Configuring Inventory for Unix, Linux and Macintish 7.x to gather software inventory

Products

• Client Management Suite
• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

By default, Inventory for ULM gathers inventory for native software packages, i.e., Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) packages, but it does not gather normal software inventory.

Each task/policy must be configured to gather software inventory. 

Resolution

1. Browse to the desired inventory task or policy.

2. On the main screen, enable both ‘Software’ (to gather native packages) and ‘File properties'.

3. In the Advanced Options window open the File Properties Scan Settings tab then the Files tab (figure 1). Create a new rule that states 'Platform equals Linux (or other appropriate ULM platform) AND Permissions equals Execute'. 

Figure 1. To add an include rule to an inventory task or policy to inventory ULM software, first make sure that Software and File properties are checked (arrow 1). Next click Advanced (arrow 2), and in the Advanced Options window open the File Properties Scan Settings tab (arrow 3) and the Files tab (arrow 4) within it. Click Include Rule (arrow 5), and in the Include file rules window define a rule that states 'Platform equals Linux' (or Unix or Mac, arrow 6). Click Add Rule (arrow 7), click AND, and define another rule that states 'Where Permissions equals Execute' (arrow 8). Finally click OK (arrow 9).

4. Run the task/policy.

5. After it completes, the data is stored in the Inv_Installed_File_Details table in the SQL database.

6. View the inventoried executable files with an SQL query such as this: 

select vItem.Name, IFD.Name, IFD.Path, IFD.ModifiedTime from Inv_Installed_File_Details IFD
left join vitem on IFD._ResourceGuid = vitem.Guid

Or import the attached custom report containing this query (Symantec does not support custom reports but this article may be helpful for modifying this report: HOWTO62993).

7. If managed software products are desired for compiled Unix and Linux programs such as Government-off-the-Shelf (GOTS) software, it is necessary to manually create Software Releases containing the inventoried executable file for each program.

a. Manually obtain a copy of the desired program's executable file from an inventoried computer and save a copy of it locally on the NS/SMP server.

b. Add a new software release in the Software Catalog, giving it an appropriate name, version, and company for the program, then add the locally saved executable file.

c. To create a new software release in the Console go to Manage>Software Catalog and click Create Release. In the window that opens give the software an appropriate title, version, and company, then open the File Inventory tab, then click Add Local file... and browse to the executable file that was copied from an inventoried machine.

d. In the Software Catalog move the new software release to Managed Software Products. Future inventories will associate this software product to all machines that have its executable file and this information can be viewed in the Installed Software report (Reports>Discovery and Inventory>Inventory>Cross-platform>Software/Applications>Software>Installed Software) and also in the Installed Software by Computer report.