[ ] Inventory NG Management with OCS. IT Inventory and Resource. open source community experience distilled

Transcription

1 IT Inventory and Resource Management with OCS Inventory NG 1.02 Eliminate inventorying dilemmas by implementing a free & feasible IT Inventory solution Barzan "Tony" Antal [ ] PUBLISHING nu open source community experience distilled - BIRMINGHAM MUMBAI

2 Preface 1 Chapter 1: Introduction to IT Inventory and Resource Management 7 Inventorying requirements in the real world 8 A feasible solution to avoid inevitable havoc 8 Streamlining software auditing and license management 9 More uses of an integrated IT inventory solution 10 Gathering relevant inventory information 11 Overall inventory demands to enhance usability 11 Centralization: Introducing the client-server model 13 Example of the client-server model an Internet forum 13 The client-server model versus the peer-to-peer paradigm 14 IT inventorying based on the client-server model 15 How does OCS Inventory NG meet our needs? 15 Brief overview on OCS Inventory NG's architecture 16 Rough performance evaluation of OCS-NG 17 Meeting our inventory demands 17 Set of functions and what it brings to the table 19 Taking a glance at the OCS-NG web interface 20 An incentive on functionalities 21 Summary 24 Chapter 2: Setting up an OCS Inventory NG Management Server 25 Getting ready for the OCS-NG installation 26 Setting up prerequisite software on Linux flavors 27 Demystifying package management 28 The everlasting dilemma of solving dependency hell 28 Getting familiar with your distribution's package manager 29 Yum on RPM-based Linux distributions 30 APT and Aptitude/Synaptic on Debian and its derivates 31

3 Installing Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Perl on Linux systems 33 Installing the AMP stack with yum 33 Installing AMP stack with apt 35 Installing AMP stack with emerge on Gentoo 35 Installing the AMP stack with an XAMPP precompiled package 36 Setting up the necessary modules on Linux systems 37 Setting up the OCS-NG management server on Linux operating systems 38 Installing OCS-NG server via an RPM package 39 Installing OCS-NG server via installation script 41 Downloading and extracting the OCS-NG server package 42 Running the installation script and checking prerequisites 44 The real work behind the scenes of the script 50 Setting up the OCS-NG management server on Windows operating systems 55 XAMPP for Windows, the warm-up stage 55 Warning: XAMPP a known issue and solution 58 Launching the OCS-NG integrated installation 59 A pragmatic look at initial configuration 60 Summary 62 Chapter 3: The Zen of Agent Deployment 63 Behind the scenes: How agents earn their living 64 Choosing the best agent type 65 Demystifying the LocalSystem account of Windows OS 66 Choosing the best deployment method 68 Deploying agents on Windows operating systems 69 Getting familiar with command-line arguments 70 Manual installation strategies 72 Using OcsLogon.exe to deploy via GPO or login scripts 76 Using the packager to create the deployable agent 77 Getting the agent package on the OCS-NG server 78 Deployment via Active Directory GPOs 79 Initiating deployment with OcsLogon.exe via login script 82 Unattended installation via the PsExec.exe tool 84 Deploying agents on Linux operating systems 85 Installing agents on Linux with user interaction 86 Installing agents on Linux without user interaction 88 Deploying agents on Mac OS X operating systems 89 Deploying agents on mobile devices 91 Summary 92

4 Chapter 4: Finding your Way through OCS-NG Features 95 Getting familiar with the OCS-NG web interface 96 Logging in 96 Looking around and examining the view 97 Elaborating the overview section of statistics 98 Getting to know the blue query toolbar 102 Understanding the first two queries 102 Demystifying TAG-based repartitioning 103 Understanding the other three queries 104 Getting to know the administrative toolbar 106 Preliminary configuration tips and best practices 112 Explaining configuration parameters 113 Maintaining a clean inventory: Solving common pitfalls and eliminating redundancies 115 Implementing the Registry query function 117 Uploading inventory data of hosts that are not networked 118 Working with the inventory 120 Summary 122 Chapter 5: Investigating the Process of Gathering Inventory Data 123 Going beyond the retrieval mechanism 124 Using the IP Query function 133 Summary 135 Chapter 6: Package Deployment through OCS-NG 137 Getting to know the package deployment function 138 Creating a package: Step-by-step approach 140 Server requirements for effortless deployment 143 Package activation and going beyond deployment 144 Affecting packages: Getting the packages through 148 Managing the rules of affectations 150 Securing the process with SSL certificates 151 Working with self-signed certificates 152 Working with PKIs that have certificate authority 155 Getting the certificates deployed on agents 155 Summary 157 Chapter 7: Integrating OCS-NG with GLPI 159 Introducing GLPI: IT asset management on steroids 160 Getting familiar with the web interface of GLPI 162 Setting up GLPI on top of our OCS-NG server 164 Configuring GLPI to integrate with the OCS-NG mode 168 Extending GLPI with plugins 170

5 Using GLPI to track and manage inventory assets 172 Carrying out administrative tasks with GLPI 176 Generating reports and statistics with GLPI 178 License tracking and software auditing with GLPI 180 Helpdesk and issue tracking functions of GLPI 182 Summary 185 Chapter 8: Best Practices on Inventorying with OCS-NG 187 Backing up and restoring the OCS-NG database 188 Dumping the database with mysqldump 188 Dumping the database with phpmyadmin 189 Restoring SQL dump files via MySQL's CLI 191 Automating and scheduling dumping backups via scripts 192 Adding the scheduled job into crontab on Linux OS 192 Writing the batch script and adding into Windows Scheduler 193 Tweaking the OCS-NG server for performance 194 Useful scripts that make our everyday life easier 196 Implementing PHP notification-sender scripts 197 Extending OCS-NG inventory via.vbs scripts 198 Uninstalling the OCS agent via batch script 199 Best practices on retrieving model-specific data of various computer hardware components 200 Retrieving model-specific data of HDDs 201 Retrieving model-specific data of RAM memory modules 204 Updating OCS-NG agents on clients (when needed) 208 Updating the Windows agent 208 Updating the UNIX agent 209 Updating OCS-NG central server (when needed) 210 Summary 211

6 Chapter 9: Troubleshoot Confidently Find Solutions and Workarounds 213 Keeping an eye on the behavior of agents 214 A closer look at the agent's logfile 214 Troubleshooting problems related to agents 218 Forcing an agent to report inventory 219 Solving administration console-based issues 222 Solving MySQL limitations the right way 222 Solving PHP limitations the right way 223 Identifying and fixing issues on the server backertd 226 Communication server fails to write a logfile on Linux 228 Diagnosing uncommon pitfalls asking for help 229 Summary 231 Appendix: Keeping Pace with Version Updates Glancing over the changelog of the Latest Release 233 Analyzing the changelog 234 Index 237 [v]