Inventory Troubleshooting Tips

 Inventory Troubleshooting Tips
If your question is not answered in the table below, please contact WebJunction's
TechAtlas technical support.
If you are having difficulty using the Network Tool, you also have the option of using the
Local Tool or Manual Tool to complete your computer inventory.
Description of
Problem
The script won't
run at all
Likely Source of Problem
There are several possibilities:
1. A browser verification error
message may appear when
attempting to access the
inventory tools indicating
Internet Explorer version 5 or
higher is not installed.
2. You may have anti-virus or
firewall software running that
prevents the VBScript from
executing.
3. VBScript may be disabled in
your web browser.
Solution to Problem
Suggestions for dealing with each of
these possible problems follow:
1. Verify that you are using Internet
Explorer (IE) version 5 or higher.
Within the IE browser window on
your desktop, click the Help
menu, and select About Internet
Explorer. The IE version will be
listed towards the top of the popup window that appears. If you
have an older version of the IE
software, visit the Microsoft web
site to obtain an updated version
of IE.
2. Consider temporarily disabling
anti-virus software, firewall
software, and pop-up blockers
that may be installed on your
computer. Note that this does
not mean uninstalling these
products - most Windows
security programs include an
option to temporarily disable
security features without actually
removing the program from your
computer.
3. Another option is to use the
Manual Tool web form.
Inventory Troubleshooting Tips
Very little
information is
displayed
There are several possibilities:
1. On computers running the
Windows 95, Windows 98, or
Windows NT operating
systems, the WMI (Windows
Management
Instrumentation) is not
installed.
2. The WMI repository on the
computer has become
corrupted and thus
unreadable.
3. If you were using the
TechAtlas Network Tool, the
user account that you used to
logon to your Windows
domain or workgroup may not
have had appropriate
administrator privileges.
Suggestions for dealing with each of
these possible problems follow:
1. You can check for the presence of
the Windows Management
Instrumentation (WMI) by searching
on your computer for the file name
wmicore.exe. If you do not find that
file, you can download the WMI.
2. If the WMI is installed on your
computer, but the TechAtlas
inventory tool is still not returning
much information, it is possible that
the WMI repository on your
computer has become corrupted.
You can check to verify this is the
problem by accessing the Windows
System Information utility program.
In Windows XP, you can access the
System Information tool by going to
your Start menu, selecting All
Programs, clicking on Accessories,
then System Tools, and finally
clicking on System Information. If
the System Information window
displays error messages, this is an
indication that the WMI repository
on your computer may be corrupted.
3. If you were using the TechAtlas
Network Tool, make sure that you
were logged on to your Windows
computer with a user account that
has full administrative privileges. If
you do not have access to such an
account, ask your systems or
network administrator for
assistance.
Not all
computers on
my network are
displayed
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There are several possibilities:
1. Individual computers may not
be "live" - that is, they are not
powered on, physically
connected to the domain or
workgroup, and/or logged on.
2. The user account that you
used to logon to your
Windows domain may not
have had appropriate domain
Suggestions for dealing with each of
these possible problems follow:
1. Make sure that the computers you
want to inventory are powered,
physically connected to the domain
or workgroup, and have been
logged on to your Windows domain
or workgroup (i.e. someone has
logged on with a username and
password).
Inventory Troubleshooting Tips
administrator privileges.
3. A firewall on the computer
may be blocking collection of
computer data.
4. The inventory tool cannot
recognize non-Windows
computers, such as those
running the Linux or
Macintosh operating systems.
2. Make sure that you were logged on
to your Windows domain or
workgroup with a user account that
has full administrative privileges. If
you do not have access to such an
account, ask your systems or
network administrator for
assistance.
3. The firewall may need to be
temporarily disabled in order for the
tool to successfully collect
information.
4. Use the TechAtlas Manual Tool to
inventory non-Windows computers.
Some
information is
inaccurate
The script needs to make some
guesses to help produce useful
information. In particular, the
script makes educated guesses
about CPU type and operating
system version. The information
returned by the script is not
guaranteed 100% accurate.
Information gathered by the TechAtlas
inventory tools can be modified by the
user. This gives you an opportunity to
correct any invalid information gathered
by the inventory tools. There are two
opportunities to do this:
1. Before you upload the inventory
results to TechAtlas.
2. After you upload the inventory
results to TechAtlas, you can modify
individual computer inventory details
from the Computer Profile page.
"Live"
computers are
listed as not
running
The computer from which you
run the script determines whether
other computers on the network
are available by pinging them. If
your computer is unable to ping
another computer, that other
computer cannot be inventoried
by the script.
The "ping" service may be blocked by a
firewall or may have been disabled
entirely on the Windows network in your
library. In order for the TechAtlas
inventory script to run correctly, ask
your network administrator to
temporarily enable the ping service. It
can be disabled once again when you
are done with your computer inventory.
I received the
message
Microsoft 800
4E14 ODB
incorrect
syntax
The inventory tool is a Visual
Basic script, and it doesn’t
support computer names that
include punctuation or special
characters.
Make sure that your computer names
do not include punctuation or other nonnumeric or non-alphabetic characters.
For information on locating computer
names, click here.
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Inventory Troubleshooting Tips
Non-existent
computers
appear on the
list
Error
messages
display on the
automated list
of inventoried
computers
There are a couple of
possibilities:
• If you have active but retired
computer names in your
Windows network domain list,
those computers will be
listed, but will not return any
inventory details.
• If you have duplicate IP
address entries in your DNS
(domain name system)
configuration, the inventory
script will create an entry for
each computer name with
that IP address. This can lead
to duplicate data for a single
computer.
Update the list of domain hosts on the
domain controller server computer to
include only those hosts that are
currently connected to your Windows
network.
When using the automated
inventory script the Windows
Management Instrumentation
(WMI) can generate error
messages for a number of
reasons.
Suggested solutions include:
1. If you have opted to 'Add
administrative access', make sure
you have supplied the correct
username and password and the
username has administrative
privileges on all machines being
scanned.
The most common error
messages and the causes are:
•
Permission Denied/ Access
Denied
If you opted to 'Add
administrative access', either
the username and/or
password are incorrect or the
username doesn’t have
administrative privileges on
all machines.
If you opted to "Use current
windows login”, the user may
not be logged into the
computer with administrative
rights.
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Also verify that each host has a unique
IP address, if you assign static IP
addresses to your network hosts. If you
are not sure what all this means, talk to
your systems or network administrator
and ask them to help you out.
You can delete the Computer Profile, if
one was created.
If you have opted to “Use current
windows login”, log out of the
computer and log back in with the
correct administrative username and
password. The administrator
username and password must be
the same on all workgroup
computers for the tool to work.
2. Go to Control Panel> Administrative
Tools>Local Security Policy>Local
Policies>Security Options. Take a
look at the security setting for:
'Network access: Sharing and
security model for local accounts'. If
it says: 'Guest only - local users
authenticate as guest', then double
click on it and change the setting to
'Classic - local users authenticate as
themselves'.
Inventory Troubleshooting Tips
This is required because if the
security option is not set to 'Classic',
the network tool will log in as a
Guest in the remote computer
regardless of the user credentials
supplied.
•
[Error:] [:2147217405]
Access to the computer data
is denied.
•
Computer is off or
inaccessible
The computer is powered off,
not connected to the network
or access is blocked by a
firewall. The computer is
listed in the Active Directory
even though it is no longer
physically connected to the
network.
Check the Security options within the
Local Policy, as described in Error
Message: Permission Denied. If
network access settings are correct,
you may want to use the WMI
diagnostic tool to verify that the WMI
service works correctly on individual
computers.
• WMI Diagnosis Utility tool
Instructions and Overview
• Download WMI Diagnosis Utility
Suggested solutions include:
1. Verify that this is computer is still
part of the network. The computer
will appear in the inventory list if it is
part of the Active Directory even
though it is no longer physically
connected to the network. Update
the Active Directory, if needed.
2. Verify that the firewalls are not
blocking access. The most common
firewalls are:
• Desktop personal firewalls
(Sygate personal firewall, etc)
• Windows XP firewall
• Firewalls within antivirus
software (Norton, McAfee, etc)
• Firewalls within antispyware
software (Adaware, etc)
• Firewalls within VPN clients
(Cisco VPN client, etc).
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