ITAM – Servers

Servers are virtual and physical servers of any kind. You can by default chose between virtual and physical servers. The settings allow you to add more types, should you need them.

You can print asset labels, that you can tag to all the systems on the shelf help you in your daily operations to quickly identify a system and get basic information right away without consulting the database.

If the server supports WMI and you have it enabled, some of the data is automatically read in and even overwritten. This helps to make sure you have the correct serial number, operating system, manufacturer (make) and model, as well as domain, CPU, RAM and other data for the specific hostname and asset. WMI will also read in any application currently installed on the system, any currently connected data storage (this will include e.g., USB sticks and other drives, no network drives), any currently available MAC addresses and video adapters. Be aware, some of these can be due to connected equipment at the time of the scan.

You are able to assign up to two monitors to a server asset, besides other more common fields. Further is a semi-inventory function via the confirmed by fields available, that you should click any time you have seen / worked on the asset physically, so you have an ongoing inventory confirmation.

Servers can also have IP addresses assigned, if needed. MAC addresses will be read out via WMI, but you also can specify them manually, what can be a great help tracking an asset via a switch CLI etc. The IP module relies on manual MAC addresses, to avoid issues due to some automated processes.

Incidents can be related to a server as well, so you can see if e.g., vendor service was called for repairs, or the system was part of a bigger issue that you tracked.

Further are their Checklists which are a great asset in standardizing your configurations and deployment steps to keep everything as uniform as possible.

Software can be assigned to servers as well, in order to track it. This has nothing to do with WMI reading in Applications, which is an independent inventory like function. Assigned software is for license tracking and manually added and removed.

Database show you which databases have been configured on this system, for easy tracking and documentation.

Webservers add and document any related web server services that you might have running on this specific system.

DNS Entries are especially important and easy to oversee. This is very important if you use aliases and other fixed DNS pointer, even external DNS pointers in the public domain.

Certificates often are on one or more systems and cause major issues when they expire. But even if you are proactive and replace them, there is often this one forgotten relation that the certificate was used at as well. If you track them well in the application, you will make your life a lot easier and avoid unnecessary downtime.

Available fields and references

  • Type – can be defined in settings
  • Validated – if there is something validated mark this field
  • Hostname
  • Asset Tag
  • Description
  • Department
  • Location
  • Employee
  • Make – WMI can overwrite
  • Model – WMI can overwrite
  • Serial number / SN – WMI can overwrite
  • Express code
  • Warranty Company, End Date and Parts Time
    • Warranty End Date also defines the replace on date, so you get notified, what also can just be a reminder to extend the warranty of course
  • OS / Operating System – WMI can overwrite
  • Domain – WMI can overwrite
  • Anti-Virus
  • vCenter / Datacenter and Cluster
  • ERP relevant (rename the field in settings if you want to use if something else)
  • WSUS
  • CPU Model, speed, amount and cores – WMI can partly overwrite
  • Monitors – up to two
  • Backed up and Backup Notes
    • this helps finding systems that aren’t backed up via filtering and finding out why or finding any systems that are backed up and notes about how they are backed up or other special notes about the backup of them
  • Status Notes
  • Archived to Tape
    • in case it was retired, where can you find the system to restore it
  • Deployment Status, Date and Ticket reference – can be defined in settings
  • Loaner – loaned out and expected back on date
  • Powered On – power status, might be deployed but powered off?
  • Purchase Date, PO number and ticket reference
  • Finance Nr. / Reference
  • Retired Date and Reference
  • WMI read information – locked, besides the enable/disable WMI field Auto-WMI
  • Confirmed by and on (last seen)
  • IP address(es)
  • WMI read only data like MAC addresses, HDDs, Video cards and Applications
  • MAC addresses (manual)
  • Databases
  • Web Server
  • Certificates
  • DNS Entries
  • Checklists
  • Software
  • Incidents
  • TAGs
  • Notes
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  • Record history