Understanding Rolling Up Scan Data Across Servers

The following illustration depicts rolling up the scan data across servers, which is explained below:

If the inventory deployment rolls up scan data across servers, the process of scanning is as follows:

1. The inventory policies in eDirectory define the inventory settings, such as the Inventory Service object name of the Inventory server to which the scan data will be sent, scanning time, whether to include software scanning of inventoried servers, and the software rules for software scan. These settings are customizable.
2. The Scanner uses Policy and Distribution Services to read the inventory policies and collects the inventory information based on the policy settings.
3. The Scanner stores the scanned data (.STR) locally on the inventoried server. This data is transferred to the Inventory server using the XML-RPC protocol.
4. The Scan Collector receives the .STR file using the XML-RPC protocol and stores the .STR file in the scan directory (SCANDIR) at the Inventory server. The Scan Collector uses the ZEN Web Server to process the XML-RPC requests.
5. The Selector validates the .STR file and places the file in the enterprise merge directory (ENTMERGEDIR) for roll-up of scan data. If there is a database attached, the Selector also places the files in the database directory (DBDIR).
6. The Sender on the Inventory server has a Roll-Up policy to identify the Inventory server to which it will transmit the scan data and the Roll-Up schedule specifies the time for roll-up of data. The Sender compresses the .STR files as a .ZIP file and places the .ZIP file in the enterprise push directory (ENTPUSHDIR). The Sender then sends the .ZIP file to the Receiver on the next-level Inventory server.
7. The Receiver on the next-level Inventory server receives the .ZIP file.

   NOTE:  The next-level Inventory server can be located on the same eDirectory tree or on a different eDirectory tree.

   On the Intermediate Server, the Receiver copies the file in the enterprise push directory (ENTPUSHDIR). On the Intermediate Server with Database, or the Intermediate Server with Database and Inventoried Servers, the Receiver places the file in ENTPUSHDIR and places the file to the database directory (DBDIR).

   On the Root Server, or the Root Server with Inventoried Servers, the Receiver copies the file to the DBDIR only.

8. The Storer extracts the .ZIP file containing the .STR files to a temp directory (DBDIR\TEMP) and updates the database with the inventory information of the inventoried server .STR file.
9. The network administrator views the inventory information, and queries the database in ConsoleOne.

The following illustration lists the sequence of scan operations done by each Inventory component: