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Configure the scanner

Some settings for Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner must be configured via the Oracle element in the Agent configuration file, snowagent.config, see Agent configuration file.

Schedule the scan

Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner is executed as part of the Snow Inventory Agent's inventory process. Therefore, there is no separate configuring of the scan schedule for the scanner; it follows the scan schedule of the agent.

For information on the scanning process of each agent and how to configure the scan schedule, see Snow Inventory Agent for Linux, Snow Inventory Agent for Unix, and Snow Inventory Agent for Windows.

Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner configuration file

You can make additional configurations to the scanner by using the Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner configuration file, sios.config, which can be included in the agent installation package for Linux, Unix, and Windows. You only have to include the file in the installation package if you want to customize any of the parameters in the configuration file. If the file is not included, the scanner will execute the scan with the default values.

The sios.config file contains the following elements and default values:

<Configuration>
    <FileSystemSecurityModule>DEFAULT</FileSystemSecurityModule>  (Applicable to Linux and Unix)
    <CommonOSGroup>dba</CommonOSGroup>                            (Applicable to Linux and Unix)
    <UseMixedCredentials>false</UseMixedCredentials>              (Applicable to Linux, Unix, and Windows)
    <EnableEbsScanning>true</EnableEbsScanning>                   (Applicable to Linux, Unix, and Windows)
</Configuration>

The available configurations via the sios.config file are described in the following sections.

Note

Configured elements that are not applicable to Windows will have no impact on the scanning process in a Windows environment.

Configure the scanner to work with forced change of CWD on OS user logon

Applicable to Linux and Unix.

Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner creates a temporary working directory that it uses during the scan. If your company has, for example, a custom file system security setup that changes the CWD (Current Working Directory) on OS user logon, the user will be navigated out of the temporary directory and the scan will fail to execute, if you are using the default configuration of the scanner.

To be able to run the scanner in combination with a security policy as described above, use the below configuration in the sios.config file. With the configuration, the scanner will navigate from the CWD to the correct temporary working directory after the OS user logon.

<FileSystemSecurityModule>CWD</FileSystemSecurityModule>

The configuration should be used when the following circumstances apply:

  • The scanner is executed with full privileges (root).

  • The environment that the scanner is executed on has a custom login script that changes the CWD when using the switch user command (su) under Linux and Unix.

The configuration will not affect the execution of the scanner in a Windows environment.

The default value is DEFAULT and is used in all other circumstances than the one described above.

Configure DBA group name

Applicable to Linux and Unix.

Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner uses the DBA group name dba by default. To make the scanner use a custom DBA group name instead, use the following configuration in the sios.config file:

<CommonOSGroup>[custom dba group name]</CommonOSGroup>

Note

All operating system users that are running database instances should be members of the group.

The configuration will not affect the execution of the scanner in a Windows environment.

The default value is dba and is used in all other circumstances than the one described above.

Enable default instance credentials in mixed environments

Applicable to Linux, Unix, and Windows.

You can specify instance credentials to be used in all oracle scans by configuring the DefaultInstanceCredentials element in the Oracle section of the snowagent.config file. For more information, see Agent configuration file. The default instance credentials are used for all detected databases in a given environment.

However, to use default instance credentials in environments with both container and non-container databases, you must enable UseMixedCredentials in the sios.config file in addition to the configuration in snowagent.config:

<UseMixedCredentials>true</UseMixedCredentials>

Since dedicated database users used for scanning must be created as common users for container databases, with a C## prefix, and as regular users for non-container databases, without a C## prefix, this will allow the user defined under the default instance credentials to work on both. When enabled, if the scanner cannot connect to the specific database with the configured user, it will try again by adding or removing the C## prefix from the username.

For example, if the DefaultInstanceCredentials element has been configured with the common user C##SNOW and the scanner does not succeed to connect to a database, it will try again with the user SNOW, and vice versa.

Note

This configuration option will have effect only if the DefaultInstanceCredentials element in the snowagent.config file is configured.

The default value is false and is used in all other circumstances than the one described above.

Enable E-Business Suite scanning

Applicable to Linux, Unix, and Windows.

This configuration option determines whether the Oracle scanner will inventory E-Business Suite data or not. The default value is true. To disable E-Business Suite data inventory, use the value false:

<EnableEbsScanning>false</EnableEbsScanning>
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