EOL Asset DB – Features

The IT Assets Database was replaced by the IT Admins CMDB and is EOL / End of Life, no further development will be done on this project.

The IT Assets management database has the following features:

  • based on a Microsoft SQL database with an Microsoft Access front end
    • to execute the application, you don’t need to have a full version of MS Access, the free RunTime is sufficient
    • the database is relational, meaning most entries can be viewed in any direction of their relation
    • allows exports of most data to Microsoft Excel files for further processing
  • any updates made to tables are tracked in a _history table
    • this includes who made the change and how the record looked like before the change was made – this is accomplished by table triggers on the SQL database directly meaning that it does not matter if the change was made through the application or directly in SQL – the history entry will always be generated
    • history tables are very powerful and can be accessed directly from the “Record” tab per database form – just go to a entry like a server or workstation and select the “Record” tab and click on “History” – this will show you all historical information and when the record was changed
  • LDAP synchronization and LDAP change tracking
    • Employees / users
      • this table can be filled with manual created objects and at the same time automatically by LDAP objects
    • computers
    • groups and their relationship to users, computers and other groups
    • automatically synchronizes all objects with Active Directory on an defined interval
    • tracks what was changed like
      • attributes / properties of user, group and computer objects
      • new objects have been created
      • objects have been deleted
      • relationships / memberships have been changed
    • tracks the changes in a separate table, the LDAP Sync log
    • sends out daily email report with the detected changes
  • IP address management / IPAM including VLANs
    • define VLANs based on IP scopes – scopes and VLANs can be mixed as needed – if this would be the case
    • define the type of the IP like reserved, DHCP, static or excluded
    • set a hostname per IP including description
    • reference the IP back to a server, workstation or printer and their MAC address if available
    • easily filter for not used IP addresses or used IP addresses within the lists
  • MAC address search
    • search through MAC addresses that you attached to your systems centrally
  • IT supplies / inventory
    • create a inventory of IT supplies, where they reside and where you purchase them including their supply code
    • define a minimum in stock value per supply
    • enter the current amount quickly or after engaging a print out report to review your inventory
  • change history reports for workstations, printers and server & equipment
    • get daily reports about changes that have been made in the asset database in regards to the mentioned asset types
  • add notes to virtually any record
    • almost every record can have notes added – an unlimited amount of notes
    • notes can be edited if needed
    • notes can be searched centrally
    • the whole notes system implements a mini documentation system for special configuration and information to software, configuration, history of what happened to the device, anything that is note-worthy
  • Create checklists and document your processes while partly automating tasks
    • checklists are based on templates, a checklist stays as is when it is created from the template, even if the templates changes later on
    • checklists can be attached to servers & equipment, employee-accounts, printers as well as workstations
    • you can create multiple checklists for each of those assets/entities
    • checklists can be useful for
      • on-boarding / terminating
      • building / deploying / decommission / retiring systems like printers, servers and workstations
    • checklists can automatically change the status of the asset (like from available to deployed)
    • checklist can have text-fields to enter additional data
    • checklist entries can be mandatory
    • scripts like batch and PowerShell scripts can be engaged
    • every click in a checklist is tracked with date/time and who clicked the checkbox, entered text or click on the script button
    • additional links can be put on checklist for further references or quick access to the necessary web-service
    • checklist must be completed before they can be marked as finished
    • only checklist administrators can unlock / re-open a finished checklist
    • checklist values can come from tables or defined lists and write back to the source record
  • workstation tracking
    • relate to department
    • relate to employee
    • relate to monitor(s) (up to two monitors)
    • relate to software entires
    • variable deployment status
    • domain, antivirus and operating system separate fields
    • basic hardware information like manufacturer, model, serial number aka. ServiceTag, CPU, RAM and HDD as well as an SSD indicator
    • purchase and retirement information
    • loaner / lent out tracking
    • incident tracking – this has to do with hardware issues that have been fixed by the vendor e.g.
    • deployment day and ticket information
  • monitor tracking
    • basic hardware information like size of the monitor
    • purchase and retirement information
    • relation to workstations
  • server and equipment tracking
    • physical and virtual servers
    • any other equipment – this is accomplished by using a category in the same table
    • all those entries have MAC address tracking in combination with IP assignment
    • basic hardware information like manufacturer, model, serial number aka. ServiceTag, CPU, RAM
      • sub-table with harddrive (HDD), RAID and partition information
    • incident tracking – this has to do with hardware issues that have been fixed by the vendor e.g.
    • purchase and retirement information
    • deployment day and ticket information
    • relation to software
    • MAC address tracking and IP assignment
    • relations to databases hosted by the system
    • backup review (Veritas Backup Exec)
    • warranty information
    • assign to Department
    • deployment status
    • if virtual machine, you can track on which VMware cluster it is hosted
    • indicator if a backup is needed and status information
    • see upcoming warranty renewals in the main menu
  • printers and toner inventory
    • printer model tracking in the background
    • printer tracking while assigning them to printer models
    • MAC and IP address tracking
    • basic information like serial number and location
    • possible to assign to contract (Expense)
    • purchase and retirement information
    • separate printer name and additional SAP printer name (could be use for something else the SAP as well)
    • incident tracking
    • meter reads – track your meter reads manually
    • SNMP page counts can be collected and viewed in graphs
  • software and license tracking
    • track software with basic manufacturer and version information
    • add additional license information in a more detailed fashion
    • track back the amount of licenses per version and where it is in use like on servers, workstations or directly assigned to an employee
  • databases throughout the network
    • track databases available on a server per instance and what software they are on
    • define their TIR level – like development, test, production low and production high
    • track how they are actually backed up like from a agent / script form and which server the backup is executing as well as where the backup is stored etc.
    • deployment status of the database
    • see on which server they reside from servers to databases and vice versa
  • server backup review (Veritas Backup Exec)
    • this is a special module that depends on each server has a single backup job and the backup job ends in -full
    • you filter in backup exec the full backups for the last weekend and copy it to a text-file – this file is to be imported and now the system tries to find the correct server. All servers that have the “backed up” marker set are expect to show up – if they are missing they are additionally mentioned in the review modul
    • you can see the basic backup size, speed and time information from the servers module directly per server and in theory determine trends or issues as well as the possibility to track your backups and have the information available for audits
    • missed backups can have status notes and get tickets assigned so a later review for an audit is rather easy – in order to find the related ticket
  • incident tracking
    • this allows some basic incident tracking – like open tickets with vendors for e.g. warranty or other support
    • you can relate those incidents to workstations, printers and servers / other equipment
    • just provide basic information like original problem and final solution
    • this allows to see directly from the asset what happened with it or what was going on
    • additionally can you see open incidents in the main menu so you have an easy way to get reminded on them
  • vendors and contacts
    • track basic vendor and additional contact information
  • important and useful links for your team
    • add links and give them friendly names
    • links show up in the main menu
    • links can be rolled out on different levels like helpdesk, sys-admin and management, while higher levels always see the lower level links but not vise versa – this is pretty much a group based approach
  • reminders
    • reminders are very powerful – you can use them as simply reminder to see them in the main menu or what is more important let them generate emails. Emails can be send to specific people and / or the helpdesk email inbox automatically creating tickets
    • reminders can be automatically re-created on defined schedules
  • purchases
    • track your purchases from the initial request to the final delivery and received items per item
    • track who requested it, what department it belongs to and who has to approve it
    • add individual items to the order and their tracking information like shipping information
    • purchases can be related to projects or expenses as well
    • be able to see the total amount of money spend within certain time periods based on the filters you set – this could always be a specific product etc.
    • track information like PO numbers, CER numbers, payed per credit card etc.
  • expenses
    • see what expenses your IT department has, allowing you to plan the budge for the coming year(s)
    • see old expenses
    • see related purchases and assets to the expense
    • see when expense come up for renewal in the main form and when they have been renewed
  • projects management
    • create projects for your team
      • you can create projects and define their status – like pending approval – approved and active – finished
    • assign the projects to specific team members and track their current status
    • import or manually create tasks respective milestones per project
      • using this actually automatically updates a percentage finished per project allowing you to very simple track the status of a project
      • project tasks can be assigned to the project owner or another member of your team
      • the project tasks will show up in the main menu per user
    • active and assigned projects will show up in the main menu per user
  • phones and phone DIDs
    • track phone models in use
    • track phones based on the models and track their MAC addresses / VoIP phones
    • track who has a phone assigned or simply what DID is assigned to an employee
  • LDAP compare
    • this module allows you to compare all computer objects (servers and workstations) in your defined Active Directory against the database
    • it will show you what was found in the database and what might be missing (nothing should be missing, right?)
    • it will show you the status off the asset, especially if it is retired – you can filter for this and determine objects you should remove from your Active Directory
  • VMware compare
    • this connects to a VMware vSphere server or cluster and imports all systems that are hosted there
    • it as well will try to find the system based on the name in the database and show their status in the database as well as if they where documented or not
  • RADIUS log
    • this is based on a Windows NPS/RADIUS database – it is basically a view for the logfile if you have on in place
  • SysLog
    • SysLog is based on a KiWi Syslog databse and is basically a view for the database
  • integrated user and right management
    • you create users in the system and assign rights to specific functions or modules to them
    • users are SingleSignedOn with their Windows user name and need to have access per Active Directory group to the database through the same user name (highly recommended)
    • see for many history tables where users did recent changes
    • see when users last logged on to the system or if they are active right now
  • Wiki / knowledge base
    • an integrated Wiki based on Word 2016 documents that are viewed as PDF files
    • simple menu structure based on a tree view control
    • uses the same history module as the rest of the system
    • allows full-text search cause the text of the documents is stored plain text in the database
    • the Word documents are stored automatically in a defined path in the file system
  • rights and owner matrix
    • track e.g. department folders or applications in the owner matrix
    • assign those entries to one or more owners and freely define their responsibility
    • track this back from an employee to the owners as well
    • members of your team can easily filter for a specific system, path etc. and determine who is responsible and can approve permission changes or updates etc.
  • error logfile
    • an internal error handler logs system errors in this table – you can review it right here
  • SysConfig
    • easily access and adjust global system values
  • SysColumns
    • add, remove, resize, sort and filter visible data through the framework – SysColumns allows you to adjust the tables shown to your own needs in an easy and fast forward fashion
  • TAG assets and other entries
    • create TAGs
    • TAG various types of records together to document the relation to certain processes or application in order to see the bigger picture and improve your documentation this way
  • DNS entry documentation
    • create DNS zone for internal / external DNS zones
    • document and relate DNS entries
  • LDAP groups
    • relate the synchronized LDAP groups to various asset entries and see who is a member of them
  • WebServer Management
    • document your web servers and relate them to processes with TAGs
  • Certificate Management
    • document where certificates are used and make it easier to exchange certificates when they are due
  • Multilingual – multiple languages
    • by default you have English and German available as languages, but the system is prepared for additional translations
    • the language can be set on a per user basis

 

 

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