Asset Inventory Overview
If you want to perform a virtual asset scan for the properties of your vCenter Servers, ESXi hypervisors and virtual machines, see the Virtual Inventory feature.
The asset inventory function enables you to track your software and hardware assets. Performing an asset scan enables you to thoroughly and dynamically discover and catalog your IT assets. You will uncover software applications you didn’t know were installed and discover physical machines you didn’t even know you had. By eliminating these blind spots, you can quickly close the gaps in your security and policy compliance. By consolidating hardware and software asset information in one location, you have all relevant information about your assets at your fingertips, enabling you to make informed decisions with confidence and accuracy.
The function works by performing scans to detect and categorize the software and hardware contained on your machines. Detailed information about your software and hardware assets is available immediately following a scan.
You also have the ability to create reports that can be used to track your asset inventory over time. For example, you might create a scheduled scan of your domain that automatically generates and sends usage reports to your IT personnel. So in addition to providing you with visibility and understanding of the IT assets in your network, the asset inventory function is also a great record keeping tool for use in audits.
Asset scans can be performed in either an agentless or an agent-based fashion. This section describes the agentless process. For information on performing agent-based asset scans, see Creating and Configuring an Asset Task.
How-To Information
For information on how to perform asset inventory tasks, see:
- Creating a New Asset Scan Template
- How to Initiate an Asset Scan
- Monitoring an Asset Scan
- Viewing Asset Scan Results
Software Asset Scan Information
Scans for the software components contained on one or more machines. You can perform this scan on physical machines, online virtual machines, offline virtual machines, and virtual machine templates.
This scan helps you answer the following important questions:
- What software is on the machines in my network?
- Where are the software resources located?
- How many do I own?
- How many different versions of a software program are in use?
- How long ago were the programs installed?
- Are there software programs that shouldn't be on my network? (For example: iTunes, shareware programs, etc.)
Hardware Asset Scan Information
Scans for the hardware components contained on one or more machines. You can perform this scan on physical machines and online virtual machines. Offline virtual machines and virtual machine templates are ignored by this scan.
This scan helps you answer the following important questions:
- What hardware components are on my scanned machines?
- How many do I own?
- How much memory is on each machine?
- What type of processors are on my machines?
- What services are running on my machines?
- What services have failed to start on my machines?
Security Controls's Advantages Over Other Asset Tools
With Security Controls, all the machine information you want is consolidated nicely in one location. With most tools you must spend a lot of time and energy clicking around in different tables to locate the information you want. In order to present it in an organized fashion you need to copy the information from multiple sources and then paste it into a text or spreadsheet program. With Security Controls's asset inventory feature, all the information is readily available in one location and is easily groupable and sortable.
The machine information is also easily distributable. The reporting feature enables you to generate several different reports that contain a considerable amount of information. The reports can be printed or they can be exported to a number of different electronic formats, enabling you save them to disk, view them with the program of your choice, or email them to others.