Well it is finally available. The custom inventory scan is one of the features that existing Tivoli Configuration Manager (TCM) customers required in TPM before they could move to using TPM completely (yes there are still more, but this was pretty important)
A while back, I created a blog entry on creating custom inventory scans with TCM (see http://blog.gulfsoft.com/2008/03/custom-inv-scan.html) that I thought I would look at moving to TPM. This is a basic VBS script that will read in a registry key and record to the values to a MIF file. This MIF file is then imported into the DCM and can be used in a query from the Reports section of the TPM UI.
The steps involved are:
1. Define the requirements for the data to determine table columns
2. Create the table
3. Create the pre and post scripts to create the output file (can be MIF or XML)
4. Create the inventory extension properties file and import
5. Deploy the scripts to the target
6. Run the custom discovery created by the import in step 3
7. Run the custom report created by the import in step 3
Define Requirements
For this sample, the requirements for the data to be inserted are the Registry Hive, Key(s) and Value.
Create the TableThe table will be made up of the requirements defined above and columns to uniquely identify the computer and discovery id. Also the fix pack documentation recommends adding foreign keys for cascade deletes. For this example, I set the various fields to VARCHAR and defined a possible length for them. I also assigned it to the tablespace IBM8KSPACE, well, just because I felt like it ;)
Table Creation Syntax for DB2create table db2admin.registrydata1(REG_PATH VARCHAR(256), REG_VALUE VARCHAR(32), REG_DATA VARCHAR(128)) in IBM8KSPACE;
alter table db2admin.registrydata add column SERVER_ID BIGINT;
alter table db2admin.registrydata add column DISCOVERY_ID BIGINT;
alter table db2admin.registrydata add foreign key (SERVER_ID) references db2admin.SERVER(SERVER_ID) on DELETE CASCADE;
alter table db2admin.registrydata add foreign key (DISCOVERY_ID) references db2admin.DISCOVERY(DISCOVERY_ID) on DELETE CASCADE;
Create the pre and post scriptsOne of the possible issues is around passing arguments to the scripts, but then again, this was not that easy in TCM. The examples in the FP docs do not talk about passing arguments in the extension properties file (discussed in the next step). From the limited testing I did, this does not seem possible.
The pre script will be used to generate the MIF file to be retrieved. One issue I have with the pre script is that it does not accept arguments. So this means that to execute the VBS script that I want to use, I have to create a wrapper BAT file to pass the arguments.
The post script does not really need to do anything. It could be as simple as just an exit 0.
prescript.windows.bat
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cscript //nologo c:\test\registrydata.vbs "Software\Martin" c:\test\regdata.windows.mif
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postscript.windows.bat
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echo Running post script
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regdata.windows.mif (sample output)
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START COMPONENT
NAME = "REGISTRY VALUE DATA"
DESCRIPTION = "List registry value and data entries"
START GROUP
NAME = "REGISTRYDATA"
ID = 1
CLASS = "DMTF|REGISTRYDATA|1.0"
START ATTRIBUTE
NAME = "REG_PATH"
ID = 1
ACCESS = READ-ONLY
TYPE = STRING(256)
VALUE = ""
END ATTRIBUTE
START ATTRIBUTE
NAME = "REG_VALUE"
ID = 2
ACCESS = READ-ONLY
TYPE = STRING(32)
VALUE = ""
END ATTRIBUTE
START ATTRIBUTE
NAME = "REG_DATA"
ID = 3
ACCESS = READ-ONLY
TYPE = STRING(128)
VALUE = ""
END ATTRIBUTE
KEY = 1,2,3
END GROUP
START TABLE
NAME = "REGISTRYDATA"
ID = 1
CLASS = "DMTF|REGISTRYDATA|1.0"
{"Software\\Martin","test","test"}
{"Software\\Martin","test1","test1"}
END TABLE
END COMPONENT
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Create the inventory extension properties file The extension file is used to define the table that is used to define various properties required to populate TPM with the definition, tables, scripts and output file to be used in the discovery process. The properties file for this example is as follows:
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#name the extension
extName=REGISTRYDATA
#Description of the extension
extDescription=GBS Collect Registry data
#Custom Table Names
TABLE_1.NAME=REGISTRYDATA
#file for Windows platform
WINDOWS=yes
pre_windows=C:\\test\\prescript.windows.bat
out_windows=c:\\test\\regdata.windows.mif
post_windows=c:\\test\\postscript.windows.bat
==============================================
extName is used to define the DCM object name for the new extension.
extDescription is used in the description field for the discovery configuration and report (if created)
Multiple table names can be used by using sequential numbers after the TABLE_. For the purposes of this demo, only one table is used
Operating system flags – This can be defined for WINDOWS, AIX, HPUX, SOLARIS and LINUX
Pre/Post scripts and Output files – are used for each operating system. Used the prefixes pre_, out_ and post_ with the OS definitions of windows, aix, hpux, solaris and/or linux
Save the file as whatever naming convention is desired. For the purposes of this example the file was created in C:\IBM\tivoli\custom\inventory\registrydata\registrydata.properties
Import the properties fileTo import the properties, use the command %TIO_HOME%\tools\inventoryExtension.cmd. This command can be used to create, delete and list inventory extensions. The syntax used for this example was:
inventoryExtention.cmd create –p C:\IBM\tivoli\custom\inventory\registrydata\registrydata.properties –r yes
The “p” parameter defines the file to be used and the “-r yes” is used to tell the import to also create the custom report for the inventory extension.
Command Output:
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C:\IBM\tivoli\tpm\tools>inventoryExtension.cmd create -p C:\IBM\tivoli\custom\inventory\registrydata\registrydata.properties -r yes
2008-12-30 09:59:03,890 INFO log4j configureAndWatch is started with configura
ion file: C:\ibm\tivoli\tpm/config/log4j-util.prop
2008-12-30 09:59:04,062 INFO COPINV006I Parsing the command line arguments ...
2008-12-30 09:59:04,796 INFO COPINV007I ... command line arguments parsed.
2008-12-30 09:59:04,796 INFO COPINV008I Start processing ...
2008-12-30 09:59:04,812 INFO Start parsing property file
2008-12-30 09:59:08,780 INFO Finished parsing property file
2008-12-30 09:59:08,874 INFO COPINV021I The specified extension: REGISTRYDATA has been successfully registered.
2008-12-30 09:59:08,874 INFO Creating discovery configuration...
2008-12-30 09:59:14,984 INFO Discovery REGISTRYDATA_Discovery successfully created
2008-12-30 09:59:15,390 INFO Report REGISTRYDATA_Report succesfully created
2008-12-30 09:59:15,484 INFO COPINV009I ... end processing.
2008-12-30 09:59:15,484 INFO COPINV005I The command has been executed with return code: 0 .
=========================================
Note the names of the Discovery Configuration and the Report created. TPM does not need to be restarted for this to take effect.
Deploy the scripts to the targetThe next step is to deploy the script(s) to the target(s). In TCM, this was done by creating a dependency on the inventory object. Currently this is not something that is documented, but could be done with a software package, a workflow or possibly modifying the CIT package (not sure if this would be advisable). I am going to leave this out for now as I think this will need to be investigated further. So for now, this was just a manual copy of the files to the remote target. Copy the files to C:\TEST as defined in the properties file.
Run the custom discoveryOnce the import is completed, a new discovery configuration is created. This discovery configuration will be labeled according to the extName field in the properties file and suffixed with “_Discovery”.
One of the main differences between a normal inventory discovery and the custom is on the Parameters tab of the discovery. There is a new field called Inventory Extension.
Run the custom report (if created)Once the scan is completed, execute the custom report. This will display the results for the data collected. The report is created under the Discovery section.
In the results the data for the scanned registry section for each computer will be displayed.
Other Random NotesThere are also 3 tables (that I found so far). The names are INVENTORY_EXTENSION, INVENTORY_EXTENSION_FILE and INVENTORY_EXTENSION_TABLE. The table INVENTORY_EXTENSION_FILE contains the pre, post and output files. I was able to modify the entries to use a different file on the target without having to re-import the properties file.
