Use > Data Flow Management > Universal Discovery > Inventory Discovery > Inventory Discovery User Interface > Hardware Data Page

Hardware Data Page

This page enables you select the hardware categories to be collected by the scanner.

Important information

  • By default, most hardware options are selected. Disable specific hardware detection routines if there is a known problem scanning these hardware items. You disable the hardware detection routines for a specific category by clearing the check box next to the item. All other hardware detection will take place as usual.

    For a comprehensive list of hardware data the scanner can collect, click the following link to access the file: DataCollectedByTheScanners.html.

  • The hardware options have equivalent command line options that can be used at run-time.

    For information about scanner command line options, see Scanner Command Line Parameters Overview.

  • General information about the wizard is available in Scanner Generator Wizard.
Wizard map

The Scanner Generator Wizard contains:

Scenario Page >Standard Configuration Page > Collection Page > Hardware Data Page > Software Data Page > Software Details Page > Asset Data Page > Scanner Options Page > Scanners to Generate Page > Generating Scanners Page

Hardware data items are described below:

Category Description

BIOS information

Collects information about the computer BIOS, including the computers asset tag, the BIOS date, ID, manufacturer and revision (where applicable).

  • BIOS extensions. Detects installed BIOS extensions, such as video or SCSI BIOS.
  • SMBIOS. Collects hardware data from System Management BIOS.
  • Plug’n’Play. Provides details of whether the BIOS installed on the computer is Plug and Play compatible. If the BIOS supports Plug and Play specification, the version of the specification is collected.

Note Select these options if you want to collect data for software license compliancy. For more information, see How to Calculate License Compliancy for IBM.

CPU Identification

Identifies the CPU (model), establishes if it has got FPU (numeric coprocessor), MMX (MultiMedia eXtensions) and ISSE/SSIMD capability and reports the speed of the CPU, cache characteristics.

For newer Intel and compatible processors, the manufacturer, model, family and stepping ID are reported.

Select this check box if you want to collect data for software license compliancy. For more information, see How to Calculate License Compliancy for IBM.

Memory

Detects the total amount of memory installed on the computer, including the amount of conventional and extended memory.

  • Swap File data. Collects data about swap files used for virtual memory.

Operating System

Collects information about the operating system and its configuration.

  • Device Driver Data. When this option is enabled, the Windows scanner enumerates all devices to determine which files are used as device drivers. Each file in this list is given the ‘Device Driver’ attribute when stored in the scan file. The device driver option is now disabled by default to increase speed of the hardware scanning.

  • Cluster Data. Collects information about Windows Server Cluster membership. It detects that the machine is part of a cluster, the name and description of the cluster and the list of nodes connected to the cluster.

  • Services. Collects information about installed operating system services.

  • Virtual Machines. Detects whether the scanner is running in VMware, Virtual PC, Terminal Services, Hyper-V, LPAR, vPar, or nPartition. From an asset management point of view, it is important to be able to determine which scanned machines are virtual (for example, so you do not pay too much maintenance for too many machines).

  • Profiles. Collects data about user profiles.

  • OS Registered Applications. Collects data about installed applications that are registered with the operating system. On Windows (pre-Vista), it collects data as displayed by the Add/Remove programs item in the Control Panel. On Windows (Vista and later), it collects data as displayed by the Programs and Features item in the Control Panel. On UNIX, it collects data from the system’s software package manager.

  • Packaged File Data. Collects information about the relationship between the installed applications (packages) and the files that belong to them. When this option is set, it causes the scanner to interrogate the native operating system package manager to retrieve the relationship information. This ensures that the installed package rule-based recognition can correctly recognize the files as belonging to the installed package/application.
 

  • WMI Software Features. Collects the information about installed applications from WMI as stored in the Win32_SoftwareFeature class. The Win32_SoftwareFeature WMI class is not available on the Windows 2003 Server by default. The WMI provider that supports this class is an optional component on Windows 2003 Server, and it is not installed by default. To enable this WMI provider, you must go to Control Panel > Add Remote Programs > Add/Remove Windows Components > Management and Monitoring Tools > WMI Windows Installer Provider and install the WMI Windows Installer Provider component. Once this component is installed, the data collected by WMI Software Features hardware detection becomes available.

  • Containers. Collects data about containers available in the operating system. Currently, this is supported for Solaris zones, HP-UX nPartition/vPar, and AIX LPAR.

  • Software Identification Tags. Collects the information in software identification tag files, which are XML files that consist of identification and management information about a software product. These tag files uniquely identify the software product, providing data for software inventory and asset management. During the hardware detection phase, the Scanner collects the information from software tag files from the common system location, as well as from the top level directory of the application, in the event that software scanning of the installation locations is done. If you do not select the Software Identification Tags check box, the Scanner will not collect any information from tag files during the hardware detection phase. For detailed information, see Software Identification Tags.

  • Running Processes. Collects information about running processes.

    • TCP/IP Connectivity. Collects information about open TCP/IP connections for running processes.

      Note The Running Processes option must be enabled to select this option.

Video

Records details of the Video Display Adapter, which include the adapter type (EGA, XGA, VGA and so on) and model/manufacturer, where possible.

In Windows the current desktop resolution and number of colors are also picked up.

  • DDC Data. When connected to a VESA DDC compliant monitor, collects full monitor information.

I/O Ports

Detects and reports on the number of serial and parallel ports, the I/O address for each, and for serial ports, the UARTs attached.

SCSI / ASPI Detection

Checks for the presence of an ASPI (Advanced SCSI Programming Interface) driver for a SCSI adapter. If the driver is available, the host SCSI adapter name is reported.

  • SCSI/IDE/ATAPI devices. Detects installed devices, such as hard drives, CD-ROMs, tape drives and other such devices. Also detects Serial ATA disks.

  • SCSI/IDE/ATAPI serial numbers. Detects serial numbers of the installed devices (where available). Also detects the serial number of Serial ATA disks.

Network Information

Detects the network configuration, including Logon Name, Workgroup Name, Machine ID, and Domain Name.

Detects information such as multiple network adapters, gateways, DNS servers, subnet masks, DHCP status.

Information about installed network protocols (TCP/IP, NetBIOS/NetBEUI, IPX/SPX) and network addresses is also provided.

  • TCP/IP. Collects information about an installed TCP/IP protocol. This information includes domain, DNS Servers, Node type, NetBIOS Scope ID, WINS proxy status, NetBIOS resolution status.

    Network adapter information (including description, IP address, IP routing status, subnet mask, default gateways, DHCP status, DNS suffix, autoconfiguration status) is also provided.

  • IPX/SPX. Collects information about the IPX/SPX protocol.

  • NetBIOS/NetBeui. Collects information about the NetBIOS or NetBEUI protocol.

  • Shared Devices. Collects information about shared devices, such as disks and printers.

Note In Enterprise Mode,you can disable subsets of network information. However, you should not disable ALL network information.

Keyboard and Mouse

Reports on the type of keyboard attached (extended or normal); whether a mouse is connected and mouse driver is loaded; the mouse brand and version of the driver, number of buttons and type of connection (serial, PS/2, bus).

Disk Drives

Collects advanced information about all attached disk drives. This information includes the type of the drive (floppy disk, hard disk, CD-ROM, network), the type of the file system (FAT, NTFS, HPFS), amount of total and free space, location of the hard drive partitions on the physical hard disk, and so on.

  • Local USB Hard Drives Controls the way USB hard drives are treated. If selected (default setting), the USB hard drives are treated as local hard drives, and their size is counted towards the total and free space on the local hard drives, which is recorded in the hwDiskTotalFreeMB and hwDiskTotalSizeMB hardware fields. If the option is not selected, the USB hard drives are treated as removable drives, and their size are not counted towards the total size. Also, by default, the USB hard drives are not scanned during a “classic” local hard drive scan. However, you can enable scanning by selecting Software Details > Drives > Removable Drives > Other removable drives. This option is currently only applicable to the Windows scanner.

Bus Detection

Detects the architecture of the bus used in the PC:

  • EISA. Detects and reports details of EISA cards.

  • MCA. Detects and reports details of MCA cards.

  • PCI. Detects and reports details of PCI cards.

  • PCMCIA. Detects and reports details of PCMCIA cards.

  • ISA PnP Cards. Detects and reports details of ISA Plug and Play cards.

  • USB Data. Detects and reports details of the USB host adapters, hubs and devices attached to them.

Note If the bus types checked for by the scanner are not available, the tests for checking the cards are not performed.

Peripherals

 Checks for installed peripherals, such as printers, modems and sound cards.

UNIX System Configuration

 Collects UNIX, Linux, and Mac OS X configuration information.

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