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Hi all, I have being working in secondary education for a few years now, At the minute we use a database to record the pc's inventory information but as you can imagine keeping it up to date for 220 pc's when im rushed off my feet installing hardware and software can be a nightmare therefore i have being looking at inventory applications on the market. I have experimented with spiceworks (works but seems to slow the network down) , OCR Inventory and recently i love lansweeper! although if i dont buy the premium version you are limited, i would like the application to just detect and gather the information without me having to create scripts and software installs to the clients. Is there any software (maybe open source) you can recomend? that works well for your sites? or just even information on how you all track your inventory??

We are currently looking at setting up a helpdesk system for all IT jobs in the school. I have setup an OCS Inventory NG OCS Inventory NG - Welcome to OCS Inventory NG web site ! to get all the hardware information from the machines in the school and thats working very well. One advantage of GLPI is that it intergrates with OCS. The problem I am finding at the moment with the system is that support is not that good (most of it is in French) and the interface is not easy to use. The questions I have are: 1) Do you use GLPI helpdesk system? Has it been successful for you? 2) Are there any alternatives to GLPI? What do you use to manage support tickets and inventory? Look forward to hearing peoples thoughts.

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HI folks, SIMS aren't being helpful and neither is the IT department in my school. Both are saying that it's 'impossible' but I have heard that it isn't impossible. What I need to do is take our existing asset inventory (in *.CSV) and import it into SIMS FMS to comply with our federation's guidelines. We currently just have spreadsheets and this "isn't good enough" according to our new federation. IT tell me that we need to start from scratch - but that would mean re-entering serials, purchase prices, etc, etc... all over again. So, can you tell me if it is possible to import our inventory in CSV format to SIMS FMS?

notes the pcs account needs to be able to write to its own description field in active directory (easily done with delegate control to either domain pcs or as i do an allpcs group containing domain pcs (as i dont like delegating control to a built in group) needs a share on network somewhere that auth users can write to in the main script its \\server\log$\pcs\ and the obvious disclaimer ive not had any issues but that dosent mean you wont so use it at your own risk records basic details in ad (make model, cpu,ram,hdd,serial, mac(s) basically stuff that dosent change often) and if you have existing info in the computers description before deploying the script add a # before it (so if your description field said staffab laptop change to #staffab laptop before deploying script) and it will keep that there (though the data after will not update after the first time until you manually remove the # at the very end of the line) it now only writes to ad when a change is detected it creates a csv file with more info in it in the format below (and copy and past that to a file called 01.csv if you want a nice formatted spreadsheet of all pcs make-model,cpu,ram,hdd size,hdd free,serial no,Windows Version,mac address(es),Windows experience ratings,last user,Network Speed,date collected the following batch file will concatenate all the individual files into 1 file (needs to be a drive letter you run it from not a unc path del all.csv /q copy "*.csv" "all.csv" /y main code itself Option Explicit 'On Error Resume Next dim outputstring, computermodel, cpu, ram, hddcapacity, hddfree, serialno, macaddress, operatingsystem, csvoutput dim stcomputer, colitems, objItem, colcpu, colPhysicalMemory, objPhysicalMemory, intMemory, colDisks, objhdd dim colComputerSystem, colOperatingSystems, objOperatingSystem, colBIOS, objBIOS, colnicconfig, objnicconfig dim objwmiservice, hddtemp, weidata, colWSA, operatingsystemno, Lastuser, oreg, spath, svalue, strvalue, svaluename dim adoutputstring, adoRecordset, adoConnection, objRootDSE, objNetwork, objComputer, existing dim pcname, wshShell, strDirectory, strFile, objFSO, objFolder, objFile, objTextFile, myDateString dim colnet,objnet, linkspeed, objWMIService2 stcomputer = "." myDateString = Date() Set objRootDSE = GetObject("LDAP://RootDSE") Set objNetwork = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Network") Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & stcomputer & "\root\CIMV2") Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_ComputerSystem") Set colcpu = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_Processor") Set colPhysicalMemory = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * From Win32_PhysicalMemory") set coldisks = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * From Win32_LogicalDisk") Set colComputerSystem = objWMIService.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_ComputerSystem") Set colOperatingSystems = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("Select * from Win32_OperatingSystem") Set colBIOS = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * From Win32_BIOS") Set colnicconfig = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * From Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration Where IPEnabled = True") Set colWSA = objWMIservice.ExecQuery("Select * From Win32_WinSAT") Set adoConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection") adoConnection.Provider = "ADsDSOObject" adoConnection.Open "Active Directory Provider" Set adoRecordset = adoConnection.Execute(";(&(objectCategory=Computer)(name=" & objNetwork.Computername & "));adspath;subtree") Set wshShell = WScript.CreateObject( "WScript.Shell" ) Set objWMIService2 = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & stComputer & "\root\WMI") Set colnet = objWMIService2.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM MSNdis_LinkSpeed",,48) 'write file location pcname = wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings( "%COMPUTERNAME%" ) strDirectory = "\\server\log$\pcs\" strFile = pcname & ".csv" 'make-model For Each objItem In colItems computermodel= objItem.Manufacturer & " " & objItem.Model 'wscript.echo computermodel Next ' Create the File System Object Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") 'cpu info For Each objItem in colcpu cpu = objItem.Name 'wscript.echo cpu Next 'ram If Not colPhysicalMemory Is Nothing Then intMemory = 0 For Each objPhysicalMemory In colPhysicalMemory intMemory = intMemory + Int(objPhysicalMemory.Capacity) Next ram = (intMemory / 1024 / 1024 ) & " MB" 'wscript.echo ram End If 'hdd capacity for each objhdd in coldisks If objhdd.DeviceID = "C:" Then hddcapacity = int(objhdd.Size/1073741824) & " GB" hddfree = int(objhdd.freespace/1073741824) & " GB" 'wscript.echo hddfree end if next 'windows version For Each objOperatingSystem in colOperatingSystems operatingsystem = objOperatingSystem.Caption & " sp " & objOperatingSystem.ServicePackMajorVersion operatingsystemno = objOperatingSystem.Version 'wscript.echo operatingsystem Next 'serial no If Not colBIOS Is Nothing Then For Each objBIOS in colBIOS serialno = objBIOS.SerialNumber 'wscript.echo serialno Next End If 'mac address(s) If Not colnicconfig Is Nothing Then For Each objnicconfig in colnicconfig If macaddress <> "" Then macaddress = macaddress & " - " End If macaddress = macaddress & objnicconfig.MACAddress 'wscript.echo macaddress Next End If 'windows experience operatingsystemno = Left( operatingsystemno, 3 ) if operatingsystemno >5.5 then 'vista+ For Each objItem in colWSA 'weidata = "Overall -" & "na" & " - CPU - " & "na" & " - Memory - " & "na" & " - Graphics - " & "na" & " - Gaming graphics - " & "na" & " - hdd - " & "na" weidata = "Overall -" & objItem.WinSPRLevel & " - CPU - " & objItem.CPUScore & " - Memory - " & objItem.MemoryScore & " - Graphics - " & objItem.GraphicsScore & " - Gaming graphics - " & objItem.D3DScore & " - hdd - " & objItem.DiskScore next else 'xp- weidata = "Overall -" & "na" & " - CPU - " & "na" & " - Memory - " & "na" & " - Graphics - " & "na" & " - Gaming graphics - " & "na" & " - hdd - " & "na" end if 'last user if operatingsystemno >5.5 then 'vista+ Const HKLM = &H80000002 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Set oReg = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & stcomputer & "/root/default:StdRegProv") If Err.Number <> 0 Then On Error Goto 0 Else On Error Goto 0 sPath = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI" sValueName = "LastLoggedonUser" If oReg.GetStringValue(HKLM, sPath, sValueName, sValue) = 0 Then lastuser = sValue Else lastuser = "unknown" & stcomputer End If End If else 'xp- Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002 Set oreg=GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & stComputer & "\root\default:StdRegProv") spath = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinLogon" svalue = "DefaultUserName" oreg.GetStringValue HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, spath, svalue, strValue lastuser=strvalue svalue = "DefaultDomainName" oreg.GetStringValue HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, spath, svalue, strValue lastuser = strvalue & "\" & lastuser end if 'Scans data for Net Speed For Each objnet in colnet 'Removes "slow/unused links" if objnet.NdisLinkSpeed/10 > 1000 then linkspeed= objnet.NdisLinkSpeed/10000 & " Mbps" & "-" & linkspeed '& "-" & objnet.NdisLinkSpeed/10000 & " Mbps" end if next 'concatanate data for output outputstring = computermodel & "," & cpu &"," & ram &"," & hddcapacity& "," & serialno & "," & macaddress & "," csvoutput = computermodel & "," & cpu &"," & ram &"," & hddcapacity& "," & hddfree & "," & serialno & "," & operatingsystem & "," & macaddress & "," & weidata & "," & Lastuser & "," & linkspeed &"," & myDateString &"," ' wscript.echo outputstring ' Check that the strDirectory folder exists If objFSO.FolderExists(strDirectory) Then Set objFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(strDirectory) Else Set objFolder = objFSO.CreateFolder(strDirectory) 'WScript.Echo "Just created " & strDirectory End If If objFSO.FileExists(strDirectory & strFile) Then Set objFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(strDirectory) Else Set objFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile(strDirectory & strFile) 'Wscript.Echo "Just created " & strDirectory & strFile End If set objFile = nothing set objFolder = nothing ' OpenTextFile Method needs a Const value ' ForAppending = 8 ForReading = 1, ForWriting = 2 Const ForAppending = 2 Set objTextFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile _ (strDirectory & strFile, ForAppending, True) ' Writes result every time you run this VBScript objTextFile.WriteLine(csvoutput) objTextFile.Close If Err.Number <> 0 Then MsgBox "Query Error: " & Err.Description WScript.Quit End If If Not adoRecordset.EOF Then Set objComputer = GetObject(adoRecordset.Fields(0).Value) existing = objcomputer.Description if left (existing,1) = "#" and not right (existing,1) = "#" then outputstring = existing & " : " & outputstring & "#" if left (existing,1) = "#" and right (existing,1) = "#" then 'msgbox "data" wscript.quit end if if not objComputer.Description = outputstring then 'msgbox "diff" objComputer.Put "description", outputstring objComputer.SetInfo else 'msgbox "matches" end if End If If Err.Number <> 0 Then MsgBox "Write Error: " & Err.Description WScript.Quit End If

Hi, Sorry everyone for the semi-spam nature of this post but I have a query. I've recently started writing software to automatically document network infrastructure - DNS, Exchange, SQL Instances, Active Directory etc. The product starts FREE but is chargable for larger networks. XIA Configuration Server, Network Documentation - CENTREL Solutions I'd like to know if this would be useful to network engineers in education before I pay for advertising on EduGeek. Being a new, small venture I don't have money (to waste) :-) Any comments / feedback most welcome. Regards, David

Hello all I have been asked to take on a project in our Data center that has about 500 servers mixed Blade,VM and HP Pizza Box. Most are Windows 2003 and Netware. We have a bunch of schools who connect to the servers for School management and other services. I have not done much server management and have asked to connect to all the Windows machines and run something like belarc that will save a bunch of info. Check the event logs for any major issues. make sure the IP address and names are still correct and all patches were up to date ( Most get from a wsus server) Is this possible with 1 piece of software. I was going to get help but the person training me is not available for a few weeks and I would like to get started. Any other things I should be looking and keeping track of. We have all the passwords and usernames as well as up to date AV on all the boxes. Any recommendations for decent software to manage software licenses. Open source is always a plus.

Hey all, I have a feeling this is a common issue in education, but I can't find a (cheap) solution. Basically, my goal is to have a database that will accept input from barcode scanners and allow me to truly run an inventory and return results similar to: 12 items missing 382 items out of place 1002 items scanned, etc You know, normal stats you'd find when running inventory. To go a step futher, being able to enter new assets into inventory via scanner would be nice. We have a library automation product in place that would give us this, but would cost just about $3000 USD / site, or about $18,000 USD. Seems there should be an open source solution for this problem. Ideas? As an aside, I just installed Spiceworks. My god what a great program, if you can get WIM working on your PC's. Why pay for anything else? Looking forward to the suggestions. Thanks, as always.

Morning all We've recently gone vanilla from CC4 and have been using the free trial of PDQ, we now wish to purchase the full license which has been quoted as roughly a grand and a half, so I just wondered does that sound a bit high or is it what most schools pay for the software? The intention here would be to pay for one years use and then cancel if we no longer needed the full features of the program Any input on what pricing usually is for this would be greatly appreciated

Hey Everyone, I've been developing an open source inventory system for schools that strips out all the unused junk from an expensive inventory system and keeps things basic and organised. It's still in Alpha at present, but will be putting it out for Beta in the upcoming weeks. So far it will do: Bulk Imports of ICT Equipment Individual imports Warranty Monitoring and alerts Note taking on individual machines Simple Scan item Show data, quickly. Admin control panel to manage user logins to the system, database admin etc. The data stored includes: Serial Number Make Model Purchase Date Purchased From (Company you purchased through, with invoice data) Warranty Start Date (If different to purchase date) Warranty Length (with countdown) Warranty Name/Type (Accidental Damage, NBD etc) I chose all these as these are the most commonly used by all technicians around schools. Working with people who script in powershell, we are exploring secure and reliable ways to import data from machines already out in your schools and unlike spiceworks, be quick about it. The sole reason I've done this is for speed. Spiceworks is a fantastic system which I have little trouble with, but it does seem to be a little over developed for the needs of some of the smaller schools. The idea is to take the experience from people who work in the ICT departments of schools and colleges and develop a bespoke, free system, that requires no flash, no shockwave, java etc. Simple Html 5, CSS 3 and some bog standard programming. It's developed in Classic ASP which puts many off, but its a complete language, supported on all latest windows o/s's, plugs into IIS magically and no update for it is going to come along and break it. It's also extremely quick and is running with the latest SQL Express 2012 database. I'm looking for people who want to try it out, aid me in the development, throw ideas at me. At the end of the day, if you are fed up of your current inventory solution and would like a simple one that requires no additional resources on your computer to run, then this might be for you, so help me help you. There's been plenty developed as open source before, but people have different needs. If you want bog standard, why do you need to install all the features, the majority of which you are never going to use. I've designed the whole site in a modular method, you add the features you will use and never install those you won't. It's essentially a sober version of spiceworks, just developed by one guy lol. I'll be posting screenshots in the next few weeks (graphically it needs tidying up) and i'll progress from there. What I would like are more ideas. If you got a new set of laptops, what data would you like stored about them? Would you like what O/S is installed, Software? or are you more specific on the hardware, Maybe RAM amounts etc. The trick is to find what data technicians need and then data that they want. Those we need, will come pre-installed, those people want, i'll create as an option, which can be added by the administrator of the system. If you receive a broken laptop and you scan it, what data do you need to jump out at you. Would you like the option to choose what data jumps out at you before you scan it in? (e.g Click Serial, Scan and it comes up with all data with the serial key highlighted for you) Everything is possible. So far it works in all resolutions between 800x600 to 1920x1080, in IE8+, Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera. What do you guys think, would anyone be willing to help out during Beta also.

Hi guys, What sort of systems have you got in your workplace, in order to loan IT equipment out? Does any of you have an electronic record or use a specific software to keep track of what's been loaned? Thank you in advance.

We're starting a fresh IT inventory at work which will include all our equipment (e.g. Laptops, desktops, cameras, iPads etc), just wondering how everyone else does it? We've always used a spreadsheet up to now but a quite simple one, so if anyone has a example of theirs or if you guys use any specific software thats good at keeping inventory records please do share! Thanks in advance! Elliot

Hi all, Wondering if anyone knows of a good app or cheap adapter of some sort to turn an iPod touch into a good barcode scanner to do a stock inventory or pc's and monitors etc. I love the barcode scanners they have in the apple store but they cost hundreds. I have also looked at apps but the camera as a scanner doesn't seem detailed enough. Thanks