3

I've been wanting to use Spiceworks for some time, and have installed several versions over the last couple of years, including the newly released 4.0. I know that there is a big community over there, but it's hard to navigate and I'm noticing several Spiceworks proponents over here.

The big problem I have with Spiceworks is that there appears to be no way to properly track computer components and peripherals. Whatever Spiceworks retrieves via WMI when it does it's inventory seems to be set in stone. That is, if Spiceworks detects the monitor as "Plug and Play 1024 x 768", there is no way to tell it what the monitor actually is, nor is there any way to enter a serial number, etc. The same is true for internal components.

Currently I use GLPI + OCS-NG and it's a disaster of a system. But what I do like about GLPI is that I can track peripherals and whatnot. If I get a call from somebody complaining of a beeping UPS, I can look up their computer, see which UPS is attached, and pull a new battery on my way over. If somebody calls and says that their monitor wouldn't come on for ten minutes first thing in the morning, I can pull up the monitor in GLPI and check the warranty info. Things like that are handy.

With Spiceworks I don't believe this is possible without adding custom fields which is just a hack, and means a lot of copying and pasting or otherwise transcribing serial numbers as peripherals move between machines, as they tend to.

Last year I complained about this at Spiceworks, and got some positive feedback but I don't think much will come of it. If you're using Spiceworks, how are you managing this problem? Is there something I'm missing here?

4 Answers 4

2

On all assets there is a Notes tab where you can put in that information and there is a documents tab where you can attach supporting documentation.

1

I ended up detailing the components in a Word document, but I don't recommend that as a solution.

1
  • Yeah, I've seen others who mention they're using spreadsheets and various other means for this sort of thing. It just seems like such an integral part of inventory management that I'm always thinking that I must be missing something. Spiceworks is so good at what it does...I just wish it went that extra mile.
    – Boden
    Jun 26, 2009 at 15:25
1

For some items like portable drives I manually add the device to the Inventory, with the "Attached to" which is a custom attribute I have for my inventory.

0

We wrote our own inventory system specifically to handle this type of stuff. Works great. A printer, for example, has its own data but can be assigned as a peripheral of another asset so that it is really easy to track them for support reasons.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .