Environment
Novell ZENworks 7.5 Asset Management - ZAM7.5
Situation
Steps to customize Unix collector in order to gather custom information (e.g. asset tag and demographics)
Resolution
Fixed in Interim Release 16 or newer. Along with applying this interim release for the new functionality please read through Additonal Notes as well for further instruction.
If downloading the Interim Release manually from https://download.novell.com , the filename is ZENworks Asset Management Interim Release 16. The Interim releases can also be set up within the ZAM Manager for the Task server to check the site on a scheduled basis, and download and apply them automatically. Please refer to the Help Section for details of how to set up automatic downloads if desired.
Each interim release is cumulative. If Interim Release 16 is not available due to a newer interim release being placed on the website, be assured that the code needed is in the later release.
Additional Information
To use this new functionality added in Interim Release 16:
* Add a new option "UNIX_UDF=yes" (no quotes) to Cvrt2Wif.Ini , in the [options] section
* Carefully plan and create any new Workstation UDFs to be used for Unix (including Linux) boxes. The UDF number (example UDF_53249) isn't important, because Cvrt2Wif will match the UDF's label (example NUMDPMA) instead.
* Populate /opt/zam/sysinfo/config/siteinfo on a target Unix/Linux workstation to include the new UDFs and their values.
* Carefully plan and create any new Workstation UDFs to be used for Unix (including Linux) boxes. The UDF number (example UDF_53249) isn't important, because Cvrt2Wif will match the UDF's label (example NUMDPMA) instead.
* Populate /opt/zam/sysinfo/config/siteinfo on a target Unix/Linux workstation to include the new UDFs and their values.
Examples:
# UDFNum | Label | Value
# UDFNum | Label | Value
UDF_53249|NumDPMA|020202
UDF_56255|TestUDF|123456789
UDF______|3rd_UDF|Any string value
Note that the first column (UDF number) will be ignored and so may contain anything; the second column (UDF label) will be matched at load time, and the matching value from the third column (UDF value) will be loaded into the Workstation UDF.
Note also that the Label in the second column must exactly match the label given to the UDF when it was created.
Note, too, that the value in the third column may be any string, as long as it conforms to the UDF's size constraints - if the UDF is created as a 20-character string, for example, the value in the third column must not be more than 20 characters.
* One more step must be taken before this functionality can be implemented. A current copy of UDF.KB must be placed in the same directory as Cvrt2Wif.Dll on the Collection Server machine. This copy of UDF.KB must have been created after the UDFs were created, so that it will contain the new UDFs.
UDF.KB will normally be created automatically and sent out to every Windows workstation before it's scanned, and will normally be found in the FileStore in ...\KBDir\Udf\Win32 after the Inventory Process has been restarted. Verify the Modified Date of that file before using it to be sure that it was created after the new UDFs were created. If its Modified Date isn't current, scan any
workstation (the Collection Server machine is an excellent choice); this will force UDF.KB to be rewritten before the scan can take place.
If the Collection Server's machine was scanned to generate the fresh UDF.KB , then a fresh copy of UDF.KB will also be found in the Client's ...\Bin directory on that same machine. The Client's ...\Bin directory may be the same as the Collection Server's ...\Bin directory, in which case this entire step will be taken care of entirely automatically.
After UDF.KB is in place, Cvrt2Wif.Ini includes the new option, and the UDF labels and values have been set up on the Unix/Linux boxes, this new collector should begin to populate the new Workstation UDFs from the Unix/Linux workstations as they scan.