The Issue
Is there a script that can ‘read’ through the Configuration Manager inboxes ( \Microsoft Configuration Manager\inboxes\auth\sinv.box\BADSinv) and can output/return a list of computer names which failed their software inventory?
There was a similar query that does this for Hardware Inventory by Querying *.MIF files
$ConfigMgrBoxPath = “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\inboxes\auth\dataldr.box\BADMIFS”
Get-ChildItem -Path $ConfigMgrBoxPath -Include *.MIF -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ForEach-Object {
$File = $_.FullName ;
try {
(
Get-Content -ReadCount 1 -TotalCount 6 -Path $_.FullName -ErrorAction Stop |
Select-String -Pattern “//KeyAttribute<NetBIOS\sName><(?<ComputerName>.*)>” -ErrorAction Stop
).Matches.Groups[-1].Value
} catch {
Write-Warning -Message “Failed for $File”
}
} | out-file -FilePath “c:\test\output.txt”
To read more about it click the link ( https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/scotts-it-blog/2015/04/29/identifying-and-counting-computers-sending-badmif-files/ )
The Investigation
The issue with the above script is that Hardware Inventory (*.MIF) files are much better structured than Software Inventory files (*.SID, *.SIC)
Compared to
So I modified the original script to try and query *.SID files, but it failed, even after trying to learn String Patterns and Queries in REGEX ( https://regexr.com/)
The closest I got was the below, but this was still not good enough because when there are more than one set of dashes it doesn’t show the correct computer name.
The Solution
The final solution was simplifying the PowerShell script to the below
Removing the ‘#’ will run it and create a notepad called output.txt (make sure to specify the path)
$ConfigMgrBoxPath = “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\inboxes\sinv.box\BADSinv”
Get-ChildItem -Path $ConfigMgrBoxPath -Include .SID,.SIC -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |foreach {(Get-Content $_).Split("0″)[12]} | out-file -FilePath “c:\test\output.txt”