Posts by Erwin Richard

Release 1.10.4 is available for download

Technical Documentation

Supported Environments - minimum Requirements

New Features

• Software lifecycle can be configured per software package
• VMware ESXi is now treated the same as other operating system software.
  OS signatures are generated and related to the ESX host machines.
  This allows all features of the catalog and software queries to be applied to ESXi too.
  ESXi packages contain lifecycle information.
• Raw operating system information from scanners is now stored per machine.
  This allows export of very detailed information for other inventory systems, security impact analysis etc
• New field Machine.OperatingSystemUpdateBuildRelease for Windows UBR
• Web: LicensenseManager favorite features can now be configured per user
• Web: cleaned up layout, tabs with icons
• Web: added information to the Software Package page
• Web: added more fine-grained access privileges, existing roles may need to be adjusted
• Web: improved error messages and navigation from error to home
• License: Software Item can now be linked with a License Manager Server
• Improved software lifecycle queries
• Performance improvements throughout
• Improved Active Directory Import diagnostics logging and error handling
• Active Directory no-find warnings can now be suppressed on the scanned operating system for machines and users.
  This allows to suppress no-find warnings for users scanned on Mac if user accounts not integrated into AD.
• Improved error handling and messages in the web interface
• Improved logging, more well-known warnings can be suppressed through configurations

Changes

• "Queries and Reports" has been renamed to Repository for consistency in all parts of OctoSAM.
• Database Schema Cleanup
• Updated 3rd Party Components

Scan File Compatibility

• The 1.10.4 import service supports reading 1.10.3, 1.10.2, 1.10.1, and 1.10.0, scan files. Import of older .scan files is only partially supported for Windows systems with unsupported operating systems (Windows XP, Windows Vista) that cannot update to the newest scanner. Imported information may be incomplete for these systems.

Update Instructions
Update from 1.10.3 to 1.10.4 if updating from an earlier version, see release notes of all versions in between

• For OctoSAM server installations, make sure you have the newest .net 6.0 hosting bundle installed
• For the Octopus2 GUI client, make sure you have the newest .net 6.0 desktop runtime installed
• Stop OctoSAM services on the server
• Stop IIS if you have deployed an IIS based module
• Make a backup copy of the database
• Optionally run the .MSI Installer for the GUI client, but prefer starting the GUI client from the Server/Octopus2 folder without installing the .MSI.
• Rename the existing Server folder
• Copy the new Server folder from installation media
• Migrate the database schema with the supplied migration scripts
• Check your current appsettings.json settings with the new sample file
  • consider switching to SSL encrypted LDAP connections
  • database connections are using SSL now by default, see sample config for workaround if your SQL Server uses a self-signed certificate
• If you scan license management servers such as FlexLM, make sure the local tools are current. Use the newest tools provided by your servers.
• Update the repository (formerly Reports and Queries) from provided .zip file.
• Update RBAC definitions by running
  octoutil rbac sync
  alternatively wait until the housekeeping from restarted import service is complete.
  The web UI may not behave as expected without updating RBAC definitions first.
• Start OctoSAM services
• Analyze the Service log files for errors and warnings during initial imports and housekeeping
• See new settings to suppress well known warnings for AD Lookup
• Update Octoscan2 windows scanner
• After successful update remove the now obsolete renamed Server folder

Known Limitations

• DPI scaling is still experimental and does sometimes not work over RDP sessions, depending on the version of the server, the RDP client and DPI settings on involved systems.
• Modern Theme is experimental
• FlexLM Diag scan supports only first configured vendor daemon, expiry date and other data scanned from diag is not available for other vendor daemons on the same FlexLM server.
• Reports with more than 2000 different software packages selected fail due to a limit in SQL Server.

Release 1.10.3 is available for download

Technical Documentation

Supported Environments - minimum Requirements

New Features

• Lifecycle information for Microsoft operating systems and Microsoft SQL Server (beta)
  • Detailed information about Microsoft product lifecycle for the mentioned software categories.
  • Other publishers and other Microsoft products will be implemented in later versions depending on customer requirements
• First release that is net 6.0 only with no dependencies to .net Framework
• Performance improvements throughout
• Optional filesystem scan for windows provides detailed information to export to other inventory systems that relay on file scan
• Raw signature information from scanners is now stored per signature / per machine. This allows export of very detailed information for other inventory systems, security impact analysis etc.
• More fine-grained permissions for RBAC in the web interface
• RBAC Import now allows multiple group containers
• RBAC Import and AD lookup now support LDAPS via SecureSocketLayer configuration option
• Improved RBAC Import diagnostics logging and error handling
• Improved error messages with more detailed version information in the web interface

Changes

• Migrated code for Wolfram Mathematica LicenseManagerServer
• Database Schema Cleanup
• Updated 3rd Party Components

Scan File Compatibility

• The 1.10.3 import service supports reading 1.10.2 1.10.1, and 1.10.0, scan files. Import of older .scan files is only partially supported for Windows systems with unsupported operating systems (Windows XP, Windows Vista) that cannot update to the newest scanner. Imported information may be incomplete for these systems.

Update Instructions

• If the monitor feature is used, make sure the license contains the MONITOR license option. Monitor components now check for this option.
• See the database migration script(s) for additional checks that you may have to run against the database before migration.
• For OctoSAM server installations, make sure you have the newest .net 6.0 hosting bundle installed
• For the Octopus2 GUI client, make sure you have the newest .net 6.0 desktop runtime installed
• Stop OctoSAM services on the server
• Stop IIS if you have deployed an IIS based module of OctoSAM
• Make a backup copy of the database
• Note that a direct migration from a Version other than 1.10.2 is not supported.
  Check the release notes of earlier versions for migration procedures from earlier releases
• Optionally run the .MSI Installer for the GUI client, but prefer starting the GUI client from the Server/Octopus2 folder without installing the .MSI.
• Rename the existing Server folder
• Copy the new Server folder from installation media
• Optionally enable service broker on the database
• Migrate the database schema with the supplied migration scripts
• Check your current appsettngs.json settings with the new sample file
  • If you use RBAC, make sure to change the groups setting to the new syntax (list of group containers)
  • consider switching to SSL encrypted LDAP connections
  • database connections are using SSL now by default, see sample config for workaround if your SQL Server uses a self-signed certificate
• If you scan license management servers such as FlexLM, make sure the local tools are current. Use the newest tools provided by your servers.
• Update standard queries and Reports from provided .zip file.
• Start OctoSAM services
• Analyze the service log files for errors and warnings during initial imports and housekeeping
  • If you use RBAC, see the import service log for newly available privileges. Adjust custom defined roles accordingly. Roles predefined by OctoSAM are managed automatically.
• Update Octoscan2 windows scanner
• After successful update remove the now obsolete renamed Server folder

Known Limitations

• DPI scaling is still experimental and does sometimes not work over RDP sessions, depending on the version of the server, the RDP client and DPI settings on involved systems.
• FlexLM Diag scan supports only first configured vendor daemon, expiry date and other data scanned from diag is not available for other vendor daemons on the same FlexLM server.
• Reports with more than 2000 different software packages selected fail due to a limit in SQL Server.

Release 1.10.2 is available for Download

Technical Documentation

Supported Environments - minimum Requirements

New Features

• OctoSAM Web UI (beta) replaces the former License Web UI and can be used instead of the GUI client in many scenarios
• All components of OctoSAM migrated to .net 6.0
• Octopus2 Windows UI High-DPI scaling can now be controlled via options dialog, editing of a config file is no longer required.
• Overall performance improvements
• Windows Scanner detects more variants of SQL Server TCPPort configuration
• Improved Windows 11 Version handling, DisplayVersion is now separate from Buiild information
• Improved coustomization of query output using the octoutil query command.

Scan File Compatibility

• The 1.10.2 import service supports reading 1.10.2 1.10.1, 1.10.0, and 1.9.10 scan files. Import of older .scan files is only partially supported for Windows systems with unsupported operating systems (Windows XP, Windows Vista) that cannot update to the newest scanner. Imported information may be incomplete for these systems.

Update Instructions

• Check database housekeeping settings, especially the VirtualMachineScanHistoryDays setting.
• If the monitor feature is used, make sure the license contains the MONITOR license option. Monitor components now check for this option.
• Check the database migration script(s) for additional checks that you may have to run against the database before migration.
• For OctoSAM server installations, make sure you have the newest .net 6.0 hosting bundle installed
• For the Octopus2 GUI client, make sure you have the newest .net 6.0 desktop runtime installed
• Stop OctoSAM services on the server
• Stop IIS if you have deployed an IIS based module of OctoSAM
• Make a backup copy of the database
• Note that a direct migration from a Version other than 1.10.1 is not supported.
  Check the release notes of earlier versions for migration procedures from earlier releases
• Optionally run the .MSI Installer for the GUI client, but prefer starting the GUI client from the Server/Octopus2 folder without installing the .MSI.
• Rename the existing Server folder
• Copy the new Server folder from installation media
• Optionally enable service broker on the database
• Migrate the database schema with the supplied migration scripts
• Check your current appsettngs.json settings with the new sample file
• If you scan license management servers such as FlexLM, make sure the local tools are current. Use the newest tools provided by your servers.
• Update standard queries and Reports from provided .zip file.
• Start OctoSAM services
• Analyze the Service log files for errors and warnings during initial imports and housekeeping
• Update Octoscan2 windows scanner
• After successful update remove the now obsolete renamed Server folder

Known Limitations

• DPI scaling is still experimental and does sometimes not work over RDP sessions, depending on the version of the server, the RDP client and DPI settings on involved systems.
• FlexLM Diag scan supports only first configured vendor daemon, expiry date and other data scanned from diag is not available for other vendor daemons on the same FlexLM server.
• Reports with more than 2000 different software packages selected fail due to a limit in SQL Server.

OctoSAM Release 1.10.1 is available for download

Technical Documentation

Supported Environments - minimum Requirements (no change from 1.10.0)

New Features

• Improved performance for License Manger Server analysis
• Improved performance for License Manager tools and dialogs in the GUI
• User can schedule an immediate Scan of a License Server from GUI
• FlexLM monitor can now distinguish between used, checked-out and borrowed licenses
• FlexLM scan properly parses more vendor specific variants
• OctoSAM Monitor now provides an optional web interface (Beta)

Removed Functionality

• Scanning capabilites for LicenseManagerServers can no longer be limited per server. All capabilities supported by a License Manager Server type are always enabled.
• Group scan via PowerShell script and Import Service is no longer supported. Use the integrated group scan in the OctoSAM import service.

Breaking Changes for OctoSAM Monitor

• In previous releases, FlexLM scan did support scanning of user names that contain spaces. This has been changed to an optional feature now which is disabled by default. If you have FlexLM license servers with usernames that contain spaces, you have to enable the corresponding option in the settings dialog of each affected FlexLM server.
• LicenseManagers section in appsettings.json has been renamed to LicenseManagerServers. Type names have been adjusted for consistency. See the sample configuration file.

Scan File Compatibility

• The 1.10.0 import service supports reading 1.10.1, 1.10.0, 1.9.10 and 1.9.9. scan files. Import of older .scan files only partially supported for Windows systems with unsupported operating systems (Windows XP, Windows Vista) that cannot update to the newest scanner. Imported information may be incomplete for these systems.

Update Instructions

• Check the database migration script(s) for additional checks that you may have to run against the database before migration.
• Make sure you are on the required database compatibility level
• Stop OctoSAM services on the server
• Stop IIS if you have deployed an IIS based module of OctoSAM
• Make a backup copy of the database
• Note that a direct migration from a Version other than 1.10.0 is not supported
• Check the release notes of earlier versions for migration procedures
• Optionally run the .MSI Installer for the GUI
• Enable service broker on the database
• Migrate the database schema with the supplied migration scripts
• Check your current appsettngs.json settings with the new sample file
  Note that configuration keys in section LicenseManagerServers have been adjusted for consistency
  Note that the configuration section "Rbac" has been extended to support multiple user containers
  Consult the sample file for settings for the new Web interface (Beta)
• Unzip the distribution archive and copy the Server folder to your designated location, usually D:\OctoSAM\Server
• If you scan license management servers such as FlexLM, make sure the local tools are current. Use the newest tools provided by your servers.
• Update standard queries and Reports from provided .zip file.
• Start OctoSAM services
• Note that the LicenseManagerServerObserverService must be started before creating or updating License Manager Server objects in the GUI
• Update Octoscan2 windows scanner
• Update the Mac and Linux Scanner(s)
• Update other scanners and their start scripts. Note that the Powershell Modules are now in the Server folder, usually D:\OctoSAM\Server\Modules

Known Limitations

• DPI scaling is still experimental and does sometimes not work over RDP sessions, depending on the version of the server, the RDP client and DPI settings on the server.
• FlexLM Diag scan supports only first configured vendor daemon, expiry date and other data scanned from diag is not available for other vendor daemons on the same FlexLM server.
• Reports with more than 2000 different software packages selected fail due to a limit in SQL Server.

OctoSAM Release 1.10.0 is available for download.

Technical Documentation

Supported Environments - minimum Requirements

New Features

• Adobe User Management assigned licenses can now be scanned and imported into the OctoSAM repository
• OctoSAM can now normalize manufacturer information based on a hardware manufacturer catalog which is maintained and regularly updated via catalog update. This allows for easier grouping and filtering for same manufacturer.
• EPLAN license server monitoring
• OctoSAM now allows to maintain custom fields not only per machine or per software package but also for each individual installation. This can be useful in consolidation and migration projects where you want to enter custom information per software installation.
• Query results can now be exported to JSON from the Octopus2 UI and from Octoutil.
• Query results can now be exported as an SQL Script to load the resulting table into an SQL Server database
• All appsettings configuration files have been migrated to hierarchical system of appsettings.json files
• All settings can now be configured in a single file per installation for all components. Individual configuration per component can still be used to override the global configuration.
• log4net logging was migrated to Serilog.
• Logging configuration has been streamlined. Default installations need exactly 1 setting for logging for all components. The full power of Serilog can be used by configuration but default configuration is now extremely simple to set up.
• The directory structure of the installed software has been simplified and reorganized to support XCOPY deployment
• All Server Components now use XCOPY deployment exclusively
• The OctoSAM GUI can still be installed with an MSI Installer for Installation on Workstations / App-V.
• In the OctoSAM GUI you have a new option to always show 'Junk' Software categories such as drivers.
• ServiceNow integration can now chose to use physical identity attributes such as mac address and SMBIOS UUID to coalesce computers.
• Windows Scanner octoscan2 now scans some BIOS settings directly even if WMI scan is disabled.
• FlexLM Server scan supports newer versions of FlexLM, diag scan is no longer needed for license expiry detection
• New group context query can be started from the group window. This allows to easily export group membership information to Excel or other Tools.
• Windows based upload server OctoCollect is now .net 5.0 based

Changed Architecture of OctoSAM Services

• The OctoSAM services and the OctoUtil command are now .net 5.0 based.

Changed Configuration Architecture for OctoSAM GUI Components

• While the GUI components still depend on Windows Forms and .net Framework 4.8, the configuration mechanism has been ported to the .net 5.0 mechanisms using appsettings.json file. EXE.config files are still there but only for .net specific configuration which normally does not need to be changed.
• Login environments can now be configured directly in appsettings.json, Environments.xml is no longer used.
• The Powershell modules are now in a Subdirectory of the Server folder, you need to change your scripts that reference the Powershell modules

Changed Functionality for OctoUtil

• Anonymizer functionality has been moved to the OctoUtil anonymize command.
• The OctoUtil command parsing logic has been improved. The parser is now more strict, check your OctoUtil scripts
• OctoUtil now sets the exit code more consistently so that calling scripts can test %ERROR_LEVEL%

Removed Functionality

• Configuration options for conditional WMI import have been removed. Former default setting of "ALWAYS" is now the only option.
  Much more functionality also for SAM reporting depends on this information now, so we need to always import this information.
• The anonymizer tool is no longer available as a stand-alone executable. Its now integrated into OctoUtil, Anonymizers Scripts may have to be adapted.

Scan File Compatibility

• The 1.10.0 import service supports reading 1.10.0, 1.9.10 and 1.9.9. scan files. Import of older .scan files only partially supported for Windows systems with unsupported operating systems (Windows XP, Windows Vista) that cannot update to the newest scanner. Imported information may be incomplete for these systems.

Update Instructions

• Before upgrading, read the modified installation documentation for release 1.10 since architecture and installation procedures have changed considerably from previous versions.
• Check the database migration script(s) for additional checks that you may have to run against the database before migration.
• Stop OctoSAM services on the server
• Uninstall the OctoSAM services from the system either using the --uninstall option or the SC utility
• Make a backup copy of the database
• Note that a direct migration from a Version other than 1.9.10 is not supported.
• Check the release notes of earlier versions for migration procedures.
• Make a backup copy of all configuration files
• For Server / Full installations: Uninstall the previous installation from the system, for GUI only (clients) you do not need to remove the previous installation.
• Set the system environment variable OCTOSAM_CONFIGURATION_FOLDER to your designated configuration folder, usually D:\OctoSAM\Config
• Migrate your settings from the diverse configuration files in prior version to the new central configuration file appsettings.json starting from the provided sample file.
• Optionally run the .MSI Installer for the GUI
• Install the Microsoft .net 5.0 Runtime (For OctoSAM Server only)
• Unzip the distribution archive and copy the Server folder to your designated location, usually D:\OctoSAM\Server
• If you scan license management servers such as FlexLM, make sure the local tools are current. Use the newest tools provided by your servers.
• Install the services using the supplied install_service.ps1 scripts. Note that you have to change the Service Accounts manually after installation of the services.
• Import standard queries and Reports from provided .zip file.
• Start OctoSAM services
• Update Octoscan2 windows scanner
• Update the Mac and Linux Scanner(s)
• Update other scanners and their start scripts. Note that the Powershell Modules are now in the Server folder, usually D:\OctoSAM\Server\Modules

Known Limitations

• DPI scaling is still experimental and does sometimes not work over RDP sessions, depending on the version of the server, the RDP client and DPI settings on the server.
• FlexLM Diag scan supports only first configured vendor daemon, expiry date and other data scanned from diag is not available for other vendor daemons on the same FlexLM Server.
• Reports with more than 2000 different software packages selected fail due to a limit in SQL Server.

OctoSAM 1.9.10 Release can be downloaded from the Filebase.

Supported Environments - minimum Requirements (no change from Release 1.9.9)

New Features

• Improved Hyper-V Server scan and import
  • Settings for virtual processor and memory configuration are now scanned also from the Hyper-V host.
    This allows to fill the corresponding virtual machine fields without a guest scan.
  • Hyper-V Data Exchange Key Value Pairs (KVP) intrinsic settings are now scanned from the Hyper-V host side.
    This allows to scan information about the installed guest operating system from the Hyper-V host without a guest scan.
    The guest VM must be in running state and the Hyper-V Data Exchange / KVP Service must be installed and running.
  • The Hyper-V Host import now logs more information about its progress. Debug logging has also been greatly enhanced.
• Hyper-V and VMware: absolutely all scanned data of a virtual machine is now persisted to the database as XML.
  Previously only the most interesting aspects of VMs were normalized into the database schema.
• VMWare: Configured guest Operating System of a VM is now available in the VirtualMachine object.
• Improved Java detection. A summary of detected Java versions and features can be found here
• Automatic update of the OctoSAM software master catalog can now be configured. The import service updates the master catalog from a central location managed by OctoSAM.
  Firewall and proxy configuration must allow REST calls and download of binary files from https://www.octosoft.ch.
• Machines that are only found in Active Directory can now be flagged if they are not to be scanned. This helps with coverage analysis.
• Users and Machines from Active Directory (DirectoryMissingMachines /Users tables) now Support CustomField1 - CustomField4
• The built-in filetransfer capabilities have been enhanced. Now you can define Get and Put transfers that are run at specific points in the import or housekeeping phase. Aditionally you can initiate onDemand filetransfers from octoutil.
• New OctoUtil commands to update mappings and to trigger housekeeping from scripts and plans
• New OctoUtil commands to delete or patch (custom) repository items in the database
• New OctoUtil commands to initiate a filetransfer
• OctoUtil tables can now be loaded from the database via SQL.
• OctoUtil query can now export to .xlsx files in addition to .csv
• OctoUtil commands that accept a machine or user id now also accept the guid or the name of the object.
• Dialog Group Settings Published Software Package now behaves as expected, persists only on OK button. Cancel discards any changes made.
• Data model clean-up, added Indexes
• Housekeeping delete actions are now executed in smaller chunks to relieve the database transaction log
• Queries now support pragma configuration to selectively turn off some checks for queries that do not adhere to OctoSAM Standards, for example export Queries that need to use non-standard names for columns or that cannot provide tooltips.
• New fields on Query: SQL Server Overview
• New fields on Query: Export/Metrix/01 Machines
• Octoscan2 now supports scanning of metadata and version info from specified custom paths configured in the config file. This can be used to scan installation status and detailed version information (if available) about custom packages that do not use an installer.
• Octoscan2 refactoring, migration to C++17 standard.
• Improved logging in the import service
• Updated Lucene full-text search engine for OctoWeb
• Updated 3rd Party components and libraries throughout

New Authenticode Certificate

• All Windows executables are signed with a renewed code signing certificate. Antivirus whitelists based on the Octosoft AG certificate must be verified and adjusted accordingly.

Breaking Changes for Custom Queries

• The query schema Version changes from 2018 to 2020. Custom Queries need to be adjusted and re-imported after the update.

Potentially Breaking Changes in the Data Model

• Tables and Columns in the database that were not used have been removed in this release
• SoftwarePackage.Guid and SoftwarePublisher.Guid no longer accept NULL values, see readme at the start of migration scripts.

Breaking Changes in OctoUtil Plans

• Octoutil plans must now specify the schema. Processing also now validates the Schema. see documentation
• Octoutil plan tasks can now contain multiple script and foreach elements that are processed in the order in which they are defined.
  Scripts can now be SQL or octoutil commands. This allows to execute octoutil commands driven by import data.

Scan File Compatibility

• The 1.9.10 import service can read 1.9.10, 1.9.9, 1.9.8, and 1.9.7 scan files.

Update Instructions

• Check the database migration script(s) for additional checks that you may have to run against the database before migration.
• Stop OctoSAM services on the server
• Make a backup copy of the database
• Migrate the database schema using the provided migrate_* scripts
• Note that a direct Migration from a Version other than 1.9.9 is not supported.
  Check the release Notes of earlier versions for migration procedures.
• Make a backup copy of all configuration files
• Run the .MSI Installer
• Merge the configuration settings with the new configuration template files.
• Consider configuring automatic software catalog update or update the software catalog manually
• Import standard queries and Reports from provided .zip file.
• Re-import custom queries after adjusting the schema version from 2018 to 2020.
  alternatively you can use the new octoutil export repostiory and octoutil update repository commands to patch custom queries
• Start OctoSAM services
• Update Octoscan2 windows scanner
• Update the Mac and Linux Scanner
• Update other scanners and their start scripts

Known Limitations

• DPI scaling is still experimental and does sometimes not work over RDP sessions, depending on the version of the server, the RDP client and DPI settings on the server.
• FlexLM Diag scan supports only first configured vendor daemon, expiry date and other data scanned from diag is not available for other vendor daemons on the same FlexLM Server.
• Reports with more than 2000 different software packages selected fail due to a limit in SQL Server.

Can be downloaded from the Filebase

Supported Environments - minimum Requirements

New Features

• Improved Java detection
• Oracle GA / BPR release detection for Java 1.6, 1.7 and 1.8
• HTTP/S based scan file collection server is now also available on Windows / IIS.
• A summary of detected Java versions and features can be found here
• Improved VMWare ESX Support to directly indicate VCenter to ESX host relations required for Oracle licensing calculations
• Catalog based Oracle Core Factor. Can be manually overridden per machine.
• Software catalog update can now be scripted (OctoUtil) or automated in import service
• Improved performance of the Windows GUI.
• Improved application startup performance by significantly reducing the number of database round trips.
• Improved OctoUtil plan processing logging and .csv parsing.
• Master catalog info now lists package to publisher relations
• Improved High DPI rendering of the Windows GUI
• Additional Fields in Queries
• Data model clean-up

Potentially Breaking Changes

• Windows Server 2008 no longer supported
• Windows 7 without Service Pack 1 no longer supported
• WIndows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 need patches to support SHA-2

Potentially Breaking Changes for Custom Queries

• Attribute sortstyle is no longer supported for multiselect and dropdownlist controls

Potentially Breaking Changes in the Data Model

• Tables and Columns in the database that were not used have been removed in this release
• User.Guid must now be unique. You cannot migrate the database is this requirement is not met

Potentially Breaking Changes in OctoUtil Import Plans

• The .csv parser has been refactored. Comment lines starting with # are now always ignored, The new implementation of skiplines does no longer count comment lines.

Scan File Compatibility

• The 1.9.9 import service can read 1.9.9, 1.9.8, and 1.9.7 scan files.

Update Instructions

• Stop OctoSAM services on the server
• Make a backup copy of the database
• Migrate the database schema using the provided migrate_* scripts
  Note that a direct Migration from a Version other than 1.9.8 is not supported.
  Update to version 1.9.8 and run a full housekeeping before updating to 1.9.9
• Make a backup copy of all configuration files
• Run the .MSI Installer
• Merge the configuration settings with the new configuration template files.Update the software catalog
• Import Standard Queries and Reports from provided .zip file.
• Start OctoSAM services
• Update Octoscan2 windows scanner
• Update the Mac and Linux Scanner
• Update other scanners and their start scripts

Known Limitations

• DPI scaling is still experimental and does sometimes not work over RDP sessions, depending on the version of the server, the RDP client and DPI settings on the server.
• FlexLM Diag scan supports only first configured vendor daemon, expiry date and other data scanned from diag is not available for other vendor daemons on the same FlexLM Server.

OctoSAM releases 1.9.8 to 1.10.4 greatly extended the detection capabilities for various java distributions.

The following table shows the current detection capabilities per platform:

The different scanners use a collection of platform specific methods to detect Java installations

Can be downloaded from the Filebase.

Supported Environments - minimum Requirements

New Features

• Detect Windows App Store installed apps
• Improved Java Detection:
  A summary of detected Java versions and features can be found here.
  • Detect if Oracle Java commercial features are enabled.
  • Detect Oracle Java .MSI installation.
  • Improved detection of different OpenJDK publishers. You now get detailed Information about different OpenJDK distributions such as RedHat, Azul, Amazon, AdoptOpenJDK etc.
  • Linux: Improved Java detection based on process and optional filesystem scan.
  • Windows Server: improved Java detection based on optional process scan even if Metering is not enabled.

• Mac: Identification of 32-bit applications to help prepare for macOS 10.15 Catalina migration.
• Software InstallDate now gets scanned, if available.
• The lastWritten date of the installer registry key gets scanned and can be used together with InstallDate.
• Signatures have 2 new fields: FileVersion which gets the file version resource if available, BaseVersion where per product logic can write a common version, such as the Java OpenJDK version that the distribution is based upon.
• LicensingRelevant can now be set on the Signature level for packages that have different licensing requirements for minor patch levels such as Oracle Java.
• More tabs in the GUI are now disabled if there is no data.
• High DPI rendering has been improved in the Windows GUI.
• The import service now has built-in capability to collect scan files from Linux based collection servers using ssh/sftp.
• Streamlined installation and configuration:
  • Additional configuration of the database connection string for log4net in services is no longer required.
  • A separate Installation of SQL Server SMO / Feature Pack is no longer required for interactive database selection. The OctoSAM .msi installs and updates all required components.
  • Environments.xml file in the program directory gets picked up without further configuration.
  • SiteTasks.xml file in the program directory gets picked up without configuration.
  • License constrained queries do now show/hide immediately after a license option gets enabled (import of a new license) no need to re-import queries.
  • Data constrained queries do now show/hide immediately after housekeeping.

Removed Functionality

• Import/Export Signatures and Packages functionality has been removed. Export of custom packages can be achieved through Query: Internal / Table Dumps / Software Package and selecting 'Predefined By Octopus' = false. Later Builds will provide a mechanism to export custom Publishers and Packages to the new file based software catalog format.
  

Potentially Breaking Changes in the Data Model

• SoftwarePackge.SoftwarePublisherID can no longer be NULL. Joins from SoftwarePackge to SoftwarePublisher should be converted to to inner joins.
  Queries that depend on this column being NULL must be refactored.
• SoftwareSignature.AutoAssigned has been removed as it is no longer needed. Custom Queries may have to be adjusted.

Potentially Breaking Changes in config files

• 1.9.8 introduces the OctopusAdoNetAppender for log4net. This appender behaves like the standard ADO.net appender but takes the connection string directly from the appsettings file. You no longer have to set the connection string twice per service. See the provided sample configuration files.
• The 1.9.8 installer now unconditionally overwrites existing .exe.config files. Application specific settings should be in .appsettings.config files and not affected. However, if you changed settings in an .exe.config file, these changes have to be re-applied after installation updates or repairs. This change was introduced to make sure you have valid assembly redirect configurations in your .exe.config files.

Other Breaking Changes

• If you have Windows XP or Windows Vista systems on the network, you need to make sure that GPO starts of the windows scanner do not affect these Systems. Use GPO mechanisms such as WMI filters to exclude these machines from scan. Starting the scanner on a non-supported OS version will produce a Windows error message that cannot be suppressed.

Scan File Compatibility

• The 1.9.8 import service can read 1.9.8, 1.9.7, and 1.9.6 scan files.

Update Instructions

• Make sure all custom software packages have a software publisher assigned.
  Database Migration will fail if this is not the case. See the database migration script for details.
• Make sure .NET Framework 4.8 is installed
• Stop OctoSAM services on the server
• Make a backup copy of the database
• Migrate the database schema using the provided migrate_* scripts
  Note that a direct Migration from a Version other than 1.9.7 is not supported.
  Update to version 1.9.7 and run a full housekeeping before updating to 1.9.8
• Make a backup copy of all configuration files
• Run the .MSI Installer
• Merge the configuration settings with the new configuration template files.
  For services log4net configuration, change AdoNetAppender Type to the new OctopusAdoNetAppender and change the connectionString according to sample config.
• Update the software catalog
• Import Standard Queries and Reports from provided .zip file.
• Start OctoSAM services
• Update Octoscan2 windows scanner
• Update the Mac and Linux Scanner
• Update other scanners and their start scripts

Known Limitations

• DPI scaling is still experimental and does sometimes not work over RDP sessions, depending on the version of the server, the RDP client and DPI settings on the server.
• FlexLM Diag scan supports only first configured vendor daemon, expiry date and other data scanned from diag is not available for other vendor daemons on the same FlexLM Server.
• Group Settings Published Software Packages: Changes to the published Software Packages are immediately written to the database, cancel out of the dialog is ignore

Can be downloaded from the Filebase

Supported Environments

New Features

• OctoSAM License: detailed software item change history
• OctoSAM License: more compact layout of pages
• OctoSAM License: Publisher landing page with list of Items
• OctoSAM License: Context Queries
• Unified Python based macOS and Linux scanner
• New web-based upload server for scan files
• Windows scanner: more robust configuration parsing, canary test for new versions of the scanner
• Windows scanner: improved Java installation detection
• Windows scanner: metadata about custom files can be scanned. This allows to scan for specific files on a windows machine.
• WIndows scanner: improved Oracle database detection
• GUI: improved optional High DPI support
• GUI: cleaner loading of documents with less screen flickering
• GUI: Improved performance for tree controls
• GUI: Updated 3rd party components with many integrated bug fixes
• GUI: Group information and link now available on the Software Package document for published applications
• Improved Active Directory import performance and stability
• Completely refactored LDIF import with much better performance for importing huge files
• Up to 4 site-specific Active Directory extended schema properties can now be imported per User and Machine object
• All standard grids now contain a hidden column "CurrentDateTime" with the time the data was read
• Extensions to the Repository and Catalog structures allow centrally managed client specific queries, reports and catalog items
• Unique Customer and Installation IDs are now encoded in the License file
• Improved performance of software usage queries
• Extended Query engine to support more flexible rendering on web pages
• Cleaned up Data Model including Documentation
• Support for new SQL Server 2017 and 2019 Cumulative Update versioning
• Support for SWID tag files schema version 2015
• Anonymizer now handles computer account user objects consistently using the anonymized machine name

Removed Functionality

• None

Potentially Breaking Changes in the Data Model

• Fields DirectoryExt1 / DirectoryExt2 and Ext1 / Ext2 are now used to optionally load site specific schema extension properties from Active Directory. If these fields were previously used to load site-specific Data from external sources, this needs to be re-designed.

Potentially Breaking Changes in octoscan.config

• if match conditional regex comparison is now case in-sensitive

Potentially Breaking Changes in config files

• default encoding for LDIF import is now 'utf-8', ldif lookup configuration may have to be adjusted
• default Active Directory Lookup.Method changed from "accountmanagement" to "directoryservices"

Scan File Compatibility

• The 1.9.7 import service can read 1.9.7, 1.9.6 and older scan files. 1.9.7 and 1.9.6 .scan Files can only be imported on 1.9.6 or newer.

Update Instructions

• Order an updated License for 1.9.7 from Octosoft
• Stop OctoSAM services on the server
• Make a backup copy of the database
• Migrate the database schema using the provided migrate_* scripts
  Note that a direct Migration from a Version other than 1.9.6 is not supported.
  Update to version 1.9.6 and run a full housekeeping before updating to 1.9.7
• Make a backup copy of all configuration files
• Run the .MSI Installer
• Merge the configuration settings with the new configuration template files.
• Install the updated license
• Update the software catalog
• Import Standard Queries and Reports from provided .zip file.
• Start OctoSAM services
• Update Octoscan2 windows scanner
• Update the Mac Scanner
• Update other scanners and their start scripts

Known Limitations

• DPI scaling is still experimental and does sometimes not work over RDP sessions, depending on the version of the server, the RDP client and DPI settings on the server.
• FlexLM Diag scan supports only first configured vendor daemon, expiry date and other data scanned from diag is not available for other vendor daemons on the same FlexLM Server.
• Group Settings Published Software Packages: Changes to the published Software Packages are immediately written to the database, cancel out of the dialog is ignore

Can be downloaded from the Filebase

Supported Environments

New Features

• Integrated Microsoft 365 licensing information
• All Reports (including Custom Reports) can now be used from the web interface with role-based access control per report. Reports can be printed and exported in various formats.
• Most Queries (including Custom Queries) can now be used from the web interface with role-base access control per query and for each column within the query. Queries can be exported to Excel.
• You can now prepare site-specific queries and reports with access to a precisely defined subset of the inventory and OctoSAM License data and allow people to run them without any local software installation or remote access to the OctoSAM desktop UI.
• VDI VMWare Horizon ViewClient Information gets collected. This allows to query for specific clients or users on a VMWare Horizon server.
• Volatile environment information gets collected and scanned
• License Manager fields now support up to 2,147,483,647 issued licenses per feature. Previously they were limited to max 32,787.
• Database Objects now have a database independent unique id for external links
• Detailed Windows operating system and SQL Server version detection moved from the scanner to server components
• Windows scanner now detects lock screen and does not meter applications during screen lock
• Detailed and accurate Visual Studio installation information using the Visual Studio Setup Configuration API
• Mac scanner has been updated for more flexible user mapping to Active Directory accounts
• VMWare ESX scanner now reports more details about ESX host hardware including bios serial number and asset id.
• VMWare ESX scanner now reports more details about VCenter configuration including the Server Unique ID.
• OctoSAM Inventory now supports scanning of cloned VCenters as long as they have a unique Server Unique ID.
• BIOS asset tag is now directly available on the machine object
• Additional fields in OctoSAM License
  • New flag 'Active' to hide inactive Items from upcoming items list
  • New AdministratorNotes formatted text field
  • New PrintableName field for easier and more consistent listing of items in queries and reports
• More flexible signature rewriting rules, now support conditions using regular expressions. This reduces the number of needed rewriting rules significantly and catches point updates to required signatures without having to update the catalog.
• New option to octodump to re-compress .xml files after manual changes or scripted XML transformation.
• Organization mapping rules can now also be applied to Missing Users and Missing Machines tables
• Icons for machine and user now reflect Active Directory information for disabled and deleted accounts (if available). Orphaned objects are now directly visible in the GUI.
• XML Schema support for queries
• octoutil delete user and machine commands can be called with domain/machine or user principal name instead of id only.
• Improved Anonymizer to create more congruent anonymized instances of your database.
• Improved logging. Minimize warn messages in log files. Added new configuration parameters to suppress warn logs for known warnings that can be ignored due to site specific configuration issues.
• Improved optional High DPI support
• Improved Active Directory import
• Improved Performance throughout the application
• Updated 3rd party components with many integrated bug fixes
• Migrated to .net 4.7.2

Removed Functionality

• Scanning of Product Keys has been removed
• Fields CostPerSeat and LicenseCount on SoftwarePackage have been removed.
• Manual Signature to Package management has been removed, define custom packages with auto assign rules

Potentially Breaking Changes in the Data Model

• Check your custom Queries/Reports for the following breaking changes in the Data Model:
  
  Removed Columns:
  SoftwarePackage.CostPerSeat
  SoftwarePackage.LicenseCount
  Machine.HintProductKey
  
  RenamedColumns:
  SoftwareItem.Notes (from SoftwareItem.Remarks)
  SoftwareItem.OwnerNotes (from SoftwareItem.OwnerRemarks)
  NB: RBAC Privilege names change also. These privileges need to be re-applied after migration and first full housekeeping.
  
  Removed Tables:
  ProductKey

Potentially Breaking Changes for Queries and Reports

• Queries now must declare namespace xmlns="http://www.octosoft.ch/schema/query/2018/query.xsd" on the <query> element.
• XInclude feature to include sub queries has been removed. For multiselection input use the new stockquery attribute.
• Processing of sub reports from repository reports has been removed

Potentially Breaking Changes in octoscan.config

• The windows scanner octoscan2 uses a new regex engine
  The new engine always uses implicit ^ and $, the pattern must match the whole string and not only a substring.
  Check regular expressions used in octoscan.config file.

Scan File Compatibility

• The 1.9.6 import service can read 1.9.5 and older scan files. However, 1.9.6 scan files can only be imported by 1.9.6 and newer versions of the import service. Lookup tables for operating system and server products have been moved from the scanner to the import service, therefore 1.9.6 .scan files cannot be imported with older import services.

Update Instructions

• Installation Directory changes from c:\Program Files (x86) to c:\Program Files therefore you cannot update in-place.
• Make a backup copy of the database
• Stop OctoSAM services on the server
• Migrate to schema version 1.9.6 from 1.9.5.
  See release notes of 1.9.5 if you migrate from earlier versions.
  Configure enough maximal log space for migration of the License Manager statistics table. Recommended is min. 5 times the size of the database.
  Plan for enough time for the database Migration. Installations with many license manager servers may take several hours to migrate.
• Make a backup copy of all configuration files
• Uninstall the Services from the Service Registry using the --uninstall option on the service executables
• Uninstall the current software installation and remove all left over files (manually changed configuration files)
• Run the .msi Installer
  Note that the Install Location changes from c:\Program Files(x86) to c:\Program Files
• Merge the configuration settings with the new configuration template files.
• If you have created copies of the start shortcut in the taskbar or on the desktop, these are now invalid, re-create with the new path
• Update the software catalog (note that the format of the software catalog has changed, use new version of catalog).
• Import Standard Queries and Reports from provided .zip file.
  Test your custom queries with the new release. Note that you have to declare the namespace on the <query> element (xmlns="http://www.octosoft.ch/schema/query/2018/query.xsd")
• Register OctoSAM services
• Start OctoSAM services
• Update Octoscan2 windows scanner (do not update the windows scanner before the 1.9.6 import service is up and running)
  1.9.6 import can import older .scan files but 1.9.6 scan files require Import Service 1.9.6. Note that the 'ScanProductKeys' configuration setting is no longer supported.
• Update the Mac Scanner
• Update the VMWare vCenter scan start script - if in use - according to sample provided.
  Note that the path to the OctoSAM Powershell modules has changed
• Update the AD Group scan start script - if used - according to sample provided.
  Note that the path to the OctoSAM Powershell modules has changed

Known Limitations

• DPI scaling is still experimental and does sometimes not work over RDP sessions, depending on the version of the server, the RDP client and DPI settings on the server.
• FlexLM Diag scan supports only first configured vendor daemon, expiry date and other data scanned from diag is not available for other vendor daemons on the same FlexLM Server.
• Group Settings Published Software Packages: Changes to the published Software Packages are immediately written to the database, cancel out of the dialog is ignored

Die Information über Monitore wird für windows 7 und neuer aus WMI abgefragt.

Die Info welche man von Windows/WMI erhält ist nicht immer aktuell/akkurat - besonders bei Laptops welche wechselnd an mehrere externe Monitore angeschlossen werden (z.B. in Umgebungen mit Desksharing) gibt es teilweise irreführende Resultate.

Wir haben daher die Monitor Queries aus den Standardqueries entfernt. Sie können weiter bei uns bezogen und verwendet werden, wenn man sich über die Limiten der Genauigkeit der Resultate im Klaren ist.

Falls das Gerät über USB angeschlossen - und wenn die USB ID bekannt ist - könnte man über entsprechende SQL Statements die Geräte annähernd ermitteln. Die Funktionalität ist aber nicht ins UI eingebaut, bzw. es gibt keine mitgelieferten Queries. Bei Geräten, welche abwechselnd an verschiedenen Computern angeschlossen werden können ist die Interpretation der Resultate aus der Inventardatenbank nicht trivial. Eine andere Möglichkeit ist die Suche via die verwendete Treibersoftware.

Can be downloaded from the Filebase.

Supported Environments

New Features

• New web based module for internal list of software resources.
  Publish information about your software to your users and software owners and combine it with a concise subset of inventory information.
  Flexible RBAC model to decentralize information update and limit visibility of inventory information according to target audience.
• A lot more attributes from Active Directory are now directly available on the User, Machine, DirectoryMissingUser and DirectoryMissingMachine objects.
  Attributes whenCreated and whenChanged are now replicated to all Tables that contain AD objects.
• HardwareUniqueID and OperatingSystemUniqueID fields on Machine abstract the source of this information for different OS Types.
  Mac Serial Number and Platform UUID Support.
• Group Scan can now be performed directly from the Import Service in most scenarios.
• Machine Group Membership now displayed in the OctoSAM Inventory GUI.
• User Device Affinity can now be imported from other systems such as SCCM
• Last User and Most Frequent User information can now be viewed in opposite direction. (All machines where a user is Last user).
• Greatly improved load time for main object windows (Machine, User, SoftwarePackage).
• Consolidated metering is now available for all packages that support detection of processes. Up until now, each Package had to indicate consolidated metering, this is no longer needed.

Update Instructions

Prerequisites

• Check your custom Queries/Reports for Changes in the Data Model that are not backward compatible:
• Plan migration of your Database to Sql Server 2016 SP1 or later. Consult with us if you cannot move to SQL Server 2016 yet.
• .net Framework 4.7.1 is required, For High DPI UI features, WIndows 10 Creators Update is required.

Database

• Make a backup copy of the database
• Migrate to schema version 1.9.5 from 1.9.4. See release notes of 1.9.4 if you migrate from earlier versions.

Scanner

• Deploy the new Version of Octosocan2.exe to your environment .scan files are compatible with versions 1.8.16 or newer of the import Service

GUI Client

• OctoSAM Inventory client: Update Installation is supported, just install the .msi over the existing installation.

Server Components

• Stop OctoSAM services on the server
• Make a backup copy of all configuration files
• Uninstall your current version of the software from the system.
• Remove any files that might be left over after uninstall from the program folder.
• Run the .msi installer
• Merge the your old configuration settings from the backed up config files with the new configuration template files.
  Note that appSettings and log4net config are now externalized into their own files.
  You usually do not have to edit the .exe.config files. Best to leave them unchanged as they are now maintained by the installer/update.
• Note that Active Directory configuration has changed considerably in this release. Refer to the provided sample config files.

• Update the software catalog from latest master file

• Import standard queries and reports from provided .zip file.
  Tests your custom queries with the new release.

• Restart OctoSAM services

• Update the VMWare vCenter scan start script - if used - according to sample provided in Support.zip

• Update the AD group scan start script - if used - according to sample provided in Support.zip.
  Consider using the new group scanner integrated in the Import Service.

Known Limitations

• DPI scaling works only on Windows 10 creators update or later.
• FlexLM Diag scan supports only first configured vendor daemon, expiry date and other data scanned from diag is not available for other vendor daemons on the same FlexLM Server.
• Currently, the license manager statistics database does not allow more than 32767 issued licenses per server. Counts greater than that value will get truncated. "Unlimited" will also be converted to 32767
• Group Settings Published Software Packages: Changes to the published Software Packages are immediately written to the database, cancel out of the dialog is ignored

In OctoSAM Inventory 1.9.4 ist die Mac Adresse auf dem Maschinenobjekt verfügbar (Für Windows, Mac, ESX Systeme). Es wird die MAC Adresse genommen die beim Scan das aktive Netzwerk ist, d.h. passend zur Netzwerkadresse (IP Adresse).

Can be downloaded from the file base.

Supported Environments

New Features

• Repackaging information can now be collected per installation. For sites that tag software installations with special entries in the uninstaller registry, this information can now be collected per installation. This allows to locate installations that were not made using the official packages.
• MAC address is now available directly in the machine object for Windows, Mac and ESX. In previous versions it was complicated to get the 'active at scan time' MAC address in the inventory for systems with multiple network adapters. Now the MAC address is reported by the scanners.
• License manager server housekeeping has been improved
• Powershell modules are now installed in the program folder and maintained with the .MSI. Placing the shell modules in the program folder protects them from unintentional modification and allows automatic update of the modules via .MSI installation.
• VMWare ESX Scanner now supports PowerCLI 6.5 (Modules instead of Snapins)

Removed Functionality

• NetInstall Scanning has been removed from Octoscan2

Update Instructions

• Check your custom Queries/Reports for Changes in the Data Model that are not backward compatible:
  
  SoftwareSignature.Repackager
  SoftwareSignature.RepackagerInfo
  SoftwareSignature.RepackagerVersion
  
  have been removed. Use Columns in MachineSoftwareSignature instead.
  
  SoftwarePackage.LicensingRelevant
  
  has been removed. Use SoftwareLicensingType.LicensingRelevant instead.
• Check the changed prerequisites: SQL Server 2012 R2 is required, .net Framework 4.6.2 is required
• Make a backup copy of the database
• Migrate to schema version 1.9.4 from 1.9.3. See release notes of 1.9.3 if you migrate from earlier versions.
• Deploy the new Version of Octosocan2.exe to your environment .scan files are compatible with versions 1.8.16 or newer of the import Service
• Stop OctoSAM services on the server
• Make a backup copy of all configuration files
• Run the .msi Installer
• Merge the configuration settings with the new configuration template files.
  Be especially careful with the assembly binding redirect section of the configuration files. This section must exactly match the settings in the provided sample configuration files.
• Update the software catalog from latest master file
• Import Standard Queries and Reports from provided .zip file.
  Tests your custom queries with the new release.
• Restart OctoSAM services
• Update the VMWare vCenter scan start script - if used - according to sample provided in Support.zip
• Update the AD Group scan start script - if used - according to sample provided in Support.zip

Known Limitations

• DPI scaling does sometimes not work over RDP sessions, depending on the version of the server, the RDP client and DPI settings on the server.
• FlexLM Diag scan supports only first configured vendor daemon, expiry date and other data scanned from diag is not available for other vendor daemons on the same FlexLM Server.
• Currently, the license manager statistics database does not allow more than 32767 issued licenses per server. Counts greater than that value will get truncated. "Unlimited" will also be converted to 32767
• Group Settings Published Software Packages: Changes to the published Software Packages are immediately written to the database, cancel out of the dialog is ignored

Release Version 1.9.3 can be downloaded from the filebase.

Supported Environments

(no change between 1.9.2 and 1.9.3)

New Features

Master Catalog and Custom Packages

Conflict handling between Master Catalog and custom packages has been modified in 1.9.3. If there are simple conflicts between package definitions in the Master Catalog and custom packages, custom packages always override the Master Catalog.

If you want the master package back, delete the conflicting custom package. If a new custom package conflicts with an existing Master Catalog package, delete the master catalog package. The catalog update wizard has a new tab 'Custom' that shows all custom package that have potential conflicts with the Master Catalog.

Octoscan2: Microsoft Visual Studio Detection

Octoscan2 now uses the Microsoft documented methods to find out the installed edition of Visual Studio versions from 2010 to 2015.

Visual Studio 2017 RC recognition if installed on standard paths. Special signatures msvs: are emitted by the scanner.

Octoscan2: Status Window

Cleaned up drawing of the debug/status window, eliminated excess flicker.

Under Windows 10, the status window is now per Monitor DPI aware.

Adobe Acrobat DC Editions

Can now distinguish Pro / Standard Editions based on SWID Serial Number

OctoScanSettings

This utility program to override Octoscan2 configuration per machine is now a native program with no dependencies on .net.

It supports the same platforms as the scanner Octoscan2.

Machine

2 new Fields on Machine

• PcSystemType
  New hardware type based on Win32_ComputerSystem.PCSystemType / PCSystemTypeEx that's easier to handle than 'ChassisTypes'.
• ProcessorFamily
  .

SWIDDocument

Key elements from SWID Tag files are now available directly in the SwidDocument table. No more complex XML XPath code in Queries needed to access these values.

Data Model

Cleanup of data model and database documentation

High DPI Support for the OctoSAM Inventory GUI

Fonts are now scaled according to System DPI settings and are more crisp than when using Windows default scaling on high DPI devices.

Note that when you have multiple Displays with different DPI settings, windows may still scale the GUI with slightly blurred fonts and icons, depending on the configuration.

Queries

Overhauled queries for more consistent field names and tooltips on all columns.

Tooltips are now also shown in the Column Chooser window.

In developer mode, the query engine makes more checks to help detect coding errors such as typos etc in query definition.

Custom Queries, Tasks and Reports Paths

Paths to custom queries, tasks, and reports can now be configured per database in the ConfigurationInformation table in addition to

configuration in the application configuration file (Octopus2.exe.config).

WMI Codes

Most WMI codes are now shown also in clear text

Code Translation via Master Catalog

Code translations are now stored in the database and can be updated via Global Catalog update.

This makes code translations also available for Queries.

Hard-coded translations in queries have been removed.

OctoUtil

Database connection can now be specified on the command line for scripting multiple databases

New commands 'import repository' and 'import codes'

Changed Functionality

• Installation of a new software version of the import service now triggers a full housekeeping cycle with recalculation of all attributes. Previously that was only triggered by database schema update.
• Logging of time information has been changed from milliseconds to 'rush format' showing the two most significant units.
  For example 1m 2s instead of 62000 ms.

Removed Functionality

• Display(Monitor) information via VESA for systems prior to Windows 7 is no longer supported. WmiMonitorID information is fully supported but not available on Windows XP.
• Display(Monitor) information has been removed from machine reports as it has become largely irrelevant. WmiMonitorID information is still available in some Queries.
• FlexLM user filtering feature has been removed
• The AutoAssign view has been removed.
• Database tables deprecated in earlier versions have ben removed
• Office 2003 related queries have been removed

Update Instructions:

• Make a backup copy of the database
• Migrate to schema version 1.9.3 from 1.9.2. See release notes of 1.9.2 SP1 if you migrate from earlier versions.
• Deploy the new Version of Octosocan2.exe to your environment .scan files are compatible with versions 1.8.16 or newer of the import Service
• Stop OctoSAM services on the server
• Make a backup copy of all configuration files
• Run the .msi Installer
• Merge the configuration settings with the new configuration template files.
  Be especially careful with the assembly binding redirect section of the configuration files. This section must exactly match the settings in the provided sample configuration files.
• Update the software catalog from latest master file
• Import Standard Queries and Reports from provided .zip file.
  Tests your custom queries with the new release.
• Restart OctoSAM services
• Update the VMWare vCenter scanner if older than 1.9.2 (Support.zip/VMWare)
• Update the AD Group scanner if older than 1.9.2 (Support.zip/GroupScan)

Known Limitations :

• DPI scaling does sometimes not work over RDP sessions, depending on the version of the server, the RDP client and DPI settings on the server.
• Printing of charts does not work on DPI Settings other than 100%
• FlexLM Diag scan supports only first configured vendor daemon, expiry date and other data scanned from diag is not available for other vendor daemons on the same FlexLM Server.
• Currently, the database does not allow more than 32767 issued licenses per server. Counts greater than that value will get truncated.
• Group Settings Published Software Packages: Changes to the published Software Packages are immediately written to the database, cancel out of the dialog is ignore

Das ist leider nicht so einfach möglich, da eine Maschine mehrere Netzwerkinterfaces und damit Mac Adressen hat. Es gibt extra Logik um auf dem Maschinenobjekt die IP Adresse zu hinterlegen die für die Kommunikation mit dem Firmennetzwerk verwendet wird.

Um die Mac Adresse dieses interfaces ebenfalls im Maschinenobjekt hinterlegen zu können muss das DB Modell erweitert werden. Ich habe das als Pendenz aufgenommen (#527). Könnte in 1.9.4 realisiert werden.

Mit einer Custom Query wäre es möglich, die notwendige Logik einzubauen um die Mac Adresse zur aktuellen Netzwerkadresse zu finden.

Das möchten wir aber nicht in die Standard Query einbauen, da es eine erhebliche Verschlechterung der Performance der Query bedeuten würde.

Die Query 'Machine Search by MAC Address' gibt eine Liste aller MAC Addressen und Maschinen aus.

Lieben Gruss

Erwin

Verified with Windows 2012 R2 Domain Level and Servers (fully patched as of September 24, 2016).

To scan servers in the system context, you can set up a scheduled task via GPO.

Make sure that the GPO affects the desired servers only, and that software metering is not enabled for these scans.

Metering should only be enabled on scans that run in an ordinary user context.

If you need software metering or login history on servers, you have to additionally run the scanner in the user context, usually through logon GPO.

Octoscan2 implements sensible default settings for server scans in system/administrator or regular user context.

Prepare

• Make sure that Group "Domain Computers" has read/execute access to the share where you published Octoscan2.exe (\\server\OctoSAM$\bin)
• Make sure that Group "Domain Computers" has change access to the share where the .scan files are collected (\\server\OctoSAM$\data)

Test Permissions From a Test Server

Install PSTools from

https://technet.microsoft.com/…sysinternals/pstools.aspx

To start an interactive Console as system User:

• Login with an Administrator Account
• start cmd run as Administrator
• psexec -i -s cmd.exe

A new command window opens which runs as NT_AUTHORITY\SYSTEM. In this new command window start Octoscan2.exe from your network share with /show /keep Options:

Verify that the .scan file gets written to the expected location and there are no ERROR messages in the Octoscan2 window.

Do not continue if these prerequisite tests did not run properly!

Configure GPO

In the Group Policy Editor

Set the desired triggers (once a day is recommended). Set a random delay.

Save the GPO, allow to replicate or force replication

On the test server run (as Administrator)

gpudate /forced

Verify in local task scheduler that the task has been created

Interactively test the scheduled task (Context Menu Run ...)

Hallo Stephan,

Ein Script welches die Maschinen automatisch löscht gibt es bewusst nicht im Standardumfang des Produkts, da vor dem Löschen manuell kontrolliert werden sollte, ob die Ausgabe der Query Sinn macht. Die Kriterien für die Löschung von Maschinen sind von Kunde zu Kunde zu unterschiedlich.

Hat man die Query ausgeführt und möchte alle dort ausgelisteten Maschinen nach Prüfung löschen, so kann man dies mittels Kontext Menü (Rechte Maustatse) -> Database -> Delete Visible erreichen. Dazu braucht man natürlich Schreibrechte auf der Datenbank.

Das Grid kann ad-hoc noch gefiltert werden, wenn man nur nach bestimmten Zusatzkriterien löschen möchte (wie z.B. nur Server oder nur Laptops usw.). Delete Visible selektiert dann nur die noch sichtbaren Maschinen.

Es gibt auch die Möglichkeit, im Grid eine oder mehrere Zeilen zu markieren und dann mit 'Delete Selected' nur diese Maschinen zu löschen.

Mit dem Tool OctoUtil können Maschinen gescripted automatisch gelöscht werden.
Dies kann sinnvoll sein, wenn der Kunde z.B. über einen automatisierten Workflow für das Decomissioning von Systemen verfügt.
Ist dies der Fall sind wir gerne bei der Integration behilflich.

Lieben Gruss
Erwin