Solved: Issue with Last Inventory Date

FatenAris · ‎Mar 04, 2021

Hello,

Can someone please help me understand the discrepancy between the last inventory date of Oracle Instances and the last inventory date of the last inventory source?

Thank you.

Regards,

Faten

erwinlindemann · ‎Mar 05, 2021

Hi Faten,

Inventory on a device is usually collected by an agent. The agent can be the Flexera agent, but could also be another agent like SCCM. The inventory date is when the agent did run and collected these data. We often refer to these data as hardware, installer, file and WMI evidence.

The Oracle inventory date is when an Oracle database has been scanned by SQL scripts.

There are two alternatives for collecting Oracle inventory data:

When a Flexera agent detects an Oracle database on the device when collecting hardware and software inventory data, it will try to execute the Oracle GLAS (LMS) SQL scripts on the Oracle database for collecting the Oracle specific inventory data. This is often referred to as 'Oracle introspection'.
There also is the traditional way of collecting Oracle inventory data remotely by executing the Oracle GLAS (LMS) SQL scripts from a Beacon. This is more complex to configure and will require creating a dedicated Oracle account on each Oracle database that needs to be configured in the Beacon password store. It also requires an Oracle client that is compatible with all Oracle databases to be scanned to be installed on the Beacon, and the typical Oracle IP ports to (default 1521) to be open between the Beacon and the target Oracle databases. Because of this complexity, most companies prefer installing a Flexera agent on their Oracle servers these days.

For the first scanning option, the Inventory date and the Oracle Inventory date can be different for example if the Oracle database is not running when the Flexera agent runs on a device. In these cases, the Inventory date will be more recent than the Oracle inventory date. Generally, if the Oracle database is scanned by the Flexera agent, both dates should be consistent though. In case your Oracle Inventory date is much older than your Inventory date, there potentially is an issue with scanning the Oracle database that you should look into.

In case the Oracle database scanning is done remotely (second option), the timing for collecting hardware and software information by an agent and the timing for scanning Oracle databases remotely is configured independently. In this case, both dates will generally be different.

View solution in original post

erwinlindemann · ‎Mar 05, 2021

Hi Faten,

Inventory on a device is usually collected by an agent. The agent can be the Flexera agent, but could also be another agent like SCCM. The inventory date is when the agent did run and collected these data. We often refer to these data as hardware, installer, file and WMI evidence.

The Oracle inventory date is when an Oracle database has been scanned by SQL scripts.

There are two alternatives for collecting Oracle inventory data:

When a Flexera agent detects an Oracle database on the device when collecting hardware and software inventory data, it will try to execute the Oracle GLAS (LMS) SQL scripts on the Oracle database for collecting the Oracle specific inventory data. This is often referred to as 'Oracle introspection'.
There also is the traditional way of collecting Oracle inventory data remotely by executing the Oracle GLAS (LMS) SQL scripts from a Beacon. This is more complex to configure and will require creating a dedicated Oracle account on each Oracle database that needs to be configured in the Beacon password store. It also requires an Oracle client that is compatible with all Oracle databases to be scanned to be installed on the Beacon, and the typical Oracle IP ports to (default 1521) to be open between the Beacon and the target Oracle databases. Because of this complexity, most companies prefer installing a Flexera agent on their Oracle servers these days.

For the first scanning option, the Inventory date and the Oracle Inventory date can be different for example if the Oracle database is not running when the Flexera agent runs on a device. In these cases, the Inventory date will be more recent than the Oracle inventory date. Generally, if the Oracle database is scanned by the Flexera agent, both dates should be consistent though. In case your Oracle Inventory date is much older than your Inventory date, there potentially is an issue with scanning the Oracle database that you should look into.

In case the Oracle database scanning is done remotely (second option), the timing for collecting hardware and software information by an agent and the timing for scanning Oracle databases remotely is configured independently. In this case, both dates will generally be different.