About Package Builder

Use Package Builder to create and download installation packages for Snow Inventory Agents for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Unix.

Snow Inventory Agents are installed on the computers in your organization and regularly collect inventory data, which is eventually used by Snow products such as SAM Core and Snow License Manager.

When creating an installation package, you select the applicable agent and version and upload the agent configuration file, snowagent.config, that you have prepared for the package. You can also add files and scripts to the package to give the agent additional capabilities. Snow maintains several such additional files and scripts that you can add to the package directly via Package Builder, for example, the Snow Inventory Oracle Scanners, but you can also upload your own files and scripts to the package. Created packages can be viewed and downloaded during a period of 7 days, after which they are deleted from Package Builder.

For step-by-step instructions on how to create an installation package, see Create installation packages. For more information on additional files and scripts, see Additional files and scripts. For a list and descriptions of the additional files and scripts available in Package Builder, see Scanning modules. For videos about Package Builder, see Technical videos.

note

Package Builder does not give guidance on how to configure the settings in the agent configuration file or what scanning modules or additional files and scripts should be included in the installation package.

Configuration file templates

You can download configuration file templates from this public GitHub repository: github.com/SnowSoftware/agent-configuration-templates-public

The repository also includes useful information about the contents of the configuration file and links to additional documentation regarding the configuration file and the Snow Inventory Agents.

Permission requirements

To access Package Builder, the Snow Atlas user must be assigned a custom role with specific permissions. Custom roles are created by the Snow Atlas System administrator role. For descriptions of how to create or edit custom roles, see Manage roles.

The custom role must include the following permissions:

• configuration.setting.r

• packaging.context.r or packaging.context.crud

  packaging.context.r gives the user the right to view and download packages, while packaging.context.crud gives the user the right to create, view, and download packages.

When creating or editing a custom role, you will find the above permissions on the System tab in the permissions list.

Platform tool requirements

Installation packages created with Package Builder are compatible with the platform tool versions listed in the table. As a general rule, the installation packages work on operating systems currently supported by the vendor during their regular lifetime.

Package type	Supported platform tool versions
pkg	Any of the supported macOS versions.
deb	Tested with dpkg 1.15.8.11 on Debian 6.0.3 (execute dpkg --version to see versions).
rpm	Tested with rpm-4.8.0 / rpm-libs-4.8.0 on Red Hat 6.0 (execute rpm -qa | grep rpm to see versions).
sh	Any of the supported AIX/HP-UX/Solaris versions.
msi	Any of the supported Windows versions.

Characteristics of Package Builder

This section gathers reference information for Package Builder.

Package status

In the list of packages, the Package status column helps you keep track of the status of your packages. The status of each package is shown as one of the following:

Package status	Description
Available for download	The package has been built and can be downloaded.
Building	The package is in the process of being built.
Failed	The build process failed.
Malware detected	During the build process, malware was detected in one or more of the files that were uploaded to the package. To see a list of the affected files and detected malware, select the name of the package in the Package name column.
Not enqueued	When there is a large number of packages waiting to be built, the status for a package is set to Not enqueued before it is moved to the Pending status.
Pending	The package is waiting to be built.
Pending authorization	You must take additional steps before the package can be built, to assure that there is no malicious content in the files you uploaded to the package. See Authenticate to build installation packages for more information and instructions on how to proceed.
Scanning for malware	The files that were uploaded to the package are in the process of being scanned for malware. If no malware is detected, the status will be changed to Building or Pending authorization. If malware is detected, the status will be changed to Malware detected.