Introduction to Inventory Tools

Analysis Workbench is one of the key components in the inventory process. This is where results are consolidated and quality tested, various analysis tasks are performed and exports of the inventory data are produced.

The basic analysis of data usually consists of viewing and querying three types of information:

• Software files that are recognized as belonging to a particular application.
• Unidentified software and files that may belong to unrecognized applications.
• Hardware and asset data.

Analysis Workbench uses a Software Application Index (SAI) containing application and version descriptions to identify the files found during the inventory. When scan results are loaded, each file is checked against this database and this is how DDM Inventory performs software identification. Any unrecognized files can be tagged for further investigation, and when identified, their details can be added to the SAI file so they will be correctly identified in the future.

Analysis Workbench provides several ways of viewing the data, using a series of different views of results, that is, by machine, applications, file or directories.

All the information required for the analysis and consolidation of data collected for a computer population is contained in the population of scan files created when every computer is scanned.

The Viewer is a stand-alone program aimed at technical support and Help Desk staff who need detailed configuration analysis and diagnostics. (There is also the Scan Data Viewer, available through the web user interface.)

Viewer provides a convenient way of displaying all of the software, hardware and asset information collected for an individual computer, and allows a detailed comparison of two scan files to be performed.

The Viewer quickly and conveniently displays:

• Details of all software scanned, presented in an explorer style view.
• User-entered asset information.
• Detailed and summarized hardware and configuration information.
• The contents of key files collected during the inventory, such as system configuration files (Config.sys and Autoexec.bat).
• Details of all logical drives scanned.
• Details of any applications recognized.

Each scan file is loaded into a new window, enabling multiple scan files to be viewed at the same time. This allows for a direct comparison between two scan files to be made.

Application Recognition

Application recognition is the process of determining what software is installed on a machine. The process takes place after scanning, when a scan file is loaded into the Viewer or Analysis Workbench components, or when it is processed by the XML Enricher.

The recognition process is driven by a Recognition Engine built into the components mentioned previously, which makes use of the Application Library supplied with the product. The Application Library stores the information required by the Recognition Engine to determine which applications are installed on a machine. It is updated on a regular basis.

Application Recognition is always done using one or more SAI (Software Application Index) files. DDM Inventory ships with 5 Master SAI files (containing libraries for English/International, French and German applications, UNIX® applications, and a rule-based SAI containing rules for base UNIX/Linux OS packages), as well as an empty User SAI.

To extend the application library, the simplest way is to use Analysis Workbench or SAI Editor to add entries to the User SAI.

The SAI Editor presents a view of Software Application Index (SAI) files. It enables you to:

• View and edit a collection of SAI files
• Create new User SAIs
• Move and Copy items between SAIs (you can only edit User SAIs)
• Delete items in SAIs
• Export the contents of an SAI to XML format, either as a summary or the entire contents.
• Display license relationships.
• Add and edit existing license relationships.

The SAI Editor is available as a standalone tool from the Start menu or from Analysis Workbench, where it can be used to review and edit work on SAIs during a teaching session.

If the SAIs change on the Data Flow Probe server, the Administrator must update the SAIs on all systems that have the client tools installed.