Enhancements To Standard Sms Inventory Agent - HP Kayak XU700 Implementation Manual

4 Installing TopTools Software
Installing the SMS MIF Generator (SMSWIN.EXE) - HP TopTools and Microsoft SMS Integration

Enhancements to Standard SMS Inventory Agent

When the standard SMS Inventory Agent runs on any PC, it uses
generic programs to scan the system and collect hardware information.
The SMS Server then collects this data and stores it in a database. To
ensure consistency across a heterogeneous network, the SMS
Inventory Agent uses this same, standard approach for all PCs.
However, this generic approach does not use DMI. This is a significant
limitation when interfacing with certain PCs that provide
comprehensive DMI support, such as manageable HP Vectra
commercial and performance PCs. In addition to the standard DMI
attributes, the HP Vectra PCs currently include up to 65 additional,
unique, HP-developed DMI extensions that support inventory and
configuration control, power management, password and password
control, hardware security, health monitoring, and problem alerting.
The standard SMS Inventory Agent does not recognize or report on
these advanced attributes, or on many of the standard DMI attributes.
So even certain basic types of DMI PC information such as serial
number and BIOS or operating system version are not captured by
SMS.
HP SMS MIF Generator overcomes this SMS limitation. To allow SMS to
capture and use all standard and extended HP Vectra DMI attributes,
HP developed the HP SMS MIF Generator (SMSWIN.EXE). When
launched from the HP Vectra PC, SMSWIN.EXE automatically retrieves
all PC attributes from the local HP PC MIF file and builds an SMS-
compatible MIF fileHPSMSMIF.MIF. SMSWIN.EXE then saves this file
in a specific directory (more about that later) on the SMS Client PC.
The next time the SMS Inventory Agent executes, either by login script
or RUNSMS.BAT, it collects the HPSMSMIF.MIF file and the DMI data
is incorporated into the SMS database. Once this data is in the SMS
database, it is treated in exactly the same way as any other data that
SMS collects. This data can be used, for example, to generate queries
and reports. You can generate a report showing all the BIOS versions
on your HP PCs to see if the BIOS needs upgrading, or generate a
report showing how many SIMM sockets are used on the HP PCs to see
if memory can be upgraded.
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