Reporting Firmware Information in a Timely Manner

[Wood, Jerry]

I am working on a large project where we have to keep track of upgrades as they occur. The problem is getting the information back to the central database in a timely manner. What is the mechanism that collects this data, and how can I trigger a collection of the data on a machine by machine basis. I'd like to be able to report to management knowing my data is no more that 8 hours old.

[Tony Glynn]

I'm assuming you are talking about Proliant servers. If so then you load the Version Control Agent on all your target servers.

You will need a working Version Control Repository with the appropriate baseline service packs loaded.

I'm not sure of the mechanism that the VCA is queried by the SIM server but updates we perform are notified fairly quickly. Once you have that then a custom SQL query should be able to extract the info - try CIM_softwareidentity as a start.

Try running discovery on the appropriate systems as required.

If you are talking about workstations then .... Dunno!

[Wood, Jerry]

Yes, we are using Proliant servers and the VCA is working well just can't get the updated information back to the database in a timely manner. I assume this is a task running from the Central Site but I have not identified the task to determine what I can set up to make it run faster. It takes days some times.

[David Claypool]

I think you're looking for Tasks & Logs --> View All Scheduled Tasks --> Software Version Status Polling. By default it is scheduled to run once a week. You can change the schedule as well as run it on demand.

[Wood, Jerry]

It appears that the data collection is the task needed. Now I just need to figure out an event that will force collection on a machine when the event occurs.