OctoSAM installation¶

All components of the OctoSAM Software are delivered as a .zip archive that you can extract to the filesystem. The recommended and pre-configured filesystem location for the server components is D:\OctoSAM\Server

Install on Windows member servers only

Installation for production environments is supported on Windows domain member servers only. The software can be installed on Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64bit only) for testing and development. Installation on Windows domain controllers is not supported.

The OctoSAM Windows GUI can also be installed via the OctoSAM.msi file.

Prerequisites¶

Microsoft .NET¶

See release notes for information about required .NET runtime versions.

Service accounts¶

The OctoSAM Inventory Windows services require a Windows service account with the following privileges:

Read/Write access to parts of the file system that you configure for log files and .scan file processing
At least Read/Write and bulk import access rights to the central OctoSAM Inventory database
Read access to Active Directory for user and computer objects (Offline import of Active Directory information is also supported).

CPU and memory resources¶

As a rule of thumb, you can use the Microsoft recommended hardware specifications for Windows 2016 Server and SQL Server 2016 and add:

32 GB RAM plus an additional 8 GB of RAM to SQL Server for every 10,000 computers. For example for 50'0000 computers provide 72 GB.

2 vCPU / cores or better to SQL Server for each 10,000 computers

16 GB of RAM for the import service (regardless of the size of the database)

2 vCPU / cores for the import service

Plan for additional server resources

if you want to run the OctoSAM GUI (at least 8 GB RAM and 1 vCPU per concurrent user) on the same machine.
if you want to run the browser on the server to access the OctoSAM web UI (at least 16 GB RAM and 2 vCPU for each open browser instance ). Production use of the browser via remote desktop to the server is not recommended.
if you want to run ad-hoc query tools or the Microsoft SQL Management Studio on the server machine.

Disc space¶

Disc performance: We recommend high-performance storage subsystems such as solid-state disk arrays. Disc performance is usually the limiting factor that defines the overall throughput and performance of OctoSAM.
Database: We recommend 30 GB of table space (ROWS data) per 1000 machines depending on configured retention times for history data. Make sure your transaction log settings are big enough for the high transaction volume that is to be expected from inventory scan import.
Log files: All OctoSAM Inventory server components write log files through the Serilog logging framework. Designate a directory on a local file system for logging.; Log file disc space requirements depend on the configured log levels,we recommend reserving at least 100 GB for log data.; Detailed configuration of the Serilog framework is not part of this documentation.

Check filesystem permissions

Make sure that all service accounts have 'write' permissions to the configured log directory.

Scan file archive: It’s highly recommended to archive the collected scan files after import. Required disc space for scan file archiving is approx. 200 KB per scan.; 1000 machines with on average 1 scan per day result in 200 MB per day, 30 GB per year. The import service automatically archives processed scan files into a directory hierarchy.

Check filesystem permissions

Make sure that the import service account has 'write' permissions to the configured archive directories.

Scanner, scan file collection, central scanner configuration files: Disc space for these operations is best placed on a highly available storage cluster system. The scanner is usually started by group policy settings or a login script, so the executable and its configuration file should always be available.

Filesystem setup¶

We recommend installing the server components in a folder structure under a base folder named D:\OctoSAM. The installation media contains a script create_folder_structure.ps1 under Support/Install/Scripts that creates the recommended folder structure and network share.

First installation¶

For a fresh install, extract the installation archive to a temporary folder, adjust and execute the create_folder_structure.ps1 script. By convention, copy the installation archive to the Install/Delivery folder in the newly created folder structure. This helps you find the installation archive if you require additional artifacts later. Also, some OctoSAM components automatically identify the newest suitable input files in this structure.

Server software installation¶

The Server folder contains the server software. If updating an existing installation, make sure all services and other applications are stopped. Extract the installation archive and replace the Server folder in the OctoSAM base directory with the one from the installation archive.

Rename the old Server folder

It's recommended that you rename the existing Server folder to Server_BACK or similar. Do not copy a new Server folder over the existing folder as this may lead to leftover files. Leftover files from earlier installations may impact the functionality and/or stability of the OctoSAM Server software.

The Server folder and its subfolders may also contain configuration files. These files should only be altered if advised by Octosoft. A valid scenario to alter such files might be to enable additional diagnostics. If you modify files within the Server structure you have to manually re-apply the changes after each software update (if required).

The easiest way to collect your scan files is to configure the scanner in such a way that the scan files are all written to a central share. For simple installations, define a hidden share called OctoSAM$ on your storage system. Place the following folders in that share:

\\servername\OctoSAM$\Bin: (read-only for all users except OctoSAM administrators) to hold octoscan2.exe and its configuration file.
\\servername\OctoSAM$\Data: (read/write for all users) to accept scan files from all users/computers in the network.

Use create_folder_structure script

create_folder_structure.ps1 creates the OctoSAM$ share with a sensible basic default configuration.

The import service works for you

The import service reads only complete files from configured import folders. When copying files to the central share, you therefore don't have to apply any fancy copy and rename strategy.

Place everything on one share

We recommend to place the Bin folder with the Octoscan2 executable and the Data folder on the same network share. That way, the Group Policy engine on the client takes care of potential network startup timing issues.

Configuration basics¶

OctoSAM Inventory uses standard .net configuration appsettings.json files for all server components and the GUI. All server components can be configured through a single appsettings.json file located in a configurable folder that is referenced via the OCTOSAM_CONFIGURATION_FOLDER variable.

Use create_folder_structure script

create_folder_structure.ps1 configures the environment variable OCTOSAM_CONFIGURATION_FOLDER.

Configuration file location(s)¶

In addition to the folder referenced by %OCTOSAM_CONFIGUATION_FOLDER% each program also looks for an appsettings.json file in its start directory.

If %OCTOSAM_CONFIGUATION_FOLDER% is not defined or does not point to a valid folder, the programs try to find the following config files:

    ../../Config/appsettings.json
    ../Config/appsettings.json

The files are processed top-down. Settings in each file override/extend the settings in earlier files.

Configuration template files¶

The installation media provides documented template configuration files in the Directory SampleConfigurationFiles within the Server folder.