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Install the agent

Snow Inventory Agent for Linux can be installed either by using a prepared RPM or Debian installation package, or by using copies of the binary files.

Prepare an RPM or Debian installation package​

As a Snow Atlas user, you can create your own installation packages by using Package Builder.

Otherwise, Flexera Support will create the installation packages for you. See the article How to request agent on Snow Globe for instructions on how to request an installation package. Note that you must first sign in to Snow Globe to be able to access the article via the link.

The installation package can be copied to any folder, but preferably to the root folder. The install command must be run from the folder where the package is located, while the uninstall command can be run from any folder.

During the installation of the agent an application argument will be automatically added to cron:

nice -n 10 /opt/snow/snowagent

Install the agent using a prepared RPM installation package​

Run the commands with superuser privileges, which can be obtained by using for example sudo.

Execute the rpm command with the argument -i, for example:

sudo rpm -i snowagent-<version>-1.i386.rpm

Install the agent using a prepared Debian installation package​

Run the commands with superuser privileges, which can be obtained by using for example sudo.

Execute the dpkg command with the argument -i, for example:

sudo dpkg -i snowagent_<version>-1_i386.deb

Install the agent using copies of the binary files​

The files are one executable file named snowagent and one configuration file named snowagent.config. These two files are by default located in the /opt/snow directory. To see a command line summary of the executable, use the following command from a command prompt:

/opt/snow/snowagent -?

All directory path references reflect a default installation. Run all commands with superuser privileges, which can be obtained by using for example sudo.

  1. Copy the following files to the /opt/snow directory on the computer:

    • snowagent

    • snowagent.config

    • sios.jar (optional)

    • snowcron

    • snowcron.conf

  2. Schedule snowagent by using a scheduler, or use the snowcron script to schedule with cron. For more information, see Configure the scan schedule.

  3. Update installation date and last scan date in .hst.lg with the following command line:

    echo "InstallDate=$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')" > /opt/snow/data/.hst.lg

Upgrade and downgrade using Yum and Apt​

If you have installed the agent using an RPM or Debian installation package, you can deploy agent upgrades or downgrades via one of the supported third-party deployment tools Yum and Apt.

note

For the functionality to work, the RPM installation package used to install the agent must have a creation date later than 2023-07-27. If your current agent was installed using an older RPM package, you must uninstall the agent and then reinstall it using a newly created installation package.

For Debian, the functionality works regardless of the creation date of the installation package.

Uninstall the agent​

The uninstall procedure depends on the way the agent was installed, according to the following:

RPM installation package:

Execute the rpm command with the argument -e, for example:

sudo rpm -e snowagent

Debian installation package:

Execute the dpkg command with the argument -r, for example:

sudo dpkg -r snowagent

Copies of the binary files:

  1. Remove any scheduling of snowagent. Use the same scheduler as it was installed with.

    For snowcron, use the following command line:

    sudo snowcron -r /opt/snow/snowagent

  2. Delete all installed files, data files, and temporary files with the following command line:

    sudo rm -fR /opt/snow