Microsoft Audit

markstogdale1755 · 2014-10-06T07:03:27.000Z

We have been advised we are getting an audit from Microsoft, previous places i have worked had like a Dos Based Program that scanned all the Workstations for the licences etc, could anyone advise of some software that can do this.

many thanks

@Microsoft

johan · 2014-10-06T07:13:22.000Z

Mark1767:

We have been advised we are getting an audit from Microsoft, previous places i have worked had like a Dos Based Program that scanned all the Workstations for the licences etc, could anyone advise of some software that can do this.

many thanks

Hi Mark,This is Microsofts own tool: http://www.microsoft.com/sam/en/ca/msia.aspx
I tried it in our company, but couldn’t really get it to work properly.
Hope you have better luck!

markstogdale1755 · 2014-10-06T07:15:04.000Z

thanks for the reply, i will test it out

Thanks again.

nird3873 · 2014-10-06T07:22:13.000Z

Spiceworks!

markstogdale1755 · 2014-10-06T07:23:31.000Z

Care to Expand on that, Thanks

probe · 2014-10-06T07:29:13.000Z

Spiceworks scans stations/servers/etc & logs what software is installed on each endpoint. Combine this with the Licencing module, which will track licence usage (eg: enter all your licenses & you can track the number of lics versus your licence allowance for each software asset). You can they produce reports that you can use when filling in the large, irritating MS Excel sheet they use when you get audied.

SW was a godsend when i got audited last year. Reports really assisted in getting the process with MS completed… until the next one!

nird3873 · 2014-10-06T07:34:38.000Z

Mark1767:

Care to Expand on that, Thanks

…As above!

Probe has explained better than I would have!

We were also audited last year and Spiceworks was able to provide all info we needed quickly and easily!

ashleylewis · 2014-10-06T09:09:39.000Z

@Spiceworks or PDQ Inventory

pbp · 2014-10-06T09:51:13.000Z

Probe:

…SW was a godsend when i got audited last year. Reports really assisted in getting the process with MS completed… until the next one!

It is a huge benefit of the product. Worth the effort to get the scanning feature tuned appropriately.

With SMB, keep solid licensing records (including CALs) as if to expect an audit at any time.

probe · 2014-10-06T09:59:56.000Z

Couldn’t agree more Rogue

gabrielle.l · 2014-10-06T11:10:47.000Z

Microsoft themselves normally recommend the MAP toolkit:

learn.microsoft.com

Solution Accelerators

I used it conjunction with Spiceworks on our last audit – MAP was confusing and difficult to get working the way I wanted, so I based my audit on my Spiceworks inventory and used the MAP toolkit results (such as they were) to help verify and sort out discrepancies.

mechanicus2 · 2014-10-06T11:51:16.000Z

I couldn’t get the SAM toolkit to work, but Spiceworks inventory saved the day. It took a long time, think over a year, but that was due to the glacially slow response from my auditor. Once I got a new guy, things went smoothly.

laur3nnewm4n · 2014-10-06T11:53:14.000Z

We just used the MAP toolkit. It was pretty accurate, as far as what we knew to be our usage.