Autodesk Inventory Advisor – Quick Start Guide

Autodesk Inventory Advisor

Quick Start Guide

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 Autodesk Inventory Advisor – Quick Start Guide

Contents
Overview ............................................................................................................................................ 3
Download........................................................................................................................................... 3
Installation and Configuration ................................................................................................... 3
Supported operating systems ................................................................................................................ 3
Installation .............................................................................................................................................. 3
Continue trial .......................................................................................................................................... 4
Initial configuration ................................................................................................................................ 5
Recommended Scan Method ....................................................................................................... 6
Exporting a report and Audit files ........................................................................................................ 10
Troubleshooting ........................................................................................................................... 11

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 Autodesk Inventory Advisor – Quick Start Guide

Overview
Autodesk has licensed ClearApps technology to address your Autodesk software inventory needs. Autodesk Inventory
Advisor (AIA) has been configured to search client machines across an entire organization for Autodesk products. AIA is
a highly configurable, robust inventory tool that leverages Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to provide
near seamless data collection of Autodesk product information.

Download
Autodesk Inventory Advisor can be downloaded from the following link:

https://autode.sk/2CORiOt

Installation and Configuration

Supported operating systems

Windows XP Professional, 32-bit
Windows 7, 32 and 64-bit
Windows 8, 32 and 64-bit
Windows 10, 32 and 64-bit
Windows server 2002 and above, 32 and 64-bit

Installation
Double click on iadvisor-x.x-setup.xxxx.ad.demo.exe, select your language, and follow the steps below:

Click Next Accept the License Agreement by clicking I Agree

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Select the directory to where the application will be Click Install to begin installation
installed and click Next

Click Finish to start AIA

Continue trial
Upon launching AIA, you will be prompted to Continue trial, Buy license now, or Enter unlock code. Simply click
Continue trial to begin using the application:

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Initial configuration
After selecting Continue trial, the following screens will appear:

Click Yes to dismiss the dialog. AIA is pre-configured out of

the box

Click Skip it

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 Autodesk Inventory Advisor – Quick Start Guide

Click Run scan wizard Click Show me advanced options

Recommended Scan Method

AIA offers many scan methods to collect data from your organization’s systems. The recommended method is the logon
script scanning with central repository method. This method provides the ability to export a small, command-line
version of AIA to use in a logon script or deploy to your endpoints using an existing software asset management (SAM)
tool such as Microsoft System Center. The data collected from the scan is automatically saved back to a common share,
which is known in AIA as the Central Repository. This method eliminates many of the issues commonly associated with
network-based scanning.

Click Configure audit agent for offline scanning (logon script, manual)

Select …logon script scanning with central repository, ensure the check box next to Hide agent console when scanning
is checked (the default), and click Next:

Click the folder icon in the toolbar and select a location to save the agent. IMPORTANT: This must be a local folder.
Using a UNC path will cause the export to not save the required agent files:

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Click Click here to change Repository settings:

Enter a valid UNC path (Path to a shared folder with Read & Write permissions to all users in the domain) to store the
inventory data and click OK, the shared folder can have any name, but we recommend that is named “Autodesk”, as
shown in the examples on this manual. NOTE: It is recommended this be a subfolder of where the agent files will be
stored. Leave the default check of 1 minutes:

When prompted, click Modify login details:

Enter a valid user name and password and click OK:

Click Export agent utility now:

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Ensure the box next to Open folder where agent was exported to is checked and click Finish:

Copy the 4 files from the local folder to the network share you specified earlier. NOTE: It is recommended this be the
parent folder of where the actual inventory data will be stored.

A step by step video tutorial on how to export the Audit agent for logon script can be found here

NOTE: Autodesk Inventory Advisor is not required to be launched or active to check the Central Repository location for
new inventory data. It is done in the background by a service that is running regardless if AIA is launched or not. The
data will be automatically imported the next time you launch AIA. The results will appear in the Network structure
alongside your network-scanned assets.

For the next step the autodesk License Compliance Representative will be provide a link to download the Autodesk
PowerShell Script, that executes iadvisoragnt.exe on your workstations. Place it in the same directory as the exported
Autodesk inventory Advisor agent in the shared folder, in the example below the UNC path is (path to the shared folder)
is “\\DC1\Autodesk”:

Right click on the file named ADSK.bat and edit the first line as shown below, place the UNC path (path to the shared
folder), the same shared folder that was specified when exporting the Autodesk Inventory Advisor as central repository.
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Modify UNC path (Shared folder path) with your shared folder’s path, as shown below, in the example below the UNC
path is (path to the shared folder) is “\\DC1\Autodesk”:

Also, Right click on the file named ADSKV3.ps1 and select Open with… Notepad.

Open with Notepad press OK:

Modify the line shown below, place the UNC path (path to the shared folder) on the 4th line as shown below, the same
shared folder that was specified when exporting the Autodesk Inventory Advisor as central repository.

IMPORTANT: The all “\” are mandatory, there should always be a “\” at the end of the folder name and before the (“)

Implement the script using standard procedures as outlined by Microsoft.

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An easy to follow step by step video tutorial on how to Implement the logon script can be found here

More information on Startup, Shutdown, Logon, and Logoff Scripts can be found on TechNet:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753404(v=ws.11).aspx

The results of the scan will be placed in the share specified earlier. It will be a folder structure as seen below per
machine and be uniquely named based on the computer that was scanned:

Exporting a report and Audit files

Once a full inventory of your assets has been completed, it will be required to export the results into an XML file. To do
this, select the report date to be exported in the Software by serial number reports section under Your reports history.
Normally, this will be labeled as TODAY:

In the top right section of the toolbar, click Export this now and select Export to XML file:

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Select a location to save the XML file and click Save.

After exporting the AIA Report please collect all folders (Inventory, MSInstaller) and all of the machine named folders in
one ZIP file and send them by email to the license compliance representative contact in .zip format

Troubleshooting
AIA is a robust tool and is capable of addressing and dealing with large complex networks. However, issues on networks
do arise. Lack of administrative privileges, blocked firewall ports, and reverse DNS name resolution are the most
predominate problems seen.

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