Inventory

Hardware Inventory

If decisions on upgrades and the roll out of new technology are to be taken from an informed position, then information is key. With this in mind, NetSupport DNA provides one of the most comprehensive and detailed Hardware Inventory modules available on the market today.

A wealth of information for specific PCs is provided ranging from CPU types and BIOS to memory and memory slots used including those available for future expansion. Information is presented summarised by category, such as PCs by Operating System, CPU type or Memory.

• Inventory reports are displayed either for a single PC, a selected Department, condition based "Dynamic Group" or for the Company overall.
• Hardware Inventory frequency can be configured to run at different time intervals. Specific settings can be set for the overall Company or for separate departments. Furthermore, the DNA Operator is able to run a quick Inventory outside of the pre-selected settings whereby all current hardware information from an individual Client, Department or the Company can be updated on demand.
• NetSupport DNA will dynamically retrieve inventory information from those Windows and Linux PCs with a DNA Client installed, there will however be instances where peripheral equipment, such as routers, will not be identified or even in the case of remote PCs where they are unconnected to the network. Ensuring the most accurate information is always available, DNA provides the option to add details of "non-scanned" items manually, or provide a standalone Inventory scan of a PC for subsequent import into the central system.
• NetSupport DNA offers multi-platform support. With the latest version, together with full support for all Windows systems from 98 and above, Red Hat 9, Red Hat Enterprise, SuSE 9 and Fedora Core 6 Linux distributions are also supported.

Software Inventory

Without effective asset management, the costs for supporting the IT infrastructure can often spiral out of control especially when factoring in the cost of non-compliance.

With NetSupport DNA, organisations can reduce the legal risks by maintaining compliance with software licence agreements, improve the accuracy of budget forecasting by removing over-spend on software assets and ensure the IT function is supporting the overall organisational objectives.

Featuring a detailed summary of all applications detected on a target PC, NetSupport DNA displays this information (with supporting application icon) either on a PC by PC basis or as a group where overall totals (with drill down functionality) for each application are shown.

Recognising that often there are many different versions of a common application in use, DNA provides the ability to create customised Application Groups, where all such versions are grouped together for more effective reporting.

Application Groups also offer the ability to monitor license levels within an organisation. By inputting the number of licenses for each application, software usage levels can be identified whenever a software inventory is executed. As well as appearing within the Software Inventory listings, this license information can also be displayed within the DNA Application Metering section.

• Inventory reports are displayed either for a single Client, Department, Dynamic Group or for the overall Company.
• NetSupport DNA offers multi-platform support. With the latest version, together with full support for Windows 98 and above, Red Hat 9, Red Hat Enterprise, SuSE 9 and Fedora Core 6 Linux distributions are supported.
• Software Inventory frequency can be configured to run at different time intervals. Specific settings can be set for the overall Company or for separate departments.
• NetSupport DNA also provides a File Scan option whereby files of certain types can be identified eg. "How many MP3 files are located on user computers".

History

Effective Asset Management not only relates to knowing what assets are currently located on the network but also to being able to identify historical changes.

The History option enables you to track changes to a Clients Hardware and Software. Each time DNA gathers Inventory data it compares the current details against information already held on the server and if there are any differences they are recorded in the History.

The History component provides a full chronological summary of all activities recorded by NetSupport DNA for all of the primary inventory based components. These include :-

Hardware History - full summary by PC and Hardware item detailing previous and current inventory data and all changes detected for a given period. If a PCs performance has deteriorated, using the Hardware history an Operator can identify in seconds any changes to the specific PC that have occurred previously.

Software History - a full summary for all PCs of applications installed, removed and updated for a given period. Quickly identify which new applications have been installed on a users PC, and review those that have been uninstalled over a given period.

User History - a full summary of all changes made to both standard and custom user details within DNA. Identify changes to user contact details or maintenance agreements in force.

Alert History - a full summary of all Alerts triggered for a given period. With support notes on the resulting resolution and assigned DNA Operator details.

All Historical information stored within NetSupport DNA can be archived and exported for storage and future use on a component by component basis.