Options

Description

Offline Status

The settings that determines how offline computers are handled at the time of a scan.

Ping before scanning

Performs a ping (ICMP echo) before attempting the scan. If the target does not respond to the ping within 2 seconds, then the scan is not attempted on that target.

Enabling this option can increase the overall speed of the scan because PDQ Inventory doesn't waste time with offline computers. When this is not selected, PDQ Inventory attempts the scan regardless of the online or offline status of the computer, which may result in offline errors. This is the default setting.

NOTE: Typically, the ping should take only a few milliseconds. However, if your DNS isn't solid or your network is experiencing latency issues, then the ping response may take more than 2 seconds.

Send Wake-on-LAN and attempt scan

Uses Heartbeat to determine if a computer is online. Attempts the scan then sends a Wake-on-LAN to offline computers. The scan is attempted again if it comes online. After 5 minutes if the computer is still offline, the scan will be attempted anyway.

The advantage of this feature is that offline computers can immediately be made available for scanning. However, it can increase scan times.

NOTE: This feature uses distributed Wake-on-LAN that is available only in Pro or Enterprise mode. Distributed means WOL packets can be initiated in different subnets and VLANs without requiring border devices to allow those WOL packets. Additionally, PDQ Inventory must have the MAC address of the computer's NICs.

For a demonstration of Wake-on-LAN, see the following video.

Video: Wake-on-LAN in PDQ Inventory and PDQ Deploy

Auto Cleanup

Specifies the age of the scan log entry before a cleanup is performed. Setting this to 0 will disable the auto cleanup. The default is 14 days.

Scan log entries can be found in the Scan Status window located by clicking the xx Computers Scanning link on the main console Status Bar. Scan Status indicates the Running scans (if a scan is being performed) and Failed scans for either the current scan or previous scans. Setting the Auto Cleanup dictates the length of time the Failed Scans data is retained.

NOTE: This setting does not affect data returned from any scan.

Scan Caching

Scan Caching can reduce the number scans performed against computers and is intended for environments that run multiple PDQ Inventory consoles with more than one Enterprise license.

IMPORTANT: Scan Caching has been superseded by the new Central Server feature and will be removed in a future version.

IMPORTANT: Scan Caching is only available in Enterprise mode between multiple-user accounts with Enterprise Activation of the same Enterprise license. For more information, see Enterprise Activation.

IMPORTANT: Currently the Files scanner and Registry scanner do not support scan caching due to the differences with scanner settings between consoles. Choosing the option Use Cache Exclusively will exclude all scan data from these two scan profiles.

Read from Cache

Enable this option to have the Scan Cache read before scanning computers. If the Scan Cache contains data for a computer that is within the Scan Age (below), that data will be read from the cache and written to the local database. If there is no data in the cache, or if the cache data is outside the Scan Age, a scan will be initiated.

NOTE: In order for PDQ Inventory to properly use Scan Caching when PDQ Deploy has Scan After Deployment selected, Use Cache Exclusively must be checked in addition to Read from Cache.

Use Cache Exclusively
(do not directly scan computers)

Enable this option to only read data from the Scan Cache. This option will prevent scans from being performed on target computers.

IMPORTANT: Choosing this option will exclude all scan data from any Files scan profiles or Registry scan profiles due to the differences with scanner settings between consoles.

NOTE: In order for PDQ Inventory to properly use Scan Caching when PDQ Deploy has Scan After Deployment selected, Use Cache Exclusively must be checked in addition to Read from Cache.

Write To Cache

Enable this if you want data collected from scanning to be added to the Scan Cache.

Path

The UNC network path to the folder containing the global scan cache. The name of the scan cache database is PDQInventory.ScanCache.db

IMPORTANT: All PDQ Inventory consoles that are participating in Scan Caching must use this same path and have permissions to access the UNC path.

Scan Age

This scan age is relative to the current time. Data will only be used from the Scan Cache if it was collected within this time. If scan data for a computer is outside of the Scan Age then the local console will attempt the scan as per the Offline Settings.