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KACE Systems Management Appliance 14.0 Common Documents - KACE Service Desk Administrator Guide

About the KACE Service Desk 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 Managing user notifications Enable Two-Factor Authentication for all users Verifying port settings, NTP service, and website access Configuring network and security 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 Configuring Content Security Policy
Setting up and using labels to manage groups of items Configuring user accounts, LDAP authentication, and SSO Deploying the KACE Agent to managed devices 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 Registering KACE Agent with the appliance Provisioning the KACE Agent Manually deploying the KACE 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 Using Task Chains
Patching devices and maintaining security
Using the Security Dashboard About patch management Subscribing to and downloading patches Creating and managing patch schedules Managing patch inventory Managing Windows Feature Updates Managing Dell devices and updates Managing Linux package upgrades Manage quarantined file attachments
Using reports and scheduling notifications Monitoring devices
Getting started with 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 appliance
Appendixes Glossary About us Legal notices

Managing inventory information

Managing inventory information

Add custom data fields
Schedule inventory data collection for managed devices
View device inventory and details
Viewing information about devices enrolled in KACE Cloud MDM
Groups and sections of items in device details
About Dell Data Protection | Encryption (DDP|E) and encryption information in device details
Add a Dump Inventory registry key to permit inventory collection on Windows DDP|E client devices
About Intel AMT information in device details

To manage inventory information, you can add custom data fields, view devices in inventory, and view device details.

Add custom data fields

Add custom data fields

You can add custom data fields for applications added manually from the Software list.

Adding custom data fields enables you to obtain information from the registry and elsewhere on the device. This information can be viewed on the device detail page and used in reports.

For example, you might want to add custom fields to obtain the DAT file version number from the registry, the file created date, the file publisher, or other data for a device. You could then create labels based on this information to group similar devices, or create reports using this information.

1.
Go to the Software list:
a.
Log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_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, then click Software.
2.
Select Choose Action > New.
3.
Enter values in the Name, Version, and Publisher fields.
This information is used to identify the custom data field on detail pages.
4.
In the Custom Inventory Rule field, enter the appropriate syntax for the information you want returned:
◦
To return a Registry Value, enter the following, replacing valueType with either TEXT, NUMBER, or DATE. NUMBER is an integer value: RegistryValueReturn(string absPathToKey, string valueName, string valueType)

Example: RegistryValueReturn(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\McAfee.com\Virusscan Online,SourceDisk, TEXT)

◦
On Windows, Mac, and Linux devices, you can retrieve the following attributes from the stat() function:

access_time, creation_time, modification_time, block_size, blocks, size, device_id, group, inode, mode, number_links, owner, device_number

◦
On Windows devices, you can retrieve the following attributes from the VerQueryValue() function:

FileName, Comments, CompanyName, FileDescription, FileVersion, InternalName, LegalCopyright, LegalTrademarks, OriginalFilename, ProductName, ProductVersion, PrivateBuild, SpecialBuild, AccessedDate, CreatedDate, ModifiedDate

5.
Click Save.

See Writing custom inventory rules.

Schedule inventory data collection for managed devices

Schedule inventory data collection for managed devices

The appliance collects hardware and software inventory data from Agent-managed and Agentless devices according to the appliance data collection schedule you set.

For Agent-managed devices, software inventory information is available on both the Software and Software Catalog pages. For more information about these pages, see Differences between the Software page and the Software Catalog page.

For Agentless devices, software information is listed only on the Software page. See Managing applications on the Software page.

If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, you schedule inventory data collection for each organization separately.

1.
Do one of the following:
◦
If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, log in to the appliance System Administration Console, https://appliance_hostname/system, or select System in the drop-down list in the top-right corner of the page next to the login information. Then click Organizations. To display the organization’s information, click the organization’s name.

On the Organization Detail page that appears, locate the Communication and Agent Settings section.

◦
If the Organization component is not enabled on your appliance, log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin. Then select Settings > Provisioning., and click Communication Settings on the Provisioning panel.

The Communication Settings page appears.

2.
In the Agent and Communications Settings section, specify the following settings:
* 
NOTE: To reduce the load on the appliance, limit the number of Agent connections to 500 per hour. The number of connections that appears next to the inventory, scripting, and metering intervals, applies to the current organization only. If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, the total number of Agent connections for all organizations should not exceed 500 per hour.

Option

Suggested Setting

Notes

Agent Logging

Enabled

Whether the appliance stores scripting results provided by Agents installed on managed devices. Agent logs can consume as much as 1GB of disk space in the database. If disk space is not an issue, enable Agent Logging to keep all log information for Agent-managed devices. These logs can be useful during troubleshooting. To save disk space, and enable faster Agent communication, disable Agent Logging.

Agent Inventory

12 hours

The frequency at which Agents on managed devices report inventory. This information is displayed in the Inventory section.

Agentless Inventory

1 Day

The frequency at which Agentless devices report inventory. This information is displayed in the Inventory section.

Catalog Inventory

24 hours

The frequency at which managed devices report inventory to the Software Catalog page.

Metering

4 hours

The frequency at which managed devices report metering information to the appliance. Requires metering to be enabled on devices and applications.

Scripting Update

4 hours

The frequency at which Agents on managed devices request updated copies of scripts that are enabled on managed devices. This interval does not affect how often scripts run.

3.
In the Notify section, specify the message to use for Agent communications:

Option

Suggested Setting

Notes

Agent Splash Page Message

Default text:

KACE Service Desk is verifying your PC Configuration and managing software updates. Please Wait...

The message that appears to users when Agents are performing tasks, such as running scripts, on their devices.

4.
In the Agentless section, specify communications settings for Agentless devices:

Option

Description

SSH Timeout

The time, in seconds or minutes, after which the connection is closed if there is no activity.

SNMP Timeout

The time, in seconds, after which the connection is closed if there is no activity.

Maximum Attempts

The number of times the connection is attempted.

WinRM Timeout

The time, in seconds or minutes, after which the connection is closed if there is no activity.

5.
If the Organization component is not enabled on your appliance, specify Agent settings.
* 
NOTE: If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, Agent settings are located on the appliance General Settings page.

Option

Description

Last Task Throughput Update

This value indicates the date and time when the appliance task throughput was last updated.

Current Load Average

The value in this field depicts the load on an appliance at any given time. For the appliance to run normally, the value in this field must be between 0.0 and 10.0.

Task Throughput

The value that controls how scheduled tasks, such as inventory collection, scripting, and patching updates, are balanced by the appliance.

* 
NOTE: This value can be increased only if the value in the Current Load Average is not more than 10.0 and the Last Task Throughput Update time is more than 15 minutes.
6.
Click Save.
The changes take effect when Agents check in to the appliance.
7.
If you have multiple organizations, repeat the preceding steps for each organization.

View device inventory and details

View device inventory and details

You can view the list of devices in inventory on the Devices page, and you can view information about any selected device on the Device Detail page.

1.
Go to the Device Detail page:
a.
Log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_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, then click Devices.
c.
Click the name of a device.
2.
To expand the sections on the Device Detail page, click Expand All above the Summary section.

The fields that are displayed depend on the type of device and its operating system. For example, if the device is a virtual machine, the Monitor field is not displayed, although the Video Controller is. In addition, some fields are available for some operating systems but not for others. For example, System Description is available for Windows or SNMP devices only.

To view tables describing the contents of the groups and sections that appear on this page, see Groups and sections of items in device details.

3.
Optional: If change tracking is enabled for inventory information, click Show All History above the Summary section to see the history of inventory changes.
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