Vista - NewBie Question: Asset (software) discovery?

Is Powershell an ideal environment for writing scripts that performs asset
discovery (software inventory, hardware inventory)? Or, are there better
suited methods for doign this kind of work?

Thanks.
Guy

Guy, I too am a newbie, ut I have found that I can gather a ton of
asset information with some rather simple scripts.
If you grab the Powershell HELP add on that Primal/SAPIEN puts out, you
can reqad through the classes and APIs.
The get-WMIObject class, along with other Windows maangement centric
classes are why I am thrilled about Powershell.
I have only been into Powershell for 2 months, but coming from writing
APIs in Java and Perl, I can say it (Powershell & WMI) are just second
to none on windows world. This is coming froma 10 yr veteran on the
Kornshell on UNIX(s)...

If anyone has another take, keep me honest.

You can always go out and buy Tivoli or HP Openview's Suite of asset
tools. It jsut depends on the scope, time, and budget you have; I
suppose...

HTH

L

Guy wrote:
> Is Powershell an ideal environment for writing scripts that performs asset
> discovery (software inventory, hardware inventory)? Or, are there better
> suited methods for doign this kind of work?
>
> Thanks.
> Guy

Guy, I too am a newbie, ut I have found that I can gather a ton of
asset information with some rather simple scripts.
If you grab the Powershell HELP add on that Primal/SAPIEN puts out, you
can reqad through the classes and APIs.
The get-WMIObject class, along with other Windows management centric
classes are why I am thrilled about Powershell.
I have only been into Powershell for 2 months, but coming from writing
APIs in Java and Perl, I can say it (Powershell & WMI) are just second
to none on windows world. This is coming froma 10 yr veteran on the
Kornshell on UNIX(s)...

If anyone has another take, keep me honest.

You can always go out and buy Tivoli or HP Openview's Suite of asset
tools. It jsut depends on the scope, time, and budget you have; I
suppose...

HTH

L

Guy wrote:
> Is Powershell an ideal environment for writing scripts that performs asset
> discovery (software inventory, hardware inventory)? Or, are there better
> suited methods for doign this kind of work?
>
> Thanks.
> Guy

I think it is, you can do a lot with WMI, and the WMI support of PoSH is
great
and the formatting support is good
also I use PowerShell a lot with SMS.

greetings /\/\o\/\/

"Guy" <Guy@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:70E0FD3A-E671-4994-8FBA-01B30EEF448D@microsoft.com...
> Is Powershell an ideal environment for writing scripts that performs asset
> discovery (software inventory, hardware inventory)? Or, are there better
> suited methods for doign this kind of work?
>
> Thanks.
> Guy
>

Many thanks for the info.

I'll give it a try, since I want to develop a software discovery tool. I
know there are several $$$ tools available on the market but not everyone can
affort these kind of tools.

One more question, since you have a lot of unix experience (I used to work
several years ago also a lot in Unix env but mainly with databases), what is
the most appropriate dev tool for developing a software dicovery tool on *nix
environments?

Guy


"lrbell" wrote:

> Guy, I too am a newbie, ut I have found that I can gather a ton of
> asset information with some rather simple scripts.
> If you grab the Powershell HELP add on that Primal/SAPIEN puts out, you
> can reqad through the classes and APIs.
> The get-WMIObject class, along with other Windows maangement centric
> classes are why I am thrilled about Powershell.
> I have only been into Powershell for 2 months, but coming from writing
> APIs in Java and Perl, I can say it (Powershell & WMI) are just second
> to none on windows world. This is coming froma 10 yr veteran on the
> Kornshell on UNIX(s)...
>
> If anyone has another take, keep me honest.
>
> You can always go out and buy Tivoli or HP Openview's Suite of asset
> tools. It jsut depends on the scope, time, and budget you have; I
> suppose...
>
> HTH
>
> L
>
> Guy wrote:
> > Is Powershell an ideal environment for writing scripts that performs asset
> > discovery (software inventory, hardware inventory)? Or, are there better
> > suited methods for doign this kind of work?
> >
> > Thanks.
> > Guy
>
>

On Wed, 3 Jan 2007 09:41:01 -0800, Guy <Guy@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:

>Is Powershell an ideal environment for writing scripts that performs asset
>discovery (software inventory, hardware inventory)? Or, are there better
>suited methods for doign this kind of work?

I would say it depend on your environment, and how you would like to
collect asset information. If, for example, you can pull all the
desired information from the clients (server) from one central
location, PowerShell would be very good for you. On the other hand, if
you prefer to have each client rapport its own information at logon
(push), a PowerShell solution might not be a good choice (yet). The
problem is that few (if any) clients have PowerShell installed, and
legacy clients (Win2000 and below) won't even be able to get
PowerShell installed.

If you are interested I once wrote some asset collection scriptet in
KIXtart (.kix) scripts. Theses scripts uploaded information to a
central fileserver on logon.


--
Jakob Bindslet

Thanks.

I would opt right now for a centralized (software) discovery solution.
I suppose it would also be possible discovering (different sites software
assets) over the Internet (using eg a VPN connection)?

Guy


"Jakob Bindslet" wrote:

> On Wed, 3 Jan 2007 09:41:01 -0800, Guy <Guy@discussions.microsoft.com>
> wrote:
>
> >Is Powershell an ideal environment for writing scripts that performs asset
> >discovery (software inventory, hardware inventory)? Or, are there better
> >suited methods for doign this kind of work?
>
> I would say it depend on your environment, and how you would like to
> collect asset information. If, for example, you can pull all the
> desired information from the clients (server) from one central
> location, PowerShell would be very good for you. On the other hand, if
> you prefer to have each client rapport its own information at logon
> (push), a PowerShell solution might not be a good choice (yet). The
> problem is that few (if any) clients have PowerShell installed, and
> legacy clients (Win2000 and below) won't even be able to get
> PowerShell installed.
>
> If you are interested I once wrote some asset collection scriptet in
> KIXtart (.kix) scripts. Theses scripts uploaded information to a
> central fileserver on logon.
>
>
> --
> Jakob Bindslet
>

Guy, the peril of software discovery in UNIX is also what some call its
strength. It lacks a Registry (everything is a file) so you must
ensure you have a consistent nomenclature on the Unix boxes. For
example, if it is to be counted as an asset it must have an entry in a
flat file, or live in directory xyz.

Also, this leaves the scope of powershell, and would be a csh, ksh,
bash proposition.
Essentially, since the OS is fundamentally different, you asset
gathering (sw and hw) will require a heterogeneous solution.

You could perhaps use Cygwin so the gathering could occur from a
central windows box.

Personally, I would focus on one or the other (Unix or Windows - baby
steps).
With a registry, powershell, WMI, and market share, I would go msft.
HTH

L

Guy wrote:
> Thanks.
>
> I would opt right now for a centralized (software) discovery solution.
> I suppose it would also be possible discovering (different sites software
> assets) over the Internet (using eg a VPN connection)?
>
> Guy
>
>
> "Jakob Bindslet" wrote:
>
> > On Wed, 3 Jan 2007 09:41:01 -0800, Guy <Guy@discussions.microsoft.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >Is Powershell an ideal environment for writing scripts that performs asset
> > >discovery (software inventory, hardware inventory)? Or, are there better
> > >suited methods for doign this kind of work?
> >
> > I would say it depend on your environment, and how you would like to
> > collect asset information. If, for example, you can pull all the
> > desired information from the clients (server) from one central
> > location, PowerShell would be very good for you. On the other hand, if
> > you prefer to have each client rapport its own information at logon
> > (push), a PowerShell solution might not be a good choice (yet). The
> > problem is that few (if any) clients have PowerShell installed, and
> > legacy clients (Win2000 and below) won't even be able to get
> > PowerShell installed.
> >
> > If you are interested I once wrote some asset collection scriptet in
> > KIXtart (.kix) scripts. Theses scripts uploaded information to a
> > central fileserver on logon.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Jakob Bindslet
> >