Agent Third-Party Deployment: Troubleshooting Inventory

FlexNet Manager Suite ()

Inventory gathering and upload is a sophisticated chain from target inventory device through inventory beacon to central application server. For general trouble-shooting over the whole process, see the online help for FlexNet Manager Suite under Inventory Beacons > Inventory Beacon Reference > Troubleshooting: Inventory Not Uploading. This topic focuses entirely on inventory collection on the target inventory device.

After you have deployed and installed the FlexNet Inventory Agent, the regular log file for the ndtrack executable is identified in Registry]\ManageSoft\Tracker\CurrentVersion\LogFile (see [LogFile (inventory component)). In the Agent third-party deployment case, the default paths are:

On Windows platforms, $(TempDirectory)\ManageSoft\tracker.log
On UNIX-like platforms, /var/opt/managesoft/log/tracker.log (when the ndtrack executable runs as root).

For advanced trouble-shooting, you may require more advanced tracing and logging. You may also be asked to submit a trace file to assist the Support team at Flexera to solve difficult problems in your environment.

To configure advanced tracing for the installed FlexNet Inventory Agent:
In a flat text editor, open the etcp.trace file.

In the Agent third-party deployment case, this file is co-located with the installed ndtrack executable on the target inventory device:
- On Windows, the default is C:\Program Files (x86)\ManageSoft\etcp.trace
- On UNIX-like platforms, the default is /opt/managesoft/etcp.trace.
Configure the name and location of the trace/log file that will be generated on the inventory device.

The hash or pound character (#) identifies a comment. To "uncomment" a line in the .trace configuration file means to delete (only) the leading hash character. Choose one of the following lines, uncomment it, and optionally modify it to your requirements. On Windows:
```
#filename=C:\ManageSoft.log
#filename=C:\ManageSoft%p_%d_%t_%u.log	# filename pattern with everything!
```
On UNIX-like platforms:
```
#filename=/tmp/log/mgstrace.log
#filename=/tmp/log/ManageSoft%p_%d_%t_%u.log # filename pattern with everything!
```
See the notes within the file header for the use of the supported variables within the file name.

Tip: It is best practice to use a pattern that includes (at least) either a date stamp (%d) or a sequential number (%u). Without these, the fixed file name means tracing information is appended to the same file with every inventory collection. This can quickly produce a trace file too large for text editors to read, and too hard to manage in terms of disk space. Variables in the file name trigger creation of a new file each time the associated variable is changed (or, for %u, at every invocation of ndtrack).

Important: The log file path:
- Must be on the same drive as the ndtrack executable (on Windows devices)
- Must exist and be writable before the ndtrack executable is next invoked (tracing does not create any directories, and does not function if any directory in the specified path is missing or unwritable).
Uncomment the lines for which you want to enable tracing (ensuring that the uncommented line now starts with a plus sign).

The tracing controls are arranged hierarchically. For example, uncommenting the one line for +Inventory/Tracker enables tracing for all child controls, as in this example:
```
+Inventory/Tracker
#+Inventory/Tracker/Preferences
#+Inventory/Tracker/Environment
#+Inventory/Tracker/Hardware
#+Inventory/Tracker/Hardware/WMI
#+Inventory/Tracker/Hardware/WMI/Class
#+Inventory/Tracker/Hardware/WMI/Instance
#+Inventory/Tracker/Hardware/WMI/Property
#+Inventory/Tracker/Hardware/Processor
#+Inventory/Tracker/Hardware/Memory
#+Inventory/Tracker/Hardware/Hypervisor
#+Inventory/Tracker/Hardware/DiskDrive
#+Inventory/Tracker/Registry
#+Inventory/Tracker/Registry/Keys
#+Inventory/Tracker/Registry/Values
#+Inventory/Tracker/Package
#+Inventory/Tracker/Package/Info
#+Inventory/Tracker/Software
#+Inventory/Tracker/Software/Directory
#+Inventory/Tracker/Software/File
#+Inventory/Tracker/Software/Version
#+Inventory/Tracker/Oracle
#+Inventory/Tracker/Oracle/Listener
#+Inventory/Tracker/Generate
#+Inventory/Tracker/Compress
#+Inventory/Tracker/Upload
```
This setting enables (almost) all tracing related to the tracker component (ndtrack). You can also create an exemption to the general setting by making the appropriate line starts with a minus sign. For example, this one-line change within the above:
```
-Inventory/Tracker/Registry
#+Inventory/Tracker/Registry/Keys
#+Inventory/Tracker/Registry/Values
```
turns off tracing for everything related to gathering inventory from the Windows registry (that is, the disable setting is also inherited by the Inventory/Tracker/Registry/Keys and /Values controls).

One control that may affect the tracker component is outside this set. Because the tracker attempts an upload to the inventory beacon as soon as inventory gathering is complete, its tracing is affected by the +Communication/Network setting (along with the ndupload component). This enables tracing of all network communications, including server certificate checking and the like.

Some common choices for tracing the inventory gathering process are listed in the table below.
If you are troubleshooting processes that might crash or hang, uncomment the flush_freq setting in the etcp.trace file and set it to flush_freq=0.

The default value is flush_freq=16, which flushes the tracing output to the log file after every 16 lines. While this configuration is efficient for regular operations, it can be problematic in cases where the process being traced crashes or hangs. In such scenarios, it is critical to ensure that every line of tracing output is immediately written to the log file to capture critical data just before a crash or hang occurs.
To turn off tracing for an individual line that has previously been enabled, either comment out the line again, or switch the plus sign to a minus sign at the start of the line. A quick way to turn off tracing but keep all the settings for future use is to comment out only the filename setting that specifies the log file.

Some of the more commonly used tracing options for the tracker include the following:

Category	Option	Notes
Networking	`+Communication/Network`	Traces all low-level upload and download actions $whether HTTP or HTTPS$. It includes HTTPS certificate checking and related areas. Covers actions by the `ndtrack` and `ndupload` components.
All inventory	`+Inventory`	Traces all inventory operations, which on large inventory tasks, could result in a sizable trace file.
All tracker	`+Inventory/Tracker`	This traces almost all operations of the `ndtrack` executable.
Preferences	`+Inventory/Tracker/Environment`	Shows active preferences, whether set in the registry $on Windows platforms$ or in the `config.ini` file $on UNIX-like platforms$, or inbuilt default values.
Hardware inventory	`+Inventory/Tracker/Hardware`	Traces all hardware inventory classes visible in the `` node in the `.ndi` inventory file, including CPU information and virtualization.
Software inventory	`+Inventory/Tracker/Package`	Traces the inventory operations that populate the `` nodes in the `.ndi` inventory file.
Software inventory	`+Inventory/Tracker/Software`	Tracing mainly for file inventory gathering $such as the `` and `MD5` nodes of the `.ndi` file$.
Oracle inventory	`+Inventory/Tracker/Oracle`	When the inventory device hosts Oracle Database, this is the tracing for local Oracle inventory.
Operations	`+Inventory/Tracker/Generate`	Traces the preparation of the `.ndi` inventory file$s$, keeping in mind that on an Oracle Database server, there may be multiple files generated.
Operations	`+Inventory/Tracker/Compress`	Traces the compression of the `.ndi` file into a `.gz` archive.
Operations	`+Inventory/Tracker/Upload`	Traces the upload of the `.ndi.gz` archive to an inventory beacon by the tracker. Tip: If the immediate upload by the tracker fails for some temporary reason, the upload is attempted again later by the `ndupload` component. While this component does not provide this same level of operations tracing as the tracker does, you can enable `+Communication/Network` for low-level tracing of each step in the upload interaction.

2025 R1.1

Parent topic:Agent Third-Party Deployment: Details