Scanning process

When you run IBM® Prerequisite Scanner, it performs a set of tasks in each stage of the scanning process. Open a command window and run the Prerequisite Scanner script with the set of input parameters, including a product code.

The scanning process in Figure 1 is summarized as follows:

1. Prerequisite Scanner verifies the format of the input parameters that are passed to the tool.
2. The tool determines whether the product code that is passed as one of the input parameters is a valid product code in the codename.cfg file.
3. The tool searches for the configuration file that is associated with the product code. If the optional product version parameter was not passed, the tool uses the latest version of the configuration file that it finds in one of the following locations:
   • The non-default home location, that is, config_files_home, if the optional configHomeDir parameter was passed to the tool.
   • The default home location, that is, ips_root/UNIX_Linux or ips_root\Windows, if the optional configHomeDir parameter was not passed to the tool.
4. The tool verifies whether the actual operating system of the machine is a supported operating system. The tool checks the actual operating system against the expected supported operating system in the section titles in the configuration file, whose file name contains the same product code and the product version as the input parameters.
5. The tool collects the actual prerequisite properties for the prerequisite checks by using the Prerequisite Scanner collectors.
6. The tool checks the prerequisite properties in the configuration file that is associated with the product code and product version.

   The tool checks the actual operating system against the expected supported operating system in the os.version prerequisite property or the section titles in the configuration file, whose file name contains the same product code and the product version as the input parameters.

7. The tool reads the prerequisite properties from the configuration file and analyzes the actual and expected values of the prerequisite properties for the prerequisite checks by using the Prerequisite Scanner evaluators.
8. The tool analyzes the severity levels of the prerequisite properties. It readjusts the relevant FAIL results to WARN when the severity level of the prerequisite properties is set to WARN, or the actual value is within the expected value range for a supported prerequisite property.
9. The tool outputs the results of the scan to the command window, results text and XML files, and the human-readable log files.
10. The tool cleans up and removes temporary files and directories.