What's New in Workstation Inventory

ZfD 4 introduces the following new features for Workstation Inventory:

• Workstation Inventory no longer depends on the Novell Client.
• Roll-up of inventory information across eDirectory trees.
• Roll-up of inventory information across firewall.
• Support for the Inventory database on MS SQL Server 2000.

  ZfD 4 allows the Inventory database to be configured for an MS SQL Server 2000 setup in your network. For more information, see Setting Up the Inventory Database for MS SQL Server 2000 in Setting Up Workstation Inventory in the ZENworks for Desktops 4 Administration Guide.

• Support for scanning for the user-defined attributes.

  ZfD 4 lets you collect workstation information that is not part of the default hardware inventory. The Inventory scanner uses the Inventory database to store the user-defined attributes and the corresponding values along with the non-user-defined inventory attribute of the class in the Inventory database. For more information, see Customizing the Hardware Inventory Scanning of Inventoried Workstations in Customizing the Inventory Information in Managing Inventory Information in the ZENworks for Desktops 4 Administration Guide.

• Support for scanning of the product identification number of the Microsoft applications installed on the workstations.
• Support for scanning of the approximate installation path of the applications installed on the workstations

  The Inventory scanner scans for the approximate installation path of the product executables that are installed on the workstations and stores the scan data in the Inventory database as the product location. If an application has more than one component and the components are installed to many levels of subdirectories, the Inventory scanner will scan for the path that is common to all the components.

• Support for configuring Microsoft's Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and Desktop Management Interface (DMI) scanning and reporting.
• You can view the scan status of the workstation in eDirectory and the Inventory database from a specified time.
• Interoperability with ZENworks for Servers 3 (ZfS 3) Support Pack 1 (SP1).
• Predefined reports to filter the workstation inventory information from the Inventory database through Seagate* Crystal Reports*.
• Scans hardware and software information for all workstations that are registered to eDirectory but are temporarily disconnected from your network.

  If the Inventory scanner is scheduled to collect the inventory for a workstation that is registered to eDirectory but not connected to the network, the Inventory scanner will wait until the workstation is reconnected to the network. After the workstation is reconnected, the Inventory scanner will collect the inventory of the workstation and will update the information to the Inventory database.

  This helps the administrator to gather the inventory for the users who connect to the network less frequently but want their machines to be inventoried.