How does the Software Inventory work?
What needs to be configured to have the software inventory run on devices manually or automatically?
How to collect and update the software inventory?

The software inventory can be updated manually or by waiting for the next automatic execution of the software inventory, according to the parameters set in software inventory module configuration of the devices.



The software inventory can be updated using two methods:

1. The software inventory module configuration:

By default the software inventory module is configured to automatically send software inventory updates at the start of the agent and on a regular basis:

These will be a sort of the second filter applied on top of the software inventory filter.
The parameters are explained below:
 

• (1) - will run a software inventory and upload it to the master each time the BCM agent restarts
• (2) - will run a software every 12 hours (43200 seconds)
• (3) - will upload it every 24 hours (86400)
• (4) - will only send the difference between the software inventory that just ran and the previous one stored on that device. Important: when this is checked, no software inventory will be uploaded if the software inventory hasn't changed since the previous execution
• (5) - will only scan for exe, even though dll and ocx are set as well in the software inventory filter configuration
• (6) - will only scan or not scan the directory specified in these two fields.
• (7) - will scan or not scan if uncheck the add/remove programs and/or MSI database on the device

2. The operational rule step "Update Software Inventory":

Some users prefer to deactivate auto uploads of the software inventory from the module configuration and do it from an operational rule. In this situation, they uncheck options 1, 2, and 3 from the software inventory module configuration (see above)

The following out-of-the-box operational rule can be used:

Notes:

• Checking (1) allows to update the last update for this inventory, even though the software hasn't changed since the previous execution (else the date will not be updated).
• It is recommended to use a copy this operational rule, check (1), and uncheck (2) so this operational rule can be assigned to devices that seem to have troubles with the software inventory. In most cases this will resolve the issue. 
•  It is recommended to use the "Differential Upload" method to:
  1.  Lower bandwidth usage
  2.  Limit the growth of the table 'InventoryHistory' in the database
• Check the following KA to learn how to deploy a new filter to the next devices that will be deployed: Client Management: How to set a new inventory filter into rollout configuration.
• Software inventories are generated from Software Inventory filters. These can be customized depending on the requirements in the environment. More information on this is in the following KA: Client Management: Understand the software inventory filter.