Skip to main content

SAM Core overview

Description

SAM Core requires local installations of Snow technology, such as Snow Inventory Agents and Snow Integration Manager, to gather data. These are configured to send all collected data to Snow Extenders. The Snow Extenders then forward the collected data to Snow Atlas. See Local installations for SAM Core for a detailed list of integrations for SAM Core.

SAM_Core_Platform_overview.jpg

Component

Description

Snow Inventory Agents and Oracle Scanners

Computers and servers in the IT environment are inventoried by the Snow Inventory Agents and the Snow Inventory Oracle Scanners. The data is sent to the Snow Extenders. For more information, see Snow Inventory Agents and Oracle Scanners.

Snow Integration Manager

The Snow Integration Connectors integrate with third-party inventory solutions and virtualization technologies to collect inventory data. The data is then gathered in Snow Integration Manager and sent to the Snow Extenders. For more information, see Snow Integration Manager.

Snow Extenders

The Snow Extenders are the connection between the local environment and Snow Atlas. The Snow Inventory Agents, Snow Inventory Oracle Scanners, and Snow Integration Manager are configured to send all collected data to the Snow Extenders. The Snow Extenders then forward the collected data to Snow Atlas. For more information, see Snow Extenders.

Data ingestion

The data ingestion in Snow Atlas is a set of scalable, cloud-native services. First, an API gateway in Snow Atlas authenticates the Snow Extenders. The data is then sent from the Snow Extenders to the data ingestion where the data is saved, cached, and forwarded to SAM Core containers for processing.

SAM Core containers

The SAM Core Containers include databases and services that process the inventory data.

SAM Core user interface

The SAM Core user interface is where all information on software installations, usage, users, computers, mobile devices, licenses, and agreements is managed.

Responsibility of the user

SAM Core is designed to efficiently manage large volumes of data and to provide competent tools for license compliance analysis, resource planning, cost administration, and much more. A lot of the information, such as inventory data and software recognition rules, is automatically fed into the system.

However, SAM Core also heavily relies on information not available through the inventory, in particular information on licenses. If the information entered by the user is incorrect or incomplete, the output will not be accurate.

Understanding the central concepts described in Concepts, terminology, and features is vital in order to achieve reliable results when working with the tool.