Tracking Workstation Configurations
From MissionTechWiki
The Problem
How can a network administrator track all the hardware and software configurations of the systems on their network? How can they do this cheaply, efficiently, effectively, and possibly in a heterogeneous environment (eg possibly a linux server, not windows).
Solutions
- Run DXDIAG or MSinfo32 on each machine???
- Find aida32.bin and run on each machine. Can generate output to CSV file by machine name. Can even organise this to run from a Samba server with login scripts.
- Visual Audit
- Belarc Advisor. It dumps everything to a nice handy web page. Can cut and paste into a document.
- SIW from Gtopala is a single executable. An inf file can be used to do an inventory of machines. There's a freeware version, a tech version for sale and a business version for sale.
- winventory - good but not complete
- http://www.codeproject.com/vbscript/AssetScan.asp - a VBscript that outputs an excel file.
- http://www.pxserver.com/WinAudit.htm - free
- http://ocsinventory.sourceforge.net/ - an opensource utility
- Ilient's Sysaid is reasonably priced helpdesk and inventory software. Free for less than 100 PCs
It does install an agent that can automatically report updates to the server, so if you are inventorying a remote site it would be necessary to open a port in the FW or tunnel with a VPN. The server can be either linux or windows and requires Apache and Tomcat. It can hook into MySQL or by default it uses Apache's database. The software has helpdesk features and comes preconfigured with vnc for remote support. It has agents for both Windows and Linux. It does not recognize Win95, but has recognized 98-XP. The linux agent wanted to report installed software based on RPMs. It seems to get the hardware right, though some trouble with old ISA NE2000 cards.
- http://www.spiceworks.com/. free - runs on XP