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Welcome to Block 64 Support

Linux/UNIX/Solaris inventory

Joseph Holland
  • Updated

The BlockBox discovery appliance can handle inventory of most UNIX-like/POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as Linux. These inventory functions are carried out over TCP port 22 (SSH) and can operate using standard username/password authentication or private key authentication. Regarding the authentication, we do not require superuser ("sudo") rights to operate, however using an account with superuser rights will ensure more accurate gathering of serial numbers.

First, credentials or keys must be input into the 'Settings > System Credentials' area of the tool:

2020-07-04-16_41_21-Credentials__1_.png

The Linux inventory switch then can be enabled under 'Settings > Discovery Settings'.

2020-07-04-16_44_22-Discovery-Settings.png

The 'timeout' setting dictates how long the inventory routine should wait for a response before considering the inventory attempt a timeout failure.

It's always a good idea to test the credentials against a known Linux/UNIX computer. To do so, you can begin an "On-Demand" Linux Inventory. The On-Demand inventory links can be found at the top-right of the UI:

2020-07-04-16_46_20-Discovery-Settings.png

When performing the on-demand inventory:

  • Checking 'Ping device' will include a ping during the inventory test, to ensure that the device is up and/or addressable for the subnet the appliance currently occupies.
  • Checking 'Check Ports' will also report on the ports the device has open.
  • Endpoint IP Address is the IP of the device you would like to test against
  • Changing the SSH port from its default value of 22 can let us test against other ports - in case you have changed that port in your environment. Note: this only applies to this on-demand inventory. Our standard, on-going Linux inventories require TCP port 22 to be open.
  • Changing the timeout can allow for longer or shorter on-demand inventories.
  • Username / Password fields can be used for standard authentication
  • The SSH Private Key / Passphrase fields can be used for key-based authentication.

    IMPORTANT: Using Private Keys will NOT collect Utilization Data; if the assessment requires this information, please use the username & password combination.

You can leave the authentication fields blank to use credentials stored on the appliance.

Below is the result of a successful inventory test:

 

Conversely, here is the result of an inventory test that failed due to bad credentials:

2020-07-04-16_53_42-BlockBox-_-Linux-_-Solaris-_-AIX-Inventory-Testing-Panel.png