Finding out hardware specs on a network?

zilog_jones

I'm on a Win2k-based domain (with Active Directory and all that junk), with about 70 PCs on the network. Is there any program I could use to find the hardware specs of user PCs on the domain? From Windows Server Update Services I can get the make, model and BIOS of every win2k/XP PC, but beyond that I can't see much. Most importantly I'd like to see how much RAM all the PCs have (we're trying to upgrade everything to at least 512MB) - I can guess what RAM they originally came with from the model number, but some have already been upgraded and I don't know which.

There's an option in Computer Management to "Connect to another computer", and System Information would tell me how much RAM there is, but whenever I try this (even from the domain controller) it won't connect to any other computer. Does this ever work?

Is there an easier way than having to go around personally to every PC? I have a couple of Linux systems on the network too if they could make things easier.

Static M.e.

We use a program called Netsupport which allows remote viewing but also gives you HW inventory of each computer. I find it very usefull but I dont think you can use it as a once off.

You could publish Belarc and simply tell everyone to run it and save the document to a network folder.. cheap and cheerfull.

ifah

just use psinfo with the name of all the pc's/servers on the network and spool the output to a text file.

zilog_jones

Wow, PsInfo is magical! http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PsTools.html includes this and a few other similarly magical apps if anyone is interested.

Cheers!

Orion

Quest Reporter is excellent for all forms of AD reporting. Hardware, Software, policies, user details etc etc.

Not cheap though.

DublinWriter

There's a rake of software available, some PD, some commercial, that run an agent, usually at login via a login script, and audit PC's, then load up the data into a centralised database that you can analyse.

I'm out of the Network management game about 7 years, but at the time I remember WinLand and BindView being two of the biggest players.

Both companies were since bought up, but I'm sure with an hour of googling about you'll find something.

aFlabbyPanda

loginventory. http://www.loginter.net/en/loginventory.php

simple cheap and no client software needed.

zilog_jones

Ooh, interesting... €600 for 100 PCs though! :O Don't see how that's cheap...

PsInfo is a bit more in my price range for now, but I'll see if the boss thinks something more sophisticated will be worth the money.

Thanks for the recommendations!