Inventory network devices' serial number / asset tag / service tag

Products

• IT Management Suite
• Inventory Solution

Issue/Introduction

 

Resolution

Question

A device's serial number is no longer collected by default in Network Discovery 7.0. How can I inventory, and report on, a network device's serial number in the Symantec Management Platform?

  

Answer

Multiple steps must be followed in order to gather inventory on a device's serial number, asset tag, service tag, or any other desired SNMP value available on that resource. The following steps are guidelines which use Dell's service tag as the example:

1. Discover Network Devices
     
   
   1. Properly configure a Connection Profile to specify what protocols and credentials will be used to communicate with the target resource. In the Symantec Management Console (SMC), access:  Settings > All Settings > Monitoring and Alerting > Protocol Management > Connection Profiles > Manage Connection Profiles. You may choose to either edit the Default Connection Profile, or create your own Connection Profile choosing specific protocols to be enabled and their corresponding credentials. As a minimum, ensure that both the ICMP and SNMP V1 V2 protocols are enabled.
        
   2. Ensure the target resource is SNMP-enabled and the correct SNMP community string is being referenced in the chosen Connection Profile. A 3rd party SNMP tool may be used to validate the target resource's SNMP configuration before proceeding; the Paessler SNMP Tester tool is a good example.
        
   3. Run a Network Discovery task against the desired network device(s). In the SMC, access:  Actions > Discover > Network Devices. During Step 3, Select device communication profile, ensure you choose the proper Connection Profile as specified above. Once the discovery has completed, the specified Connection Profile will then be associated with those discovered resources. These network devices should then be properly identified as their respective Resource Type (e.i.  Infrastructure Device, IP Phone, NAS, etc.).  
        
      Note:  If the device is not properly identified with the correct resource type, you may need to add the correct vendor-specific SNMP OID responsible for distinguishing that device. This custom SNMP Device Classification can be added by accessing:  Home > Discover and Inventory > Network Discovery > SNMP Device Classification.

Once the network devices have been properly discovered, identified, and exist in the CMDB, Agentless Inventory may now be run against them to collect custom SNMP inventory data.
  

2. Create new SNMP Data Mapping Tables
     
   
   1. Identify / locate the network device vendor's management information base (MIB) file which contains the desired SNMP object identifier (OID); this is the OID which is associated with the desired value to be obtained, like the serial number. The MIB file may be obtained directly from the vendor or a 3rd party website, such as oidview.com. For this example, the Dell Systems Management Instrumentation MIB file (MIB-Dell-10892.mib) will be used. This MIB file contains the desired OID of chassisServiceTagName, or .1.3.6.1.4.1.674.10892.1.300.10.1.11.
        
   2. Import the MIB file which contains the desired SNMP OID in the SMC by accessing:  Settings > All Settings > Monitoring and Alerting > SNMP MIB Import Browser > MIB Browser > Import MIB file.
        
   3. Create a custom SNMP Data Mapping Table which will store the SNMP serial number data. In the SMC, access:  Settings > All Settings > Discovery and Inventory > SNMP Settings > SNMP Data Mapping Tables. Choose New, enter an appropriate name (e.g. "SNMP Dell Service Tag"), then OK. 
        
   4. On the right-hand pane for the new SNMP Data Mapping Table, under Table columns, choose New. For the Name: value, enter "ServiceTag"; for the Type: value, choose string; and for Length:, enter an appropriate number for the length of the serial number (e.g.  "50, "100", or "150"). For the Object ID:, choose the previously imported vendor MIB and browse to the desired OID for the serial number, asset tag, or service tag, then Save changes, then OK. Under the Device mappings tab, enable the checkboxes for the respective device types that the new SNMP data is applicable to, or enable checkboxes for all device types, then Save changes. You may then choose Test on device to ensure the desired value is returned for a network device.
        
      With the new SNMP Data Mapping Table created, once an Agentless Inventory task is run against the network device(s) the additional custom SNMP data will automatically be queried for and entered into the CMDB.
        

3. Run Agentless Inventory
     
   
   1. Create a new Agentless Inventory task to query for and store the SNMP data. In the SMC, access:  Actions > Inventory > Agentless Inventory
        
   2. For Step 1, Choose devices to inventory, choose an appropriate Organizational Group which contains the network devices as discovered earlier in this article (e.g. Infrastructure Device). For Include Device Types:, either select the appropriate device types or select them all. Name the task, schedule it to run during non-peak hours, then Finish.
        
   3. You may then confirm the status of the Agentless Inventory task by locating it under:  Manage > Jobs and Tasks > System Jobs and Tasks > Discovery and Inventory.
       

4. Report on the custom SNMP inventory data
     
   
   1. Each custom SNMP Data Mapping Table will create its own table in SQL. The table name in SQL will match that of the name of the SNMP Data Mapping Table in the Console with the following naming convention: dbo.Inv_data_mapping_table_name. A raw SQL based report can then be created which queries this table and joins the data with an existing inventory table to include additional information. The following SQL query is provided as an example:

      SELECT id.[Display Name], id.[DNS HostName], id.[Base MAC Address],
            id.[Base IP Address], st.[ServiceTag] FROM Inv_Device_Identification id
            INNER JOIN Inv_SNMP_Dell_Service_Tag st
            ON id.[_ResourceGuid] = st.[_ResourceGuid]
            ORDER BY id.[Display Name]