Discovery and Inventory Group

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  • 1.  Altiris Agent Inventory Solution vs Inventory Pack for Servers

    Posted Jul 28, 2015 10:30 PM

    Good %GreetingTime% %Username%,

     

    I'm trying to figure out the key differences between the workstation, and server inventory.

    The server inventory licenses (Inv Pack for Servers) are literally double the cost of the standard desktop (Inventory Solution).

    It says in the supporting doc - see link below - Symantec™ Inventory Pack for Servers powered by Altiris™ technology is a separate product with a separate license. It runs on top of Inventory Solution and uses the Inventory Pack for Servers Plug-in. What exactly does this mean? Does it mean I have to pay twice, once for 'Inventory Solution', and again for inv pack for servers?

    https://support.symantec.com/en_US/article.HOWTO93297.html#v11343534

     

    We have over 50 Test/Dev/Staging servers, and I'm wondering if it is effective to just deploy the desktop 'Inventory Solution' to those?

    And what real world use cases for people that utilise the 'Inv Pack for Servers' - how do you make use of it? Surely I can figure out what software is installed already through the Desktop 'Inventory Solution'?

     

    Comments please?

     

     



  • 2.  RE: Altiris Agent Inventory Solution vs Inventory Pack for Servers

    Posted Aug 10, 2015 02:52 PM

    Inventory Pack for servers is returning additional data related to servers (e.g. Database information, Web Server information).



  • 3.  RE: Altiris Agent Inventory Solution vs Inventory Pack for Servers

    Posted Aug 12, 2015 08:17 AM

    Mike,

    There's no distinction between licenses for Inventory Solution.  The Inventory Pack for Servers is a license to run Server Inventory scans.  As EathenR said above, the server inventory scan contains information specific to servers. 

    Technically, you could use a desktop license to gather inventory on a server, however, I'm not sure of the legal implications.

    Stu



  • 4.  RE: Altiris Agent Inventory Solution vs Inventory Pack for Servers

    Posted Aug 12, 2015 09:17 AM

    Inventory Solution and Inventory Pack for Servers are actually quite different. To show (but one) of the areas where they differ - consider Microsoft SQL Server.

    Inventory Solution, as part of its capability, does a Software Inventory and reports that Machine X has Microsoft SQL Server Standard 2012 installed. That is all it is able to see.

    Inventory Pack for Servers can (provided rights) also be run on Machine X to provide deeper details of the SQL presence such as which Databases, their dbo, size, avail space, path, Growth Mode & size. This augments the capabilities of Inventory Solution for many of the Server specific areas. 

    Other areas that Inventory Pack for Servers covers by default

    Exchange Servers

    MySQL/Oracle 

    Network Infrastructure (DHCP, DNS, RRAS)

    Web & Application Servers

    Inventory Pack for Servers is now only available as an entitlement under Server Management Suite (or by proxy IT Management Suite).

    The rights to install Inventory Solution will be largely defined in the EULA of the  product where the entitlement comes from.

    If it is purchased/maintained as Inventory Solution - it can be installed on either Client or Server platforms

    If it is an entitlment under Client Management Suite - it can ONLY be installed on Client platforms

    If it is an entitlement under either Server Management or IT Management Suites - it can be installed on either Client or Server platforms.



  • 5.  RE: Altiris Agent Inventory Solution vs Inventory Pack for Servers

    Posted Aug 14, 2015 03:02 AM

    Hi Thanks all for your good answers!

    I've forwarded them on to our licensing team.

    Can I throw out another related scenario we have:

    We are currently oversubscribed on our licensing, (but intend eventually to utilise them all). I'm trying to figure out why we have more 'Inv Pack for Serv' license available than we do 'Inv Sol'.

    A close example as described here. I can see

    1. 150 'Inventory Pack for Servers'
    2. but only 100 'Inventory Solution'

    Does that mean we need to buy another 50 'Inv Pack for Servers' in order to deploy to 150 servers?

    Would this have happened because of the following example scenario?:

    1. We purchase 150 license intended for our Servers which gives both 'Inventory Solution' and 'Invent Pack for Serv'
    2. They don't get used immediately, but instead 50 workstions are onboarded, and consume 50 'Invent Sol' licenses, leaving a deficit now of 50.
    3. When the last 'Inv Sol' gets consumed, even though we have another 50 'Inv Pack for Serv' available, they can't be used on servers because it requires 'Inv Sol' installed first; therefore we need to purchase another 50 'Inv Sol'

    Comments please?

     



  • 6.  RE: Altiris Agent Inventory Solution vs Inventory Pack for Servers

    Posted Aug 15, 2015 01:57 PM

    If you purchased a 150 node license for Inventory Solution for Servers and a 150 node license for Inventory Pack for Servers, then you would have both 150 node licenses. 

    As you only have a 100 node license for Inventory Solution for Servers, then either your company only bought that amount, or Symantec has provided you with an incorrect license. 

    Inventory Solution and Inventory Pack for Server licenses are independant of each other, so will not effect their license usage in any way. 

    Your current license allocation will allow you to gather IIS, SQL, etc data from 150 servers; and sw, hw, etc data from 100 servers. 

     



  • 7.  RE: Altiris Agent Inventory Solution vs Inventory Pack for Servers

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Aug 19, 2015 10:04 AM

    Hello Mike,

    Yes, that is most likely what happened. You can only get Inventory Solution Pack for Servers as part of Server Management Suite. It would have contained 150 Inventory Solution, and 150 'Inv Pack for Serv' licenses. EULA wise, I believe that you can use SMS license to manage Desktops, but not CMS licenses to manage Servers. When you onboarded the Workstation it 'consumed' the Inventory Solution licenses, but not the 'Inv Pack for Serv' licenses because by default the targeting filters for deployment of it exclude desktop operating systems.

    The 'product and technology' are the same for the different solutions (CMS vs SMS), it is the 'legal license' (EULA) that specifies how and where you can utilze the products.

    At this point you either need to:

    1)Purchase CMS Suite licenses to cover the workstations, and 'recover' your Inventory licenses for your servers

    2)Purchase just Inventory Solution licenses, to get additional licenses to allow your Inventory Pack for Servers licenses to function.

    Inventory Solution is sold in a single SKU and can be used on either Desktops or Servers.

    In either case, you will want to get those old licenses co-termed with the new licenses, and combine them in the licensing portal so that they apply correctly in the system.