Best Tools For Network Inventory Management? 251
jra writes "Once every month or so, people ask here about backups, network management, and so on, but one topic I don't see come up too often is network inventory management — machines, serial numbers, license keys, user assignments, IP addresses, and the like. This level of tracking is starting to get out of hand in my facility as we approach 100 workstations and 40 servers, and I'm looking for something to automate it. I'm using RT (because I'm not a good enough Web coder to replace it, not because I especially like it) and Nagios 3. I've looked at Asset Tracker, but it seems too much like a toolkit for building things to do the job, and I don't want my ticket tracking users to have to be hackers (having to specify a URL for an asset is too hackish for my crew). I'd prefer something standalone, so I don't have to dump RT or Nagios, but if something sufficiently good looking comes by, I'd consider it. I'd like to be able to hack a bit here and there, if I must. Perl and Python, along with C, are the preferred implementation languages; least favorite is Java. Anyone care to share their firsthand experiences with this topic, and what tools they use (or built) to deal with it? "
Re:Do you want it to be open source or not? (Score:3, Funny)
Haha, beat you to it by mere seconds. OpenNMS in the hizzouse! :)
Re:To the toolboxes... (Score:3, Funny)
The submitter should try a forum, this is a news site.
Dear Slashdot Forum,
you're never going to believe this, but every word of it is true.
Last Tuesday, me and my network inventory specialist, I'll call her Sally, were managing a little inventory, if you get my drift, when our assistant IT admin Veronica walked in unannounced. Well, from there things got a little freaky....to be continued....
Re:To the toolboxes... (Score:5, Funny)
Wrong way..
Q. How do I get my HP all-in-one printer to work in Red Hat?
A. STFU Noob. RTFM.....
Right Way..
Q. Red Hat Sucks. It won't even print to my HP all-in one printer. I'm going to install Windows XP. At least it works.
A. Oh my god, don't do that. All you need to do is edit foobar.print.cfg and change edrtflg$ = 0
100 workstations and 40 servers? Spreadsheet (Score:2, Funny)
100 workstations and 40 servers? Spreadsheet.
Don't over complicate this until you need to.
When you have 200 workstations and have completed your virtualization consolidation project and are down to 8 servers, then you'll have time to worry about all this again.
Ask again in 3 years.