About Running Inventory Policies and Tasks on Windows Computers Using InvSoln.exe
InvSoln.exe
Inventory Solution provides the utility
InvSoln.exe
that lets you run inventory policies and tasks on managed Windows computers. You may need to initiate inventory scans on managed Windows computers in the following cases:- You want to re-run inventory policies and tasks according to your needs. You want to initiate inventory scans and view the progress window during the inventory scans.
- You need to troubleshoot the problems that may arise when you run inventory policies or tasks from the Notification Server computer.For example, Symantec support can quickly gather the inventory on Windows computers to diagnose any inventory data class issue.
Note that to gather inventory correctly the user running InvSoln.exe needs to have local administrator rights.
When you install Inventory Solution, the Inventory Plug-in saves the
InvSoln.exe
utility and the default task configuration files for the predefined inventory policies to the following locations on managed Windows computers:- InvSoln.exeis located at%ProgramFiles%\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Inventory Agent
- The default task configuration files are located at%ProgramFiles%\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Inventory Agent\InvTaskConfig
After a predefined inventory policy runs on a Windows client computer, the corresponding task configuration file is replaced in its location by the reference for policy configuration with the same policy name. The actual policy configuration is associated with this reference.
You can use
InvSoln.exe
to collect inventory on client computers with predefined or custom inventory policies and tasks.To run the predefined inventory policies on Windows client computers with the
InvSoln.exe
utility, run the following commands at the command prompt:Command | Description |
|---|---|
InvSoln.exe /dhi | The command to run the predefined policy Collect Delta Hardware Inventory . |
InvSoln.exe /dswi | The command to run the predefined policy Collect Delta Software Inventory . |
InvSoln.exe /fi | The command to run the predefined policy Collect Full Inventory . |
InvSoln.exe /dsi | The command to run the predefined policy Collect Delta Server Inventory .Note that the command runs inventory collection only when the Inventory Pack for Servers Plug-in is installed on client computers. |
InvSoln.exe /fsi | The command to run the predefined policy Collect Full Server Inventory .Note that the command runs inventory collection only when the Inventory Pack for Servers Plug-in is installed on client computers. |
You can modify the predefined policy on the Notification Server computer. After Inventory Plug-in or Inventory Pack for Servers Plug-in receives and runs the modified policy, the default task configuration of the predefined policy gets overwritten on managed Windows computers. You can then use the default commands to run the modified predefined policies.
When the predefined policy runs on managed Windows computers, the progress window for gathering inventory does not appear by default. To view the progress window during the inventory scan, you can run the
/p true
command-line switch at the command prompt. To hide the progress window during the inventory scan, you can run the /p false
command line switch at the command prompt. By specifying the /p true
or /p false
command line options, you update the configuration of the policy or task, and save it for future use.For example, to run the
Collect Delta Hardware Inventory
policy and view the progress window, you run the following command:InvSoln.exe /dhi /p true
To view the details of other available command-line options, you can run one of the following commands at the command-prompt:
InvSoln.exe /?
InvSoln.exe /Help
You can create a new inventory policy or task on the Notification Server computer. When you configure the policy or task, you specify the managed Windows computers to which the policy or task applies. After the Plug-in receives and runs the new policy or task, the reference for the configuration of the policy or task is saved to the following location on managed Windows computers:
%ProgramFiles%
\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Inventory Agent\InvTaskConfigFor example, if you create a policy
Select HW Data classes
, the Plug-in saves the reference for policy configuration Select HW Data classes.xml
. If you create a Gather Inventory
task, the Plug-in saves the reference for task configuration Gather Inventory.xml
.You can use the
InvSoln.exe
utility and the saved reference to run the newly created inventory policy or task on managed Windows computers, and then view the progress window. To do this, you run the following command at the command-prompt:InvSoln.exe /i "
%ProgramFiles%
\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Inventory Agent\InvTaskConfig\%reference-file-name%
" /p trueFor example, to run the
Select HW Data classes
policy and view the progress window, you run the following command:InvSoln.exe /i "
%ProgramFiles%
\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Inventory Agent\InvTaskConfig\Select HW Data classes.xml" /p trueTo run the
Gather Inventory
task and hide the progress window, you run the following command:InvSoln.exe /i "
%ProgramFiles%
\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Inventory Agent\InvTaskConfig\Gather Inventory.xml" /p false