OCS Inventory NG Open Computer and Software Inventory Next Generation is an application designed to help a network or system administrator keep track of computer configuration and software installed on the network. It also allows deploying softwares, commands or files on Windows and Linux client computers.
Dialog between client computers and management server is based on actual standards, HTTP/HTTPS protocols and XML data
formatting.
Management server runs on Apache/MySQL/PHP/PERL server, under Linux or Windows NT based computers.
Inventoried client computers can run
Microsoft Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP/2003,
Linux,
Mac OS X,
Sun Solaris,
and IBM AIX.
Installing OCS Inventory NG Server in Debian
Before installing OCS Inventory NG you need to install the following debian packages
Installing apache2 with php support
Check here for apache2 with php support
Installing Mysql with php support
#apt-get install mysql-server-4.1 php4-mysql
Other packages need to install
#apt-get install make gcc g++
#apt-get install libapache2-mod-perl2 php4-gd libxml-simple-perl libcompress-zlib-perl libdbi-perl libdbd-mysql-perl libapache-dbi-perl php4-pear php4-dev libnet-ip-perl
after installing this you need to restart your apache2 webserver using the following command
#/etc/init.d/apache2 restart
Now you need to download the OCS Inventory NG source code from the above download link once you download .tar.gz file you
need to extract this file using the following command
#tar xzvf OCSNG_LINUX_SERVER_1.0RC3-1.tar.gz
#cd OCSNG_LINUX_SERVER_1.0RC3-1
Now you need to run the setup script using the following command
#sh setup.sh
This will start OCS Inventory NG installation in this process it will prompt for the following questions
do you want to continue select option y and press enter
where is your database server located enter localhost
Enter the Database port leave default option and press enter
where is your apache server binary is located leave default option and press enter
Enter the apache configuration file location leave default option and press enter
which user account is running apache server leave default option and press enter
you want to setup communication server on this computer enter y
selecting apache mod_perl version you are using now you leave default option and press enter
enter where you want to enter the log file location leave default option and press enter
setup administration server select y and press enter
Apache root document directory leave default option and press enter
This will complete the ocs inventory NG application with the following message
Configuring OCS Inventory NG you need to point your browser to http://your-server-ip/ocsreports/ this will open the following screen in this you need to enter the mysql database username,password,hostname and click on send
Now you should see the following screen here you click on Submit Query
This will give you a message saying installation completed and you can login using admin as username/password and now you click on “click here to enter OCS-NG GUI”
Now you should see the OCS-NG login screen and enter using the above username and password
Once you logon you should see the following screen
Once your OCS-NG Server installation completed you need to install OCS-NG clients in windows and linux machines
Install OCS Inventory NG Clients for Linux and windows
Now you need to install OCS Inventory NG Client software for this you can download this from here
For windows and linux clients we have different client packages to use you can choose which one is suitable for you.
OCS Inventory NG Supported clients
Microsoft Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP/2003,
Linux,
Mac OS X,
Sun Solaris,
and IBM AIX.
I am installing client for debian machine here first you need to download client
#wget http://belnet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/ocsinventory/OCSNG_LINUX_AGENT_1.0RC3.tar.gz
#tar xzvf OCSNG_LINUX_AGENT_1.0RC3-1.tar.gz
#cd OCSNG_LINUX_AGENT_1.0RC3-1
Now you need to run the setup script using the following command
#sh setup.sh
This will start client setup and it will ask the following questions
which method will you use to generate the inventory([http/local]:http
which host is running OCS Inventory NG Communication Server []:Enter your server ipaddress
On which port is running OCS Inventory NG Communication Server [80] ?80
Would you like to enable Auto Update of Agent ([y]/n) ?y
What is the value of TAG ([]) ?
dmidecode binaries not found !
Setup is able to install dmidecode version 2.8.
Do you wish setup to install dmidecode ([y]/n) ?y
PERL module Net::SSLeay is not installed !
Setup is able to install PERL module Net::SSLeay version 1.25.
Do you wish setup to install this module ([y]/n) ?y
This will complete the client installation and i have installed one more client for my windows xp machine also.I have waited for some time and after finishing the initial inventory you should see the following screen
Finally i was very impressed with this software and if you use this with a asset management software such as GLPI, you will have a powerfull inventory and asset management software with automatic updates of computer configuration, license management, help desk and more. If you want to install GLPI you click here for detailed installation process.
If you want to know more about OCS Inventory NG and documentation check here
