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USB Stick Discovery

xAssets IT Asset Management User Guide
Discovering a Network

USB Stick Discovery

USB stick discovery enables data collection from computers that are not connected to your main network, without installing any xAssets software on those machines. This is useful for air-gapped networks, remote offices without a Collection Server, or one-off audits of standalone machines.

How It Works

The USB stick contains the PCAnalyser executable along with its required DLLs and support files. When run on a target machine, the agent collects hardware and software information and writes the output to a folder on the USB stick itself. The stick can then be taken to a machine with network access and the collected data loaded into the xAssets database.

Prerequisites

  • The target machine must have .NET Framework 2.0 or later installed
  • The USB stick must contain the PCAnalyser folder structure (available from the Collection Server installation)

Setting Up the USB Stick

The USB stick folder structure is included within the Collection Server installation at:

Program Files\xAssets\Collection Server\structure

Screenshot

Copy this folder structure to the root of a USB stick. The key components are:

Item Purpose
pcanalyser.exe The lightweight discovery agent that runs on each target machine
netdiscover The folder where discovery output files (PCA files) are written
Supporting DLLs Required libraries for the PCAnalyser executable

Running Discovery from USB

  1. Insert the USB stick into the target machine
  2. Open a command prompt and navigate to the USB drive
  3. Run: pcanalyser.exe /enc /flags 535 /idle
  4. The agent runs for approximately 4 seconds and writes a PCA file to the netdiscover folder on the USB stick

Repeat for each machine you need to discover.

Loading the Collected Data

  1. Return the USB stick to a machine with network access to the Collection Server
  2. Copy the PCA files from the USB stick's netdiscover folder to the Collection Server's PCAnalyser share (typically \\<servername>\pcanalyser\netdiscover)
  3. Run Discover > Load Now in the xAssets web interface to import the data (see Loading Discovery Data)

Tips

  • Label each USB stick with the date and target network to avoid mixing up data from different collection runs
  • The PCA files are encrypted, so data is protected if the USB stick is lost -- use the PCA File Viewer on the Collection Server to verify contents