Getting Started

Getting Started

Setting it up

Specops Inventory comes with a program called Specops Inventory Setup Assistant that will help you to install Specops Inventory in your environment. The Setup Assistant should be run for the first time on the computer you intend to be your Specops Inventory server. The server should normally be running Windows Server 2000 or 2003, but during evaluation and testing it can also be a workstation (2000 or XP) computer.

The downloaded package (SpecopsInventorySetup.exe) is a compressed package that first will uncompress and then automatically start the Setup Assistant. Run the file on the computer you will use as Specops Deploy Server and follow the instructions.

Note! The Specops Inventory Setup Assistant requires that Microsoft .Net Framework is installed on the server where the Setup Assistant is started. If it is not installed it can downloaded from Microsoft, http://www.microsoft.com/downloads. The Setup Assistant guides you through four different steps that should be performed in the following order to get you started as fast as possible:

• Server installation – Installs the Specops Inventory Server software on the local computer.
• Admin tools installation (on a single computer) – Installs the Specops Inventory Administrative Tools on the local computer.
• Client Deployment – Guides you through the process of Inventorying the Specops Inventory Client Side Extension to all the client computers.
• Reporting Server installation – Installs the Specops Reporting Server that is used to access the inventory reports.

Except for instructions about how to register the ADUC menu extension, the actual setup performed is not covered in this document since all details needed for the installations can be found in the Setup Assistant, this document will focus on how to start using Specops Inventory after it is installed.

Note! Although Specops Inventory integrates into Active Directory, it does not edit or extend the Active Directory Schema so you can conduct your tests in a live environment if you want to, without having to worry about irreversible changes to your environment.

It is possible to conduct an entire evaluation on a single computer if you lack a larger testing environment, although the computer has to be a member of an Active Directory Domain and you need to have at least one Group Policy Object (GPO), which applies to the computer and preferably your user, which you can edit. In a single computer test, the computer will have the server software, admin tools and the client side extension installed.

Configuring Specops Inventory

This section describes in detail how to configure Specops Inventory.

1. Start Group Policy Management Console (GPMC)

The first step is to start GPMC, it is from GPMC that all settings in Specops Inventory is configured.

GPMC
GPMC can be started from the Setup Assistant. It can also be started from the Administrative Tools folder on the Start menu or in the Control Panel. The Specops Inventory GPMC Snap-in is accessed, from within GPMC, by selecting Edit… from the context menu of a GPO.

2. Select a GPO for Specops Inventory

Specops Inventory stores all information about what to collect during inventory in Group Policy Objects.

Select a GPO in GPMC, right-click and select Edit… or create a new GPO by right-clicking on the Group Policy Objects and selecting New. In most cases during evaluation of Specops Inventory it is good to use a new separate GPO since it can be easier to link and unlink etc, without affecting any other settings that might reside in the GPO.

3. Select what to collect

Figure 1: Select what to collect

The first step is to select what information you want the Specops Inventory Client Side Extension to retrieve. In the GPO select either the Computer Configuration or User Configuration part of the GPO and then navigate to the node Systems Management → Specops Inventory. For the case of this walkthrough, select the Computer Configuration. See Figure 1 for an example.

As you can see all the categories are grey, this means that no action will be performed by the Specops Inventory Group Policy Client Side Extension. Click the Edit inventory settings button. This will result in a new dialog that popup, see figure 2, where the settings can be set.

Figure 2: Select categories

Select the categories that you want to collect inventory from and then click the OK button Expand the different categories to see an explanation. There are two types of categories, one type where inventory is turned on and of and one that where the category is turned on and off, but instances will need to be added before the Specops Group Policy Client Side Extension will start to process the category. The second type can be identified by an Add link next to them, and it is this link that is used to add new instances. Select all the categories except for the second type for now.

4. Link the GPO

Unless the GPO is already linked to a AD container, domain, OU or site, that apply to the computer, and the user if inventory is enabled on a user basis, then do so now. Linking a GPO using GPMC is simply a matter of dragging the GPO to the container where it should be applied.

5. Apply Group Policy on the client computers

Now, you could jsut wait for the next Group Policy refresh interval, but to speed things up, execute the command Gpupdate.exe if the test client computer is a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 computer and SecEdit /Refreshpolicy Machine_Policy if the test computer is a Windows 2000 box.

The inventory is now performed and the result is sent to the Specops Inventory Server for storage in the database. To verify that inventory have been run successfully, open the directory \System32\SpecopsInventory\Data and look for a file named InventoryResultSystem.xml. This is the result of the latest inventory and is used to calculate any changes during the next inventory interval. Specops Inventory only data that have been changed since the last inventory to reduce bandwidth usage.

Forcing Group Policy refresh interval remotely is not possibly using Operating System built-in tools, but there is a free tool from Special Operations Software called GPUpdate that can be used for this. Try this link for details:

http://www.specopssoft.com/products/specopsgpupdate

6. View the inventoried information

Now that inventory is collected it is time to look at the inventoried information. There are three places where this can be done

• Specops Reporting – This is the main source of inventory information and contains a large number of reports. Specops Reporting also allows for the administrators to create new reports and edit existing ones. The see the Specops Reporting Getting started for instructions.
• Specops Inventory License Manager – License Manger enables you to get control of the Software Licenses that the organization possesses and match them with the actual software installed on the computers. See Specops Inventory License Manager User Guide for information on how Specops License Manager works. License Manager is installed on the computers where the Specops Inventory Administrative tools are installed as a shortcut on the Start menu, Start → All Programs → Special Operations Software →Specops Inventory
• Specops Inventory Active Directory Users and Computer extension – It is possible to get inventoried information on a single computer or user by simply right-clicking on a computer or user object and then selecting Specops Inventory.