As they say down to the garage, "There's your problem". If you don't have any control over what's discovered, it won't make much difference what tool you have, and will, as you know, definitely affect whether there is any real-world value to that tool. As with any tool, it ain't the hammer, it's the carpenter, that builds. Rick _____
From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kaiser Norm E CIV USAF 96 CS/SCCE Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 1:06 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Real-World Value of SMS & CMDB ** Rick: I know SMS well. That's the point. In many enterprises, the Remedy guy has no say-so or control over the SMS implementation. If you tell SMS to delete the asset only if not discovered X number of times, you have a record in CMDB that's defunct. If you tell SMS to delete the asset more aggressively (fewer no-replies), assets of users on vacation get deleted. >From an SMS perspective this is not a problem. From an asset management PROCESS perspective, it's huge. _____ From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rick Cook Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 2:33 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Real-World Value of SMS & CMDB Which is why you can tune those applications to not delete, or to only delete after N attempts to rediscover the asset, in situations like that. You should talk to someone or get a demo from someone who really knows those applications - it would address a great part of your concerns. Rick _____ From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kaiser Norm E CIV USAF 96 CS/SCCE Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 11:28 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Real-World Value of SMS & CMDB ** Well.what the auto-discovery tool can/can't do isn't really my concern here. Say I have a server on the network. My discovery tool discovers it. It accordingly creates a record in its database. A few days go by. Someone shuts down the server for maintenance.coincidentally during the next discovery poll. The discovery tool now sees the server as "missing" from the network. Now consider an enterprise that consists of over 40,000 such machines (servers, workstations, laptops, etc.) and imagine the problem. _____ From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rick Cook Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 1:17 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Real-World Value of SMS & CMDB Actually, your better discovery platforms (which may or may not include SMS) can allow alarms to be set for things like differences in discovered hardware. Consult your system documentation to see if that's available. I remember that a really old version of LANDesk had that. Rick _____ From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kaiser Norm E CIV USAF 96 CS/SCCE Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 11:11 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Real-World Value of SMS & CMDB ** Perhaps I'm oversimplifying it-but from a 10,000 foot perspective, if what interests you is in SMS and what SMS can discover, why not just query SMS? In regard to your question, ".how will you know when something leaves the company?" that's part of my point-SMS won't tell you that.at least not in many big enterprises. _____ From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rick Cook Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 12:56 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Real-World Value of SMS & CMDB Well, the component and related information (installed HW and SW), if that's important to you, would be something discovery tools like SMS can give you. Even if you only want to track the workstation, how will you know when something leaves the company, or is added to the infrastructure (like an unauthorized laptop)? Rick _____ From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kaiser Norm E CIV USAF 96 CS/SCCE Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 10:50 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Real-World Value of SMS & CMDB ** Hi everyone: I wanted to discuss the practicality issues of using SMS to populate the CMDB. I understand all (or virtually all) of the theory, but now I want to discuss the real-world practicality of it. By my estimation, the only real-world value I see in using SMS to populate the CMDB is that it saves someone from having to pound the keyboard to get system information into it. That's it. I've heard some folks talk about using SMS to identify deltas within the hardware inventory. That is, on Day 1, Dell Workstation 1 was discovered by SMS. On Day 9, Dell Workstation 1 is missing. That's a delta. An inventory manager can then be notified of that delta so that he can go figure out if Dell Workstation 1 got up and "walked away." But the way SMS is configured at most large sites, this would not work. In some configurations, items do not get removed from the SMS database until their machine account in the Active Directory is removed AND the machine fails to respond to polls for X amount of time. This does the enterprise no good in preventing, say, theft, as a thief does not request that the computer's machine account be removed from the Active Directory before he steals it! Theft prevention and loss prevention are two of the justifications in the total cost of ownership calculation, according to ITIL. But SMS alone won't get you there. You need something like RFID to truly identify instances of missing hardware. So what does SMS get you other than not having to pound a keyboard? Thoughts? Norm __20060125_______________________This posting was submitted with HTML in it___ __20060125_______________________This posting was submitted with HTML in it___ __20060125_______________________This posting was submitted with HTML in it___ __20060125_______________________This posting was submitted with HTML in it___ __20060125_______________________This posting was submitted with HTML in it___ __20060125_______________________This posting was submitted with HTML in it___ __20060125_______________________This posting was submitted with HTML in it___ _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org ARSlist:"Where the Answers Are"
