Last Configuration Request vs. Last Inventory Received

[Migration User]

Someone please help me understand this.  How can the date for configuration request and inventory received be so far apart?  I thought that the inventory was gathered and sent to the notification server because of a Client Configuration Request (CCR).  Is that not true?



We are getting ready to perform a physical inventory and as part of the inventory we want to verify that the altiris agent is installed on all of our computers.  We were going to use the last configuration request as an indication of a problem existing with the agent either not working properly or not being installed at all.  However, the problem is that if we go by the configuration request according to this screen pulled from the resource summary there would be suspicions, but the inventory received is from today's date.

[Migration User]

Inventory is just when Altiris received inventory information about this NS record. That could from an AD connector, it coulld come from a SEP integration connector, or Asset or Helpdesk.The Client config request is the actual time when the client polled the NS for new policies. The CCR is the more accurate of the two since only the client can send a client config request and update the time on that record.

[Migration User]

Thank you for the response...

I do have one more question as a result.  My agent settings tell the client agent to check in every two hours so how is it possible that the client is still communicating with the server to send "some" type of inventory, but not processing the CCR's.  Does this mean that my agent settings on this machine are broken and need to be fixed?

[ianatkin]

 Hi,

At some time between 3:23pm and 5:23pm on 4/10/2009 the agent with this specific GUID stopped reporting to NS. This could be because as you suggest the agent it broken. But there are many possible reasons.....

1. The Agent has stopped working on this computer -or has been removed
2. Computer was simply turned off on the 10th of April, and has since not been turned on again
3. It has been disposed and is now living happily in some landfill
4. Computer has died under someones desk, and no one has noticed
5. Computer has be redeployed elsewhere, and given a new identity. It may or not have an agent installed.

Of course, if you know this machine is on and working, then many of these won't apply!

Its a shame that the "Last Inventory Received" setting is shown on the summary page. The general assumption is that this maps to the Altiris Agent Settings where of course basic inventory and configurations updates can be sent. Which of course is  a sensible, but wrong, assumption!

Kind Regards,
Ian./