Overview of the Stand-Alone VMware Inventory Agent

The stand-alone VMware inventory agent has been designed to remotely collect VMware (ESX or vCenter) inventory when you cannot use any of the inventory collection methods recommended by Flexera. You can deploy this agent on any computer with Windows desktop (Windows 7 or higher) or Server (2008 or 2012) edition. To collect VMware inventory, the agent needs credentials for an account with read access to VMware SDK URL on each of the target VMware servers. When you run the agent after configuring it with the details of the target VMware servers, the agent collects VMware inventory using API calls. The collected information is saved to a configured location from where it can be uploaded to IT Asset Management for license consumption calculations. The following diagram illustrates the process of VMware inventory collection through the stand-alone VMware Inventory agent:

To collect VMware inventory through the stand-alone VMware inventory agent, complete the following steps:

1. Verify the prerequisites. See Prerequisites for the Stand-Alone VMware Inventory Agent.
2. Deploy the inventory agent. See Deploying the Stand-Alone VMware Inventory Agent.
3. Configure the inventory agent. See Configuring the Stand-Alone VMware Inventory Agent.
4. Collect VMware inventory. See Collecting Inventory with the Stand-Alone VMware Inventory Agent.
5. Export the collected inventory to IT Asset Management. See Exporting Inventory to IT Asset Management.
6. (Optional) Uninstall the inventory agent. See Uninstalling the Stand-Alone VMware Inventory Agent.