Hi list! This maybe is a little off-topic on this list hence the 'OT' in the subject line. Sorry for that. I need to gather hardware information from computers on a local network and store it on a server. The server runs F16, clients run different ubuntu versions (11.04 mostly). The information should include such things as monitor serial numbers and other details for definite identification. The main purpose is inventarisation of all the hardware we have in the office. There's about 40 workstations. Google suggests use combination of OCS Inventory NG with GLPI [1]. The other idea is to write a set of bash scripts and put them on cron on workstations (the information should be updated weekly) and main script on the server would store information in the database. However if there's ready solution I would be happy to use it. Any tips? REFERENCES 1. http://www.ocsinventory-ng.org/en/about/features/ocsng-glpi.html
On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 10:19 AM, Hiisi hiisi@fedoraproject.org wrote:
Hi list! This maybe is a little off-topic on this list hence the 'OT' in the subject line. Sorry for that. I need to gather hardware information from computers on a local network and store it on a server. The server runs F16, clients run different ubuntu versions (11.04 mostly). The information should include such things as monitor serial numbers and other details for definite identification. The main purpose is inventarisation of all the hardware we have in the office. There's about 40 workstations. Google suggests use combination of OCS Inventory NG with GLPI [1]. The other idea is to write a set of bash scripts and put them on cron on workstations (the information should be updated weekly) and main script on the server would store information in the database. However if there's ready solution I would be happy to use it. Any tips? REFERENCES
-- Hiisi.
You may want to try Versiera as setup would only be a few minutes. Create an account, download and install the agents. It is simple and would collect all the info you require, though may be overkill as a lot of info is collected. If you're concerned about security, remove the agents after you gather all the info you need. You can then export the data to a spreadsheet. I should also disclose that we develop Versiera and it is not open source, though free to use.
Best,
Frank
On 24 November 2011 01:15, Frank Pikelner frank.pikelner@gmail.com wrote: <--SNIP-->
You may want to try Versiera as setup would only be a few minutes. Create an account, download and install the agents. It is simple and would collect all the info you require, though may be overkill as a lot of info is collected. If you're concerned about security, remove the agents after you gather all the info you need. You can then export the data to a spreadsheet. I should also disclose that we develop Versiera and it is not open source, though free to use.
Best,
Frank
Hi, Frank! Could you please provide a link as http://www.versiera.com/ is not available a the moment. TIA
On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 16:19, Hiisi hiisi@fedoraproject.org wrote:
This maybe is a little off-topic on this list hence the 'OT' in the subject line. Sorry for that. I need to gather hardware information from computers on a local network and store it on a server. The server runs F16, clients run different ubuntu versions (11.04 mostly). The information should include such things as monitor serial numbers and other details for definite identification. The main purpose is inventarisation of all the hardware we have in the office. There's about 40 workstations. Google suggests use combination of OCS Inventory NG with GLPI [1]. The other idea is to write a set of bash scripts and put them on cron on workstations (the information should be updated weekly) and main script on the server would store information in the database. However if there's ready solution I would be happy to use it.
Smolt is made for exactly this purpose. Maybe you can see if its possible to have a smolt setup local to your LAN?
On 24 November 2011 18:43, suvayu ali fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com wrote:
Smolt is made for exactly this purpose. Maybe you can see if its possible to have a smolt setup local to your LAN?
Thank you, Suvayu! That was my first thought. However I couldn't find any information on the net. Now I'm working on configuration of ocsinventory and I have to say that I like it and highly recommend it to everyone interested in the topic.
-- Suvayu
Open source is the future. It sets us free.
On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 15:49, Hiisi hiisi@fedoraproject.org wrote:
On 24 November 2011 18:43, suvayu ali fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com wrote:
Smolt is made for exactly this purpose. Maybe you can see if its possible to have a smolt setup local to your LAN?
Thank you, Suvayu! That was my first thought. However I couldn't find any information on the net. Now I'm working on configuration of ocsinventory and I have to say that I like it and highly recommend it to everyone interested in the topic.
Although you have found a solution, for the sake of completeness I think there isn't much of a configuration. Just installing the server and configuring[1] should be enough. Then from the clients you can do `smoltSendProfile -s <server_url>`.
Footnotes:
[1] I didn't look how difficult this is. Probably assigning some ports, adjusting the firewall and starting the server is sufficient.
On 24 November 2011 19:14, suvayu ali fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com wrote: <--SNIP-->
Although you have found a solution, for the sake of completeness I think there isn't much of a configuration. Just installing the server and configuring[1] should be enough. Then from the clients you can do `smoltSendProfile -s <server_url>`.
Footnotes:
[1] I didn't look how difficult this is. Probably assigning some ports, adjusting the firewall and starting the server is sufficient.
-- Suvayu
Maybe you're right. However I didn't mention in initial letter that some of clients are windows-based. There's only two or three of them but we need to take them into consideration also. Hence we need cross-platform solution and smolt only runs on HAL-based systems. Anyway, thank you very much, Suvayu.
Open source is the future. It sets us free.
On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 1:37 AM, Hiisi hiisi@fedoraproject.org wrote:
On 24 November 2011 01:15, Frank Pikelner frank.pikelner@gmail.com wrote: <--SNIP-->
You may want to try Versiera as setup would only be a few minutes. Create an account, download and install the agents. It is simple and would collect all the info you require, though may be overkill as a lot of info is collected. If you're concerned about security, remove the agents after you gather all the info you need. You can then export the data to a spreadsheet. I should also disclose that we develop Versiera and it is not open source, though free to use.
Best,
Frank
Hi, Frank! Could you please provide a link as http://www.versiera.com/ is not available a the moment. TIA -- Hiisi. Registered Linux User #487982. Be counted at: http://counter.li.org/ -- Spandex is a privilege, not a right. --
There was a firewall change in progress, the http://www.versiera.com/ is up.
Best,
Frank
On 23 November 2011 19:19, Hiisi hiisi@fedoraproject.org wrote:
Hi list! This maybe is a little off-topic on this list hence the 'OT' in the subject line. Sorry for that. I need to gather hardware information from computers on a local network and store it on a server. The server runs F16, clients run different ubuntu versions (11.04 mostly). The information should include such things as monitor serial numbers and other details for definite identification. The main purpose is inventarisation of all the hardware we have in the office. There's about 40 workstations. Google suggests use combination of OCS Inventory NG with GLPI [1]. The other idea is to write a set of bash scripts and put them on cron on workstations (the information should be updated weekly) and main script on the server would store information in the database. However if there's ready solution I would be happy to use it. Any tips? REFERENCES
Finally I ended up writing my own solution. On the client side there's a bash script. It parses lshw output and looks in some other sources (i.e. /proc/*). On the server side there's a php application that receives data as json object, parses it using json_decode() and stores it into MySQL database. Server application is written using yii-framework. First attempt was to parse json-object produced directly by lshw command (lshw -json). However this option does not present on older lshw versions (prior to B.02.15). But the main problem with json produced by lshw is that its structure (depth) depends of hardware present on the machine. Hence constructing json 'by hand' I can be sure that its structure is the same on all examined machines. I think to open-source it all and upload to sourceforge or somewhere. I know, there's many inventory systems. But mine is the right one - it works only on linux ;-) Seriously, it has one more adventure - it grabs monitor serial and model. Others system I saw on the net doesn't.
On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 23:02, Hiisi hiisi@fedoraproject.org wrote:
Seriously, it has one more adventure - it grabs monitor serial and model. Others system I saw on the net doesn't.
+1 on this addition.
Maybe at least the model number and native resolution could be a valid feature request for smolt.
On 15 December 2011 02:59, suvayu ali fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com wrote: <--SNIP-->
Maybe at least the model number and native resolution could be a valid feature request for smolt.
Will you submit a bug? The System works. I mean bugs and feature requests. For example, this -json option has been added to lshw after bug request on launchpad in 2010. And voila - next version of lshw in fedora has it! Ubuntu still uses the previous lshw version ;-)
On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 04:30, Hiisi hiisi@fedoraproject.org wrote:
Will you submit a bug?
Okay, I'll try to do that when I can find the time.
-
Frank Pikelner -
Hiisi -
Suvayu Ali