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Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner 8

Here you can find the release notes for Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner 8. You can find the old release notes on the Flexera Community.

8.7.0 latest​

Release date: 2025-09-25

Product dependency
This release features has a dependency on the following Snow Agent versions, depending on the platform:

  • Snow Inventory Agent for Windows (SIAW) 7.4.0
  • Snow Inventory Agent for Linux (SIAL) 7.4.0
  • Snow Inventory Agent for Unix (SIAU) 8.3.0

New​

Oracle Scanners
Centralized orchestration via Snow Inventory Agent
This release introduces integrated orchestration of the Oracle Scanners directly by the Snow Inventory Agent, eliminating the need for separate scheduling. This streamlines the deployment process and simplifies the setup for customers using our detection technologies. All Oracle Scanners will now be executed by the Snow Inventory Agents. For this to work, the scanners must be enabled in the agent configuration file, snowagent.config.

The following changes must be made to the agent configuration file for each Oracle Scanner:

  • Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner (SIOS) - No changes to snowagent.config are necessary, as SIOS is already executed by the Snow Inventory Agent using the existing Configuration/Oracle element:
<Oracle enabled="true">
</Oracle>
  • Snow Inventory Oracle Middleware Scanner (SIOMS) - To enable SIOMS, add the following configuration to snowagent.config under the Configuration/SnowInventoryOracleMiddlewareScanner element:
<SnowInventoryOracleMiddlewareScanner enabled="true">
</SnowInventoryOracleMiddlewareScanner>
  • Snow Inventory Java Scanner (SIJS) - To enable SIJS, add the following configuration to snowagent.config under the Configuration/SnowInventoryJavaScanner element:
<SnowInventoryJavaScanner enabled="true">
</SnowInventoryJavaScanner>
  • Snow Inventory Oracle Hardware Scanner (SIOHWS) - To enable SIOHWS, add the following configuration to snowagent.config under the Configuration/SnowInventoryOracleHardwareScanner element:
<SnowInventoryOracleHardwareScanner enabled="true" />
note

Under Windows

After upgrading, remove the following Oracle Scanners launcher PowerShell scripts, if present. They are no longer needed, as the Snow Inventory Agent now will execute the scanners directly:

  • scan_SIOMSLauncher.ps1
  • scan_SIJSLauncher.ps1
  • Scan_SIOHWSLauncher.ps1

If these files are not removed, the scanners will run twice, once in the new and once in the old operational mode.

Under Linux/Unix

After upgrading, remove any cron jobs that are used to schedule the execution of the Oracle Scanners, if present. These are no longer needed, as the Snow Inventory Agent now will execute the scanners directly.

Under Mac OS

The execution of the Snow Inventory Java Scanner will still need to be scheduled manually by the user. The Snow Inventory Agent will not orchestrate the execution of SIJS.

Unified configuration management
Configuration for all Oracle Scanners is now consolidated into the agent configuration file, snowagent.config. This replaces the need for separate configuration files for each scanner. Transfer all relevant configurations from the individual scanner configuration files to snowagent.config. The following configuration files should be included:

  • sios.config - Transfer all content of the Configuration element in sios.config to the Configuration/Oracle element of snowagent.config. The following sios.config content:

    <FileSystemSecurityModule>DEFAULT</FileSystemSecurityModule>
    <CommonOsGroup>dba</CommonOsGroup>
    <UseMixedCredentials>false</UseMixedCredentials>
    <EnableEbsScanning>true</EnableEbsScanning>

    should be transferred to the snowagent.config file under the Configuration/Oracle element:

    <Oracle enabled="true">
      <Include>
        <AllInstances>true</AllInstances>
      </Include>
      <FileSystemSecurityModule>DEFAULT</FileSystemSecurityModule>
      <CommonOsGroup>dba</CommonOsGroup>
      <UseMixedCredentials>false</UseMixedCredentials>
      <EnableEbsScanning>true</EnableEbsScanning>
    </Oracle>

  • snowmiddlewarescanner.config - Transfer all content of the Configuration element in snowmiddlewarescanner.config to the Configuration/SnowInventoryOracleMiddlewareScanner element of snowagent.config. The following snowmiddlewarescanner.config content:

    <UseDataOptimization>false</UseDataOptimization>
    <Anonymization>
      <File filename="config.xml">
        <Xpath>//listen-port</Xpath>
        <Xpath>//listen-address</Xpath>
        <Xpath>//credential-encrypted</Xpath>
        <Xpath>//node-manager-password-encrypted</Xpath>
      </File>
    </Anonymization>

    should be transferred to the snowagent.config file under the Configuration/SnowInventoryOracleMiddlewareScanner element:

    <SnowInventoryOracleMiddlewareScanner enabled="true">
      <UseDataOptimization>false</UseDataOptimization>
      <Anonymization>
        <File filename="config.xml">
          <Xpath>//listen-port</Xpath>
          <Xpath>//listen-address</Xpath>
          <Xpath>//credential-encrypted</Xpath>
          <Xpath>//node-manager-password-encrypted</Xpath>
        </File>
      </Anonymization>
    </SnowInventoryOracleMiddlewareScanner>

  • sijs.config - Transfer all content of the Configuration element in sijs.config to the Configuration/SnowInventoryJavaScanner element of snowagent.config. The following sijs.config content:

    <SecurityLevel>HIGH</SecurityLevel>
    <ImpersonationUser>javascan</ImpersonationUser>

    should be transferred to the snowagent.config file under the Configuration/SnowInventoryJavaScanner element:

    <SnowInventoryJavaScanner enabled="true">
      <SecurityLevel>HIGH</SecurityLevel>
      <ImpersonationUser>javascan</ImpersonationUser>
    </SnowInventoryJavaScanner>
note

The examples above show the default configurations for each Oracle Scanner. When transferring settings, use the environment-specific values already present for those environments.

If the scanner-specific configuration files are still present, the agent remains backward compatible and will use them. However, if both the legacy files and the new centralized configuration are present, the settings in snowagent.config will take precedence.

Corrections​

Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner

  • The scanner can now scan pluggable databases created with case-sensitive identifiers. Starting with Oracle Database 19c, case-sensitive identifiers can be enabled by using the hidden parameter _pdb_name_case_sensitive. When enabled and the pluggable database is created using double quotes, for example, CREATE PLUGGABLE DATABASE "pdb_name”, the pluggable database must always be referred to using the exact same quoted identifier, for example: ALTER SESSION SET CONTAINER = “pdb_name”. 
    This update ensures that the scanner correctly handles such case-sensitive pluggable databases during scans.

8.6.0​

Release date: 2025-06-18

Enhancements​

Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner

  • The scanner will now better handle scenarios where the dedicated database user used for scanning does not have proper permissions to access the pluggable databases in a container database. Now, the scanner will no longer incorrectly scan the container database instead of the pluggable database, a proper error message will be logged, and the status of the scan for that particular database will be set to unsuccessful.

Corrections​

Oracle scanners

  • If the path specified in the env.temp_dir setting in snowagent.config does not exist on the file system, the scanner will use the system default temporary location, instead of exiting with “The system cannot find the path specified” error message (1362161)

8.5.1​

Release date: 2024-11-06

Corrections​

Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner

  • The scanner will now properly close database ref cursors after they are fetched, which lowers the number of open database cursors needed for each individual scan. (04794902)

  • The scanner will now properly inventory Oracle Database options usage information on a physical standby database that is in “READ ONLY WITH APPLY“ mode. (04786469)

8.5.0​

Release date: 2024-08-21

Enhancements​

Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner
No license need for Database Vault in case Privilege Analysis feature is used

  • Since the Privilege Analysis feature no longer requires the Oracle Database Vault option, using the Privilege Analysis feature no longer triggers the Oracle Database Vault usage.

Corrections​

Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner

  • The scanner can now use a temporary folder configured on a drive other than the system (C ) drive under Windows (04774965)

  • The jar file extraction functionality will now be doing case-insensitive validation during the jar resources extraction process. This will avoid “Invalid jar entry“ errors when there is a case difference between the defined temporary path location for the scanner and its actual canonical path, for example “C:\TEMP“ vs “C:\Temp“.

8.4.0​

Release date: 2024-05-08

New​

Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner
Inventorying E-Business Suite related data based on the verification program by Oracle

  • Based on the prerequisites of the E-Business Suite verification program by Oracle, Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner now scans for E-Business Suite data in addition to Oracle Database related data. After being processed, the inventoried E-Business Suite data is made available in SAM Core on the Applications > Oracle > Oracle verified data tab.
note

The E-Business Suite product category is excluded from the Oracle verified data tab by default. To enable a user to view and manage E-Business Suite data on Snow Atlas, please contact our support organization.

info

The E-Business Suite functionality is available only on Snow Atlas. This functionality is not available on Snow License Manager.

8.3.0​

Release date: 2024-04-17

Enhancements​

Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner
Default instance credentials on mixed (container and non-container) database environments

  • The default instance credentials defined in the Oracle section of the agent configuration file, snowagent.config, can now be used in mixed environments having container and non-container databases. This functionality can be enabled by using the “UseMixedCredentials” element in sios.config. Refer to the Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner user guide for more details.

8.2.3​

Release date: 2024-03-27

Enhancements​

Security

  • This release includes security enhancements. To avoid a possible path traversal vulnerability, the jar file extraction functionality will now validate the corresponding jar file to prevent illegal entries in the jar resources.

Corrections​

Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner

  • The scanner will now properly handle multiple rows as part of the DBA_FEATURE_USAGE_STATISTICS table, when checking for Data Pump compression and encryption (04751379).

8.2.2​

Release date: 2023-11-22

Corrections​

Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner

  • The detection of running processes as part of the scanner has been split into two different commands due to the fact that the grep option was not supported on some Linux and Unix systems (04740718).

8.2.1​

Release date: 2023-10-11

Corrections​

Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner
When Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner is used on Windows environments using a dedicated database user for scanning, the operating system user executing the scanner will no longer be added to the ora_dba group for the duration of the scan. (04728586)

8.2.0​

Release date: 2023-08-30

Enhancements​

Snow Inventory Oracle Scanners
Additional log message when executed in DEBUG mode

  • When Snow Inventory Scanner is executed in DEBUG mode, an additional log message resulting from the output of the master PL/SQL script is added to the LOG.

Oracle re-verification program for Database and Fusion Middleware

  • Inventorying Oracle Databases 21c has been introduced based on the requirements for the re-verification program.

Corrections​

Services

  • The Snow Inventory Oracle Scanner is able to inventory the Oracle Database Express Edition. The Oracle estate compliancy functionality has been corrected for the case when any Oracle Database Express Edition has been inventoried. Starting from this release, the license requirements will not be calculated for Oracle Express Edition (04608048).

  • The Oracle estate compliancy functionality has been corrected for the case when any Oracle Database Express Edition has been inventoried. Starting from this release, the license requirements will not be calculated for Oracle Express Edition (04608048).

8.1.0​

Release date: 2022-11-09

Complete release notes  is found here

New​

  • Scanner execution mode configuration: For cases where you have custom behavior that changes the current working directory to a different operating system user, a new file—sios.config—has been introduced for configuring the execution mode. The DEFAULT and CWD modes have been introduced:

Enhancements​

  • The possibility to configure the name of the dba group based on user needs has been added as part of the newly introduced sios.config file. Otherwise, the scanner will execute with “dba” as the standard name for this group. (IDEAS-I-2009)

Corrections​

  • Having more than one record in the V$LICENSE table will now be properly handled by the scanner. (04600222)

8.0.1​

Release date: 2022-08-17

Complete release notes  is found here

Corrections​

  • The partitioned tables owned by SYSMAN will no longer trigger Oracle’s Partitioning database option usage. (04567797)

8.0.0​

Release date: 2022-06-15

Complete release notes  is found here

Enhancements​

  • Additional Oracle Database information for generating predefined output is now produced from the scanner, including database options and management packs

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