Implementing offline agents / offline portable media sectors within ITCM

Products

• CA Client Automation
• CA Client Automation - IT Client Manager

Issue/Introduction

In  prior releases, a feature called "offline portable media sectors" existed. It made it
possible for computers not connected to the network, to be inventoried anyway. This
feature no longer exists within CA Client Automation. Still in highly secured environments,
the need for it may be present to get hardware and software data imported into the
DSM Explorer. 

Environment

Client Automation - r14.5 version

 

Resolution

CA Client Automation does not have offline agent capabilities. However you can use
the NRI (Non Resident Inventory) feature to have an executable collect the inventory of
the offline agent (without actually installing it), then put the resulting .xiu file on a portable
media device (e.g. an USB memory stick) and then copy its contents to the
AssetCollectorCollect folder where it will be processed by the Asset Collector (once this
has been enabled and started).

You can find information on how to do this in the R14.5  CA Client Automation Asset
Management website and  Refer to "Running the NRI Agent from a Login Script" section.
It contains details on how the NRI agent can be executed as a standalone program
(e.g. from an USB stick) rather than from a web page.

The latest software signatures (contained in the W000...XML and W000...ZML files) can
be copied over from the domain manager to the
...\DSM\Web Console\webapps\wac\jsp\ei\wl\windows\packages directory on the
USB Stick. It allows NRI to work with the latest signature definitions if you do want software
signature scanning to take place on the offline agent. Details about this are listed on the
website see link under additional information  and search fro NRI Agent.

 

Additional Information

For more details on configuring the CA Client Automation NRI agent please visit
this website link:
Using NRI from a Network Share or from a USB Device