Competent inventory of the network in modern conditions

First of all, the inventory of the network allows you to optimize the costs for quite expensive components and software. For example, it happens that the same purchased license can be copied by users to several computers, which is a violation of the license agreement, some keys may expire, and no one thinks about their extension. It happens the other way round: the acquired programs are practically not used by company employees. In addition, information about the latest update date, for example, antivirus, allows you to assess the level of network security. Periodic analysis of the status of the inventory database allows to detect in time the installation of unlicensed software. All of the above aspects should be under the continuous supervision of the system administrator.

Inventory process

The level of detail of information in the inventory base depends on the goals of its creation and on the scale of the organization. Here are just the main points requiring constant audit:

- Installed on remote PC applications, their versions and the date of the latest updates.

- License information (presence / absence of license keys).

- Operating systems installed on remote PCs.

- Antiviruses and the date of the last update of the anti-virus database.

- Hardware (for example, the monitor brand, the amount of installed RAM, the amount of hard drives and much more).

Manual Network Inventory

After you finally decided what information should necessarily be included in the inventory database, you need to choose a method of collecting information. There are two. The first one is manual. It is ideal for small companies with the number of computers not exceeding ten to fifteen. It is usually faster to inventory a small number of PCs manually than to configure complex specialized software to automatically collect information. For manual auditing, it is recommended that you write all the collected information to an MS Excel or Access file. This will facilitate the sorting of data, the creation of reports or the comparison of information with the data collected earlier.

Automatic Inventory

In medium and large companies, it is preferable to use specialized software for automatic inventory of the network. To date, the software market has presented dozens of various solutions to collect information about software and hardware. If you have never used such programs, here are some tips for choosing the most optimal option:

1. The inventory program must first be able to inventory all the items you need.

2. The program should provide information on the presence or absence of licenses to the programs installed on remote PCs.

3. The program should allow the system administrator to view all the inventory information separately for each computer.

4. Before making a purchasing decision, look for reviews on the Internet. This will help to avoid the introduction of poor-quality or under-developed software.

5. Pay attention to the types and number of reports that the program allows you to create. The more of them, the wider the capabilities of the sysadmin for maintaining the network in a working and up-to-date state.

Conclusion

Effective management of the network infrastructure is not only in the simultaneous creation of an inventory of all available software and hardware at the enterprise. This process includes a continuous audit of the network, as well as the maintenance of accounting documents in due course and keeping records of repair of components.

It does not matter how you do the inventory - manually or with the help of the program - this task is not easy, and you do not need to take it off your sleeve. In any case, you need to first determine the scope of work before you take up the inventory of the first PC.