1

Hi,

For a long time I was planning to use inventory software in our network after reviewing positive feedbacks about SW inventory somehow I tried to explain its features to my director he agreed but he asked me to prepare a complete report on How I am going to manage Spiceworks Inventory in our network?

So, I have been started reading all the documentations in the meantime I would like to know how you manage Spicework Inventory in your network? please share any Tips and suggestions?

Thanks

5 Spice ups
2

Your boss makes a good point. It’s fun and exciting to roll out new systems. But it’s the maintenance of those systems that consumes the real resources for years - or even decades.

Here are some problems with an inventory system that you’ll need to think about addressing in your plan.

  1. Accuracy.

It’s not enough to gather information. That information needs to be accurate. If it’s not, you won’t be able to depend on it to monitor, diagnose, or manage your inventory. After the initial information gathering, you must audit the information to ensure it is accurate. That means checking each record against the device.

  1. Completeness.

Partial information is only partially useful. If your inventory contains a device’s location, for example, but not its OS version or warranty, you’re going to wind up creating a second, parallel inventory system. Eventually, you’ll just abandon the one that is incomplete.

  1. Accessibility.

Can you get to it when you need it? If you have to have a special application or can only access the inventory from your desk, that’s going to limit its usefulness.

  1. Usability.

Is it slower than dirt? It is faster to walk down the hall than wait for the inventory page to load? An unusable inventory program is just that.

  1. Auditability.

The ability to know who changed what when is important. Do you have a change control system? When someone changes a warranty, can you identify who that was? If an upgrade was done, is that recorded?

  1. Stability.

An inventory program you can’t rely on is worse than nothing. Do records mysteriously disappear? When you change the IP of a device, does the program create a new record or update the old one? Is it constantly deleting records for DHCP devices?

  1. Control.

How often will you review the data in the system for accuracy - and what will be your system for doing so?

4 Spice ups
3

Hi Robert,

As usual you have made a very good point here I am very thank full to you. In your opinion will Spicework inventory can handle all the above point? or Will you recommend any inventory software which can offers all the above points?

4

Everything except 1, 7, and maybe 2 (Rod-IT says there are issues scanning 1709 and 1803 builds of Win10. We don’t use SW for inventory anymore, so I can’t back that up).

Spiceworks also relies very heavily on DNS, so you’ll need to make sure you have scavenging set up. Otherwise 2 and 6 will become issues.

@rod-it

1 Spice up
5

If you need any clarification, by all means let me know, otherwise, the best way to confirm your findings or validate this is to demo it - the application is free so no harm in giving it a go.

3 Spice ups
6

Hi Rod,

Thanks for your reply
I have installed in a server have been testing with few systems but unfortunately I don’t have any 1709 or 1803 version of Windows in my network if anyone confirm scanning issue as Big Green Man mentioned above will be highly appreciated…
Thanks

@rod-it

7

If you don’t have those versions, you shouldn’t have any issues.

But f you do have Windows 10, you’ll need to consider moving to those versions as nothing else will be supported soon

8

Yes I have planned to upgrade to 1709 on October before 1703 end of service