Full Manual systemhound
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Upgrades & Licensing
systemhound can upgrade or import an earlier systemhound website. This facility is designed to import data from systemhound Rev 4.2 and above. It may also work with earlier versions of systemhound such as Rev 4.0.x but this is not supported.
It is important to backup the previous website before installing systemhound.Follow the steps below to backup up a systemhound website prior to installing and upgrading to systemhound.
When installing into an existing systemhound environment there is no need to re-install the clients. By re-installing the server the existing client machines will be upgraded to the latest version
The systemhound installer will automate many of these tasks but you should make your own backup to ensure that you are able to either revert to the earlier version or perform a manual import.
Back-up website on the systemhound central server
- Navigate to the systemhound website - for systemhound v4.2 and earlier this is normally installed under c:\program files\systemhound\easy-audit. Later versions are installed under c:\program files\systemhound\website.
- Copy the website folder to a safe location away from the systemhound folder. We recommend that you additionally zip the folder up and save it to CD-ROM.
- Confirm that the backed up website still works by opening up the file index.htm within an internet browser. This file is found within the root of the website.
Back-up custom hardware and software on central server
If you have configured custom hardware or custom software you should back these up prior to uninstalling systemhound. The following files should be copied from the release directory within the systemhound deployment directory.
- custinfo2.dat
- avcustomer.db
There will be a copy of each of these files within the plugins directories under the each directory named by the operating system. E.g. release\nt4\plugins\avcustomer.db, release\Windows2000\plugins\avcustomer.db.
If you have not created any custom software or custom hardware detection entries you do not need to back-up these files.
Uninstall & reinstall systemhound
Now you have backed up the website - uninstall the systemhound server via Add/Remove Programs. If prompted by the installer "Should the systemhound website be deleted as part of this uninstall" you should choose yes because you have manually backed up the files. This will remove systemhound and the website from the installed locations. Next install systemhound and once installed follow the steps below to upgrade and import the website you previously backed up.
Importing a systemhound website
The website maintenance tool is used to rebuild a systemhound website that has either become corrupted or requires upgrading to the latest release of systemhound.
Running the tool
As the tool rebuilds a systemhound website it is designed to be run only on the systemhound central server. The application is located on the central server at the following location:
"Program Files\systemhound\Utils\DataMaintenance\maintDB.exe"
Once started the introduction page is shown:
Figure 1
Click next to display the ’task selection’ page…
Choose 'import website' and click next. The next page will prompt you to select the location of the previously archived website.
Click next and on the confirmation page that is displayed click next again to start the import process.
Once the import has completed you will be able to see the newly imported machines within the systemhound website.
Import completed
The web reports will now include the additional machines just imported.
Web Reports
Restore custom software and custom hardware
If you backed up the systemhound custom software and hardware files - you should copy these files back to the same location. Only copy the following files:
- custinfo2.dat
- avcustomer.db
Unlike earlier versions of systemhound, systemhound currently includes 10 free client licenses. In unlicensed mode the systemhound reports includes adverts and only limited support will be available via the user forums.
When purchasing and licensing systemhound you will be emailed an individual product key with which you will be able to license your installation of systemhound.
Licensing systemhound
On receipt of your product key - launch the systemhound console application via 'start menu->all programs->systemhound->tools->systemhound console'. From within the console application click activate under the section titled licensing.
On clicking 'activate' a new window will appear into which you should type/paste the product key. Click 'ok' to activate your installation.
Introduction
As of systemhound 2007 rev 5.1, alternative website location is an installer option. If you have previously installed systemhound (Rev 5) in the default location, please uninstall and re-install using systemhound 5.1 (if you are a licensed systemhound customer).
Installing
Installation prerequisites
Server Machine
Recommended requirements for systemhound central server are:
- Microsoft Windows XP / Windows 2003 / Windows 2008
- 1 GB memory
- 2 GHz processor
- 1 GB hard drive space free on program files drive.
Adobe Flash Player is required on the server and will be installed automatically as part of the server install. Microsoft .Net 2.0 Framework is required on the server to run the main maintenance application. You will be prompted to download this by the installer if it is required. ...
Note that the web reports may not function if the browser is being run on a machine that has "ie enhanced security" installed. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/815141
Minimum requirements are:
- Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista.
- 512 GB memory
- 1 GHz processor
- 200Mb hard drive space free on program files drive.
Introduction
systemhound is deployed via 2 separate Windows installer packages rather than a single installer for both client and server. The installer for the client machines should only be installed onto client machines (and not the systemhound central server).
When installing into an existing systemhound environment there is no need to re-install the clients. By re-installing the server the existing client machines will be upgraded to the latest version
Installation prerequisites
Server Machine
Recommended requirements for systemhound central server are:
- Microsoft Windows XP / Windows 2003 / Windows 2008
- 1 GB memory
- 2 GHz processor
- 1 GB hard drive space free on program files drive.
Adobe Flash Player is required on the server and will be installed automatically as part of the server install. Microsoft .Net 2.0 Framework is required on the server to run the main maintenance application. You will be prompted to download this by the installer if it is required. ...
Note that the web reports may not function if the browser is being run on a machine that has "ie enhanced security" installed. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/815141
Minimum requirements are:
- Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista.
- 512 GB memory
- 1 GHz processor
- 200Mb hard drive space free on program files drive.
The download version of systemhound is pre-loaded with a 10 user licence to audit up to 10 PCs including the central server.
Install systemhound server
Firstly, install the systemhound central server software onto a Windows server. The machine will collect and report on the asset details within your pc estate.
The installation will default the website folder to program files\systemhound\website; if you wish to use a different folder please see changing website folder location
Manual Installation
1. Double click the "systemhound central server.msi" to start the installer
Figure 1
2. Click next, please read the licence agreement, indicate your acceptance by selecting ’I accept…’ then click next
Figure 2
3. On the customer information page, enter your name and organisation details.
Figure 3
4. You are now ready to install the program:
Figure 4
The installation will now start
After a short while the following screen will be displayed to indicate successful installation
Figure 5
Once the install completed page appears, click finish.
View server details within web reports
The server will be automatically scanned by the server software and the machine details will be added to the systemhound database. As systemhound is lightweight and runs in the background it will only take a couple of minutes for the details to be collected and processed.
After a short while, navigate to the systemhound menu installed under
and select Programs->systemhound->Reporting.
Figure 6
This will launch the main reporting web site of systemhound (as below).
Figure 7
Confirm that the systemhound central server machine is reported by clicking on the server shown under "Machine count".
Client machine installation
To collect the details of additional machines in your company you can manually install the systemhound client using the provided Windows Installer package. Manual installation is fine for evaluation but the next section provides alternative deployment options which are available.
The client install msi is deployed as a single file as part of the central server installation into the folder systemhound\utils\LoginscriptInstallation.
Alternative deployment options
Other deployment options are available including (all utilising the Windows Installer package):
- Deployment via Microsoft Active Directory (recommended)
- Deployment via login script using systemhound "client install"
- Deployment via Drive Imaging (ensure systemhound id is not copied)
- Standalone audit where no client software is installed
- Deployment using systemhound "remote install"
Manual installation
1. Double click the file "systemhound client.msi" to start this installer.
Figure 8
2. Click next, please read the licence agreement and indicate your acceptance by selecting ’I accept…’ then click next
Figure 9
5. On the customer information page, enter your name and organisation details and click next.
Figure 10
6. On the next page enter the server name of the systemhound central server. This is the DNS hostname of the computer that you installed the systemhound central server software onto. Once you have entered the name click next.
Figure 11
7. The installer will attempt to validate and contact the server name you entered. If you receive an error of "Failed to connect to server" (Figure 12) then confirm you’ve entered the server name correctly and confirm that the PC can "ping" the server correctly.
Figure 12
8. Once the server name has been validated, the installer is ready to deploy the systemhound agent software. Click next.
Figure 13
9. After a short while the following screen will be displayed to indicate successful installation
Figure 14
The machine will be audited by systemhound within a few minutes of installation and you will be able view the information gathered by viewing the web reports on the central server (Figure 7).
Reports
Web reports overview
The systemhound reports can be viewed using Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6.0 (SP1) and above or Mozilla Firefox. If you chose to configure systemhound to make use of IIS during the installation then the website address will be as follows:
| http://your_server_name/systemhound |
If you did not have IIS installed or would rather not use IIS, then the website directory (Program Files\systemhound\Website\) should be shared using standard Microsoft Networking share techniques. Having shared the directory, the systemhound database can be viewed by double clicking on the ’index.htm’ file.
To view the web reports on the systemhound server itself, go to Start/Programs/systemhound/Web Reporting.
The web reports are optimised for resolutions of 1024x768 and above.
There are three main menu options available at the top of each website reporting screen:
- Home – takes you to the website home page, where you can view a summary of your hardware installation and your licensing details.
- Hardware – where you can select one of the hardware summary reports or the hardware change history report.
- Software – where you can select one of the software summary reports or the software change history report.
In addition, there are additional menu options on the right of the screen to take you directly into selected hardware and software summary reports.
Hardware Summary Reports
Click on the Hardware button on the top menu to show the hardware summary report options.Each option shows a different selection of information about each PC. The summary report by machine shows the Machine host name, Model, Processor, RAM (Mb), and Date Last Updated – when the machine details were last uploaded to the systemhound server.
Alternatively, you can also choose to display the hardware summary report with details of manufacturer, IP address, Operating System or User.
The Maintenance options are described below and the Changes option in the next section.
Each machine name is a link; clicking on a machine name opens the detailed hardware report for this machine.
Choose the number of machines to display from the drop down list – up to 200 can be displayed on one page. As you move through the database, the status bar display on the right hand side of the options menu shows you where you are in the database. (Note: the status bar automatically displays once there is more than one page of machines.)
To search for a particular machine, enter in a partial or full name into the search box. Note that the fields are sorted by model, Manufacturer, Operating System etc the search box allows you to search for a specific model, Manufacturer or Operating System
To sort any of the fields in the report, click on its name on the header bar. The column that is currently sorted will be identified by a small triangle on its right, as shown next to the ’Memory’ column in Fig 1. Click again to reverse sort the field.
Sorting the fields by Model, Operating System, Processor, Manufacturer or Memory generates a pie chart to the right of the report. For example, sort by Operating System to display a chart with totals of the different Operating Systems by service pack across your enterprise.
Sorting/Reverse Sorting on the Updated field enables you to see which machines have not reported to the systemhound server recently.
- The xls button
lets you export to Excel the entire contents of the report based on your current selections.
- The Print button lets you print the entire contents of the report based on your current selections.
- The settings option allows you to adjust the look and feel of the report.
- The View select option repeats the selection options on the top menu and also lets you display the screen in Rev4 format by machine or user.
This format shows more information on each machine but does not display the pie chart.
In addition, from the top menu or via View select you can show machines that have been selected for deletion in the Hardware Maintenance option on the console or machines that may have duplicate GUIDs.
See the section on the Console for further information.
Hardware Change Report
View hardware changes across your enterprise by selecting Hardware changes within the hardware menu option.
Select the type of changes you wish to see from the drop down list at the foot of the Hardware Change report. These are grouped into five areas: Memory, Processor, Disk, Network Adapter and Other. Other items are the BIOS, registered user, video adapter and modem information.
At the foot of the screen, you can also select by date and choose "installed only" or "installed and removed" hardware.
Examples of hardware changes logged are shown in Figs
systemhound also maintains a record of hardware changes for each individual machine. This comprises all changes logged.
There are two ways to see the changes for an individual machine:
click on a machine name in the Hardware Change Report.
click on the This machine tab on the Detailed Hardware Report for that machine.
The xls button 
lets you export to Excel the entire contents of the report based on your current selections.
The Print button lets you print the entire contents of the report based on your current selections.
Detailed Hardware Report
To view the detailed hardware report, click on a machine name from the hardware summary report. This opens a detailed report, as shown in Fig. The information is listed under the following headings:
- hardware
- operating system
- disk drives
There are options to show further information:
by clicking on view on the left to show full "device manager" details
by clicking on Database Drivers, Networking or Printers under "show more information" at the bottom of the report.
Custom information. This is entered via User defined fields (see below).
Free format Notes. These are entered via Hardware Maintenance in the console program (see below).
If the information cannot be retrieved, not all fields will be shown. This generally only applies to older machines or manufacturers that do not have the information within SMBIOS. In this case, the field may show as ’unknown’.
This screen can also show user-defined information. For details on how to enter this data, see the User Defined fields section.
Free form notes can also be entered, see the hardware maintenance in the Console Section.
On the This machine tab at the top of the Detailed Hardware Report are three menu options allowing you access to the hardware and software change logs for that machine, as well as its software report.
It is also possible to include images of your PC models on the hardware detail report. To do this, make an image of the pc model and save it to Program Files\systemhound\Website\images\devices. The filename should exactly match the PC model name. It will now display at the top of the hardware detail report.
Master Software Report
The master Software Report is accessed by clicking on the Software button shown at the top of the each Reporting screen. This report displays all applications discovered by systemhound in alphabetical order, along with the number of copies found.
There are five options under the Software button:
- all applications (excluding Windows updates)
- grouped applications
- licensed applications
- Windows updates
- Software changes (see below)
Grouped applications shows only the applications that you have defined as groups in the Software Maintenance option in the Console.
Licensed applications shows licenses purchased (entered in the Software Maintenance option in the Console) against copies installed for each software application.
Applications that do not have a sufficient number of licences will be highlighted.
Windows updates show Windows updates and patches separately.
Software changes is covered below.
Within the report, there are a number of further options for controlling what is displayed:
Hide Services program data
Hides applications discovered by looking at services running on a machine.
Hide Add/Remove program data
Hides applications discovered by looking at the ’Add/Remove programs’ facility in Windows.
Hide Registry program data
Hides applications discovered by looking in the system registry
Only display software counted more than ’n’ times
Use this option to hide software that has not been discovered on many machines. For example in an estate of 1,000 machines you may want to focus on applications that are located on more than one or two machines. Setting the value to ’2’ in this case would allow you to do this.
Manufacturer
Selecting a manufacturer name from the pull down list of manufacturer names will only display applications provided by this company.
Application Name search
Use this box to search for a specific application. You can just enter the first few letters.
Default view
Click this button to restore the view to the default state.
Applications per page
Use this pull down list to specify the number of applications to be displayed on each page. Use the ’Next’ and ’Previous’ buttons to move through the data.
Settings
This option allows you to adjust the look and feel of the report.
Remember my settings
Site preferences will be reset if the systemhound easy audit website is not used for a period of 15 minutes unless you have selected the ’Remember my settings’ option, in which case the preferences will be retained for 12 months.
The xls button lets you export to Excel the entire contents of the report based on your current selections.
The Print button lets you print the entire contents of the report based on your current selections.
Software can be hidden from the Software Reports via Software Maintenance in the Console.
Software Report for a specific application
Each entry in the master software report links to display a report for that particular application (Fig 6). The individual software report contains details of all the machines currently logged as having that product installed. Alongside the machine name, the version and registered user is also displayed. The report can be sorted on any of these three fields by clicking on the column header.
Sorting by version generates a pie chart to the right of the report to show how many copies of the application you have on each different version.
There are four views under View select at the foot of the screen.
- Registered user (the default view)
- Application location (to show where the software is installed on each machine)
- Not installed (to see the machines that do not have this software)
- Blacklisted machines that have this software
To search for a particular machine or user or version, select machine or user or version from the drop down list at the foot of the screen and enter a search string in the search box. You must either enter the full machine/user name, or the first part of it. For example, to search for a machine called saturn, you should either enter saturn or sat (and not urn).
Hide duplicate named software is checked by default.
The xls button lets you export to Excel the entire contents of the report based on your current selections.
The Print button lets you print the entire contents of the report based on your current selections.
Software Report for an Individual Machine
In addition to the master software report, you can also view all the software discovered on an individual machine. This report can be accessed in two ways:
- From the hardware details page. Click on a machine name in the hardware summary report to take you to its details page. Click on the This machine button at the top of this page.
- From the software report for an individual application. Click on an application name on the master software report to view its individual software report page. Click on a machine name on this page to display that machine’s software.
This page can be customized by choosing any of the options shown, such as Hide Add/Remove program data, Hide Services program data or Hide Registry program data.
To search for a particular application, manufacturer or version, select application, manufacturer or version from the drop down list at the foot of the screen and enter a search string in the search box. You must either enter the full machine/user name, or the first part of it.
There are also six different views you can select from the drop down menu at the foot of the screen.
- all applications (excluding Windows updates)
- Windows updates only
- Application locations
- Serial numbers
- Product keys
- Package Applications
The xls button lets you export to Excel the entire contents of the report based on your current selections.
The Print button lets you print the entire contents of the report based on your current selections.
Software Change Report
The software change report displays all software changes as recorded at the time of the inventory scan. The report shows whether an application was installed or uninstalled and the changes can be viewed by date.
You can also view an individual machine’s software change report with the same view and date selection options; this is a record of all changes logged on that machine.
Changes are restricted to 5000 entries per week. It is possible to increase this but please note that the report will take longer to display. To change this figure, please consult systemhound support.
The xls button lets you export to Excel the entire contents of the report based on your current selections.
The Print button lets you print the entire contents of the report based on your current selections.
Note: The software change reports do not correspond to the actual date of occurrence; it corresponds to when the data logfile was received by the server. For example, if an application was installed on 1st March but the machine was then switched off before a scan took place and the client reported to the server, it will only show in the software change report at the time server received the logfile. Therefore if the machine is switched on 10 days later and a scan takes place, it will show up as an installed application in the report for the 2nd week of March.
Website Maintenance tool
Introduction
The website maintenance tool is used to rebuild a systemhound website that has either become corrupted or requires upgrading to the latest release of systemhound.
You would normally be instructed to run the tool by the systemhound helpdesk.
Running the tool
As the tool migrates and rebuilds a systemhound website it is design to be run only on the systemhound central server. The application is located on the central server at the following location:
"Program Files\systemhound\Utils\DataMaintenance\maintDB.exe"
Once started the introduction page is shown:
Figure 1
Click next to display the ’task selection’ page…
Figure 2 Task Selection screen
Choose the required maintenance task instructed by the systemhound helpdesk and click next and next again to start the rebuild. If choosing to import a website you will be prompted to enter the path to the old website to load.
Figure 3
Once the rebuild has completed, the final ’finished’ page will be displayed. You may view the maintenance log file by clicking on the displayed hyperlink.
Figure 4
Tools & Utilities
Central Configuration tool
Overview
The Central Configuration Tool is used to control when systemhound detection programs (plugins) are run. You can also input user defined custom fields, which appear in a machine’s detailed hardware report. In addition, customisation options for some of the plugins are available.
To open the Central Configuration Tool, launch the tool directly from the filesystem.
"Program Files\systemhound\Utils\PluginConfiguration\MaintWiz.exe"
Note that you must be running under a local administration account to use the tool.
Plugin Schedules
You should not alter the plugin schedules or alter the execution frequency unless requested to do so by support. In the event that you wish all machines to send their data as soon as possible please use the ’force resend’ option detailed later.
Within the tool there are sections for each Operating System from Windows 95 to Windows Vista and within each section are the individual plugin configurations. Out of the box, systemhound is configured to run without any change to this set-up.
| Section | Description | Default frequency |
| Application Reporting | software reporting and Windows update reporting | daily |
| Custom Computer Details | user-defined custom fields retrieved from either INI file or registry locations. WMI queries (WQL) are also supported. | 7 days |
| Database Drivers | OleDB and ODBC Drivers | daily |
| System Information | Hardware reporting, BIOS reporting and network details | daily |
| Systemhound data upload | client communication to the server to check for new plugins, deliver new inventory (if available) and check for polling interval changes. | hourly |
Changing the data collection intervals
This section describes how to use the Central Configuration Tool to change the default data collection intervals for the network. This is the frequency at which each computer communicates with and passes data to the systemhound server (SHS).
There is normally no reason to alter the frequency and the default frequency set at time of deployment is the only supported configuration.
As shown in the table above the standard systemhound installation has a default polling interval for Application Reporting and System Information for each computer of 1 day and a default systemhound data upload interval of 1 hour.
The daily data collection interval means that the client signals to the SHS to upload any new data logs of hardware and software once every day. The hourly upload interval means that the client will communicate to the SHS every hour to see if any changes to any collection parameters or polling intervals have taken place. If so, the revised collection parameters/polling intervals will be passed from the SHS to the clients and updated.
It is important that the data upload interval is not too infrequent, as a weekly upload for example will mean that changes to polling intervals etc will not be updated for a week, unless the Force Resend option is used.
Audit logs will only be sent to the server if a plugin has run since the last data poll.
For each class of data on each operating system on the network, polling intervals can be defined. To change polling intervals the following procedure should be used:
1. Click on the data type within the Operating system in the left hand pane above (e.g. Windows Vista system information, see Fig 1). Then click on the data description field (e.g. Database Drivers) and then click on ’Job 0’.
2. This will then bring up the current polling interval in the Execute Task pane. Modify the polling intervals here. You can choose to execute a task by number of days, hours or minutes. You can also choose not to execute the task on certain days.
3. The new polling interval will take effect at the next data upload session. If for example an interval of 2 hours is specified for "system information" and the upload interval is one hour, then in one hour’s time the new polling interval would become effective and two hours after that the hardware inventory information would be collected.
4. All configuration changes must be saved (File/Save) before they will be released to systemhound client machines.
Note: If the Force Resend option is applied, the scheduled times for running a particular plugin are ignored. When the client next communicates with the server, it is told to run the plugin immediately, regardless of the last time it ran. For example, the default schedule for retrieving user defined data is set to 7 days. If you have an urgent need to see updated data, click on Force Resend. When the client next communicates with the server (every hour, by default), it will retrieve user defined data and at the next data upload session an hour later, it sends this data to the server. Therefore, within a maximum of two hours, you can view updated user defined data instead of waiting 7 days.
Note: data collection and upload takes place immediately after first installation, irrespective of the polling intervals. (The exception is using the Install Wizard, where you can choose not to do this). Therefore, you will be able to see a machine’s inventory data on the web reports soon after the systemhound client is installed.
Note: if a client machine is not on the network (e.g. laptops, pcs that aren’t logged in) at the designated collection time, upload will take place when it is next connected to the network. Data collection will continue to take place at the designated polling intervals; the data log file is automatically deleted when it reaches 500Kb if it has been unable to connect to the server.
Figure 1: example of the data collection interval for a class of data for a specific Operating System
Setting additional data collection schedules
Occasionally, you may wish to collect the same data at different intervals. For example, you may want a data upload interval of 1 day at the weekend but every hour during the week. Or you may want to carry out a hardware inventory once per day during the week, but every four hours at the weekend.
To do this, a new job (Job 1) should be created either via selecting New Job from the Plugin menu at the top of the screen or right clicking on current job (Job 0) or the data description.
Input the intervals for the additional schedule and then save the changes (File/Save).
To delete a schedule, select the Job and either right click and choose Delete Job, or choose this option from the Plugin menu.
Configuring Application Reporting
By default, the application (software) reporting finds software as follows:
Registry - from applications registered within the Operating System, reporting on version and product description
Add/Remove Programs - from applications that have a standard uninstall entry as shown in Add/Remove Programs within Control Panel.
Services - from installed services, reporting on version and description.
The final option that is available is to search the Program Files directory for all executables, reporting on version and product description. This option is not turned on by default. To turn this on, check the box for the relevant Operating System, and save the changes.
Note: This is not enabled by default due to the large number of executables returned from a scan of the Program Files directory, many of which are irrelevant. Enabling this will result in larger log files from the client to the server, increased network traffic and a possible impact on user machines.
For further information on customizing systemhound software reporting, please see ’Custom Software’.
User Defined Fields
User defined fields enable you to input your own information into systemhound and view this on the detailed hardware reports. This information could be anything; examples are the location or department of the pc, a serial number or asset id or anything that you wish to see in a particular machine’s hardware report. An unlimited number of fields can be defined, with the information being derived from a file or from a registry entry on each machine. WMI is also supported through the use of WQL queries enabling custom system information to be retrieved. Custom fields are entered within the central configuration tool.
Figure 2: example of user defined fields. This information is viewed in the detailed hardware report for the machine
Note: To use custom defined fields you will need to right-click on 'custom field reporting' and select 'add job' within the Central Configuration tool. Follow the steps below to then configure the custom fields you require.
Capturing user defined information from an initialization file
For this example, you can create a file called pcinfo.txt in your WINNT folder on your Windows 2000 computers. It should have the following format, as shown below.
The INI section headings are required and enable you to structure your user defined information. The headings do not appear on the reports.
1. In the Central Configuration Tool, select the Operating System, Windows 2000 in this case.
2. Right click on Custom Field Reporting under Custom Computer Details and choose New Job.
3. In the right hand window, click on Add.
4. Select Initialisation File (selected by default).
5. Enter the details as shown in Fig 3. Environment variables such as %WINDIR%, %PROGRAMFILES%, %SYSTEMROOT% are supported or enter a specific location such as C:\WINNT\pcinfo.txt.
Note: The environment variable must be available to the systemhound scheduler service which runs under the service account. But by using ’standard’ environment variables you can write support different installation folders.
| Environment Variable | Description |
| %programfiles% | Program Files directory on local drive. |
| %systemdrive% | The system drive which windows is running from e.g. C:\ |
| %windir% | The windows folder (e.g. c:\windows) |
6. Click OK and repeat these steps for every user-defined entry you want reported.
7. Then save your configuration changes by clicking on File\Save.
8. The changes will be sent to client machines at the next upload session, and will take effect at the next scheduled data collection interval. To see the custom information, click on the detailed hardware report for an individual pc.
Note: To test this immediately, run shrefresh.exe. This exe is in Program Files\systemhound\Utils\Refresh on the systemhound server and client machine.
Note: The user defined fields support wildcards. For example if it was set to read the INI file C*.adp, it would find C1196.adp. It reads from the first match it finds.
Figure 3: inputting user defined information via an ini file
Capturing custom information using WMI
This example shows how to configure systemhound to report local user accounts on a machine through the use of WMI. Querying WMI data within systemhound is achieved through writing WQL queries. Please refer to the Microsoft developer site for more detail on WQL.
Unlike standard WQL, systemhound WQL supports environment variables. For example:
Will return all the local user accounts configured on the machine. The keyword TOP is also supported by the software to limit the rows returned – this is extremely useful to reduce the result set returned by some WQL queries. The example below will return only the first 2 fields.
Whilst developing your WQL query, you may click on ’execute query’ to test the query and view the results.
Capturing user defined information from the registry
This example shows how to configure systemhound to capture information defined within the registry, in this case whether filenames with an 8.3 format have been disabled or not.
1. In the Central Configuration Tool, select the Operating System, Windows 2000 in this case.
2. Right click on Custom Computer Details and choose New Job.
3. In the right hand window, click on Add.
4. Select Registry Entry.
5. If the registry entry we want is located at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation. In the Hive drop down list, select HKLM (the hive corresponds to each of the main registry classes) and in the Key field, enter SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\. In Field, enter NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation. In the Reporting Field Name, enter a description for this custom information.
6. Click OK.
7. Repeat these steps for every registry entry you want reported. If you wish to select a default value from the registry enter a @ into the field box.
8. Then save your configuration changes by clicking on File->Save.
9. The changes will be sent to client machines at the next upload session, and will take effect at the next scheduled data collection interval. To see the custom information, click on the detailed hardware report for an individual pc.
Figure 4: inputing user defined information via a registry entry
User defined fields can also be edited and deleted (as shown below). Highlight the entry you want and select Edit or Remove. All changes must be saved to take effect.
Note: The user defined fields need to be entered for each Operating System present on your network that you want to collect information from. To copy these fields across to other Operating Systems quickly (from Windows 2000 to XP for example), save any changes to the Central Configuration, go to Program Files\systemhound\Release\Windows2000\Plugins and copy the file custinfo2.dat to Program Files\systemhound\Release\WindowsXP\Plugins.
Note: By default the polling interval for Custom Information is set to run every 7 days but you can change this to whatever suits you. If the information you are retrieving does not change very often, you may wish to leave it at 7 days.
Adding user defined information to the Hardware Summary Report [Masterfields]
By giving one the custom fields the name of MasterField it will feed into the master hardware summary as an additional column. Only one custom field can be configured to appear on the hardware summary page. All custom fields will appear within the hardware detail page.
Custom Fields (registry/ini & WMI)
Console Application
The systemhound console is run from Start/Programs/systemhound/tools.
When the console is running, the systemhound site-builder service is stopped so that the database is not updated by new client log files. There are ten functions which can be run from the console. These are launched from the grey buttons on the console home page and the first two functions can also be run from the VIEW box in the top menu.
Machine Maintenance
This allows you to delete machines, add notes and assign a new systemhound GUID to a machine when it has been duplicated in the database.
A sample screen is shown in 'hardware maintenance screen'.
Deleting machines
1. To delete machines, check the box for the relevant machine(s) and click on Update database.
2. To search for a particular machine, use the Machine Name search box at the bottom of the page.
3. To delete machines which have not updated recently, sort the page on the Last Update column by clicking/double clicking on the column heading.
Note: Machine deletion can take between 7 – 12 seconds per pc depending on the speed of the server, and the amount of software present on the selected machines.
Note: Using this feature does not delete systemhound client software from the client machine. In most cases, a machine will only be deleted from the database if it is being taken out of service or being reformatted, etc. However, if the machine is still ’active’ then it will continue to report to the systemhound server at its next scheduled scan and thus re-appear in the database.
Assigning a new systemhound GUID
This feature is used to prevent client machines from using the same systemhound ID, a situation that can occur if you have installed the client software using ghosted images without following the proper procedure as outlined in drive imaging
If more than one machine has the same ID, they will keep overwriting each other in the database. The result is confusion when you view that machine’s information as it will keep changing, and there will be large numbers of changes showing on the hardware and software change reports. Machines with duplicate IDs also cause the systemhound sitebuilder service to take up more CPU processing time.
To prevent this, you can force machines that have the same ID to obtain a different one automatically. This is referred to as blacklisting. Machines are "blacklisted" by clicking the ID column in Machine Maintenance on the console.
1. Identify whether you have machines with possible duplicate IDs (the ID of each machine is listed in the detailed hardware report for that machine). Symptoms can be the Asset ID of the machine changing frequently. The hardware change report for the machine will have a history of such changes.
2. Once you have identified machines with the same ID, check the box in the ID column for those machines (see Fig 2) and click on Update database.
3. These machines will then be scheduled to receive new IDs and will appear on the hardware report with this symbol
. Hover your mouse over it to see an info box that explains that the machine will receive a new ID.
4. The final stage is to delete the machines that have been highlighted with
by clicking on the checkbox in the Delete column. This can either be done immediately following step 3 or after the machine has reported with a new ID.
Adding Notes
1. You can add free format notes for any machine by clicking on the Change button in the Notes column.
2. Enter Notes into the dialog box that pops up.
3. Click OK, and then OK again to close it. Your notes will now appear on the systemhound web reports in the Hardware Details page for that machine.
Software Maintenance
This is used to assign software applications to groups (eg Microsoft Word and Excel could be put in a group called "Office"), entering the software licences that you own and hiding software from the main reports.
See fig 3.
Software grouping
Find the application that you want to make part of a group, either by paging down or putting the first part of the application name in the Application Name search box at the foot of the screen.
Click on add to group then select a group from the pick list in fig 4 or enter a new group name.
Hit OK.
When you have made all required changes, click on Update database then click OK.
In the Master Software Report, there is an option to show grouped applications together.
Entering Software Licences
To add licences, enter the licence numbers into the input field for the relevant application.
Once you have made your selection, click on Update database then click OK.
These licences will be shown in the Master Software Report as a comparison against the number of licences you have installed with a warning if your installed licences exceed your purchased licences.
Hiding Software
To hide software, check the box next to the software you wish to hide.
Once you have made your selection, click on Update database then click OK.
The software is hidden from the Master Software Report. It is still present on the individual machine software report.
Licensing systemhound product
When you purchase systemhound you will be supplied with a Licence Key. The licence key entitles you to a certain number of machines in the systemhound database, sending data to your systemhound server.
More than one Licence Key can be applied to the same systemhound server, extending the number of machines recorded.
External Tools
The console screen provides an easy way to launch additional tools installed on the server from within the user interface.
View systemhound Log Files
You may be asked to look at the systemhound logs by systemhound support.
Database Refresh
You can run the shrefresh program on the console machine to update its data in systemhound. When you click the ’Refresh’ button to refresh this machine’s information then exit the console to restart the site-builder, the systemhound reports will reflect this within a couple of minutes.
Missing Software Retrieval
Manually configure systemhound to find Software.
You can tell systemhound to check for a particular file or registry information and report on Software that is not being found on a standard scan. Click the ’Customize’ button to run the "shCustom" utility.
See the Custom Software Overview for more information.
Export systemhound data
Create a CSV, Excel or Access database with your systemhound data.
It’s easy to export the systemhound database with the "shexport" wizard. Simply choose CSV or Access, select your data categories and let systemhound take care of it. Click the ’Export’ button to run the "shExport" utility.
See the Export Tool Overview for more information.
Standalone Auditing
Create a systemhound database record of machines that are currently not connected to your network. Using the Standalone Audit wizard it is easy to build a customized executable that you can easy run on any machines to instantly create a systemhound report file. Once you have collected all you report files the same wizard imports them into your systemhound database for reporting. Click the ’Audit’ button to run the "StandAloneAuditWizard" utility.
See the Standalone Audit section for more details.
Remote Installation via MSI
Install systemhound onto multiple Windows machines (NT4 and later) from the systemhound central server. Using the systemhound MSI wizard it is easy to remotely deploy systemhound to client machines (subject to your local firewall policy).
You will need administrative rights on the destination machines and be currently logged on as an Administrator. Click the ’Deploy’ button to run the "shwizMSI" utility.
See the Remote Install section for more details.
Installation via Login Scripts
If you do not have a suitable Software Distribution capability, you can use Login Scripts for easy deployment of systemhound. It is easy to deploy systemhound using Login Scripts and the ’Client Install’ utility. Simply configure the ’clientinstall.exe.ini’ with your details and place this and the ’clientinstall.exe’ program in a location that your users can see. Then update the login script to call the program and install systemhound.
See the Client Install section for more details.
Custom Software Detection
Introduction
This section explains the targeted detection methods that systemhound uses to discover software, to ensure that you have a complete and accurate picture of your software inventory. It also details a number of options to further customise the software reporting if you wish to discover additional software that is not being found by the default methods or to report on additional product details.
Software detection within systemhound is a targeted process that aims to have minimal impact on the user machine. By default, software is discovered from the Registry, Add/Remove Programs and Services (see Configuring Application Reporting in the Central Configuration document for further details). Additional options are:
- Program Files scanning
- Full hard drive scan on individual machines
- Custom Software Tool
Software dictionaries or other forms of third-party software definitions are not used by systemhound. With systemhound, you do not have to worry about updating any software definitions! If it’s present, the software will be discovered and your inventory is always kept up to date.
However, you may wish to further customise the software detection – you may have software that is not being discovered from the default locations or you may want to report on additional product details. There are a number of options available towards this end, such as enabling a scan of the Program Files directory or running a full hard drive scan and then copying selected software across into the custom detection file.
The option to do a full hard drive scan should be used as a last resort, as it returns a very large amount of software data, often making an audit unmanageable for the end-user. The full hard drive scan has to be run manually on user machines and cannot be enabled from the Central Configuration Tool – hence it is not possible to carry this out automatically on all user machines.
The Custom Software Tool provides a means of easily incorporating software data returned from a full hard drive scan. It can also be used to configure systemhound manually to add software that is not being picked up automatically, or to report on additional product details.
Note: Unlike some other commercially available auditing products, Hard Drive scanning is not turned on by default because of the detrimental effect that a full hard drive scan can have on the client machine. The targeted detection methods that systemhound uses are a more effective long-term auditing solution for your environment.
Program Files scanning
A scan of the Program Files directory can be enabled to let systemhound report on all executables found within this directory. As a large number of software executables are returned from this method, it is not recommended that this option be turned on permanently, as the inventory scan will take longer on user machines and the software report will grow very large, making an audit difficult.
The software discovered from a Program Files scan is visible on the software reports as normal. Program Files scanning is enabled from the Central Configuration Tool and can be carried out on every user machine or selected Operating Systems, as desired. See the separate documentation detailing the use of the ’central configuration tool’ for more details.
Using the Custom Software Tool
The Custom Software Tool provides an easy way to manage the large amount of software returned from a full hard drive scan. Unlike software discovered from a Program Files scan, all of which is reported to systemhound, software returned from a hard drive scan needs to be added to systemhound’s software detection programs first. The customized changes are then distributed to all client machines.
The Custom Software Tool also enables you to add software and additional product details manually. For example, systemhound detects the installed version of ’Norton Antivirus virus definitions’ via a custom entry within the file ’avplugin.db’ (see below). The ’Norton Antivirus virus definitions’ version is not software, strictly speaking, but is very useful information as it enables you to keep track of current virus definitions on all machines in your enterprise. Any custom software detection is reported both in the software estate summary as well as individual software reports, just like standard software.
It is also possible to add any file that you may wish to see in the reports and systemhound will discover it if present at the specified location.
The custom software tool can be launched directly from "Program Files\systemhound\Utils\CustomSoftware\ShCustom.exe". The individual tabs correspond to software detection based upon ’file’ detection, ’registry’ entry and ’initialisation’ file. The entries are stored on the file system within avcustomer.db.
What is avcustomer.db?
Any customizations that you make to the software configuration by using the Custom Software Tool are retained in this file and distributed to systemhound clients. It is not necessary to edit this file manually. This file is present in Program Files\systemhound\Release\Operating System\Plugins on the systemhound server, one file per Operating System. This file should be backed up before upgrading to newer versions of systemhound, and then restored after the upgrade.
What is avplugin.db?
This is a pre-defined list of software that has been known to be exist outside the default locations that systemhound identifies software from. It contains older software and additional product details that you may find useful to have on the reports; if present on your machines, systemhound will report them. The file will be installed by default in the Program Files\systemhound\Release\Operating System\Plugins directory when you install systemhound, and it is recommended not to edit it. It gets updated with new releases of systemhound.
Adding Software Manually
The Custom Software Tool provides the ability for you to add software manually, instead of or in addition to running a hard drive scan. For example, you may have certain older software that you find is not being reported by systemhound’s default methods, and is not retrieved by running a hard drive scan as it is not an executable. You will need to work out whether the application has its definition in the registry, or in an INI file or can simply be defined using its filename. For example, Microsoft Visual Basic 3 is defined in a file called vb.exe and can be easily added in using its description, as shown within the next section.
Figure 1: add software via filename
Using a Filename
1. Click on the File tab and then click on Add. Enter the description, manufacturer and filename fields, as shown in Fig 1. Click Add and continue manually adding more software. Click Done when finished.
2. Once you have finished your customizations, save your changes by clicking Save Custom Configuration. An additional use of this facility is to configure systemhound to report on any file, if present at the specified location.
Using a registry entry
1. This feature allows you to add software manually as defined from the registry or to add additional product details that you wish systemhound to report on. An example could be the virus definitions version of ’McAfee VirusScan’ – a customisation included by default with systemhound.
2. Click on the Registry tab and then click on the Add button.
3. Fill in the Description, Manufacturer, Registry Key and Registry Value fields as shown in Fig 2. The Registry Key value is case sensitive and must be entered in square brackets ([]) although these will be put in automatically should you omit them.
4. Click Add and continue manually adding more software. Click Done when finished. Once you have finished your customizations, save your changes by clicking Save.
Figure 2: adding software via the registry
Note: If you wish to select a default value from the registry enter a @ into the 'Registry Value' box.
Using an INI file entry
1. This feature allows you to add software manually as defined from an INI file or to add additional product details that you wish systemhound to report on. An example could be the virus definitions version of ’Norton Antivirus’ – a customisation included by default with systemhound. Fig 3. shows you what a typical INI file looks like.
2. Click on the Current INI Software tab and then click on the Add button.
3. Fill in the Description, Manufacturer, Filename, Section and Value fields as shown in Fig 7.7. Note that the Section and Value fields are case sensitive.
4. Click Add and continue manually adding more software. Click Done when finished. Once you have finished your customizations, save your changes by clicking Save Custom Configuration.
Figure 3: adding software via an INI file
To read from:
Figure 4: example of a typical INI file. definfo.dat contains Norton Antivirus definition verstion details
Full Drive Auditing
Scanning the Hard Drive
Shfullscan.exe, found in Program Program Files\systemhound\Utils\CustomSoftware, does a complete scan of the machine and generates a list of systemhound compatible section definitions for all software executables found on local drives on the machine. No other file types are found. You should run the tool under a local administrator account to ensure the scan is able to access all files on the machine.
Run the executable on the machine you wish to generate the audit by simply copying the executable to the target machine and double clicking the executable. The introduction page will be presented:
Figure 5
Click next on the ’perform scan’ page and enter the path and filename the audit details should be saved to. By default this location is set to the users desktop.
Figure 6
Click next and the scan will begin. The full hard drive scan can take several minutes depending on the amount of software present on the user machine.
Figure 7
Once completed the file scan file can be loaded into the custom software tool (more details below).
Figure 8
Adding Software from a Hard Drive Scan
Run on the command line the Custom Software Tool from Program Files\systemhound\Utils\CustomSoftware\ ShCustom.exe on the systemhound server. Use the command line parameter IMPORT to start the custom software tool in scanned software mode.
Click on the "Scanned software" tab and then click the "Read In Disk Scan File" button, navigate to your file and click Open.
This will import the data into the Scanned Software dialog. As the full hard drive scan will also discover software that is already being reported by systemhound using the default methods, the Custom Software Tool automatically detects these and does not display them. By default, software found in the Recycle Bin, in Temp folders or called setup.exe will also not be shown. You can uncheck these three options if you really want to see software found here, but it is recommended you leave these options selected.
You now need to select the software you wish to add to custom detection. The software is displayed sorted by manufacturer, and the filename is shown using environment variables where possible, e.g. %ProgramFiles%, %windir%, %localdrive%, etc. Use the Ctrl + Shift keys to multi-select items.
Once you have chosen the software you wish to add, click on Add Selected Software. This adds the software into the Current File Software Tab, removing it from the Scanned Software list. Click on the Current File Software tab to see your list of customized software. Also displayed will be any existing custom software.
Now click on Save Custom Configuration to add the software to the list within avcustomer.db (see above).
Exporting data
Export Wizard
Introduction
The systemhound website export tool provides the facility to export the audit data held within the systemhound reporting website. The application should be run on the systemhound central server. The export tool can export data to either a CSV (comma separated file) suitable for loading into Microsoft Excel , Microsoft Access Database (MDB) and generic databases via OleDB.
By using the 'save settings..' option to create a settings file it is possible to automate the export of data by using a 3rd party scheduling tool.
Performing an export
Start the systemhound export tool and if you wish to save the export configuration for automating the export, check the box "save settings to the desktop". If you wish to re-use a previously created configuration, run the wizard again from a command prompt adding the full path to the config file (in quotes) on the command line. Click next.
Figure 1
Example command line for running the export tool using a previously save configuration file:
shexport.exe c:\temp\systemhound_export_settings.ini
On the next page, confirm the location of the systemhound website and chose whether to export the data to CSV or MDB. The path to the systemhound website is defaulted to the location of the current website. If you wish to only export a subset of data then de-select the categories you wish to omit. Each category will result in single file or database table being created depending on the export type. Click next.
Figure 2
Exporting to CSV
When choosing to export to a CSV flat file you have the ability to select the export directory and which categories you wish to be merged into the main hardware csv file. Only the categories that can be merged are displayed and merged categories will become repeating columns within the hardware file (e.g. Processor1, Processor2, Processor3, …). Click next.
Figure 3
Export to Access MDB
When choosing to export to an Access database, select the location to create the database. The export tool will automatically create the Access database. Click next once the location has been selected.
Figure 4
Export Execution
On the final page, click next to begin the export.
Figure 5
Once the export is completed, the page below will be displayed.
Figure 6
The exported data is now ready for analysis within Excel or Access depending on your export choice.
Standalone Auditing
systemhound standalone audit
Introduction
systemhound standalone audit is designed either for auditing machines not connected to the network or for machines on which you do not wish to install systemhound client software.
The standalone audit procedure has two processes:
1. create the initial build of the standalone audit application.
2. run the standalone audit on client PCs.
The following guide takes you through the process of customising the standalone application by running the through the ’build’ process initiated by the standalone audit wizard. The wizard also enables you to configure where the audit log files should be stored and there is an option to email them via SMTP.
To launch standalone audit wizard run the program from "program files\systemhound\Utils\StandaloneAudit\StandaloneAuditWizard.exe"
The screenshot below of the standalone audit program shows the customisable elements of the user interface which include the title, bitmap and welcome message.
Figure 1
Building the standalone audit application
To build a customised standalone audit launch the "standalone audit wizard"
Figure 2
Click next to begin the configuration process and on the next page click "change bitmap" to browse for an alternate bitmap.
Figure 3
Once the required image has been selected click next. On the next page you should enter the text message you wish the person who is running the application to see. Click next once the text is entered.
Figure 4
On the next page choose how you wish the log files to be collected and stored by the tool.
- If you intend to store the log files on a common file shared which end-users have access to or if you wish to store the log files in the same location as the audit tool (such as a USB drive/key ring) then please select file system.
- If you plan to email the tool to remote users and collect the log file via email select SMTP. To use SMTP you will require details of SMTP server that accepts anonymous logon.
Figure 5
Sending via SMTP
If you chose SMTP fill in the details as required. As shown in the screenshot, environment variables are supported for the email subject and email ’from’ name. Once details have been entered, please click the ’send test email’ button to test the connection to the SMTP server.
Figure 6
Saving to shared directories
If you chose to store the log files on a shared drive you have two options.
1. Choose to save the logs to the same location as the standalone audit tool. Use this option your users will run the tool from different drive letters e.g. if you plan to run the tool from a USB drive/key ring.
2. Alternatively hardcode the full path to a shared drive on the network (UNC can be used) – this option is useful if you plan to email the executable out to users to run manually but you wish the log files to be collected centrally.
Figure 7
Click next and enter the window title for the application or accept the default.
Figure 8
Click next and select the location for the wizard to save the standalone audit tool to. The default location is the Windows desktop.
Figure 9
Click next to build the executable.
Figure 10 Compiling
Once compilation is complete the standalone audit executable is ready for use.
Figure 11 Finished
Launching standalone audit
The finished standalone audit executable can either be launched directly by double clicking the executable which will start the application in full mode (Figure 12) or in minimised mode (Figure 13) by running the application with the command line argument AUTO. In ’auto’ mode the application automatically performs the audit and exits without user intervention and is intended for use within logon scripts.
Example of command line:
Standaloneaudit.exe AUTO
|
|
Importing audit data
Each time the standalone audit completes, a per machine zip file of audit details is created. The standalone audit wizard is used to load these zip files into the systemhound website.
On the systemhound server, launch the standalone audit wizard. The following wizard page is displayed. Click the 'Import Log files' button on the first screen and the following screen will be displayed..
Alternatively the application can be launched in import mode from the command line: "C:\Program Files\systemhound\Utils\StandaloneAudit\StandaloneAuditWizard.exe" IMPORT
Figure 14
Select the directory where the machine zips (Figure 15) are located and click next.
Figure 15
Click next and start the import process.
After each audit zip file is successfully processed, it is renamed to have the file extension ".processed" so it is not processed by the tool again.
Once all files have been processed the final summary screen is displayed
Figure 16
Deployment Options
Overview
Deployment of both the systemhound server and client software is via the supplied Windows Installer package. The preferred deployment mechanism for live installations is via Microsoft Active Directory and group policy. Manual installation by double-clicking the msi is recommended for customer evaluations of the systemhound product.
Additional tools to assist with deployment are also installed with the systemhound server product. Detailed guides for these tools are provided in separate links and within the systemhound online Wiki.
The client deployment options (all utilising the Windows Installer package) are as follows:
- Deployment via Microsoft Active Directory (recommended)
- Deployment via login script using systemhound "client install"
- Deployment via Drive Imaging (ensure systemhound id is not copied)
- Standalone audit where no client software is installed
- Deployment using systemhound "remote install"
Regardless of the chosen deployment approach, the following pre-requisites must be met on the target machine:
- Microsoft Windows Installer must already be installed
- The user account launching the tool must either have local administrator rights to the computer or Windows Installer should be able to run in an elevated privileges. More information can be found at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q259459
Manual Deployment
Introduction
systemhound is deployed via 2 separate Windows installer packages rather than a single installer for both client and server. The installer for the client machines should only be installed onto client machines (and not the systemhound central server).
When installing into an existing systemhound environment there is no need to re-install the clients. By re-installing the server the existing client machines will be upgraded to the latest version
Installation prerequisites
Server Machine
Recommended requirements for systemhound central server are:
- Microsoft Windows XP / Windows 2003 / Windows 2008
- 1 GB memory
- 2 GHz processor
- 1 GB hard drive space free on program files drive.
Adobe Flash Player is required on the server and will be installed automatically as part of the server install. Microsoft .Net 2.0 Framework is required on the server to run the main maintenance application. You will be prompted to download this by the installer if it is required. ...
Note that the web reports may not function if the browser is being run on a machine that has "ie enhanced security" installed. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/815141
Minimum requirements are:
- Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista.
- 512 GB memory
- 1 GHz processor
- 200Mb hard drive space free on program files drive.
The download version of systemhound is pre-loaded with a 10 user licence to audit up to 10 PCs including the central server.
Install systemhound server
Firstly, install the systemhound central server software onto a Windows server. The machine will collect and report on the asset details within your pc estate.
The installation will default the website folder to program files\systemhound\website; if you wish to use a different folder please see changing website folder location
Manual Installation
1. Double click the "systemhound central server.msi" to start the installer
Figure 1
2. Click next, please read the licence agreement, indicate your acceptance by selecting ’I accept…’ then click next
Figure 2
3. On the customer information page, enter your name and organisation details.
Figure 3
4. You are now ready to install the program:
Figure 4
The installation will now start
After a short while the following screen will be displayed to indicate successful installation
Figure 5
Once the install completed page appears, click finish.
View server details within web reports
The server will be automatically scanned by the server software and the machine details will be added to the systemhound database. As systemhound is lightweight and runs in the background it will only take a couple of minutes for the details to be collected and processed.
After a short while, navigate to the systemhound menu installed under
and select Programs->systemhound->Reporting.
Figure 6
This will launch the main reporting web site of systemhound (as below).
Figure 7
Confirm that the systemhound central server machine is reported by clicking on the server shown under "Machine count".
Client machine installation
To collect the details of additional machines in your company you can manually install the systemhound client using the provided Windows Installer package. Manual installation is fine for evaluation but the next section provides alternative deployment options which are available.
The client install msi is deployed as a single file as part of the central server installation into the folder systemhound\utils\LoginscriptInstallation.
Alternative deployment options
Other deployment options are available including (all utilising the Windows Installer package):
- Deployment via Microsoft Active Directory (recommended)
- Deployment via login script using systemhound "client install"
- Deployment via Drive Imaging (ensure systemhound id is not copied)
- Standalone audit where no client software is installed
- Deployment using systemhound "remote install"
Manual installation
1. Double click the file "systemhound client.msi" to start this installer.
Figure 8
2. Click next, please read the licence agreement and indicate your acceptance by selecting ’I accept…’ then click next
Figure 9
5. On the customer information page, enter your name and organisation details and click next.
Figure 10
6. On the next page enter the server name of the systemhound central server. This is the DNS hostname of the computer that you installed the systemhound central server software onto. Once you have entered the name click next.
Figure 11
7. The installer will attempt to validate and contact the server name you entered. If you receive an error of "Failed to connect to server" (Figure 12) then confirm you’ve entered the server name correctly and confirm that the PC can "ping" the server correctly.
Figure 12
8. Once the server name has been validated, the installer is ready to deploy the systemhound agent software. Click next.
Figure 13
9. After a short while the following screen will be displayed to indicate successful installation
Figure 14
The machine will be audited by systemhound within a few minutes of installation and you will be able view the information gathered by viewing the web reports on the central server (Figure 7).
Automated deployment via Group Policy
How to deploy the systemhound client MSI installer via active directory
The following steps can be followed to configure Microsoft Active Directory Group Policy to deploy the systemhound client to your pc estate. Before starting make sure you are logged in as an administrator.
The client install msi is deployed as a single file as part of the central server installation into the folder systemhound\utils\LoginscriptInstallation.
Creating an MSI administrative install
Create an Administrative Installation of the systemhound client msi by typing the following at the command line:
MSIEXEC.EXE /a "<Path>\systemhound-client.msi" CENTRALSERVERNAME=<systemhound Servername>
Where
<systemHound Servername> represents the name of your systemhound central server <Path> represents the location of the “systemhound client.msi” file
This will launch the Administrative Installation wizard. Be sure to install the systemhound Client installation package to a network share capable of being accessed by all computers you wish to install the software onto. Once the administrative installation point is in place, you can assign or publish the application from Active Directory so that it is made available to your computers or users. The 'systemhound central server name' you provided on the command line will be stored within the administrative install - be sure that the computers that receive the software install will be able to perfrom a TCP/IP 'ping' against the server.
Tip: It is recommended that you create a dns entry for yout systemhound cental server rather than using the hostname in case you change the server name in the future.
Configuring a group policy
The systemhound client must be assigned to Computers (and not Users) because it audits the PC and not the user. Using either 'Active Directory Users and Computers', or the 'Group Policy Management Console', edit the Group Policy that affects the computers you wish to make this software available to.
- Select 'Computer Configuration' and double click 'Software Settings'
- Next, in the console tree, right click Software Installation, and select New Package from the menu.
- Select the MSI-package from the Administrative Installation you created earlier. In the Browse Box, enter the UNC path to the MSI file deployed earlier. You must only use UNC paths here, and never paths that include drive letters.
- Choose a deployment option of 'assigned'
Exit the GPO management application
Deployment
When your users reboot their machines systemhound will be installed whilst they log on. (Install time may vary depending on network speed and traffic).
Once the user has logged on, the client install will complete and the machine will report to the systemhound Server.
Administrative Rights
systemhound client installs a windows service and therefore requires administrative rights during the install. If the user performing the install does not have administration rights to their pc the following FAQ may be of assistance to you : How To Allow Users Who Are Not Administrators to Install MSI Packages
Additional Reference
KB324750 HOW TO: Assign Software to a Specific Group By Using a Group Policy
KB816102 HOW TO: Use Group Policy to Remotely Install Software in Windows Server (includes uninstall)
KB321713 HOW TO: Use Group Policy to Set Automatic Installation Options Based Network
KB314934 HOW TO: Use Group Policy to Remotely Install Software in Windows 2000
Automated deployment via Login script
Client install tool
Introduction
The preferred deployment mechanism for systemhound clients is to deploy the client MSI (Windows Installer) via Active directory.
The client install tool provides an alternative approach to this enabling you to deploy (and uninstall) the client software via a login script but still using the MSI deployment package. It is suitable for all Windows platforms where the pre-requisites are met. The tools wraps calls to Windows Installer.
Each time the tool is launched it checks whether the client is installed before launching the client MSI. Deployment is controlled by a parameterised INI file where you can specify the basic rules the tool uses to decide on whether to deploy or not.
To following pre-requisites are required for deploying using the tool:
- Microsoft Windows Installer must already be installed
- The user launching the tool must either have local administrator rights to the computer or Windows Installer should be able to run in an elevated privileges. More information can be found at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q259459
- The user launching the tool must have write access to where the tool is being run from as the default location for the log file is the same location. You can alter the log file location by editing the clientinstall.exe.ini file and changing the msiexec parameters if you wish the log file to go elsewhere.
Configuration
Required Files
Copy the files clientinstall.exe and clientinstall.exe.ini from "C:\Program Files\systemhound\Utils\LoginscriptInstallation" to a shared network location where they can be referenced by your login scripts. Also copy the client installer "systemhound client.msi" to the same location.
The default location for the MSI log file is the same directory as clientinstall.exe. Therefore the user running the program must have WRITE access to this folder. If the user doesn't have access then the MSIEXEC error code of 1622 is returned. You can edit the ini file to change the logfile location. For help with other MSIEXEC error codes see the microsoft page http://support.microsoft.com/kb/229683
Editing Configuration
Open the file clientinstall.exe.ini within notepad and ensure that the following entry contains the name of the systemhound central server:
You can now add a call to clientinstall.exe within your login scripts to deploy systemhound out to your company’s computers.
Monitoring Deployment Progress
Whenever the tool launches the installer, the file deployments.ini is updated. This file is created within the same directory as the clientinstall.exe and contains two INI file sections: SUCCESS and FAILURE. Each entry under these sections contains the machine name as the field name and the username and date of entry as the value.
In addition to this the log file generated by the Windows Installer is stored in the same directory. This log file is named with the client computer’s name as its prefix and should be used to troubleshoot deployment.
Alternative Scenarios
Moving systemhound central server
Ideally you would use a registered DNS entry to refer to your systemhound central server but if this was not possible and you rename or move your systemhound central server to another PC you will need to redeploy the systemhound client to reflect the host name change. By editing the value "expected value" within the [installedok] section of clientinstall.exe.ini you can force the reinstall of the client software should the client machine be referring to a different central server name. For example replace "expectedvalue=*" with "expectedvalue=newcentralservername".
Alternatively you may decide to script the change of the registry entry on the client machines. The central server is held at
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\systemhound] "database_server"="NEWSERVERNAME"
Microsoft link to scripting registry changes:
Uninstalling systemhound
Should you need to remove the systemhound client, repeat the configuration steps detailed for deploying but when calling clientinstall.exe from within your login scripts add the command line argument ’UNINSTALL’.
clientinstall.exe UNINSTALL
Of course you can also manually remove the client software from within Add/Remove programs inside Windows Control Panel.
Automated deployment via Drive Imaging
Deployment via drive imaging
Deployment of systemhound using drive imaging technologies such as Symantec© Ghost© is support however it does requires special consideration because the systemhound server allocates each systemhound client a unique id. Therefore, when deploying systemhound via drive imaging software you must follow the following steps prior to taking an image that includes the systemhound client:
1. Stop the systemhound scheduler service on the machine
Windows NT/ 2000/ XP/ 2003/ Vista / Windows 7 (administrative rights are required)
- Stop the systemhound scheduler service via services within control panel
Windows 95, 98 & ME
- Start\Run "c:\program files\systemhound\shservice.exe" -stopall
2. Delete all files under c:\program files\systemhound\logs
3. Delete the registry values machine_id and machine_id2 from under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\systemhound key using the regedit utility
Note: If the machine is rebooted whilst on the network the above steps must be repeated to ensure the client does not re-register itself with the systemhound server.
Automated deployment via Remote Deployment Wizard
Introduction
The install wizard can be used to deploy the msi remotely but its use is limited with the prevalence of firewalls with Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista. As of systemhound 2007, this is no longer the recommended way to install clients to Win NT/2000/XP Pro/2003/Vista machines. The preferred deployment mechanism is via Active Directory policy.
You must use an administrator account to use the Install Wizard.
- When deploying within a Windows WORKGROUP rather than a DOMAIN network environment you must ensure that the target machines do not enforce Guest access from the network. This is enabled as a default on Windows XP PRO and Windows VISTA. MS290403
- The remote installation tool will need to access the remote machines file-system and remote management interface. Firewalls should be configured appropriately. MS840634
- The remote installation tool attempts to access the machine using the file share ADMIN$. This is not available on some 'home' operating systems such as Windows XP Home / Windows VISTA Home and an alternative deployment option should be used. Category:Deployment
- Virus protection on the remote machine may prevent the systemhound remote installation service from being installed. This has been seen to occur when Symantec or McAffee application protection products are installed.
Launching the application
On the systemhound server, go to Start/Programs/systemhound/Tools/Install Wizard/systemhound console. This will open up the systemhound console. From within this application click the 'deploy' button under 'remotely install systemhound' tp open the remote install utility as shown in Figure 1. Alternatively run the program from the file system at "Program Files\systemhound\Utils\RemoteInstall\shwizMSI.exe"
Figure 1
Choose the Install mode (this is selected by default) and click Next
Target Selection
The next screen (Figure 2) shows the domain / workgroups installed across your Microsoft Windows Network and allows you to select computers to install the systemhound client to. You can select individual machines, a domain or machines by IP range.
Figure 2
To select individual machines, click on the ’+’ sign next to the domain. Highlight a machine from the list and click on Add. This machine will now appear in the target client list on the right. If you are not logged in to the domain the machine belongs to, you will be prompted to enter an administration username and password for that domain. This must be entered using the domain\username format. Note that only Win NT/2000/XP/2003 machines can be installed using the Install Tool; you will not be able to select any Win 9x machines.
Alternatively, you can find a machine on the network by name or IP address by choosing the Find option as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3
Add by Domain
To select a domain or workgroup to install systemhound clients to, instead of individual machines, highlight the domain/workgroup and choose Add Level. This will add all WinNT/2000/XP/2003 machines shown under that domain / workgroup to the list of target clients on the right. It is recommended to check the Batch Mode option; this prevents all pop up boxes from showing and eliminates the need for any user input, thus speeding the process of machine selection.
Pop up boxes will appear if a username/password is required (Figure 4) or to display error messages; these could result from Win 9x machines being discovered on the domain/workgroup that is selected, or if the Install Tool is unable to access the registry on the target machine. Once the machines have been selected and the clients are installed, you can return to those machines with installation issues. Note that selecting an entire domain can take some time as each machine’s suitability for a client install has to be determined; a progress bar (Figure 5) will display as this is being carried out.
Figure 4
Figure 5
Add by IP Range
Clients can also be selected by IP Range. Choose the Add IP Range option to discover all suitable machines within a given IP range. Input an IP range into the dialog box as shown in Figure 6. Click OK to initiate the discovery process, as shown in Figure 7. Once this is complete, it will then proceed to check each machine to determine its suitability for a client installation (Figure 8). As with using the Add Level option, you may find it better to use the Batch Mode option to prevent pop up boxes from showing.
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
Confirmation
Any machine that is selected for client installation will have an icon to its left which indicates whether a systemhound client has been installed on the machine or not. Hover the mouse over an icon for more details.
 | blue | Indicates no systemhound client is installed. |
 | green | Indicates systemhound client is already present. |
 | red | Indicates systemhound client is present but not running due to a problem. |
Central Server Details
Once machines for installation have been selected, click Next. The next screen shown in Figure 9 will indicate the systemhound central server automatically. The central server can be defined by DNS Name or IP. Identification of the server via DNS abstraction is the most flexible option and recommended. By default, the central server name is displayed.
Figure 9
The following Batch Install Options shown are available:
- Do not install software where server already has systemhound installed
The client software will not be installed on the user machine if already present. Uncheck this box if you are re-installing a client.
- Report installation errors as they occur
Indicates that installation will stop at the first error, but you will have the option to carry on. If it is unchecked, the installation will continue to the end even if errors occur. For example, if the 56th machine failed, it would still install machines 57-100. The installation log file will record details for all client installations.
Click Next to be shown the list of machines selected for installation, as shown in Figure 10.
Figure 10
Click on Install to start the installation process. The client software will now be installed on to the remote user machines.
Completion Screen
Fig 11 shows the end of a successful install process. A log file of the install process is created as indicated, in the Program Files\systemhound\logs folder.
Figure 11
Note: A successful installation does not necessarily indicate that client data will be sent to the central server. It simply means the client software has been remotely installed successfully on the target machine. The client machine may not be able to communicate with the server. If there is a networking issue, the systemhound client may be unable to send data, which means it will not show on the systemhound reporting. When a client has been successfully installed but does not appear on the reporting, check upload.log on the problem client machine in the first instance, for details of any errors. The remote install agent also writes to the event log (source name of ’systemhound ri’) on the target machine so please also review the event entries to check for errors.
Support Tools
Client refresh tool
Introduction
The client refresh tool, shrefresh.exe, is installed with every systemhound client to "Program Files\systemhound\Utils\Refresh". Shrefresh is typically used when you wish to either troubleshoot or resend a machine’s audit details to the server. It can be run from the Console in Programs/systemhound/tools or from the command prompt.
Command Line
Shrefresh should be run from a command prompt with no arguments as shown in the screenshot below. This is the same as running from the Console.
Program output will show that the tool has successfully contacted the systemhound central server and that all the individual components completed without error. At the end of the audit, the details are sent to the systemhound central server for processing.
The systemhound reports will normally be updated within a couple of minutes.
The tool also supports the following command line arguments which are used by systemhound support staff to troubleshoot installations.
shrefresh.exe [noupload] [verbose]
Argument: noupload
shrefresh will run as normal but will not contact the systemhound central server during its execution. This ensures that configuration and plugin files are not overwritten by the master copies on the server. You would typically asked to use this option when systemhound support have sent you a debug version of systemhound to try out on a client machine in isolation - if you did not use this option the test files would be overwritten by the server copy.
Argument: verbose
Debug and verbose logging is turned on and output sent to the screen. Normally when shrefresh is run in this manner the output is redirected to a file as below:
Support tool
Introduction
The support tool should be run when requested by systemhound support.
You may be asked to run the tool on the systemhound central server and/or the systemhound client.
The tool will prepare a ZIP archive of files from the systemhound directory – the files chosen will be typically those that support would require to assist with your call.
When run on the systemhound central server, the reporting website and client reporting files are collected and when run on a client machine the client files are collected.
Running the tool
The application is located on the central server at the following location:
"Program Files\systemhound\Utils\SupportTool\supportTool.exe"
When running the tool on a client machine you will either need to run this program remotely or copy to a location accessible from the client computer.
Once started the introduction page is shown:
Figure 1
Click next to display the ’collect data’ page…
Figure 2 Data collection screen
And click next again to begin the data collection.
Figure 3 Data collection underway
Once the data collection has completed, the final ’finished’ page will be displayed. Make a note of the location created by the tool as displayed on screen – it will always be a new file on your desktop – and send it to support@systemhound.com together with details of your helpdesk call.
Figure 4
Reference
Collector service
Description
The systemhound Collector (SHC) is a service that runs on the systemhound server. Its job is to accept logged information from systemhound user machines and make sure that the user machines are kept up to date and are consistent with released systemhound software. The SHC runs as a service on Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista.
The SHC uses the TCP/IP protocol to accept connections from machines that are contacting the systemhound server. The communication session can involve both the upload and download of files to and from the remote user machine.
Overview
During a session the remote machine identifies itself to the SHC and uploads any systemhound logged data to the SHC server. Having completed the upload process, the remote machine will request the SHC to check for any new or new versions of systemhound programs that it is required to run. Should this be the case the SHC will deliver the new files to the user machine in a download process. Once the session has been completed the user machine will initiate a closedown of the systemhound session.
| Remote machine connects to the systemhound server |
| Remote machine identifies itself to the systemhound server |
| Remote machine delivers any log file information to the server |
| Remote machine receives an update of systemhound plugins, if appropriate |
| Remote machine initiates the closedown of the session |
Figure A1: sample session
Transport
The protocol used by systemhound to communicate with the remote machines is a custom designed protocol running over the TCP/IP transport layer. The TCP/IP port, which is used to accept calls by the SHC, is configurable by the systemhound Administrator. By default, systemhound uses port 4004.
Security
The SHC session with the remote machine is secured by the use of an encryption algorithm. All data transferred to and from the SHC is in encrypted form, which will prevent the ’sniffing’ of data on the network. In addition, the use of an encryption method prevents the ’spoofing’ of systemhound sessions.
Network traffic
The SHC session has been designed to minimise the amount of network traffic that is generated during a typical session. The systemhound log files containing the inventory data are compact in themselves. Typically they are between 10-40Kb depending on the amount of software present on the user machine. All systemhound programs that are used by the remote host are compiled to be optimally small in size – typically less than 50KB.
The frequency at which the remote client communicates with the SHC is configurable through the Central Configuration Tool (data upload). The more frequently the client is configured to communicate with the SHC, the more network traffic will be generated. However, it should be noted that network traffic is minimal if no updated log file or new systemhound plugins are available.
| Recommended frequency | |
| Minimum | 1 hour |
| Maximum | 24 hours |
Figure A2: recommended data upload frequency
Note: Although it is possible to change the frequency of connection through the Central Configuration Tool via the data upload option, it should be remembered that the clients will only be updated at the time of the next connection to the SHC. Therefore if the client was previously configured to connect to the SHC every 7 days, an updated connection rate of 24 hours may take seven days to propagate to the client. The following log files are generated by systemhound.
collector.log
on the systemhound server in Program Files\systemhound\logs details any errors encountered with the collector service which is responsible for collecting data from client machines.
CsvExport.log
on the systemhound server in Program Files\systemhound\logs details the data export process when using the CSV Export Tool.
hwinfo.log
on the clients and the server in Program Files\systemhound\logs details the hardware inventory process for the server and client.
shmaintlib.log
on the systemhound server in Program Files\systemhound\logs maintains an audit trail of all purge and delete functions carried out with the Website Maintenance Tool
site_builder.log
on the systemhound server in Program Files\systemhound\logs contains licensing details for systemhound and any errors encountered by the site_builder service.
systemhound install wizard.txt
on the systemhound server in Program Files\systemhound\logs details the installation and uninstallation process for systemhound clients installed using the Install Wizard.
upload.log
on the clients and the server in Program Files\systemhound\logs details the upload of data from the client to the server. Will contain details of any errors while attempting to upload data.
*.inf
on the client machines 'inf' files are generated under Program Files\systemhound\logs. Each 'inf' file is the cached summary output from a single systemhound asset module. These files are used to build upload.dat which is sent to the central server and contains the machine asset details.
upload.log
on the clients and the server in Program Files\systemhound\logs details the upload of data from the client to the server. Will contain details of any errors while attempting to upload data.
systemhound install wizard.txt
on the systemhound server - the log file is located within Program Files\systemhound\logs and is a record of the client install generated by the main central server installer.
systemhound install.log
on the systemhound server in WINNT\Temp details the installation process carried out on the server using the systemhound executable. Will also be present on client machines if the executable is used to install the client.
maint.db
on the systemhound server in Program Files\systemhound\logs. details the status and any errors/warnings that occurred during the usage fo the systemhound website maintenance tool.
buildinv.log
on the systemhound server in Program Files\systemhound\logs shows status and errors generated by the systemhound service "sitebuilder". This log is useful in diagnosing whether client log files have been rejected due to licensing problems.
FAQ
FAQ for systemhound
What are the minimum requirements for running systemhound?
For the systemhound server: Windows NT/2000/XP/2003, 256Mb RAM, 200Mb disk space. For systemhound clients: Windows 95-2003 (all versions).
Can the systemhound clients communicate and send data to the systemhound server over the internet and not just on a LAN?
If the systemhound server has a public IP and is visible to the remote clients, then yes it can.
Will systemhound work over a VPN?
Yes, as long as the client machine can communicate with the remote systemhound server, systemhound will work.
If a laptop user has not logged on to the network for a week, will an inventory take place as soon as the user logs on?
The inventory is carried out according to the schedules the client has received from the server; by default this is once per day. However the data will not be transferred to the systemhound server unless the server IP address is visible. Therefore, when a user logs on to the network, systemhound will detect the IP and immediately transfer the data to the systemhound server.
Does systemhound work with XP SP2’s Firewall?
Yes. If the systemhound server is running XP SP2 with Firewall enabled, you should install v4.0.5.0. For systemhound clients on XP SP2 with Firewall enabled, please ensure that the File & Printer Sharing option in the Exceptions tab is checked. If unchecked you will not be able to remotely install clients. By default, this option is checked in the Firewall.
I want to be able to verify the number of copies of installed software so I can validate we are in compliance with the licensing?
The software report tells you how many copies you have installed of a particular application, and you can enter the number of licenses you own into the Website Maintenance tool and systemhound will indicate whether you are in violation or not.
Why does the Operating System not appear on the software report?
As the OS is ingrained into the hardware of a machine and cannot be detected as a specific application (eg there is no windows.exe), it appears on the hardware report as this is actually how it is detected. Systemhound does indicate the OS on the software report for an individual pc.
I want to know how many systems are slower than a Pentium III 500MHZ or how many systems are running less than 128MB or memory or how many systems have hard drives smaller than 6GB.
You can get answers to those sort of questions by using the sorting and bar chart functionality on the hardware reports. For example, you could sort on the RAM column, then click on the bar chart icon at the bottom and the resulting bar chart will display the breakdown of machines by memory.
Do I have to carry out an audit process each time I need updated information?
No. With systemhound, once the clients are installed, you do not have to do anything else; your inventory information will be kept constantly up-to-date.
How much data does systemhound report from each machine? What is the network footprint?
Typically the average machine will send back a logfile of 15-30kb depending on the amount of software installed, so the impact on your network is minimal.
SOFTWARE LICENCE AGREEMENT
Software Innovations UK Limited ("SI") is willing to license the accompanying software to you only upon the condition that you accept all of the terms contained in the licence agreement. Read the terms and conditions of this licence carefully before installing and/or licensing the software.
By installing and/or licensing the software, you agree to the terms and conditions of this agreement. If you are not willing to be bound by this agreement, uninstall the Software and return, if purchased, the licence keys, unused within fifteen (15) days of purchase for a refund of the licence fee paid.
1. Licence to Use. Customer is granted a non-exclusive and non-transferable licence ("Licence") for use of the systemhound software in machine-readable form, together with accompanying documentation ("Software"), by the class of computer hardware for which the corresponding fee has been paid.
2. Restrictions. Software is copyrighted and SI and/or its licensors retain title to all copies. Customers shall not make copies of Software, other than a single copy of Software for archival purposes. Exempt where applicable law prohibits enforcement of this provision. Customer shall not modify, decompile, disassemble, decrypt, extract or otherwise reverse engineer Software. Software is not designed or licensed for use in on-line control equipment in hazardous environments such as operation of nuclear facilities, aircraft navigation or control, or direct life support machines.
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4. Limited Warranty. SI warrants that for a period of ninety (90) days from the date of purchase, as evidenced by a copy of the purchase order or credit card payment, that the Software contains the features described in the SI Website 'http://www.systemhound.com' ("Website") at the date of purchase. Otherwise, the software is provided "AS IS". This limited warranty extends only to the Customer as the original licensee. Customer's exclusive remedy and SI's entire liability under this limited warranty will be, at SI's option, to repair or replace the Software, or refund the licence fee paid therefor.
5. Thirty Day Money Back Guarantee. If you are the original licensee of the Software and are not completely satisfied with it, simply contact SI or your reseller for a full refund less delivery costs at any time during the thirty-day period following your order of the Software.
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In no event shall SI's liability to the Customer, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), or otherwise, exceed the licence fee paid by Customer for Software. The foregoing limitations shall apply even if the above stated warranty fails of its essential purpose.
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Categories: SH2009 | Deployment | Web reporting | Website maintenance tool | Website maintenance tool systemhound | Central Configuration | DELETED | Console application | Custom Software Tool | Export tool | StandaloneAuditWizard | Standalone audit | Msi | Windows installer | Client install tool | Drive imaging | Remote installation tool | Deployment strategy | Client refresh tool | Shrefresh | Support tool | Collector Service | Logfiles | License
