FAQShop.com : Large number of SP1 clients not performing Hardware Inventory

Large number of SP1 clients not performing Hardware Inventory

A large number of my SMS 2.0 SP1 clients are not performing a Hardware Inventory. In Control Panel, Hardware Inventory is listed as 'Not Available', as is the SNMP translator. Hardware Inventory is enabled on the server, and is working for some machines. Trying to 'Repair' the Hardware Inventory agent results in a 'Repair pending' message.

Several things could be at fault. The question you have to answer is is it the client or the server? When the client does a hardware or software inventory, it creates a file that is placed in the 'c:\windows\ms\sms\clicomp\hinv\outbox' directory. Check to see if there are any files in this directory. If there are, you have a connection account issue with the CAP and need to uninstall and reinstall SMS.

Look on the client itself in the 'WINNT\MS\SMS\Logs' directory - the files 'HINV32.log' and 'INHINV32.log' files should tell you something. If there isn't a 'HINV32.log' on the client, check the 'INHINV32.log' for errors such as:
Verify WBEM installation ...ERROR - WBEM Install Directory not found. Exit Setup !!!

Check if there is a '\Repository' sub-directory under '%Windir%\System32\WBEM'. Before SP2, the WBEM component installed remotely from the site server during the SMS client install. A glitch on the wire could cause a page fault on the client and result in an incomplete WBEM installation.

The process to resolve this is to delete the entire '%Windir%\System32\WBEM' directory. This may require setting the Windows Management service to manual and a reboot first.

After deleting this directory, reboot the machine. WBEM should reinstall followed by the other enabled SMS Client Agents that were missing.