Launchdaemon works manually but not at startup

Question

I am trying to create a launchdaemon that will run a script to upload some information to our inventory server BEFORE login.
Here is the .plist located in /Library/LaunchDaemons
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>Inventory</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/ae_scan_mac</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <false/>
</dict>
</plist>
and here is the script it points to
#!/bin/sh
############ Server details ############
hostName="DOSSVCDSK"
portNo="80"
protocol="http"
############ Server details ############
SUPPORT="[email protected]"
PRODUCT="AssetExplorer"
COMPUTERNAME=`hostname`
OUTPUTFILE="$COMPUTERNAME.xml"
main()
          echo "##### Scanning Started #####"
        echo "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" ?><DocRoot>" >$OUTPUTFILE
          constructXML "ComputerName" "hostname"
          constructXML "OS_Category" "uname -s"
          echo "<Hardware_Info>" >>$OUTPUTFILE
          constructXML "OS_Category" "sw_vers"
          constructXML "Memory_Information" "sysctl hw.physmem"
          constructXML "Memory_Information" "sysctl hw.usermem"
          constructXML "Memory_Informationw" "sysctl hw.memsize"
          constructXML "Memory_Information" "sysctl vm.swapusage"
          constructXML "Computer_Information" "hostname"
          constructXML "Computer_Information" "hostname -s"
          constructXML "CPU_Information" "system_profiler SPHardwareDataType"
          constructXML "Disk_Space" "df -k"
          constructXML "NIC_Info" "/sbin/ifconfig"
  #-----------Last logged in user name -----------
          constructXML "Software_Info" "/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType"
  #-------------Chipset, VRAM, Monitor display type, resolution---------------------
          constructXML "Monitoranddisplayinfo" "/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPDisplaysDataType"
  #--------------Sound card -----------------------------
          constructXML "SoundCardinfo" "/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPAudioDataType"        
  #---------------Memory modules----------------------
          constructXML "MemoryInfo" "/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPMemoryDataType"          
  #--------------Physical drives-------------------------
          constructXML "PhysicaldrivesInfo" "/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPParallelATADataType"    
  #--------------Harddisk info if no data is available in SPParallelATADataType------------
          constructXML "HarddrivesInfo" "/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPSerialATADataType"          
  #----------------Printer Info-----------------------
          constructXML "Printer_Info" "/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPPrintersDataType -xml"          
          echo "</Hardware_Info>" >>$OUTPUTFILE
          echo "<Software_Info>" >>$OUTPUTFILE
          constructXML "Installed_Softwares" "system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType -xml"
          echo "</Software_Info>" >>$OUTPUTFILE
          echo "</DocRoot>" >>$OUTPUTFILE
          echo "##### Scanning completed #####"
  #echo $data
          pushData
constructXML()
  ##Need to replace the < into &lt; , > into &gt; and & into &amp;#####
          echo "<$1><command>$2</command><output><![CDATA[">>$OUTPUTFILE
          eval $2 >> $OUTPUTFILE 2>&1
          echo "]]></output></$1>" >>$OUTPUTFILE
pushData()
        data=$(cat $OUTPUTFILE)
        eval "type curl > /dev/null 2>&1"
        if [ $? -ne 0 ]
        then
                echo "curl is not installed, so could not post the scan data to $PRODUCT, You can import the  $COMPUTERNAME.xml available in the current directory into $PRODUCT using Stand Alone Workstations Audit. Executing the curl command will lead to the installation."
                exit 1
        fi
          curl --header "Content-Type: text/xml" --data-binary @$OUTPUTFILE "$protocol://$hostName:$portNo/discoveryServlet/WsDiscoveryServlet?COMPUTERNAME= $COMPUTERNAME"
        if [ $? -ne 0 ]
        then
           echo "$PRODUCT is not reachable. You can import the  $COMPUTERNAME.xml available in the current directory into $PRODUCT using Stand Alone Workstations Audit. For further queries, please contact $SUPPORT."
        else
           rm -rf $OUTPUTFILE
           echo "Successfully scanned the system data, Find this machine details in $PRODUCT server."
        fi
main $*
I can get it to run manually, but it does not run during startup. I THINK the plist is actually running, because it seems to create the file (that I commented out the remove), but it does not upload it to our server. Could there be a problem with trying to access the network before login? Like maybe it doesn't have an IP at that point? I haven't tested it as a LaunchAgent, yet however all the research points to that being easier. I would like this to run regardless of someone logging in if possible though.
However, I have also created test .plist which points to a script that just "touches" a file, and that doesn't seem to work at startup either.
Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

launchd almost never fails silently - it's probably writing a more descriptive error message to the logs.  is there anything in console.app about this process?
one of the more common problems with launchdaemons is that they cannot do anything that requires the window server or any other post-login utility.  That's sometimes hard to diagnose.  for instance, you're using eval statements and echo statements: do the eval statements trigger anything that would require login context?  are the echo statements getting sent to a non-existant conole?  try sending those last status and error messages directly to the logs.