IT Inventory and Resource Management on Steroids - OCS Inventory NG
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The OCS Inventory NG suite can be separated into two applications: client agents and the management server daemon. The latter contains all four necessary server functions: database server, communication server, deployment server, and the administration console. Inventory agents are cross-platform and must be installed on the client computers. These agents communicate with the central server.
You can download the latest official release from the download section of OCS NG. Eventually, the RC—release candidate—also suffices but it shouldn’t be confused with final and stable releases. There is an additional tool that helps you to remotely deploy those inventory agents to the client computers via Active Directory GPO or logon scripts (in the case of the Windows OS). For *NIX there’s no tool, so you'll have to try it manually.
There are a few server requirements concerning the central management server. First of all, MySQL 4.1 or higher is necessary for the database server to run properly. You need to specify the database username and password and its name, assuming proper rights are given. The communication server part requires Apache Web Server 1.3.X/2.X. Since the scripts are written in Perl, the mod_perl module is required.
The deployment server part relies on any web server that supports SSL (preferably, again, Apache). The administration console requires PHP 4.1 or higher, as well as GD and ZIP libraries (graphics and archiving). The Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS) is necessary if you want to deploy via Active Directory GPO or with logon scripts on MS Win.
Depending on your distribution, the Linux agents may also require additional XML and/or Zlib libraries for compression and XML support. With Windows, the agents are already contained in the package as precompiled. Check out the picture below to get a sense of how the centralized management server communicates with the individual inventory agents.
(Photo courtesy of OCS Inventory NG—direct link to source)
Now that you understand the inner mechanism and setup of the system, it’s time to find out exactly what the inventory database holds, right? As mentioned earlier, it holds characteristics of devices that are to be found on the network. In the case of computers, information about hardware and software is collected.
This information includes all kinds of BIOS data (system serial number, manufacturer, model, date), full descriptions of the CPU (manufacturer, model, processor speed, cache, etc.), memory array slots (capacity, description, type of memory, speed, slot number, etc.), input devices, system ports, slots, and controllers, storage peripherals, sound and video adapters and devices, network adapters, printers, operating system data (name, comments, service packs, registered owner, product ID), and custom registry values.
The last part is really powerful. You can also collect and store in the inventory custom values (querying some keys) from the registry hives. If your company runs some particular software that stores its data in the registry and you want to collect it, then it’s possible. Oh, and lots of user-related data can also be stored in the registry if system administrators are fond of such activities. It’s a great function.
Aside from the agents deployed on computers, automatic network scanning and discovery is also possible. Here is where we talk about gathering information about network devices that are to be found on the network: computers (MAC address of their Ethernet cards, IP address if static, etc.), switches, routers, network printers, and so forth.
Moreover, in the case of Linux operating systems, if nmap (a popular security scanner) can be found, then you can also perform various scans with enhanced functions. This is quite useful when you want to find out something about an un-inventoried computer or device. One of the only flaws of OCS Inventory NG is that its web interface is pretty basic, but its inner mechanism and architecture is amazing.
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