How to use the PC Inventory Module
Purpose: PC Inventory allows the user to inventory the hardware and software for all of the machines connected to the network. The admin user is then able to establish a baseline for the inventory to be able to make comparisons to in the future.
Prerequisites: Login script ran on computers which will be importing information into Novo. More info on the setup of PC Inventory can be found in the PCI Config Guide article below this one. See the other articles below this one for more detailed information for each PC Inventory topic area. A brief explanation of these areas is below:
Refresh PC Inventory
Use this link to update the computer and software lists. Any updated information will be imported at this time.
Refresh PC Inventory with Asset
Use this link to update the computer and software lists but in addition the PCs will be imported/refreshed into the Asset Manager. This allows for an easy way to input assets into the system so they can be related to other areas of Novo.
List Computers
This link shows an alphabetical list of computers that have been inventoried (and synchronized with Refresh PC Software/Hardware Inventory). From this list you can view the Current or Baseline Inventory as explained above.
Software
This link shows all of the software (from Add/Remove Programs) on all of the PCs on your network (that have been inventoried and synchronized). The View icon shows the computers the software is installed on.
Establish Baseline
Use this link to copy all of your PC Software and Hardware inventory to the Baseline (if you wish to keep a baseline). Baseline inventory can be used as a comparison against the Current inventory. An example may be that you establish a Baseline after your first inventory (assuming PCs are in good working order). If you inventory your PCs (through the login script) once/month or once/quarter and a problem occurs with a PC, you can compare the Current to Baseline inventory (through the List Computers option) to see if something has changed (i.e. a user installed some unknown software).
Troubleshooting Tips:
- If the List Computers link does not show any computers after clicking the Refresh PC Software/Hardware Inventory link then one of the following could be the cause:
- The folder permissions are not set appropriately on the novo\pc_inventory folder and its sub-folders
- There are no .xml files in the novo\pc_inventory folder
- This could be caused by the pcinvent.bat not being run in the network login script or
- The share name is not referenced appropriately or the share permissions are not correct
- The PC Inventory Base Folder is not correct in the novo\inc\common_inc.asp file (and therefore the application does not know where to get the inventory files)
- If the Establish Baseline does not do anything the folder permissions may not be set appropriately on the novo\pc_inventory\baseline folder. In most cases if the group Everyone has write permissions to this folder it should work fine. This is assuming the IIS Anonymous User is part of the Everyone group and therefore can write to this folder.
Sub Articles
Configuring PC Hardware and Software Inventory
Refresh PC Inventory Data with End Users' hardware & software
The List Computers Functionality for PC Inventory
The Software Functionality for PC Inventory
Establish Baseline for PC Inventory software & hardware