Best practices for recording hardware faults

Question

In an environment of a couple of hundred of PCs and maybe 10-20 servers, what are the methods that are used to keep track of hardware failures and fixes either under warranty or otherwise?

My immediate attempts to find a solution via google did not elucidate anything using various combination sof the search terms 'recording hardware failure' or 'logging hardware fixes'.

I'm sure there must be something out there that does this to some extent. Otherwise I guess I will have to write a db-based solution.

Answer 1

Use a Wiki

I think you'll find that a properly formatted Wiki works EXTREMELY well.

The main problem with asset tracking systems is that everyone has their own idea of what they want (and don't want) to track.

Some systems are overly complex while others are found to be lacking.

The nice think about a wiki based solution is that you can create a standard "template" and begin tracking your machines that way.

If you decide to change it in the future, its easy.

I recommend one page per machine and then a "master page" or pages (perhaps at the department level or whatever is convenient) to link everything together.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

We just use a table in a wiki. We've got about the same quantity of hardware, and it works pretty well for us -- certainly no worse than any of the asset tracking systems I've used over the years.

Answer 3

I think Bugzilla is a good tracking tool even for hardware faults.
From the Bugzilla Guide: Why Should We Use Bugzilla?.

Bugzilla is very adaptable to various situations. Known uses currently include IT support queues, Systems Administration deployment management, chip design and development problem tracking (both pre-and-post fabrication), and software and hardware bug tracking for luminaries such as Redhat, NASA, Linux-Mandrake, and VA Systems. Combined with systems such as CVS, Bonsai, or Perforce SCM, Bugzilla provides a powerful, easy-to-use solution to configuration management and replication problems.

You do not need to limit with the features of BugZilla, there are also newer forms like FoxBugz.
There is definitely a lot out there; do not write your DB solution for this :-)

Answer 4

A wiki, as already suggested by others, or some kind of database (e.g. Microsoft Access) would work well but or such (relatively) small numbers of machines there should be very few entries. If you find you're needing to add more than a few entries per year, say anything more than 1% of the total number of machines less than 5 years old, it's time to look into why.

Answer 5

Any decent servicedesk system would include both asset tracking and case logging, and a nicely connection between these in the CMDB. I haven't used too many softwares, but one that would suffice for these things would be Servicedesk Plus from AdventNet. I'm sure there are plenty of other systems with the same capabilities.