Inventory and metering

Snow Inventory has a built-in identity logic that it applies to all inventoried computers. The identity is what makes the computer unique and ensures that the computer object in the database stays the same even if the computer is renamed or reinstalled with a new operating system. Furthermore, the identity is used to prevent creation of duplicate entries of the same device.

There are many good reasons for organizations to adopt virtualization – lower costs, faster asset deployment, security, flexibility and more. However, virtualization introduces a complexity which must be addressed by the organization’s Software Asset Management strategy.

The Snow Inventory Agent for Windows is able to scan and gather inventory data from environments using desktop, session, and application virtualization technologies, such as Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, Citrix Virtual Apps, and VMware ThinApp.

The metering capabilities also makes it possible to get remote application usage details from session virtualization technologies like Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and Citrix Virtual Apps.

Snow Inventory Server is fully compatible with Snow Integration Manager, which can connect to multiple hypervisors to obtain correct information on the server environment. This includes obtaining information on datacenter/cluster configurations, physical servers and virtual machines and the relation between the virtual and physical assets. It also includes obtaining information on the different resources, such as processor/core counts and processor model, both from the physical and virtual level.

These environments are not static – new virtual machines are introduced, hardware resources assigned to virtual machines change, and virtual machines move between different physical servers. If a virtual machine is moved from one physical server to another, information on the relationship will be automatically updated in Inventory Server.

The Oracle Management Option gives organizations control of their Oracle estate thanks to its ability to collect data and report on all server hardware and configuration, database products and editions, database options and associated usage, management packs and associated usage, feature usage and named users. It also enables orders to be managed and assigned to specific servers within the Oracle estate.

The Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner is a module included in the Snow Inventory Agent. It is disabled by default, but is easily activated via the Snow Inventory Admin Console and configuration update capabilities, or when ordering the Snow Agent installation package from Snow Support.

The Snow Inventory Agent for Windows can report discovery of cloud application sites based on information from the internet browser installed on the computer. By matching the discovered sites to a defined set of rules, the agent can report usage of cloud applications, also known as Software as a Service (SaaS). The rules are distributed by the Data Intelligence Service (DIS) via Snow Update Service (SUS).

The option is disabled by default, but can easily be activated in the Snow Inventory Admin Console.