• Introduction
• User Guides
• Distinction between Inventory files and API data processing
• SIM Installation
• General Troubleshooting
• Logging
• Windows Service and User Permissions
• Example Issues
  • Hyper-V data not aggregating , no .INV data
  • Change the Inventory Incoming folder

Introduction

This guide aims to provide you with some basic troubleshooting techniques for the Snow Integration Manager

User guides

• Pre-requisites – Have they been checked? Was there any issues completing these? Potentially reapply them in case some steps may have been missed.
• Dependencies – Is the environment up to date? Are all of the Software components supported?
• Mapping tables – This relates to the fields in the Inventory xml data against a field in the 3^rd party data. Sometimes the 3^rd party data is actually missing values, so these mapping tables help to identify where there missing data could be.

Distinction between Inventory files and API data processing

• "Inventory/ .INV files”  = these process similarly to .snowpack files.

• Whether the data is collected via an API = the data goes directly into the Snow License Manager database.

SIM installation

General troubleshooting.

• Has the SIM ever worked?
  • This could rule out potential installation issues. You may need to reinstall SIM.
• Have you tried installing the latest SIM version?
  • Is the issue SIM version specific? It could be a known problem record and the reported issue could be fixed in a newer version release.  Please access the Support Portal then select Known Issues to view a list of potential issues and their current status.
• Have you tried deleting the connector and re created it?
  • This can resolve potentially cached files/settings which are causing the data aggregation to fail.

Logging

Windows Service and User Permissions

Above is a screenshot of the Windows service that runs the SIM.
If the SIM is giving errors / or not working on the scheduled aggregation days but does appear to work on manual tests, you can change the “Log On As” user from Local System to an Administrator account and see if that resolves a potential issue.

Example issues

Hyper-V data not aggregating , no .INV data

In the above example the “Test Connection” is failing when trying to run the Hyper-V connector.
When running this connector the following error appears in the SIM-GUI log:

2021-11-12 13:16:34,963 [7] ERROR Microsoft Hyper-V_1 - Cannot connect to DESKTOP-THRBMKF. Removing this server from aggregation.System.Exception: Unable to connect to server [DESKTOP-THRBMKF]   at SnowSoftware.ExternalDataProvider.Providers.MicrosoftHyperV.VMHost.TestServerConnection(ServerData server)   at SnowSoftware.ExternalDataProvider.Providers.MicrosoftHyperV.HyperVInventoryProvider.TestConnection()2021-11-12 13:16:34,964 [7] INFO  Aggregator - SIM version 5.35.0 (4570)

The above error confirms that the SIM cannot contact the server.
The only 2 fields required setting up the Hyper-V connector are the Server name and the User details.

Ping the device and if it is contactable then perhaps the issue is the user account:

By removing the example user “Andy” and retrying the test, the connection appears to work. This confirms that Andy doesn’t have permissions or perhaps the password is incorrect. Try removing users, or adding a different user if this is the issue you are experiencing.

By running an new aggregation we can see that the SIM_GUI  logs now show more information since changing the User:

Change the Inventory Incoming folder

The default location for storing the SIM .inv data is:
C:\Program Files\Snow Software\SnowInventory\Server\Incoming\data\processing
The data that goes in that folder from the SIM may have automatically been inserted into the Inventory database and then deleted. (Just like a .snowpack file from a Snow agent)
To check what data was created during the Aggregation, or to create a copy of the data for further testing, create a local folder and generate the SIM data there instead.

For this example change the directory, click Aggregate selected and look for a .inv file in the specified local folder.

IMPORTANT: Remember to put the directory back to the default location after testing as this may prevent data being transferred to the Master Inventory Server.

The .inv files generated from the SIM can be opened in the SnowInventoryFileExtractor on the Inventory server:  C:\Program Files\Snow Software\Snow Inventory\Server.

In this example the “Hostname” in the file matches the Hostname for Hyper-V Sim connector.
This is sufficient information to see that the SIM is working.
Once the Hyper-V connector data has been processed in the Inventory Database it is possible to review it using the following SQL queries:

Datacenter Database tables:

 

---Inventory 
select * from SnowInventory.inv.vAllDataCenters 
select * from SnowInventory.inv.DataVirtualMachineView2 
select * from SnowInventory.inv.dataclientview2 

Highlighted in Red notice the Host computer name: “DESKTOP-THRBMKF” and it is “ClientId” “1”
Highlighted in Blue notice all of the virtual machines on that Host ( DC01, INV, SLM01, SQL ), link to “ClientId” “1”

In Hyper-V it looks like this:

---SLM 
select * from SnowLicenseManager.dbo.tbldcc 
select * from SnowLicenseManager.dbo.tblDCCMembers 
select * from SnowLicenseManager.dbo.tblInventoryVirtualMachines select* from SnowLicenseManager.dbo.tblcomputer