Inventory you can count on

Honest network executives will admit they don't know exactly how many PCs are in their buildings, much less how each is configured. Financial officers don't like hearing this, but it's true.

Inventory and asset management programs aim to eliminate the unknown. They include huge software databases, so the best of these programs can identify the most obscure applications. The programs provide more hardware details than many of us have the patience to ponder - and that includes information about remote users' software and hardware, which some packages can query through a Web interface.

We tested five dedicated inventory and asset management programs. A beta version of Seagate Software's WinLAND 4.5 topped the field, earning our Blue Ribbon Award. Seagate's pending merger with Veritas Software hasn't put a damper on WinLAND development, which stood out for its unbeatable selection of reports and options for exporting those reports.

Close behind WinLAND in our tests was Tally Systems' NetCensus 2.94. The product provides excellent inventory analysis but lacks the export options of WinLAND. Additionally, NetCensus employs an unorthodox inventory approach that requires you to create and maintain your own collection software.

Bundled with a Y2K testing tool, Attest Systems' Gasp Audit 5.0 delivers strong hardware and software recognition and plenty of export options. However, like NetCensus, Gasp has a unique setup that makes it more difficult to learn than the average product.

The final two programs we examined, BindView Development's NETinventory 6.0 and Computer Associates' AimIT 3.0 Workgroup Edition, fell behind the leaders in hardware and software inventory and reporting features. On the plus side, NETinventory's documentation is outstanding, and AimIT includes tools for automating software upgrades and lets you query remote PCs through a Web interface. WinLAND is the only other product we tested that allows such Web browser-based remote queries.

Operating system support is consistent among the five products we reviewed. All support Windows NT and NetWare; none support OS/2 Warp or VINES.

All the products tested support Windows, DOS, OS/2 and remote stand-alone clients. While support for Unix, Linux and Macintosh clients is more important for many organizations than support for OS/2 clients, not one of the products we tested supports Unix or Linux, and NetCensus and NETinventory lack support for Macintosh clients. In addition, the absence of a ubiquitous corporate directory service means these products must build yet another organizational structure rather than working with Novell Directory Services (NDS) or Lightweight Directory Access Protocol.

Winning combination

We tested a near-final beta version of Seagate's WinLAND 4.5, which is scheduled to ship at the end of June, and were impressed with the polish, ease of use and detail it provides. WinLAND's software inventory capabilities are unmatched. In our tests, the program correctly tagged nearly every application. Its hardware inventory was also among the best we tested.

The main console shows a tree display on the left and multiple tabbed pages on the right. Criteria branches make it easy to group nodes based on any characteristic, such as total memory. Nested sub-branches let you control the display as you wish, such as by NT swap file size. Predefined templates quickly provide information to console screen or paper. For example, WinLAND can identify all PCs that are likely to have trouble running Windows NT because of low memory or disk space.

Logon script entries trigger a DOS-based collection agent on each workstation. A RUN statement in the WIN.ini file collects additional Windows-specific information. Some machines required the user to press Enter to clear the DOS box; others didn't.

By default WinLAND checks for new client information every 5 seconds. We found that frequency unnecessarily high. By changing the default check to 10-minute intervals, we dropped WinLAND's network traffic load to low levels without sacrificing quality.

WinLAND's range of standard reports is comprehensive, and Seagate includes Crystal Reports for generating custom reports. You can schedule reports easily using a graphical calendar, and report export options are plentiful.

From the beginning, installation was smooth using the default settings. The console requires a Windows 95, 98 or NT platform, though the database server can run on a Windows or NetWare 3.x, 4.x or 5.0 server. The default database server is the Sybase SQL Anywhere Database and Open Database Connectivity driver; Seagate plans to add support for Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle with the shipping version or soon thereafter. WinLAND's collection agents reside on a NetWare or NT logon server in a shared directory; you can control users' read and write access to this directory.

WinLAND's extensive electronic documentation is almost unnecessary, thanks to the program's well-designed interface.

Like WinLAND, Tally Systems' NetCensus 2.94 delivers excellent inventory analysis, but we found you have to invest some time getting used to the program's unique design before you can take advantage of its findings.

Unlike the other products we reviewed, NetCensus requires managers to create "collector" software that incorporates user contact information, such as name, location and telephone number. If you change contact information or add custom products to the collectors, you must make another set of collectors. This process isn't difficult, but it is unusual.

NetCensus stores the collectors on a shared drive, but you can run them from a local drive. Typically, logon scripts trigger the collectors. Alternatively, you can run the collectors directly to initiate an inventory. We found network load was average.

As a result of this unusual collection technique, census information from audited computers isn't automatically stored in the Sybase inventory database running on the administration workstation. NetCensus requires users to first load the collected data by clicking on a forklift icon.

Having done so, we were amazed at the detail NetCensus discovered. For example, the software logged the ID and serial numbers for our Windows 98 operating system and the Microsoft Office Service Packs. NetCensus even found the ShockWave plug-in in Netscape Navigator 4 and identified it with the proper version number.

Users run reports manually from a list of report configurations. In general, the reports aren't beautiful, but they're full of information. On the downside, NetCensus limits exports to ASCII and dBase Format.

Installing NetCensus is fairly smooth, as long as you follow the instructions. Fortunately, there's no lack of documentation with NetCensus.

For a slightly different twist, Attest Systems emphasizes its built-in Year 2000 testing tool that ships with Gasp Audit 5.0, reminding managers that you can't verify what you can't find. Indeed, the testing tool is a bonus, but a confusing start and some faulty NetWare logon script instructions detract from Gasp's appeal.

We struggled with Gasp at first as we learned to decipher its two-paned console interface, which shows a tree display on the left and multilevel tabs on the right. We had to load the program's Enhanced Hardware Module to obtain hardware details and fix the mangled syntax for the supplied NetWare logon script to launch the audit program. Then we realized we needed to configure the audit files with the logon server's name and other required information.

Once underway, Gasp completed the first audit we launched fairly quickly - roughly 30 seconds - and its added traffic load was light. The second time we tried to run an audit, nothing happened. We discovered the default configuration allows no other audits on a client machine within the next 90 days. We find that interval unacceptably long, but it's easy to change the schedule as soon as you find the configuration screen (which is located under File Preferences, oddly).

When we integrated the audits into Gasp Report, we were impressed by the amount of hardware and software information Gasp captured. Admittedly, some material is overkill, such as the list of every video resolution setting on each PC's video board. Audit information includes a dozen user-defined fields for those managers who want to add more details manually.

With a 17,000-program software identification database, Gasp correctly identified software missed by most other packages, including WordPerfect 5.2 and an old shareware version of Eudora.

Crystal Reports drives the reporting; and Attest supplies a generous selection of report export options.

We had no trouble installing Gasp or the Inprise (formerly Borland) Database Engine on the NT Workstation 4 client we used for our console. Documentation consists of a small "Getting Started" brochure and "Getting Started" Portable Definition Format (PDF) file. Help screens in the program are your only other place to turn, unless you contact technical support.

While BindView trumpets NetWare 5 support, it isn't necessarily so. NETinventory lets you use NetWare 5 and NT as logon servers, but the program writes all client details to the Audit Server, which runs only under NetWare 4.x. The same is true of the program's Master Server, which gathers and presents the information. In this area, BindView has to catch up - NETinventory 6.0 came out in late March, long after NetWare 5 shipped.

NETinventory triggers client audits with a program listed in the logon script for NetWare or NT servers; you can check stand-alone PCs by diskette. Our audits took about a minute and created a fair amount of net traffic. Configuration options let you specify when to run audits and on which machines. Users need only to press Enter to clear the logon results box on some systems. You can run separate utility or batch files before and after the audit, if necessary, and administrators can modify client configuration files from the console.

The console is informative without being too cluttered. Drilling down for details is straightforward.

Hardware audits are full and complete, from memory and CPU statistics down to sound cards and mouse information. Predefined reports can identify PCs that are low on disk space, file and buffer information, device drivers, network configuration, and those machines suffering from the Pentium math-glitch bug.

NETinventory delivers quite a few operating system details for NetWare and NT. The product provides access to more NDS information than any other program, and more than most administrators will ever need.

Software reports are packaged per file server or per PC and include templates for listing applications types, such as all spreadsheets. NETinventory's report export options are strong.

Installation was long and involved, mostly because we had to install three server software pieces and multiple products from a single CD-ROM. Also, the automated installation process failed for two Dynamic Link Library files, WAM16 and WAM32, which we had to load locally. In general, plan for plenty of hands-on installation time.

CA's AimIT 3.0 Workgroup Edition is one of the few products we reviewed that supports Mac clients. However, mislabeled operating systems and limited options for exporting reports colored our impression of AimIT.

NetWare or NT logon scripts load and trigger AimIT Agent software for DOS, Windows, OS/2 and Mac clients. Each client must have a direct connection to the system running the AimIT database. In other words, the 60+ small files loaded on the client must communicate to the database server, not the logon server. This makes sense in hindsight, but is unclear during installation.

Each client reads over 3M bytes of data from the server during each inventory check. This process includes the audit application, which is stored on the server or can be saved locally to reduce network traffic by about half.

AimIT provides plenty of hardware detail through a drill-down tree display on the console, including separate listings for the video board and monitor. Oddly, AimIT includes the operating system under the hardware inventory. However, more disturbing is the fact that AimIT consistently labeled our Windows 98 stations as Windows 95.

We were disappointed with the results of AimIT's software inventory. AimIT ignored Starfish SideKick, NetObjects Fusion, and Adobe PageMaker. It even called Adobe Acrobat unknown - despite the fact that AimIT's documentation is displayed in Acrobat PDF files.

AimIT offers script languages to automate workstation management, including hardware parameter checking and software environment variables. A long list of commands and variables can help you automate software upgrades across the network, a feature not included in most other packages.

Users can modify report details with the included AimIT Reporter software. Drop-down lists reduce typing, and it's easy to choose sets of hardware or software details. Scheduling inventory and resulting reports is simple.

To get AimIT up and running we had to install CA's Unicenter framework and separate database engine on our 120-MHz Gateway running NT Workstation 4. You can choose to run the AimIT Console, Engine and Domain Database separately or on the same machine. For the most part, installation is a sit-back-and-watch affair.

AimIT includes its own directory structure for your network, including domains and groups. CA claims there are ways to import information from NDS, but we found nothing in the manual.

We'd like to see CA be more generous with printed documentation. The small "Getting Started" booklet is the only physical instructions provided with our Workgroup version.

RELATED LINKS

Scorecard and NetResults
Key findings, vendor contact info.

Review and buyer's guide: Desktop management
Network World, 8/17/98.

Network World Fusion Focus on Network and Systems Management
Archive of our free twice-weekly newsletter.

Network management white papers
From Summit Online.

DMTF