Audit software

[DaveB]

potential new contract will require me to complete an audit of IT equipment at various sites.

So rather than attending every device to manually audit. I want to deploy some decent (& free ideally) audit software onto a local DC
and automate the process. So I can produce a report from each site as to what equipment is on site.

Would like to capture make & model of pc/laptop serian numbers so I can check if still in warrenty, software installed.

Does anybody have experience of doing a similar task & can you recommend a good audit product that will be capable of my goal.

Thanks

Audit software that can capture relevant info from devices over the network typically requires you to deploy a client on every end point, or for those end points to have WMI enabled.

Either of those is going to need you to work with local IT support to get them installed or enabled so you need to make sure the client is aware of this and ready for it.

If their InfoSec guys are up to scratch or they have a half decent change management process in place then don't expect it to happen overnight.

 

[sal]

You missed a vital detail - Were you asked to audit the state of known devices, or discover all devices in the DC/estate or both?

For windows environment your best bet is PowerShell & WMI, quick and painless.

For *nix i sincerely hope Client Co is using a combination of Puppet/Chef/Ansible/Salt that should be your first point of reference.

 

[stek]

You missed a vital detail - Were you asked to audit the state of known devices, or discover all devices in the DC/estate or both?

For windows environment your best bet is PowerShell & WMI, quick and painless.

For *nix i sincerely hope Client Co is using a combination of Puppet/Chef/Ansible/Salt that should be your first point of reference.

There's also network devices, LOMs, printers etc to consider of the OP has been challenged with devices such as those. From memory I used SNMP in the past, suspect things have moved on now though...

 

[LondonManc]

You missed a vital detail - Were you asked to audit the state of known devices, or discover all devices in the DC/estate or both?

For windows environment your best bet is PowerShell & WMI, quick and painless.

For *nix i sincerely hope Client Co is using a combination of Puppet/Chef/Ansible/Salt that should be your first point of reference.

Give or take knackered patch cables and ports not showing you pieces of kit up, that could be fun. If you're being paid T&M to do the audit, buy a new pair of comfy shoes, order a polo shirt, work pants and fleece with your company logo on and get wandering.

 

[stek]

Give or take knackered patch cables and ports not showing you pieces of kit up, that could be fun. If you're being paid T&M to do the audit, buy a new pair of comfy shoes, order a polo shirt, work pants and fleece with your company logo on and get wandering.

Early days I did the same at Hunterston B and Torness power stations, all sorts of gadgets connected to PC's, no idea what they were or even if it was safe to touch them! Serial and parallel attached......

All I had was a notepad (paper one) and an Excel spreadsheet back at the office in East Kilbride....

Happy days, eh!??

 

[LondonManc]

Early days I did the same at Hunterston B and Torness power stations, all sorts of gadgets connected to PC's, no idea what they were or even if it was safe to touch them! Serial and parallel attached......

All I had was a notepad (paper one) and an Excel spreadsheet back at the office in East Kilbride....

Happy days, eh!??

Correct. If something's not powered on, or is in a cupboard in storage, but not within IT, how can you detect it over the network? Never underestimate how sneaky some people are when it comes to kit going missing.

 

[sal]

There's also network devices, LOMs, printers etc to consider of the OP has been challenged with devices such as those. From memory I used SNMP in the past, suspect things have moved on now though...

Yep, that's why I asked the question. Because if it's a discovery of all connected devices, there is no way in hell to do that remotely and being even remotely accurate. The only way is rolled up sleeves and crawling under desks.

 

[LondonManc]

Yep, that's why I asked the question. Because if it's a discovery of all connected devices, there is no way in hell to do that remotely and being even remotely accurate. The only way is rolled up sleeves and crawling under desks.

OP says the task is to "complete an audit of IT equipment". It mentions nothing about the power status of said equipment. Get your clipboard, pen and kneepads out fella!

 

[original PM]

Audit software that can capture relevant info from devices over the network typically requires you to deploy a client on every end point, or for those end points to have WMI enabled.

Either of those is going to need you to work with local IT support to get them installed or enabled so you need to make sure the client is aware of this and ready for it.

If their InfoSec guys are up to scratch or they have a half decent change management process in place then don't expect it to happen overnight.

Exactly this - I am sure where we are it took 5 years to do - about 2500 items of kit spread over 1000 sites in england, scotland, wales and NI.

it can be a complete pita

Also ensure any new kit which gets sent out has the correct build to allow for automating gathering this info otherwise you just never get anywhere.

 

[vetran]

used this before

Order Asset Tracker for Networks

wasn't terrible, used to be very cheap.

we have SCCM now and of course no one knows what we have got.