Closure Report

Executive Summary

Open computing and software inventory (OCS) now has a CMVM specific instance up and running. This is using the existing, HSS service which is hosted and patched by production management.  Local administration is done by USD computing Officers working in local CMVM support teams. There is one College administrator role, which oversees the CMVM instance. All supported Windows and OSX hardware now has the OCS client installed and reporting back to the OCS server. Computing Officers in the college teams, can run reports and collect hardware inventory in a dynamic and real time manner.

Unsupported models, and Linux machines; were eventually put out of scope as UoER was not something that Desktop team could support.

Background

Historically within MVM there was no single unified asset management tool or system to record IT equipment. Areas have had many bespoke solutions, which were simple as spreadsheets, others areas have used web based systems, and partial snapshots for equipment, like research machine hardware. Many areas within CMVM have no easily accessible record at all.

This fragmented situation left a deficiency in terms of gathering business data so the college can do accurate business forecasting, and make sure college objectives are being met and maximise the ROI. Also to help with running Windows as service, better record keeping was required.

Asset management system recording is a labour intensive approach. As the data is constantly changing, tracking and updating any database or inventory is a very time consuming task, not to mention issues with accuracy and reliability.  Finding a system which self-reports and is low maintenance was a clear and necessary goal.

Achievements

• CMVM, instance created and configured with relevant CMVM specific fields
• Supported machines setup – clients configured and deployed, load testing done
• Testing and validation carried out.
• Relevant Tags, and naming conventions settled upon.
• Local Admins for each college campus setup, and College Super User configured and setup.
• Supported machines setup – clients configured and deployed, load testing done
• Training on reports and information gathering done

Future Recommendations

• Deployment of client into UoER for non-supported machines, or machines supported by local CMVM Teams.
• Looking into research machines and other types of hardware, like printers, NAS boxes etc.
• Developing APIs for automating and integrating into other applications and reports.
• Getting a third part to audit all CMVM hardware, capturing details, and labelling hardware, including QR tagging possibly.
• Migrating and phasing our instance into the University wide OCS Project which is currently running.