34.4 Understanding the Components Involved in the Inventory Roll-Up

The Sender on the Inventory servers transfer the scan files from the ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management Inventory server to the ZENworks 7 Server Management or ZENworks 7 Desktop Management Inventory server. The following sections contain more information:

34.4.1 Understanding the Sender

The Sender is a Java component that runs on any ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management server. The Sender is a service loaded by the ZEN Loader.

The flow of information from the Sender in the roll-up of inventory information is as follows:

  1. The ZEN Loader starts the Sender on the Inventory server. At the time specified in the Roll-Up Schedule, the Sender moves the scan data files (.str) from the enterprise merge directory (entmergedir) to the enterprise push directory (entpushdir).

    The Sender compresses these .str files in the \entpushdir directory of the Inventory server as a .zip file and then deletes the .str files. This .zip file is again compressed with the .prp file into a .zip file. The .prp file is an internal file containing information about the .zip file.

  2. Based on the Discard Scan Data Time in the Inventory Service object properties of the Receiver, the Sender deletes the compressed .zip files in the \entpushdir directory that were created earlier than the specified discard scan data time. This removes unwanted scan information being sent in the roll-up.

  3. The Sender sends the compressed .zip files to the Receiver, with the oldest compressed files sent first.

  4. After transferring the .zip file, the Sender deletes the compressed files in the \entpushdir directory.

If the Sender is unable to connect to the Receiver, the Sender retries to connect after 10 seconds. The time interval increases exponentially by a factor of 2. After 14 retries, the Sender stops trying to connect to the Receiver. The Sender retries for approximately 23 hours before it discontinues trying. The Sender does not process any other information while it is establishing the connection.

34.4.2 Understanding the Compressed Scan Data File

The Sender compresses the scan data files (.str) into a .zip file. This .zip file is again compressed with the .prp file into a .zip file. The .zip file (containing the .zip files and .prp) is named using the following naming conventions:

scheduledtime_inventoryservername_treename_storedstatus.zip

where scheduledtime refers to the date and time when the .zip file is created, inventoryservername refers to the Inventory server on which the .zip file was compressed, treename refers to the unique tree name in which the .zip file is currently located, storedstatus refers to the storage status of the .zip file, and zip is the file extension for the compressed files. The storedstatus displays 0, 1, or 2. 0 indicates the .zip file has not yet been stored. 1 indicates the .zip file will be stored for the first time in the Inventory server. 2 indicates the .zip file has already been stored once.

The .zip filename changes depending on if the database is attached to the Inventory server.

The .zip file contains the .zip files and a property file. The property file is named using the following conventions:

scheduledtime_inventoryservername.prp

The property file contains the scheduled time, Inventory server name, and signature. The signature helps to authenticate the .zip file.

Each .zip file can contain a maximum of 50 .str files.