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We are a small sized consulting and system integration company, and we install and partially manage (not always with remote access) different servers and workstations.

We need a centralized, and preferently multiuser, way of inventory all our servers (ok, not ours, but our clients) and the credentials.

I've been checking software around and it's:

1) overkill: things like OCS Inventory are too big, and too detailed 2) too small: rackmonkey doesnt store credentials and keepass is mono-user 3) too expensive: secret server begins at 1500$ ¡¡!!

We need just: IP addresses, general config info on that machine (OS versions and storage capacity and so on), and credential management...

Is there something simplistic, that runs on unix/linux and is, preferently OSS?

EDIT: Seems that a lot of the 'usual' inventory softwares are based on agents (which I cannot use), and are oversized for me, I just need to manually gather basic info on each server (IP, storage, OS Version, user, password) and put it on a table, so it seems that would be better for me just composing some easy django software in some free hours...

Andor
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2 Answers2

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How many machines are in use? If you consider OCSInventory too big, this sounds like a very small environment. Have you considered simply creating a text template for the information you want to keep so the bits are in a standard format, then simply placing the information into individual text files, one per machine, using the directory structure for classification, then putting the entire thing into a version control system (i.e. git or mercurial)?

It may sound crude, but it's very low-maintenance, retains history, and is searchable enough with grep if the total count is small.

Zed
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  • I've been checking and OCS seems to be only agent-driven, so I cannot add manually the computers I have... This are remote servers that cannot be connected, and cannot have agents installed... – Andor Jul 27 '10 at 16:58
  • The solution to adding data easily to OCS is to use GLPI as your main inventory, and use OCS as a scanning backend, but GLPI is substantially larger both in scope and complexity than OCS. – Zed Aug 27 '10 at 19:29
  • Finally we did almost that... I've made my own inventory solution in two afternoons with some simple database tables and django... I'll see if something better sorfaces or I'll finish adding features to my own software... – Andor Jan 26 '11 at 20:20
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I use and swear by LastPass. It's browser-based, so you may have an aversion to that, but it's worked wonderfully for me.

Edited to add: Another service that you might consider is Passpack. I used them briefly, but honestly, once I found LastPass, I quit using Passpack...

Edited to add (2): Since you have an aversion to "hosted" solutions, you could do something like Keepass via dropbox and just backup the Keepass db occasionally. Granted, Keepass is single user, it does warn you if you try to open it and someone else already has it open.

GregD
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  • In the case of browser passwords I use XMarks, and also, that way, I can sync passwords between my machines. I was looking soemthing for storing non-browser passwords. Thx. – Andor Jul 26 '10 at 18:41
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    @Andor - You can store non browser passwords. You can also store secured notes. The advantage that LastPass has over xmarks is that LastPass does the encryption/decryption on your workstation. The passwords can also be "shared" to other LastPass users without revealing what the password is. – GregD Jul 26 '10 at 19:03
  • LastPass also has an iPhone and Android client for when you're onsite visiting each location. – GregD Jul 26 '10 at 19:12
  • Both are out of our control, and I don't really like that much :( – Andor Jul 27 '10 at 17:04
  • I mean, are hosted solution, not owned... :P – Andor Jul 27 '10 at 18:07