Editing Agent Configuration Scheduling Options and Flagging Outdated Agents
The Scheduling section of an agent configuration:
|
•
|
Managed the timing of inventory collection by locally-installed inventory agents |
|
•
|
Provides options to an agent's inventory status as “outdated” if it does not report back, based on criteria you set in this section. |
The schedule controls inventory collection on all policy-driven computers in your fleet. Here, policy-driven means that the inventory agent is installed on the computer and uploads locally collected inventory to its preferred inventory beacon. These installed agents also check with any accessible inventory beacon for any change to their existing device policy, asking early each morning at a time randomized across a one-hour window. Schedule changes are delivered through device policy.
Note:There are two exceptions where the schedule you define here does not apply:
|
•
|
The schedule for remote inventory collection (also called zero footprint inventory collection) is separately controlled in inventory rules (navigate to Discovery & Inventory > Discovery and Inventory Rules). The same rules also control the timing of the adoption process, where the FlexNet inventory agent can be automatically installed on a computer for local inventory gathering. Once it is installed, however, each FlexNet inventory agent executes local inventory gathering on the schedule you set here. |
|
•
|
The schedule for inventory collection from worker nodes (computers) within a Kubernetes cluster is separately specified within the configuration file (in the YAML language, as described in Download Flexera Kubernetes Inventory Agent and subsequent topics) that is loaded by the installation script into each OCI container registry. The default timing for inventory from worker nodes is once each 24 hours, and this is not affected by settings on this page. |
Tip:The schedule for remote inventory collection (also called zero footprint inventory collection) is separately controlled in inventory rules (navigate to Data Collection > IT Assets Inventory Tasks > Discovery and Inventory Rules). The same rules also control the timing of the adoption process, where the Inventory Agent can be automatically installed on a computer for local inventory gathering. Once it is installed, however, each Inventory Agent executes local inventory gathering on the schedule you set here.
To edit scheduling options:
|
1.
|
Navigate to the Agent Configurations screen (Data Collection > IT Visibility Inventory Tasks > Agent Configurations). |
The Agent Configurations screen appears.
|
2.
|
Click the agent configuration tile to edit its configuration. |
The selected agent configuration appears.
|
3.
|
On the default General tab, click Edit at the far right of the Scheduling section. |
The Scheduling options open.
|
4.
|
In the Frequency dropdown, specify Daily, Weekly or Monthly. Note the following: |
|
|
|
|
Once
|
If choose Once, this is a single-shot trigger for inventory collection the next time the declared time window occurs (you cannot nominate a future date). For example, if it is currently 4pm and you set a Once schedule for 8am, commencing Within 4 hours, inventory collection normally occurs the next morning.
|
|
Daily
|
If choose Daily, an additional dropdown list—Every—appears so that you can choose the pattern of days you want. This extends the time intervals between inventory collection in multiples of 24 hours. For example, you may wish to trigger inventory collection every second day, in which case you’d specify: Every 2 days.
The starting time is specified in conjunction with the Within time frame following the next occurrence of your Start time setting after the changed schedule is distributed (and received by each installed FlexNet inventory agent). For example:
|
•
|
Within is set to 2 hours. |
|
•
|
Time is set to 8:00 am. |
Let’s assume you saved your schedule at noon today. Keep in mind that, by default, the inventory beacon policy is distributed every 15 minutes.
Each inventory agent chooses a random time within a one-hour window from 5am local time to request any policy (and schedule) changes. Most devices therefore start using the changed schedules tomorrow morning, assuming the schedule was defined after 5am local time.
In short, the setting applies individually to each installed inventory agent, and does not synchronize the activities of all agents across your enterprise to identical days.
|
|
Weekly
|
New check boxes appear that allow you to choose specific days within the weekly cycle when inventory should be collected. For example, you may want collection on Sunday and Wednesday every week. Check the boxes for the days you prefer.
|
|
Monthly
|
When you select Monthly, new controls appear that allow you to specify a pattern within the month:
|
•
|
Choose the option for On day to nominate a particular day within the month (such as the third Saturday). Make your choices from the two dropdown lists adjacent. Notice that the option Last chooses the fifth occurrence in months long enough to have one, and otherwise takes the fourth occurrence. |
|
•
|
Choose the option for On date to nominate the calendar date within the month. |
|
|
5.
|
If you chose Daily, Weekly, or Monthly, complete the additional settings for these patterns, using the additional controls that appear and as described in the table above for each option. |
|
6.
|
For any of the first four options described above, edit the Time value appropriately by typing the value in the Time field and then selecting AM or PM. |
|
7.
|
When available, use the two Within controls to define the time window within which each Inventory Agent should randomize the collection of inventory. You may define a period in either minutes or hours. |
|
8.
|
Use the Minimum interval between successful runs setting to limit the number of repetitions after a successful inventory collection run. |
Tip:This control only affects normal inventory collection. The high-frequency inventory required for sub- capacity licensing with IBM PVU licenses is not affected (see IBM High-Frequency Scanning).
|
9.
|
Use the Run last missed event setting as follows: |
|
•
|
Clear the check box if the installed Inventory Agents should always look forward, and never attempt to catch up on a missed trigger. |
|
•
|
Setting the check box means that, on start-up of the Inventory Agent (for example, if the adopted computer is powered up or rebooted), it looks back for a trigger specified by its current rules and, if it finds any that have not been run yet, it runs one inventory gathering now. Only one catch up is used, regardless of the count of missed triggers. |
This setting is useful, for example, when you have a scheduled inventory collection on Sundays. With this check box set, any machine powered down on Sunday will catch up as soon as it is restarted.
|
10.
|
In the Inventory Agent Status section, you can determine whether to flag an agent's inventory status as “outdated” if it does not report back. Choose one of the following options: |
|
•
|
Do not change status—Select this option to leave the agent status as is. The agent status will not be flagged as outdated despite not reporting back. |
|
•
|
After—Choose this option to flag the agent status as outdated after the specified number of inventory periods. Choose either of the After checkboxes that corresponds with the criteria you wish to set: |
|
•
|
After a specified number of scheduled inventory periods go by, then flag the agent status as outdated. |
|
•
|
After a specified number of minutes, hours or days (as selected by the dropdown field) go by, then flag the agent status as outdated. |
|
11.
|
Click Save to commit your changes. |