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My organization has ~1800 machines that would be nice to track, half of which are laptops, most of which are Mac computers. We are using the Casper Suite and Helpdesk Pilot 3, and I've noted a couple of similar questions below, but none of these seem to do what I want regarding tracking the history of an asset (although it could well be that I'm using the tools wrong).

What I'd Like To Track:

I want a history that shows when the computer was put into service, taken out of service for repair, moved to another location, and put into service again (and what its name was, and what Lab or User it was associated with.) I want to be able to add notes (such as the condition of the hardware, troubleshooting done, repairs done, services changed, etc). When a unit fails and needs to go in for repair, an identical unit is put into its place. I really want a nice way to track this.

I especially want to be able to look at a User's or Lab's history, to tell if certain entities aren't taking good care of their computers. [We usually know, but can't back it up.]

I don't necessarily need to track MAC addresses, Serial numbers, software versions, etc. Casper tracks that well (and if I could figure out which unit in one system corresponds to a unit in the other system, all the details can be pieced together.)

As lots of little notes would be needed, it needs to be fast and easy to use, or nothing will get documented! A wiki could almost work, but it'd be nice to have timestamps in the asset history [and heck, to be able to do SQL queries on the data]. Something that does Asset History well (and maybe nothing else) would be great. An integrated system may make sense, but I'm loath to replace our helpdesk now that users are finally used to the idea. [Change, seemingly for change's sake, meets with resistance; a new system would have to be noticeably better.]

Similar Questions:

Clinton Blackmore
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I've recently been trying out a OCSreports NG/GLPI combination that is working out extremely well. Both packages are FOSS & were not too complicated to setup & configure under RHEL5. This should fit precisely with what you're attempting to do. Here is a how to guide. As an added bonus, you can add LDAP support along with glpi's helpdesk ticketing system to tie asset's with people with extremely flexible support options. You can also set depreciation value & several other items.

Pete
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  • forgot to mention that there are client agents (OCSreports)for every OS environment that will automatically update the server when hardware or software is changed or added. – Pete Jun 03 '09 at 16:43