Full Manual systemhound 2007
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Upgrades & Licensing
systemhound 2007 can upgrade or import an earlier systemhound website. This facility is designed to import data from systemhound Rev 4.2. 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 2007.Follow the steps below to backup up a systemhound website prior to installing and upgrading to systemhound 2007.
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
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 to retain the website you can choose no. This will remove systemhound and the website from the installed locations. Next install systemhound 2007 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 2007 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 2007 customer).
Installing
Installation prerequisites
Server Machine
Recommended requirements for systemhound central server are:
- Microsoft Windows XP or Windows 2003
- 1 GB memory
- 2 GHz processor
- 1 GB hard drive space free on program files drive.
NOTE: systemhound server will not function fully on Windows 2003 where the optional windows component 'Internet Explorer Enhanced Security' is deployed as this prevents the systemhound console from running the web pages from the local disk. However, reports will still be generated and visible via IIS.
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 2007 (v5) 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 or Windows 2003
- 1 GB memory
- 2 GHz processor
- 1 GB hard drive space free on program files drive.
NOTE: systemhound server will not function fully on Windows 2003 where the optional windows component 'Internet Explorer Enhanced Security' is deployed as this prevents the systemhound console from running the web pages from the local disk. However, reports will still be generated and visible via IIS.
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 2007 is pre-loaded with a 10 user licence to audit up to 10 PCs including the central server.
Install systemhound 2007 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.
Figure 2: example of user defined fields. This information is viewed in the detailed hardware report for the machine
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 from systemhound 2007 onwards.
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: inputting 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.
Custom Fields (registry/ini & WMI)
For details on creating user defined fields within systemhound that report custom ini,file or registry entries please refer to the documention on the central configuration tool.
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 License Key. The license key entitles you to a certain number of machines in the systemhound database, sending data to your systemhound server.
More than one License 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.