AD-COIT v2.52, Inventory Tool Released on Sourceforge
Last updated: 5/14/2007
AD-COIT (Active Directory – Computer Object Inventory Tool) is a script that I’ve put together to automate the hardware/software information gathering and inventory process, with a focus on simplicity and portability. While the target audience for AD-COIT is small-to-midsized Active Directory environments – specifically for the SBS community - you can leverage it in much larger environments for information gathering and asset tracking. The highlights of what gets logged include: workstation hardware information, operating system and configuration information, installed software, enumeration of local admin groups, and more (see below).
Useful Links:
- Download it now from Sourceforge.net.
- View the sample output (go here for screenshots)
- Usage Information and How-To article
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Look at the source (older post)
When you go to run the script ("cscript scriptname.vbs"), the output is both echoed to the screen and written to the .CSV file. During the previous release (2.3), I had a few people ask how to tell if the script was working. Basically, if you see text being written to your command-prompt window, and you’ve configured a valid path for the CSV output (c:\scripts by default), then just let it run. You can always open a read-only copy of the output while it’s working. When it’s finished, use Excel (or something similar) to view/sort the output.
What if I need something specific, will you customize the script for me?
Sure thing. For instance, if you want the results output to a spreadsheet (as of 2.52), or have a different antivirus package you want to check – or… whatever the case may be, just let me know and we can discuss your objectives, and hopefully work out a solution.
Does it do “X”, “Y”, and/or “Z”?
Maybe… if it doesn’t yet, send me an email or post a comment and I’ll consider adding the functionality in a future release.
Does it output to .CSV?
What gets included in the inventory?
The full list includes: Individual system information organized by computer name, including… operating system, service pack level, installation date, manufacturer name, BIOS name, service tag, processor information, domain role, current user, model, RAM, daylight savings status, time zone, Symantec Antivirus definition date, free space on the local drives, list of installed applications, enumeration of the local admin group, as well as a summary of the FSMO-role holders, non-responsive systems, and systems which logged errors.
Why did you write the script?
It started out to help me troubleshoot some daylight savings time problems for a new client, and then just evolved from there… adding functionality where appropriate.
Did you know something - fill-in-the-blank - doesn’t work right?
I probably am not aware of it. If you find something doesn’t work the way you expect, or is simply broken, please let me know, and I’ll take a look (yes, I do know that FSMO roles aren't written to the CSV file).
3 comments:
Hi Nick,
We've been using SYDI for some time now and find that both of its output formats - Word doc and XML - are extremely useful. We've not yet started to generate a database based on the XML output of the system's we've generated, but that's going to happen when I get the time to do so.
The only issue I can see with AD-COIT is that the text-file output isn't as useful as other formats. Even making it into a Word document will make the output easier to view, due to the extra formatting possible.
So, my suggestion would be to offer text (if you want) as well as Word document and especially XML formatted output that can be imported into a spreadsheet or (better still) a database.
Hey thanks for taking the time to look at AD-COIT and for passing along your comments. I'll definitely consider adding features - such as Word, and/or XML output as I work on future versions of AD-COIT. (Both are options I hadn’t considered when I did the initial work).
As to your other comments - I agree about Patrick's SYDI tool - it's a great tool with lots of useful features.
My motivation behind AD-COIT was to produce something that was both portable and customized for the stuff that we were interested grabbing in terms of network documentation on SBS-based (and SMB) client networks. Further, I wanted something I could hand to technicians and say, hey go and run this on our client-networks - it works from any windows server or workstation - and then upload the results. In large part, it grew out of a collection of one-off scripts that I was writing to do stuff like… figure out who was logged in, verify antivirus definition dates (beyond the management console), etc… again, customized for the clients – and the application stack I was/am working with.
Not sure what SYDI is - off to take a look now, but have you seen zentzu's sysdocumenter at http://www.zentzu.com/sysdocumenter
You may find you are duplicating his work or could merge the two together. I've been meaning to look at extending zentzu, but never got round to it.
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