KACE Systems Management Appliance 9.1 Common Documents - Administrator Guide

About the KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Getting started
Configuring the appliance
Requirements and specifications Power-on the appliance and log in to the Administrator Console Access the Command Line Console Tracking configuration changes Configuring System-level and Admin-level General Settings Configure appliance date and time settings Enable Two-Factor Authentication for all users Verifying port settings, NTP service, and website access Configuring network and security settings Configuring Agent settings Configuring session timeout and auto-refresh settings Configuring locale settings Configuring the default theme Configure data sharing preferences About DIACAP compliance requirements Configuring Mobile Device Access Enable fast switching for organizations and linked appliances Linking Quest KACE appliances Configuring history settings
Setting up and using labels to manage groups of items Configuring user accounts, LDAP authentication, and SSO Using Replication Shares Managing credentials Configuring assets
About the Asset Management component Using the Asset Management Dashboard About managing assets Adding and customizing Asset Types and maintaining asset information Managing Software assets Managing physical and logical assets Maintaining and using manual asset information Managing locations Managing contracts Managing licenses Managing purchase records
Setting up License Compliance Managing License Compliance Setting up Service Desk Configure the Cache Lifetime for Service Desk widgets Creating and managing organizations Importing and exporting appliance resources
Managing inventory
Using the Inventory Dashboard Using Device Discovery Managing device inventory
About managing devices Features available for each device management method About inventory information Tracking changes to inventory settings Managing inventory information Finding and managing devices Provisioning the KACE SMA Agent Manually deploying the KACE SMA Agent Using Agentless management Adding devices manually in the Administrator Console or by using the API Forcing inventory updates Managing MIA devices Obtaining Dell warranty information
Managing applications on the Software page Managing Software Catalog inventory
About the Software Catalog Viewing Software Catalog information Adding applications to the Software Catalog Managing License assets for Software Catalog applications Associate Managed Installations with Cataloged Software Using software metering Using Application Control Update or reinstall the Software Catalog
Managing process, startup program, and service inventory Writing custom inventory rules
Deploying packages to managed devices
Distributing software and using Wake-on-LAN Broadcasting alerts to managed devices Running scripts on managed devices Managing Mac profiles Using Task Chains
Patching devices and maintaining security
About patch management Subscribing to and downloading patches Creating and managing patch schedules Managing patch inventory Managing Dell devices and updates Maintaining device and appliance security
Using reports and scheduling notifications Monitoring servers
Getting started with server monitoring Working with monitoring profiles Managing monitoring for devices Working with alerts
Using the Service Desk
Configuring Service Desk Using the Service Desk Dashboard Managing Service Desk tickets, processes, and reports
Overview of Service Desk ticket lifecycle Creating tickets from the Administrator Console and User Console Creating and managing tickets by email Viewing tickets and managing comments, work, and attachments Merging tickets Using the ticket escalation process Using Service Desk processes Using Ticket Rules Run Service Desk reports Archiving, restoring, and deleting tickets Managing ticket deletion
Managing Service Desk ticket queues About User Downloads and Knowledge Base articles Customizing Service Desk ticket settings Configuring SMTP email servers
Maintenance and troubleshooting
Maintaining the appliance Troubleshooting the KACE SMA
Appendixes Glossary About us Legal notices

About the Inventory Dashboard widgets

About the Inventory Dashboard widgets

Inventory Dashboard widgets provide overviews of managed devices for the organization or appliance, as selected.

This section describes the widgets available on the Inventory Dashboard. If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, the widgets show the information for the selected organization at the Admin level and for the appliance at the System level.

This dashboard provides a high-level overview of your device usage. Use it to quickly review the state of your devices and look for any indicators that can improve your device inventory. For example, you can focus on the device disk capacity and reassign resources where they are most needed.

Widget

Description

Device Reports

This widget contains links to common inventory reports. Use them to quickly generate a specific report, such as Devices by memory, Devices by OS, and others.

Connections

This widget shows the number of connections to the KACE SMA web server. A high number indicates a high load on the server, which might reduce appliance response time. If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, the widget shows the information for the selected organization.

Device Check-In Rate

This widget displays the number of devices that have connected to the KACE SMA in the past 60 minutes. If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, this widget is available at the System level.

Provisioning

This widget shows the status of KACE SMA Agent provisioning or installation tasks. If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, the widget shows the information for the selected organization.

Shortcuts

This widget contains links to common Inventory pages and wizards. Use them to quickly navigate to specific pages, such as the Agent Provisioning Assistant, the Discovery Schedules page, and others.

Agent Version Counts

This widget show the counts of agents for each version. This information can be useful during an upgrade.

Inventory Counts

This widget displays the counts of devices associated with each device management method, such as Agent Managed, Agentless, and others. It also shows the number of Agents that have been updated in the last eight hours.

Devices by Disk Capacity

This widget shows a donut chart, where each section of the chart indicates the percentage of free disk space on the managed devices. Clicking the widget title displays a report with links to the associated devices. Hovering over each section of the chart displays the percentage of managed devices that have the selected percentage of free disk space. For example, if you hover over the red part of the chart, the widget displays the percentage of devices whose free disk space is lower than 25%.

Managed Operating Systems

This widget shows the percentage of managed devices that are running each operating system. If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, this widget shows the percentage of devices in the selected organization.

Provision Platforms

This widget shows the percentage of operating systems installed on KACE SMA Agent-managed devices. If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, the widget shows the information for the selected organization.

Devices By Manufacturer

This widget shows the top device manufacturers represented in device inventory. If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, this widget shows the percentage of devices in the selected organization.

Devices By Model

This widget shows the top device models represented in KACE SMA device inventory. If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, this widget shows the percentage of devices in the selected organization.

Devices By Memory

This widget shows a bar chart, where each bar represents a number of devices that have an indicated amount of RAM installed on them.

Devices By Processor

This widget shows a bar chart, where each bar represents a number of devices that have a specific processor configuration.

Devices By Subtype

This widget shows a donut chart, where each section of the chart indicates the percentage of the managed devices by device subtype.

Customize the Inventory Dashboard

Customize the Inventory Dashboard

You can customize the Inventory Dashboard to show or hide widgets as needed.

1.
Go to the Inventory Dashboard.
a.
Log in to the KACE SMA Administrator Console, http://KACE_SMA_hostname/admin. Or, if the Show organization menu in admin header option is enabled in the appliance General Settings, select an organization in the drop-down list in the top-right corner of the page next to the login information.
b.
On the left navigation bar, click Inventory.
2.
Mouse over the widget, then use any of the following buttons:
◦
: Refresh the information in the widget.
◦
: Display information about the widget.
◦
: Hide the widget.
◦
: Resize the widget.
◦
: Drag the widget to a different position on the page.
3.
Click the Customize button in the top-right corner of the page to view available widgets.
4.
To show a widget that is currently hidden, click Install.

Using Device Discovery

Using Device Discovery

About Device Discovery and device management
Tracking changes to Discovery settings
Discovering devices on your network

Use device Discovery to identify devices that are connected to your network and to retrieve information about those devices.

Use Discovery Results to label devices or add devices to inventory.

About Device Discovery and device management

About Device Discovery and device management

Devices that can be discovered include laptops, desktops, servers, mobile devices, virtual devices, printers, network devices, wireless access points, routers, switches and more.

These devices can be discovered even if they do not have the KACE SMA Agent installed on them. You can run Discovery scans on-demand or schedule scans to run at specific times.

Discovery Results show the availability and details of devices. After devices are discovered, you can add devices to inventory by:

•
Installing the KACE SMA Agent on devices. The KACE SMA Agent can be installed on Windows, Mac®, Red Hat®, SUSE®, and Ubuntu® devices. See Provisioning the KACE SMA Agent.
•
Enabling Agentless management for devices. Agentless management is especially useful for devices that cannot have the KACE SMA Agent installed, such as devices with unsupported operating systems. See Managing Agentless devices.
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