Summary

When processor clock speed details change on a managed device running a Windows operating system, a new partial inventory NDI file is generated and uploaded by the next IBM PVU inventory scan event, despite no meaningful change affecting PVU license consumption in hardware configuration taking place.

Details

When the an IBM PVU inventory scan is performed, the agent checks whether various hardware details in the inventory have changed. A partial inventory NDI file is generated and uploaded when a change is detected.

This issue results in a partial inventory NDI file being unnecessarily generated and uploaded when processor clock speed details change, despite there being no change in the computer's hardware configuration that has an impact on the calculation of PVU license consumption.

When this occurs, logging in the tracker.log file produced by the inventory gathering ndtrack process shows output indicating changes have been detected related to the Win32_Processor hardware item. For example:

[07.11.2017 23:00:03 (G, 0)] {8920} Searching for changes in hardware inventory...
[07.11.2017 23:00:03 (G, 0)] {8920} Fewer instances of hardware item 'Win32_Processor;Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2650 v4 @ 2.20GHz;CurrentClockSpeed;2194' found in latest inventory
[...]
[07.11.2017 23:00:03 (G, 0)] {8920} Started generating inventory 'C:\ProgramData\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft\Tracker\Inventories\system on wkstn102.ndi'

This issue does not directly result in inaccurate data being reported, but may place additional unnecessarily load on server infrastructure to process the additional inventory NDI files.

Fix details

This issue has been fixed by adding the following properties to the default value for the HardwareChangesClassPropertyBlacklist preference: Win32_Processor.CurrentClockSpeedNonWMI.CurrentClockSpeed

Related information

See the following other known issues which have some similarities to this one:

• Unnecessary high-frequency PVU inventory NDI file uploads may be triggered when Win32_OperatingSystem.LastBootUpTime or InstallDate changes (IOJ-2247786)
• Unnecessary high-frequency PVU inventory NDI file uploads may be triggered from devices running Unix-like operating systems by variations in processor clock speed details (IOJ-2258785)
• Unnecessary high-frequency PVU inventory NDI file uploads may be triggered by agent scheduled event changes (IOJ-2236677)
• Unnecessary high-frequency PVU inventory NDI file uploads may be triggered when network adapter details change (IOJ-2244446)

Fix status

This issue has been fixed in the following FlexNet Manager Suite releases: 2018 R1 (On Premises), 2018 R1 / Mar 2018 (Cloud)

Other information

Affected components: Agent, Inventory, SAM for IBM

Master issue ID: IOJ-1852613

Also known as: FNMS-55144