Canned software to track computers at work? (Hardware, software, fixed IPs, age, etc)

[evilspoons]

Hello everyone,

I'm sort of "the IT guy" at work (in spite of no formal IT training, I'm an electrical engineer). I like to think I know what I'm doing enough to keep us bumbling on, but there's only so much I can do without proper information.

I want to set up a system where I track all the PCs here at work - their hardware, user accounts, IP addresses, installed software like OS version and antivirus, and so on. I'm already sort of doing this with a giant Excel spreadsheet, but it's started to grow a bit unwieldy.

I was considering building something like this myself using a "user-friendly" small-scale database like Access, but 1. I don't actually have a copy of Access and 2. someone's got to have done this already.

I'm having a hard time searching for this because I just keep coming up with generic asset tracking or warehouse inventory systems that run on computers, rather than being specifically for tracking computers.

A trial version and low cost is a must. Free is better - I'd love to find something open-source.

Thanks for any help!

 

[AFurryReptile]

Spiceworks is great. It's free, well-maintained, has a ton of features for a small to medium sized network, and has a great community (arguably the best.)

Best part is there's nothing to install on your computers; Spiceworks scans your network using SNMP and WMI, which most of your devices should support.

 

[xSauronx]

Spiceworks is great. It's free, well-maintained, has a ton of features for a small to medium sized network, and has a great community (arguably the best.)

Best part is there's nothing to install on your computers; Spiceworks scans your network using SNMP and WMI, which most of your devices should support.

seconded.

if you have managed AV like SEP or McAfee they also show some hardware and software inventory information if you poke around the console a bit.

 

[evilspoons]

Thanks for the suggestion! I'm playing with Spiceworks right now - it seems to gather 90% of the information I wanted to track automatically, and I can put the rest in the notes section for each device. It would be nice to be able to add custom fields (like "RAM type: DDR3") but stuffing all that in the notes is good enough.

All I had to do was allow WMI through the firewalls on a few PCs that weren't already set up correctly.

 

[AFurryReptile]

Thanks for the suggestion! I'm playing with Spiceworks right now - it seems to gather 90% of the information I wanted to track automatically, and I can put the rest in the notes section for each device. It would be nice to be able to add custom fields (like "RAM type: DDR3") but stuffing all that in the notes is good enough.

All I had to do was allow WMI through the firewalls on a few PCs that weren't already set up correctly.

You can actually add custom fields. It's in the Advanced Settings and International Options section, I believe. For example, for my computers, I added an "admin username" and "admin password" field. For software, I add "Management URL". Keep digging into the settings, there's quite a bit supported that isn't obvious at first.

 

[AFurryReptile]

Actually, RAM type is automatically logged too. When looking at a device, click on "Tools" and then "Complete Profile." You'll get a ton of good information in there, and links for each section to "Detailed Information" which has the RAM type you're looking for.