Spiceworks Basics 1: Inventory, Troubleshooting, Monitoring & Alerts

Break Out Session-Overview Basics of Inventory & Monitoring Your Network Greg Kattawar VP Dev & Co-founder, Spiceworks Inc.

Session Overview

Integrated Application

Scanning

Groups/Categories

Inventory Summary/Views

Inventory Details

Integrated Application (What’s Different?)

Single pane for everyday use

Broad DashBoard

Data/Info 1 click away

Xtra-Tools & Extensions

Research, Groups, Q & A

Trouble-Shooting

Application Core: (Inventory)

Monitoring, Reporting

Help Desk, Trouble-Shooting

Documentation/Notes

How does it work? Spiceworks

How it Works? Helpdesk Tickets Company Intranet WMI SNMP SSH Reports User Portal Monitoring Full Scans Health Check Notes & Documents Up/Down Monitor PING DB

Scanning

Initiates many things…

Monitors evaluated

DB updated

Scanning Details

4 Types (full, partial, health-check, up/down)

Schedules (1min, 15min, daily/nightly)

Naming

NetBios, DNS

Access & Authentication

Ping, WMI

SSH , SNMP

Spiceworks

Scanning cont’

Unknowns & Partials & Delays

Firewall, AV blocking…

Authentication, WMI, DNS-Conflicts

Network timeouts

Pre 3.1 unknowns or dups ( delete and rescan )

Settings

Change/Improve Speed: Hi/Med/Slow, collect_anti_virus, collect_events

Slow Network/Latency: snmp_timeout, timeout (ping)

Device Hanging Scan: wmi_no_hang_check

Ghost Devices: sweep_ping

Tests Pass but still Unknown Device: use_ip_address_for_wmi

Debugging problems: verbose_scan_logging ->finder_child.log

Spiceworks

Groups/Categories

Why use Groups?

Load time of views (100-200 devices)

Logical groupings (location, custom-attr, AD)

3 Basic Types

Default – based on type. (manual, scanned, AD)

Custom – with rules (smart)

Custom – without rules (move, copy)

Spiceworks

Inventory Summary

Views

Widget / Icon / Browse / Glide

Environment, Group, Device

Pivots, Filters

3 Basic Containers (Groups)

Default – based on type. (manual, scanned, AD)

Custom – with rules (smart)

Custom – without rules (move, copy)

Unknowns & Partials

Firewall, AV blocking…

Authentication, WMI, DNS-Conflicts

Spiceworks

Inventory Details

Detailed HW/SW Information (Device, Network Device, Software)

DNS

Windows Events

Additional Information

Notes/Attachments

Tickets/Change Control

Troubleshooting

Compare

VNC/RDP

ping/nslookup/traceroute

WOL

Spiceworks

Questions?

Monitoring Session Overview

Alert and Monitor Types

Examples

Default Configuration

Q&A

Kinds of Alerts and Monitors

How do monitors get evaluated?

When data changes…

Full scans

Up/down status

Types of monitors w/examples

Alerts and notifications

where they show up

Spiceworks

Monitoring Example Device: A device is any computer connected to the network. You can monitor a specific device, or monitor them all by typing "Any Device". Is online: Be alerted if a device goes online. Is offline: Be alerted if a device goes offline. Is discovered: Be alerted if a new device is discovered on the network. New for 3.5 - offline for a time period Spiceworks

Monitoring Example Disk: Find out if there are issues with any disk on your system. You can keep an eye on every disk on your system by typing "Any Disk", or pick one particular disk. Was added: Be alerted when a hard drive is added. Was removed: Be alerted when a hard drive is removed. Is < x% free: Be alerted when diskspace falls below a certain percentage. Choices are 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25%. Has < x MB/GB free: Be alerted when diskspace falls below a certain value. Choices are 50, 100, 250, 500 MB and 1, 5, 10 GB. Spiceworks

Monitoring Example Software: Stay on top of software issues with this monitor. You can designate a specific program to be monitored, or choose to monitor all software by typing "Any Software". Is installed: Be alerted when programs are installed. Is uninstalled: Be alerted when program are removed. Is not compliant: Be alerted if too many copies of a program are installed. Spiceworks

Monitoring Example Service: A service is a program that runs in the background of a computer to keep everything else working right. You can monitor a specific service, or monitor them all by typing "Any Service". Is uninstalled: Be alerted when a service is uninstalled. Is installed: Be alerted when a service is installed. Is stopped: Be alerted when a service has stopped. Is started: Be alerted when a service has started. Spiceworks

Monitoring Example Hotfix: A hotfix is a patch that is downloaded to fix a program. You can decide to monitor all hotfixes by typing "Any Hotfix", or choose to monitor one individual hotfix. Is uninstalled: Be alerted when a hotfix is uninstalled. Is installed: Be alerted when a hotfix is installed. Spiceworks

Monitoring Example Event: You can find out when an event of your choosing happens such as a certain ID logging in. Or you can monitor all events by typing "Any Event". Is triggered: Be alerted when an event is triggered. Spiceworks

Where Alerts Show Up ?