Zero-Footprint: Troubleshooting Inventory

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

Inventory gathering and upload is a sophisticated chain from target inventory device through inventory beacon to central application server. For general trouble-shooting over the whole process, see the online help for IT Asset Management under Inventory Beacons > Inventory Beacon Reference > Troubleshooting: Inventory Not Uploading. This topic focuses entirely on inventory collection on the target inventory device.

When you use Zero-footprint inventory collection, the normal log files for the ndtrack executable are saved on the target inventory device:
  • On Windows platforms, in C:\Windows\temp\ManageSoft\tracker.log
  • On UNIX-like platforms, in /var/tmp/flexera/log (when the executable was invoked by the root account, as recommended) or /var/tmp/flexera.UserName/log (when invoked by the UserName account).

For advanced trouble-shooting, you may require more advanced tracing and logging. You may also be asked to submit a trace file to assist the Support team at Flexera to solve difficult problems in your environment.

By default, tracing is not available with Zero-footprint inventory gathering. However, with some custom preparation, you can set up for, and control, tracing with a .trace configuration file of your own. Even though Zero-footprint inventory gathering is triggered from the inventory beacon, the configuration file and the resulting log(s) all reside on the target inventory device.

To set up and configure tracing for Zero-footprint inventory gathering:

  1. Obtain a copy of an etcp.trace file from an installed FlexNet Inventory Agent on another device.
    Where the full FlexNet Inventory Agent has been installed on a target device, the etcp.trace file is located with the ndtrack executable:
    • On Windows, the default is C:\Program Files (x86)\ManageSoft\etcp.trace
    • On UNIX-like platforms, the default is /opt/managesoft/etcp.trace.
    Because this file format is consistent across platforms, you may take your copy of etcp.trace from any inventory device where the full FlexNet Inventory Agent is installed.
  2. On a Windows target device, there are two options:
    • Rename the etcp.trace file as ndtrack.trace, and save the ndtrack.trace file in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Flexera Software\Inventory Beacon\RemoteExecution\Public\Inventory directory on the beacon server.
    • Create the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft, add the string value InstallDir, and set the value to the full path to the directory where you have saved etcp.trace.
      Note: The agent uses a trace file named ndtrack.trace instead of etcp.trace when InstallDir and ETCPInstallDir are not defined in the HKLM\Software\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft registry key.
  3. Configure the name and location of the trace/log file that will be generated on the inventory device.
    The hash or pound character (#) identifies a comment. To "uncomment" a line in the .trace configuration file means to delete (only) the leading hash character. Choose one of the following lines, uncomment it, and optionally modify it to your requirements. On Windows:
    #filename=C:\ManageSoft.log
#filename=C:\ManageSoft%p_%d_%t_%u.log	# filename pattern with everything!
    On UNIX-like platforms:
    #filename=/tmp/log/mgstrace.log
#filename=/tmp/log/ManageSoft%p_%d_%t_%u.log # filename pattern with everything!
    See the notes within the file header for the use of the supported variables within the file name.
    Tip: It is best practice to use a pattern that includes (at least) either a date stamp (%d) or a sequential number (%u). Without these, the fixed file name means tracing information is appended to the same file with every inventory collection. This can quickly produce a trace file too large for text editors to read, and too hard to manage in terms of disk space. Variables in the file name trigger creation of a new file each time the associated variable is changed (or, for %u, at every invocation of ndtrack).
    Important: The log file path:
    • Must be on the same drive as the ndtrack executable (on Windows devices)
    • Must exist and be writable before the ndtrack executable is next invoked (tracing does not create any directories, and does not function if any directory in the specified path is missing or unwritable).
  4. Uncomment the lines for which you want to enable tracing (ensuring that the uncommented line now starts with a plus sign).
    For Zero-footprint inventory gathering, the typical lines to uncomment are:
    +Inventory
+Error
+Communication/Network
When Zero-footprint inventory gathering is invoked on the inventory beacon, it creates the log file on the target inventory device as you specified, ready for your inspection.

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

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