AIX scan (Beta)¶

Beta status

The AIX scan module is currently in beta status. It is not yet fully tested and may not work in all environments. Please contact Octosoft if you want to use the AIX scanner in production. Java scanning has not yet been implemented for AIX. The main focus in this beta is collecting the data that is interesting for Oracle database licensing features of OctoSAM.

Installation and basic operation¶

The AIX scan module is implemented as a Korn Shell script (ksh93). The current scanner can be found in the subdirectory Native/octoscan-aix of the OctoSAM delivery archive.

Invocation and collection of generated files¶

Usually, the scanner is invoked using existing management infrastructure.

On AIX servers, the scanner should be started with root privileges.

FILE=$(./octoscan.sh -o /tmp)

The program emits the generated filename to stdout. Use the variable ${FILE} to further process the file. You are completely free on how to transfer the generated files to the OctoSAM Import Service import folder.

A list of all options can be obtained using the help option

./octoscan.sh -?

tag option (-t)¶

You can specify a custom value to identify the scan source. The specified value is available in OctoSAM Inventory.

Test option (-T)¶

This option enables test mode, where the scanner performs internal tests but does not produce an output file.

Verbose option (-v)¶

This option enables verbose output for debugging purposes.

Use an upload server¶

Octosoft provides a web-based upload server running on Windows/IIS or Linux/nginx for generated .scan files.

Use the curl utility to upload the generated file.

Very simple example:

FILE=$(./octoscan.sh -o /tmp)
if curl -F "upload=@${FILE}" http://youruploadserver.yourdomain:8080/upload
then
    rm ${FILE}
fi

In practice, you need to add error handling and ideally handle the case that the upload server may not be available by caching generated .scan files. Depending on your security setup you may also need to provide additional headers.

Java process scan¶

Currently the AIX scanner does not support scanning of running Java processes.

AIX Java filesystem scan¶

Currently the AIX scanner does not support Java filesystem scanning.

Open file format¶

The produced file is a tar archive that is compressed if the gzip utility is available on the system. The file has a .scai extension.

Network prerequisites¶

For best results, all machines in your network should have synchronized clocks. Otherwise, date and time information in the inventory can be unreliable.