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Inventory Scanning for Managed Endpoints

Table of contents

  1. What is Inventory Scanning?
  2. What are the types of Inventory Scanning?
  3. What are all the prerequisites for an Inventory Scan?
  4. How to perform an Inventory Scan?
  5. Troubleshooting tips for Inventory Scanning

What is Inventory Scanning?

Inventory scanning, also known as asset scanning, is the technique by which IT administrators can probe their managed network to fetch all the IT asset details. This technique will fetch the details through the Endpoint Central agent installed in the end-user's machine and populate the details to the Endpoint Central server. This scan will collect hardware, software and digital asset information from the managed machine. IT administrators can trigger two types of scan, they are explained below.

What are the types of Inventory Scanning?

The Endpoint Central server executes inventory scans of your endpoints in various methods, dependent on the conditions laid out by the Administrators. Listed below are the various scans done by Endpoint Central,

  • Agent initial scan: This scan is initiated when the agent is installed on the machine for the first time. It occurs immediately after the installation of the agent to gather all necessary details of the machine.
  • Scheduled scan: A scheduled scan is an automated process that operates at predefined intervals. This scan retrieves the complete inventory of a device, encompassing hardware, software, security and system details, ensuring that the device's inventory information remains up to date.
  • User login scan: Similar to a scheduled scan a scan will be initiated each time a user logs into the system that retrieves user-specific details, such as installed software and certificates..
  • Real-time software scan: This scan is triggered when a software is installed or uninstalled. It occurs as response to changes in the system software configuration, alerting the system to perform a scan in response to such events.
  • User specific software scan: Similar to a real-time software scan but focuses on user-specific software details. It is triggered when user specific software is installed or uninstalled.
  • Hardware Scan: Each time the device restarts, a hardware scan occurs to identify any modifications to the hardware inventory. This scan captures changes in components like the BIOS, processor, disk drives, battery, RAM, GPU and motherboard, which require a reboot to be fully recognized and applied.
  • On-demand scan: This scan is initiated manually by the Administrator from the central server web console. It allows for immediate, user-initiated scans when there is a need for specific system checks or troubleshooting.
  • User initiated scan: A scan that is manually triggered by the user from the agent tray icon. Users can initiate this type of scan through the system tray, providing them with a convenient way to perform scans when needed.
  • Fail-safe scan: This is a quick scan triggered by the server when the previously parsed differential data is only partially saved in the server. The full scan ensures that the necessary details are entirely parsed to the server.

What are all the prerequisites for an Inventory Scan?

Here is a list of considerations that needs to be checked before initiating an inventory scan.

  • The target machines must be managed by Endpoint Central. To know more about onboarding machines, refer this page.
  • Ensure that DCOM and WMI service is enabled in the target machines. To enable DCOM, follow the given steps:

Steps to Enable DCOM

  1. Select Start > Run
  2. Type DCOMCNFG and click OK
  3. Navigate to Component Services > Computers > My Computer
  4. Right-click My Computer and select Properties
  5. Select Default Properties tab
  6. Check the box "Enable Distributed COM on this machine"
  7. Press OK
  8. Note:- The above mentioned procedure is applicable only for windows machines running on Windows XP and above.

How to perform an Inventory Scan?

To perform an inventory scan automatically,

  1. Navigate to Inventory > Schedule Scan (under Actions/Settings)
  2. Customize the schedule according to your business requirement and initiate the scan.
  3. Once configured, the scan will take place at the selected time.

To perform an inventory scan manually,

  1. Navigate to Inventory > Scan Systems (under Actions/Settings)
  2. In the Scan Systems view, you can see a list of all managed devices. From this list, you can select the devices you want to scan for inventory and initiate the scan process. You can scan all the machines using the Scan All button.

Troubleshooting tips for Inventory Scanning

  1. If the targeted machine is not available under Scan Systems view, ensure it is added to the Scope of Management (SoM).
  2. Endpoint Central agent is required to carry out this process. Check if there is any error in the agent. You can troubleshoot the agent automatically using the built-in troubleshooting tool.
  3. If you encounter an error stating that the WMI Service is not running, start the WMI Service on the system and attempt the scanning process again.
  4. In case you receive an error stating that Asset Scanning is locked, please contact endpointcentral-support@manageengine.com.
  5. If DCOM is not enabled, enable DCOM and retry the scanning process.