check for the -NDS tag and reports the name of the server with the -NDS tag. But the ZENworks 7 Desktop Management - Inventory Agent reports the name of the Inventory server without the -NDS tag. Consequently, multiple instances of the same Inventory server are stored and reported in Inventory results such as the Inventory Scan Listing report.

Multiple instances of the CD-ROM drive are reported on a Windows 2003 server

Source: ZENworks Server Management; Server Inventory; Inventory Scanner or Inventory Agent on Windows Servers
Explanation: The scanner reports multiple instances of the CD-ROM drive on a Windows 2003 server.
Possible Cause: The CD-ROM drive has not been mounted to a logical drive on the server.
Action: Associate the CD-ROM drive to a logical drive.

After the next scan, the CD-ROM drive instance is reported as a single instance.