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? "
Landesk might work for you. (Score:1, Interesting)
I use Landesk, it also does patches, AV, hardware inventory, software inventory, you can block some applications, remote control, etc.
Roll your own... (Score:4, Interesting)
It really isn't that hard to do. And if you setup your database tables and schema correctly so that you can easily expand for new hardware types, buildings/locations, it isn't too hard to maintain. The hardest thing that we deal with is when we move into a new building and we have to generate the floor map, but it doesn't usually take more then a few hours at most.
GLPI (Score:4, Interesting)
This might be the sort of thing, coupled with the OCNS agent it'll scan your network and log all the data into a myql database. Ticket system which allows users to report stuff attached to an asset, reporting, contracts, and stuff. Worth a look.
OCS (Score:3, Interesting)
Nagios? (Score:5, Interesting)
Nagios? For asset tracking? "I was trying to check my e-mail using using apache, and it just wasn't living up to my expectations at all...." I guess when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
http://www.open-audit.org/ [open-audit.org] does a nice job of tracking on the windows side. Set up xampp, unzip the contents of the openaudit zip file into the htdocs directory, visit the side, move on with your life. Open Audit as a project is a little hackish and informal for my tastes, but it does pass the JFW (just fucking works) test. Tracks assets, installed software, license keys. It's just a PHP frontend for WMI results, so if WMI is acting funny, then open audit will be funny too. I also doubt it'll do much for network device inventory other than identifying approximately what the device is. (Printers show up ok, I doubt switches or routers will appear as anything other than "other".)
My suggestion for integrating Nagios would be to set an action URL for each of your hosts that in turn points to the Open Audit page for that particular host, unless you're already using the action URL for PNP (and if you're not, you should be for some of your hosts.)
Re:God help me (Score:3, Interesting)
You've got an excel spreadsheet? You're a lucky bastard.
I have a customized Peoplesoft implementation for asset tracking, designed by three blind goatherds, one of whom also had leprosy (I may be exaggerating a bit. I suspect it was more like twenty, ~since having more people design a system is always a good idea~).
Seriously... Search for asset. Find asset. Enable correct history mode. Click through four forms to get to custodian details. Update custodian details. Run asset update process. Check process monitor for error messages. Resolve errors. Rerun update process. And that's a simple change.
Heaven/Hell forbid there was any issue with the Tag # or Serial # assigned to an asset.
Hell hath no torment like a Peoplesoft implementation used for something it has no business being used for.
Re:Might be overkill but... (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh god, not Altiris!
My company, a huge multinational company, recently switched to Altiris for inventory tracking, license management, and software delivery.
From what I can tell, on a global network with somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000 machines, it's ok for inventory, great for controling licenses, and terrible at software delivery.
Using Altiris it takes upwards of ten times longer to install applications that reside on the same servers that our old in-house scripting team used. Servers didn't move, same applications, 10 times longer to install. Setting up an old user with a new machine can now take hours instead of a few minutes (I'm talking after the build up and profile transfer).
The problem may have been with the implimentation for our particular situation, the concept and feature list I think are brillient. That doesn't change the fact that the word Altiris makes me shudder involuntarily now.
Lucky for me, I moved to a different group and get to manage my own, separate internal network of about 400 machines.
Re:you track your IP addresses? (Score:3, Interesting)
My approach is to use static addresses for servers and network switch management consoles, and fixed-lease DHCP for everything else, personally.
We're big enough that I've ripped off 10.10/16 and 10.11/16 for our 2 campuses, and I block certain categories of stuff into specific class-Cs. I'm not fond of overloading semantics on addresses, but sometimes you just have to...
Re:you track your IP addresses? (Score:3, Interesting)
Because if it goes down for 2 days you eventually won't get any snmp data from your switch?
1.) Why would people use a lease time of under 1 or 2 days for static infrastructure? (or 7 days even)
2.) Do DHCP failures for more than 24 hours fit into your uptime requirements?