Collectors

1. What a collector is

A collector is one short, readable script: a shell script for Linux and a PowerShell script for Windows. You run it on a server; it lists the software installed and sends that list to the environment you choose, once a day.

It is not an agent. It installs nothing of its own, changes nothing, holds no passwords, and never downloads or runs code from the internet. Nothing is left running between reports. You can read the whole script before you run it, and you should.

2. What is answered today

Oracle Linux is next. For any other operating system, ask for a collector in the app: on Request coverage, choose A collector for an operating system. Every request reaches the Ovesion team at once.

3. Set up a collector

The account owner or an admin sets up collectors, on Pro, Enterprise or a trial.

1. In the left-hand menu, select Environments and check that the environment you want is the current one.
2. Under Collectors, type a label for the token, for example “web servers”, and select Create token.
3. Choose Linux (Red Hat family) or Windows.
4. Download the collector. The page shows its version and SHA-256 fingerprint: check that the file on the server shows the same (sha256sum ovesion-collect.sh on Linux, Get-FileHash .\Ovesion-Collect.ps1 on Windows). Copy it to the server with your usual file transfer; do not pipe it from the internet into a shell.
5. Select Copy command and run it on the server as an administrator, in a terminal on Linux or in PowerShell opened as administrator on Windows. When it asks for the token, paste the one Ovesion showed you.
6. The setup sends the first report and offers a daily run (on Windows it installs the daily task itself). The Ovesion window confirms the first report.

To set up more servers with the same token, select Set up another server with an existing token.

4. What it reads, and never sends

Linux

Every installed package (name, version, release, architecture, source package and repository), the operating system release, the enabled repositories, any release lock such as extended update support, enabled module streams, the running kernel and live patches, whether a reboot is pending, and the last boot time.

Windows

The Windows build and monthly update level, edition and architecture; installed programs (name, version, publisher) from the machine-wide lists; SQL Server and Exchange versions; the .NET Framework level; a fixed list of server roles; whether a reboot is pending; and the last boot time.

Both

The short machine name, so you know where to fix, and a host key: a one-way fingerprint made on the machine, so Ovesion counts it once without seeing its id.

Never

User names, passwords, IP or MAC addresses, serial numbers or hardware ids, domain or workgroup names, file contents, configuration files, command output, logs or certificates. Ovesion refuses any report that contains a field outside the agreed list.

5. The upload token

• A token can only upload. It cannot read anything from Ovesion.
• It is shown once, and Ovesion keeps only a one-way fingerprint of it. Store it where you keep other secrets if you will set up more servers with it.
• It lasts one year; the page warns you 30 days before it expires.
• Revoking it stops its servers uploading at once.

6. Dry runs, offline servers and locked-down Windows

• See what it would send first. A dry run prints exactly what the collector would send, without sending anything.
• No internet on the server? Save the report to a file, copy it to a computer where you are signed in, and upload it on the Environments page with Upload a report from a server without internet.
• Locked-down Windows is fine. On machines with AppLocker or Windows Defender Application Control (Constrained Language Mode), the collector runs unchanged, without code signing.
• Run it with the tools you already have: once by hand, or daily from cron, a systemd timer, Task Scheduler, Intune or your RMM.