Enter hardware data and reporting the data
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I have a question. Fog is collecting a lot of useful data like users login history, hostname, mac address etc. I found if I boot the computer and load up fog, I can upload the hardware info. I found few powershell scripts I could use and collect the same data but I don’t have to run around and reboot all these computers for this information. My question is how can I enter and change the SN numbers of computers in fog? How can I enter the hardware information into fog? Can I add fields like location, department etc?
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@jhalbert said in Enter hardware data and reporting the data:
I found few powershell scripts I could use and collect the same data but I don’t have to run around and reboot all these computers for this information.
You have to ‘run around’ because your computers are not set to boot to the network first.
For the powershell script - you can modify it to interact with FOG’s API, and deploy it as a snapin via FOG.
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@wayne-workman This idea gave me. I think I understand it like this. I use powershell to collect all data and send a text file to a server local to the pc. On a server that has the module all setup takes that text files and ssh to fog server and uploads the data. For the local pc, I create a task that runs daily, Windows nightly uploads the data by a task. My question is where do I put all this data on the fog server?
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@jhalbert said in Enter hardware data and reporting the data:
takes that text files and ssh to fog server
No, the FOG server has an actual API: https://news.fogproject.org/simplified-api-documentation/
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@wayne-workman JSON! and WAIT JSON!!! I can use JSON!!! I can use JSON!!! you made my day!!!
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If I’m understanding this correctly, you want a way to add/update the inventory without pxe booting?
That would actually be incredibly useful to me too. This summer I switched my site over to a different server for imaging, but the client still pointing to the ‘main’ server. All the inventory data was registered to the test server and I just imported the hosts into the main server. Didn’t get the hardware info on any of the new stuff.
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@avaryan I can share my scripts I have created to collect the hardware information. They are pretty small and you will need to create few extra things. For Json and powershell to work their an addin that is required. I don’t want 100’s of computer reporting hardware all at once to the server. I rather control that flow. I need the fog server to handle snaps and other reporting that it is doing all day long. The idea I came up with is easy. fog sends out a task to the pc. That task runs the powershell scripts daily and sends the output files to a file server. the file is the HostnameDateTime. inside the file it has date, time and hardware information. Now I have 100’s of these files per day. now I have a script on a server that checks for that location for a file. reads the file use Json to update fog. I also have WSUS doing the same job, sends its hardware information to fog that it collects Like IP address, what group they are in, how many updates they still need. Now all the hardware is update to date, I have list of all installed apps on that pc with verison number, and what updates they are missing on this pc. I just look into fog for everything.
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@avaryan FYI, at my setup I will not add plugins or extra things to powershell to a workstation. That is a very high risk thing to do. That is why I run task in Task scheduler. I understand that fog can do tasks on a daily or weekly. The problem is sometimes fog agent stops working. I have to reset it. If I reset it, it will do all those backup tasks all at once. that will slow down the user pc and our network. Windows task tool will always work and get the job done when I want it done.
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@jhalbert said in Enter hardware data and reporting the data:
I don’t want 100’s of computer reporting hardware all at once to the server.
Instant Snapins obey the
max_clientssetting on the storage nodes. They all will checkin and wait, just like with imaging. But onlymax clientsexecute at once. -
@wayne-workman yes but I would set a windows task to manage the updates. I found fog daily work fails once the client fails. Then I don’t have daily info that I was aiming to collect.
