THE NEW WORLD OF AGENTS

Spiceworks Inventory

#SPICEWORLD2017

Ben BrookshireSupport Manager

Product expertise

• Desktop, Agent, Cloud HD

Why am I an expert?

• 8 years at Spiceworks, starting with Desktop v3.6

• 15 years exp. in IT and software

Bill CreagerDirector, Test Engineering

Product expertise

• Desktop, Agent, Cloud HD, Cloud Apps…

Why am I an expert?

• 3 years at Spiceworks, starting with performance testing Desktop v7.2

• 17 years exp. in IT and software as Dev and QA

#SPICEWORLD2017

Scanners vs Agents

▶ A quick poll, to find out what you know, or want to know about agents and scanners…

▶ Which group are you in?

1. I want to improve the accuracy of my Spiceworks Inventory data.

2. I want to learn how to inventory more devices on my network.

3. I’m here to learn about Inventory in general (Cloud or On-Prem).

4. Not super committed - I just want to learn more about the future of Spiceworks Inventory.

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▶ Scanners: software that looks at the network to find other devices. Can use various logins/credentials to try to

obtain more information about found devices. Will check various ports to help identify (“guess”) more

information. Gathers information on multiple devices.

▶ Agent: software running on a single device. Reports details about that device to a central location.

▶ Agent Shell: What we call our new Multi-OS agent

▶ Modules: Sub-components/building blocks of the new Agent that provide the functionality. The available modules

allow your agents to connect to these Spiceworks tools:

o Connectivity Dashboard

o Cloud Inventory

o Classic (On-Prem Inventory)

o IP Scanner

Let’s define some keywords

SCANNERS

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▶ Surface

▶ Discovery

▶ Deep/Scheduled

Current (v7.5)

▶ Auto-discovery

Future (v8.0)

Scanners – scan type breakdown

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High level scan of default IP range run at first-time startup, discovers devices that respond to ping, collects data without authenticating with devices (can query Active Directory, DNS).

Scanners – 7.5 “surface” scan

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Scanners – 7.5 “discovery” scan

▶ Finds new devices on your network(s).

▶ Can be configured with simple (hourly) or custom (ex. every Tuesday @ 1am) schedules to discover new devices

at your preference.

▶ Also updates basic device data (IP changes, last seen, etc) on existing devices.

▶ Settings page can initiate a combined “full” scan (discovery and deep).

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▶ Also called “full”, “group”, and

“scheduled” scan.

▶ Scan known devices for updates to

detailed information.

▶ Custom scheduling available to tailor

to your individual needs.

▶ Uses Inventory groups to control

scheduling by device category, etc.

Scanners – 7.5 “deep” scan

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Scanners – 7.5 scan overview

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Scanners – 8.0 “auto-discovery” scan

▶ Initial scan run at start up to give a quick view of network, checking the best guess IP range found at startup.

▶ If enabled, will run on hourly (configurable) schedule.

▶ Repopulates inventory table with latest scan data, updating previously seen devices.

▶ Does not affect device data from agents.

▶ Uses “IP Scanner” agent shell module.

AGENT

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▶ Optimized and updated agent architecture combining v7.5’s:o cloud services agento device data agent

▶ 8.0 agent supports Windows, macOS, and Linux

▶ The 8.0 agent does the work of the previous two, using the new “Agent Shell” architecture.

Agent – what’s new in 8.0

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Agent architecture – 7.5 vs 8.0 overview

7.5 8.0

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Agent architecture – Desktop app connectivity

SCANNERS VS AGENTS

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▶ Scannerso require“ADMIN”levelpasswords togetmachinedetails

o storepasswords onhostmachine,inencryptedformat

o pronetoauthenticationissues (timeouts, errors,password

updates,policy changes)willleadtoproblems gettingdetailed

infowithscanners

▶ Agents

o donotrequirecredentials

o requireconnectivitybacktoinstall,including ahashedsecurity

password (setinDesktopserver)

Logins

▶ SNMP devices will always need some kind of scanner and login, to get more detailed information

Other Security

Scanners vs Agents - security

#SPICEWORLD2017

Scanners

▶ Deployed with Spiceworks Desktop

▶ Changes to network configuration (firewalls, rules,

subnets, partitioning, DNS, DHCP) can result in newly

unreachable devices

▶ Changes to device data (network or otherwise) will lead

to duplicated devices in Spiceworks Desktop

▶ Packaged with Spiceworks Desktop, but

requires manual (or other) installation on

target hosts

▶ Auto update available when new Spiceworks

Desktop upgrade is installed (8.0)

Agents

Scanners vs Agents - maintenance

#SPICEWORLD2017

AgentsScanners

▶ Remote collectors can be set up to partition your scan

load across various Desktop installations

▶ Configuration

o Credentials

o IPRanges

▶ Download from the Spiceworks Desktop install

(.msi)

▶ Use standard deployment mechanism o GPOo PDQ

▶ Multi-OS supporto Windowso Linux(Debian,Redhat)o MacOSX(10.11+)

Scanners vs Agents - deployment

7.5/8.0 COMPARISON

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7.5 – initial setup

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8.0 – initial setup

COMING SOON

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▶ Products using Agent Shello SpiceworksDesktopo IPScanner->Cloud Inventory(inbeta)o ConnectivityDashboard

▶ Pending Integrations & Future planso IPScanner->CloudHelpdesko Cloud Toolswithcohesiveinteractionso Seamless agentmodularization– Oneagentinstall, andyou canturnmodules on/offo Agents>Scanners

Products and Plans

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CloudInventory(beta)

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“Cloud Platform”: Agent architecture