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Tray
Major Contributor
USA
758 Posts
Status: offline |
 Posted - 09/12/2004 : 11:13:06 PM
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To all:
I stumbled upon this tool that will document your servers / PCs via WMI. It is free and will do a very good job of documentation a server / PC. It is free. It is a vb script that will can either run against the local machine or remotely, but there are a couple of gotchas with it:
1. You must have MS Word installed on the machine that you run the utility (the output is a Word Document complete with Table of Contents documentating just about everything that is on the server.
2. You must have admin rights to the machine that you run the utility against. The script uses WMI to obtain it's information and the only way that this information can be obtained is with administrator privleges. On a related note, this script will not take alternative priveleges, I modified the script to do this but can not publish it as it would break the license.
Link: http://sydi.sourceforge.net
--Tray
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ptwilliams
Honorable But Hopeless Addict
United Kingdom
4401 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 09/13/2004 : 05:16:11 AM
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That could be interesting - I'll take a look. If it's as good as you say, then my boss is going to be gutted - he's spent the last three weeks writing a script that inventories all of our servers!!!
Although, ours is very neat mind- everything's indexed in tables in .html -the works!!!
Thanks for the links though 
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mikepiet
Honorable But Hopeless Addict
USA
1938 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 09/13/2004 : 2:32:03 PM
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OH MY GOSH!! That thing is awesome. I just ran it against my local machine, whoa. Thanks Tray for posting this. This will be invaluable for not only documenting the machine but auditing as well.
Thanks again!!
Michael |
Sinners Make The Best Saints |
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jadgate
Major Contributor
USA
918 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 09/13/2004 : 9:55:16 PM
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This is good. I would say that if you combine this with the information that Belarc Advisor gives you (which is a free download for home use) you will have a pretty good snapshot of your system. Belarc's advantage over this is that it gives you much more information on the Applications you have installed on the machine, as well as if any hotfixes did not install properly. However, as I am in the middle of doing an inventory for a small company, this will come in handy. Everyone forgets to put down the names and phone numbers of your vendors and the date that your service contract expires.
Jim |
James Adgate, CISSP
IT Auditor and Compliance Specialist
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
IT Security Policy and Risk Mitigation for Enterprises
http://linkedin.com/in/jamesadgatech
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jadgate
Major Contributor
USA
918 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 09/13/2004 : 9:56:03 PM
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Sorry, forgot to say thanks for posting this!!!
Jim |
James Adgate, CISSP
IT Auditor and Compliance Specialist
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
IT Security Policy and Risk Mitigation for Enterprises
http://linkedin.com/in/jamesadgatech
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rogerd2u
Old Timer
USA
400 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 09/14/2004 : 2:13:39 PM
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| This is a great start! Thanks for the info!! |
Roger Osborne
Microsoft - Premier Field Engineer (Platforms)
MCITP (EA, SA), MCSE (2000), MCSA (2000/2003), Project+, Net+, A+
"When people show you who they are, believe them."
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ogenstad
Welcome Newcomer
Sweden
16 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 09/15/2004 : 03:43:30 AM
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Hello,
Thanks for promoting my tool Tray
Regarding your second comment, I usually run the script while using “runas” which works fine. But I agree that it would be nice to be able to give it credentials. The script licensed under BSD so you are allowed to change it and publish the changes, though there are some rules around this the license is quite short and easy to read.
So do you have some other suggestions or feature requests?
Cheers
Patrick
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Patrick's Blog |
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JSCLMEDAVE
Administrator
USA
6116 Posts
Status: online |
Posted - 09/15/2004 : 07:13:25 AM
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| What about showing the available disk space for the drives as well, either a % or GB. A way to write it to an xml Doc or making it available via an ASP web page. Which could be dynamic. I am not a programmer so if these are not the request that were looking for my apologies in advance. |
Tim-
“This too shall pass" |
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ogenstad
Welcome Newcomer
Sweden
16 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 09/15/2004 : 11:12:36 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by JSCLMEDAVE
What about showing the available disk space for the drives as well, either a % or GB. A way to write it to an xml Doc or making it available via an ASP web page. Which could be dynamic. I am not a programmer so if these are not the request that were looking for my apologies in advance.
Isn't the disk size and free space enough?
I've been considering doing output in xml but that will have to wait. The next projects are to make the SQL version of the script more usable and to write one that documents an Exchange environment. |
Patrick's Blog |
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JSCLMEDAVE
Administrator
USA
6116 Posts
Status: online |
Posted - 09/15/2004 : 11:17:48 AM
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| I thought so, but they want it in % with pretty pie charts etc... I think its great myself! Saves me allot of time! |
Tim-
“This too shall pass" |
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ogenstad
Welcome Newcomer
Sweden
16 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 09/15/2004 : 11:56:53 AM
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Who are "they?
I'm not too keen of having both free and availible size. But it's easy to just edit the document. |
Patrick's Blog |
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JSCLMEDAVE
Administrator
USA
6116 Posts
Status: online |
Posted - 09/15/2004 : 12:05:26 PM
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You know, THEY!, THEM! The people that I answer too... The ones that, the more you give them the madder they get... They - they - them whatever...
I think its great! I am using it on all of the new boxes to get a base line print out to use as an audit tool. If anything weird starts up on a PC I am pulling this printed report out of the drawer and comparing what’s running at the time. Very cool... I feel like I owe you something though...
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Tim-
“This too shall pass" |
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ogenstad
Welcome Newcomer
Sweden
16 Posts
Status: offline |
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joe_elway
Honorable But Hopeless Addict
Ireland
7397 Posts
Status: offline |
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Tray
Major Contributor
USA
758 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 09/22/2004 : 6:08:15 PM
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Update:
Patrick updated the script to include the Windows components as well as the installation date of the installed applications. I converted the file to a WSF and (if you are running it from a Windows XP machine) have the ability to run the utility under a different user and put in the computer name on the command line (if not you will get the inputbox). Again nothing major but if you guys want it, let me know and i will email it to you.
--Tray |
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mikepiet
Honorable But Hopeless Addict
USA
1938 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 09/22/2004 : 6:59:28 PM
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Tray or Patrick-
Is the updated file located at the same download link?
I have to say, I think I am going to contribute for this one.
Michael |
Sinners Make The Best Saints |
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Tray
Major Contributor
USA
758 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 09/22/2004 : 8:17:35 PM
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Mike:
Yeah it is at the same download link
--Tray |
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neilmac
Here To Stay
Spain
202 Posts
Status: offline |
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JSCLMEDAVE
Administrator
USA
6116 Posts
Status: online |
Posted - 09/23/2004 : 07:09:27 AM
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| You guys are great! I will contribute as well... wow... |
Tim-
“This too shall pass" |
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jaxdave
Honorable But Hopeless Addict
USA
2426 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 09/23/2004 : 09:49:14 AM
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| WOW !!!! We will be donating as well for this. Awesome job |
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ogenstad
Welcome Newcomer
Sweden
16 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 09/24/2004 : 02:11:35 AM
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I’ve updated the script again so at the moment the latest release of SYDI-Server is 1.1. What’s new in this version is that I added a few command line options, which is good if you don’t want everything in the report. You can also specify username and password as an argument. I will also consider asking the user for a password in some way. I don’t know if this will be by using a dll (like Tray did) or by displaying a menu in Internet Explorer.
Anyway thanks for all your nice comments. |
Patrick's Blog |
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ogenstad
Welcome Newcomer
Sweden
16 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 11/25/2004 : 07:54:19 AM
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Hello again,
I just wanted to let you know that now I've added XML support for both SYDI-Server and SYDI-SQL. So if you want to you can generate a report and view it in Internet Explorer.
Cheers
Patrick |
Patrick's Blog |
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pcmeiners
Honorable But Hopeless Addict
USA
1270 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 12/09/2004 : 3:02:32 PM
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Patrick
Just tried it, really nice work !!!!!!!!!!!! Will look at it closer, this weekend. Need the SYDI-SQL for sure.
Yours Truely, another Lazy Admim
Paul Meiners
Paul |
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greygoose
Welcome Newcomer
5 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 12/01/2005 : 12:00:13 PM
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| I like the information that sydi gathers, however there isn't an easy way to manage it. Is there a way to dump it into an Access or MySQL database? That way it would be easy to filter out machines by OS, programs, hardware etc. Also, if there is another program out there that would fit my needs I would try it as well. |
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corporatejr
Seasoned But Casual Onlooker
93 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 12/01/2005 : 12:06:00 PM
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| FYI in Windows 2003 not all the WMI stuff is installed by default so if you are wondering why some of the installed apps don't show up in the report that's why, or at least that has been my experience thus far. |
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clarinathan
Moderator
United Kingdom
4893 Posts
Status: offline |
Posted - 12/01/2005 : 3:59:47 PM
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This is really really amazing!!
A seriously useful and brilliant tool. Thanks for creating it!
Cheers
Nathan |
Nathan Winters - [MSFT] - Exchange Technical Specialist
Checkout my blog:
http://www.nathanwinters.co.uk |
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Server Documentation Tool for the lazy admin
