3.6 Using the Portable Collector

The Portable Collector is a standalone application that is used to inventory devices that rarely connect to the server or devices that do not have the ZENworks Adaptive Agent installed. This data can then be imported into the Inventoried device list. When the data is imported, you can view and edit it just as you would an inventoried device. The Portable Collector can be run on Windows and OSX devices. The procedure is as follows:

  1. Create the Portable Collector.

  2. Run the Portable Collector on a device.

  3. Copy the inventory data to a portable media.

  4. Upload the inventory data into ZENworks Control Center.

For more information, see the following:

3.6.1 Creating the Portable Collector for a Windows Device

  1. Configure an Inventory Only scan.

    The Inventory Only scan settings are used when you create the Portable Collector. If you want the Portable Collector to scan for software files, for example, that option must be selected on the Inventory Only configuration page. For information on configuring an Inventory Only scan, see Section 3.1, Configuring an Inventory Only Scan.

  2. Click Devices.

  3. In the Device Tasks list, click Create Portable Client.

  4. Save the file to disk.

  5. Uncompress the file and continue with Section 3.6.2, Running the Portable Collector on a Windows Device.

3.6.2 Running the Portable Collector on a Windows Device

  1. Create the Portable Collector as shown in Section 3.6.1, Creating the Portable Collector for a Windows Device.

  2. Copy the Portable Collector files to a removable media, such as a CD or flash drive.

  3. Take the Portable Collector to the device you want to inventory, then run collect.bat.

    To see the available switches, type /? on the command line.

  4. Copy the inventory data files onto a removable media, then take it to a device connected to ZENworks Control Center.

  5. Continue with Section 3.6.4, Importing Data Gathered with the Portable Collector.

3.6.3 Running the Portable Collector on an OSX Device

  1. Navigate to https://ZENworks_Server_ID/zenworks-setup/ (where ZENworks_Server_ID is the DNS name or IP address of a Primary Server).

  2. Click Inventory Tools.

  3. Click osxportable.dmg to download it to the desktop.

  4. Uncompress osxportable.dmg.

  5. Create a temporary folder to run the portable scan from.

  6. Copy the contents of osxportable, which is found in /Volumes/osxportable, to the temporary folder.

  7. Close (eject) the osxportable image.

  8. Open a terminal window.

    You must be a user with administrative privileges.

  9. Run sudo ./zenumia-portable /full/path/to/output/directory.

    The WIF file (<xxx>.xml) will be written there. This file contains the device’s inventory data. It will be convenient for the output directory to be accessible by a Windows device. Or you can copy the file and put it on a device connected to the ZENworks Control Center.

  10. When the scan finishes, remove the temporary directory you created in Step 5 and the file osxportable.dmg that you downloaded in Step 3.

  11. Import the file into ZENworks Control Center as shown in Section 3.6.4, Importing Data Gathered with the Portable Collector.

  12. Remove the inventory data file.

3.6.4 Importing Data Gathered with the Portable Collector

  1. In ZENworks Control Center, click Devices.

  2. In the Device Tasks list, click Import Inventory.

  3. In the File Path for inventory scan file field, specify the filename of the inventoried data, or click Browse to search.

  4. Click OK.

    The inventoried device appears in the device lists in Devices > Inventoried, where you can click the device name and see the inventory data.