oCS Inventory

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