OCS Inventory
Encyclopedia
Open Computer and Software Inventory Next Generation (OCS inventory NG) is free software
that enables users to inventory their IT assets. OCS-NG collects information about the hardware and software of networked machines running the OCS client program ("OCS Inventory Agent"). OCS can be used to visualize the inventory through a web interface. Furthermore, OCS comprises the possibility of deploying applications on the computers according to search criteria. Agent-side IpDiscover makes it possible to know the entirety of networked computers and devices.
(HTTP) and the formatting of the data is done in XML
.
, MySQL
and Perl
. OCS is multi-platform: it runs under Unix
es as well as under Microsoft Windows
(95 or later).
Thanks to its very simple design and the use of mod perl
, server-side performance is very good. A modest machine can thus inventory several thousands of machines.
offers complementary services:
and thus offers part of an IT asset management
solution.
v2. The developers are direct holders of the royalties.
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
that enables users to inventory their IT assets. OCS-NG collects information about the hardware and software of networked machines running the OCS client program ("OCS Inventory Agent"). OCS can be used to visualize the inventory through a web interface. Furthermore, OCS comprises the possibility of deploying applications on the computers according to search criteria. Agent-side IpDiscover makes it possible to know the entirety of networked computers and devices.
Internal operation
The dialogue between OCS client machines and the server is based on the Hypertext Transfer ProtocolHypertext Transfer Protocol
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a networking protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web....
(HTTP) and the formatting of the data is done in XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
.
Server
The management server uses ApacheApache HTTP Server
The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache , is web server software notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. In 2009 it became the first web server software to surpass the 100 million website milestone...
, MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
and Perl
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
. OCS is multi-platform: it runs under Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
es as well as under Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
(95 or later).
Thanks to its very simple design and the use of mod perl
Mod perl
mod_perl is an optional module for the Apache HTTP server. It embeds a Perl interpreter into the Apache server, so that dynamic content produced by Perl scripts can be served in response to incoming requests, without the significant overhead of re-launching the Perl interpreter for each request...
, server-side performance is very good. A modest machine can thus inventory several thousands of machines.
Agents
In order to collect the maximum of information possible, the agents are installed on the machines to inventory.- Windows,
- Linux,
- Mac OS X,
- Sun Solaris,
- IBM AIX
- FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD
Web interface
An optional web interface written in PHPPHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
offers complementary services:
- consultation of the inventory
- user rights management
- an interface of breakdown service (or Helpdesk) for the technicians
Extension
OCS Inventory can be used to feed the manager of GLPIGLPI
GLPI, an initialism for Gestionnaire libre de parc informatique , is a free trouble ticket system software that anyone can use to build up a database with an inventory for computer equipment...
and thus offers part of an IT asset management
IT asset management
IT asset management is the set of business practices that join financial, contractual and inventory functions to support life cycle management and strategic decision making for the IT environment...
solution.
Modularity
Since version 1.0rc3, most of OCS Inventory functionality can be adapted or extended via a module system.License
OCS Inventory is a free software published under GNU GPLGNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
v2. The developers are direct holders of the royalties.