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GCN Home > 07/21/08 issue

Taking stock of the network

By Greg Crowe

EQUIPMENT INVENTORY is perhaps a network administrator’s most painful task. But it is also necessary if one wants to have any hope of knowing which computers need replacing or whether all operating systems have updated service packs.

In some ways, the problem feeds on itself. An administrator often must spend too much time fixing problems and attending to emergencies to make a full and comprehensive inventory. The situation can worsen when the network administrator position changes hands.

When you take over as the new administrator, the first thing you should do — after putting out the fires — is get a handle on what systems and equipment are in place. The previous administrator likely had little time to devote to that task, so there might not be much to work with. Generating inventory data from scratch is often easier than trying to decipher the last administrator’s notes. As a result, you also might not have time to attend to it properly. So the person who replaces you down the road will have even less to go on than you did, and the cycle of pain will continue.

BDNA Insight 4.1 from BDNA can break this cycle. It vastly reduces the legwork in the inventory process by gathering data directly from information technology devices throughout the network, which lets administrators concentrate on managing the network.

Insight’s setup is easy. It installs on any server running Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Windows Server 2003, and a wizard helps set the IP range of the network and other basic parameters.

The administration interface is accessible from any computer on the network via a Web-based interface. When first installed and run, Insight uses BDNA’s proprietary technology to create a Fact- Base for the network. Fact- Base is the central element that makes possible all the things that Insight can show you. It does this without installing agents on any client devices or needing administrator access to sensitive computer systems.

After Insight finds and identifies everything, you can view your inventory in a variety of ways. We were pleased that we could look at operating systems, applications and databases in addition to printers and other network equipment. Each list is grouped by subtype, and there are tabs for each major grouping. When you click on a tab or list header, the charts show the subtypes of the next level.

More news on related topics: Communications / Networks, Enterprise Architecture, Hardware, IT Management