need to track application usage and more across platforms

[Lonni J Friedman]

On 11/12/07, Jason Joines <joines at okstate.edu> wrote:
> Lonni J Friedman wrote:
> > On 11/9/07, Jason Joines <joines at okstate.edu> wrote:
> >>      I'm in need of something to track application usage and inventory
> >> software and hardware that will run on a Linux backend and work with
> >> Linux, apple and windows clients.  It needs to be functionally similar
> >> to http://www.computerlabsolutions.com/labstats.  If I don't find
> >> something I'll probably end up having to use that product and it only
> >> runs on a windows backend so I really, really, really don't want to.
> >> Open Source is definitely preferable but anything that doesn't require a
> >> proprietary os on the backend will suffice.
> >
> > I looked at that website, and I'm not all that clear what this thing
> > does.  It looks like MRTG on steroids?  Anyway, can't you use
> > something SNMP based to do all of this?
>
>
>
>      Basically it tracks what applications are used on the machines,
> when and how long.  It tracks logins and logouts.  It keeps track of
> what machines are free and which ones are in use.  I believe it also
> grabs a hardware and software inventory.
>
>      I'm not aware of anything SNMP that will do all this but I'm all
> ears if you know of something.  My boss wants to be able to track what
> labs are used and when so it can be decided which ones need more
> computers, staff, etc.  Also which software is used the most to know if
> more or fewer licenses are needed.  It also draws a real time map on a
> web page so users can see what labs have computers available for use at
> that time.
>
>      I'm sure I could accomplish all of this with open source tools and
> scripting if we were talking about Linux clients but when it comes to
> windows and macs I don't know.

Macs should be relatively simple to setup the same as Linux.  For
Windows, all bets are off.  If you have a good grasp of SNMP, then you
could prolly get everything you need that way (even on Windows).
Otherwise, you're prolly screwed.


-- 
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L. Friedman                                    netllama at gmail.com
LlamaLand                       https://netllama.linux-sxs.org