Customizing Hardware Inventory Operations: Hardware Tab

The Update Hardware Inventory operation enables you to collect information on the hardware on Client PCs and store it in your Site database. Use the Hardware tab of the Customize Hardware Inventory dialog to specify how the operation treats the inventory results. You can also use it to customize the Get User Data operation, which is a variant of the Update Hardware Inventory operation.

To specify the storage options for hardware inventory data:

1    Right-click an Update Hardware Inventory operation or the Get User Data operation, and choose Customize from the shortcut menu.

2    Select the Hardware tab.

3    To automatically display the hardware inventory results on screen when you run the operation interactively, select Display hardware inventory results. (This check box has no effect when the operation is submitted as a job.)

4    To save the hardware inventory data to the Site database in compacted format, select Save results to the database in binary format.

5    To save uncompacted hardware inventory data to the Site database, select Save results to the database in text format.

6    By default, Vector AM overwrites the current hardware inventory data in the Site database when you save the results of a Hardware Inventory operation. If you want to retain previous inventory data for comparison purposes, enter the period for which you want to retain the data in the Data expiry field.

7    User prompt files request information directly from users and their PCs. To send new user prompt files to the selected Client PCs when you run this operation, select Refresh user prompt questions, enter the location and name of the prompt file in the User prompt reference path and file field, and click Reload.

8    If you have implemented Active Directory and want to collect information on the organizational units to which your Clients belong, select Collect organizational unit data. To automatically create dynamic groups that correspond to the organizational units identified by Vector AM, select Create groups to match organizational units. (Note that you must select Save results to the database in text format to enable this option.)

9    Select the Reporting tab to configure the operation to generate reports when it is run, or click OK to save your changes and close the dialog.

Notes

Hardware inventory operations collect group information only for the domain that the Console belongs to. This means that Consoles that belong to separate domains can display different Active Directory groups.

Related Topics

Distributing User Prompt Questions

Modifying User Prompt Files