3/21/2017 AuditandmanageyournetworkwithNetworkInventoryAdvisorTechRepublic

NETWORKING

Audit and manage your network with Network Inventory Advisor

Derek Schauland tests the ClearApps Network Inventory Advisor, an application to help you
manage and audit your network assets.
By Derek Schauland | in Data Center, February 10, 2012, 1:26 AM PST

Keeping a running list of all of the stuff on your network is no easy task, both the applications your
IT department does support (and some of the ones it doesn't) to the switching, routing, and other
hardware that make up your infrastructure.

ClearApps has created the Network Inventory Advisor (http://www.clearapps.com/) to help you get your
head around what exists in your organization.

What can I do with Network Inventory Advisor?

Network Inventory Advisor allows administrators to audit assets on their network. It can handle both
Windows-based and non-Windows based equipment and provides a fairly robust information set.

Smart scanning

Once the application is loaded and running, you can congure assets by scanning PC names or
performing a smart scan. When I added the rst node, I entered a PC name in my test environment
and the scan completed in about a minute (maybe two) and returned a large amount of information
from applications installed to disk space availability and other hardware information.

I also found the Smart Scan feature to be more intuitive than expected. When I clicked the smart
scan option, the application used information it found on the PC running the application to
determine IP address and subnet information. This allowed the scan to take off and start looking for
other hosts before any other information got entered. This was a welcome change. Often, you have
to enter this information yourself, but I clicked the button and off it went.

Once the initial scan of my test machine completed, I was able to view information in the following
tabs:

Summary - an overall view of the scanned PC

Software - application installation and licensing information collected
Hardware - system resource and hardware information
Other - other information, including Shares, Processes, Services, domain accounts

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/datacenter/auditandmanageyournetworkwithnetworkinventoryadvisor/ 1/10
3/21/2017 AuditandmanageyournetworkwithNetworkInventoryAdvisorTechRepublic

The amount of data provided out of the box and with very few clicks was outstanding.

Figure A

(https://tr1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2015/05/07/edb59e3d-f4a5-11e4-940f-
14feb5cc3d2a/summary-info-g-a.png)

Summary information (click to enlarge)

Information refresh

Most tools need to have scans re-run, and if these aren't scheduled to happen regularly, the
information likely needs to be re-entered or requires extra clicks to initiate a scan. With Network
Inventory Advisor, the toolbar contains an Update Report Now button, which rescans the selected
PC, collecting new information about the resource. Maybe the visibility of this option right on the
toolbar is the thing that made this a great add; it is simple and very available.

Scans can also be scheduled to happen at non-peak times, which is a good thing if you have a
large or very busy environment. Another thing I noticed when reviewing refreshed information is
that subsequent scan information was displayed in a tab. This allowed comparison between two
scans quickly and easily from the main interface.

Summary of network assets

Once your network is detected, the application can get summary information based on all the
devices it knows about. This can be helpful if you need to generate an overview of the environment
for a meeting or for documentation. I simply clicked the Network Summary button from the toolbar
and the NIA took off to gather results. I was presented with a quick summary like the one in Figure
B.

Figure B

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/datacenter/auditandmanageyournetworkwithnetworkinventoryadvisor/ 2/10
3/21/2017 AuditandmanageyournetworkwithNetworkInventoryAdvisorTechRepublic

(https://tr1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2015/05/07/ee3bb487-f4a5-11e4-940f-
14feb5cc3d2a/netowrk-summary-g-b.png)

Network Summary (click to enlarge)

After you have scanned or imported assets to manage with Network Inventory Advisor, you can
save the structure of the discovered network. This way it can be available from other instances of
the application or backed up easily should something happen and a reinstallation be required.

How much does the application cost?

Pricing is based on the number of nodes used with the application. The application starts at 25
nodes for $89 and goes up as follows:

26-50 nodes for $169

51-100 nodes for $289
101 - 200 nodes for $389
201 - 300 nodes for $489
301 - 400 nodes for $589
401 - 500 nodes for $689
unlimited nodes for $989

If you need a managed service provider and worldwide licensing, please contact ClearApps
(http://www.clearapps.com/pricing.html).

The cost for the application per node is really affordable, so the price shouldn't cause you to rethink
a decision here.

Reporting

Any asset application needs to have a great reporting feature and Network Inventory Advisor is not
missing in this area. Other asset applications I have used allow you to put a good amount of

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/datacenter/auditandmanageyournetworkwithnetworkinventoryadvisor/ 3/10
3/21/2017 AuditandmanageyournetworkwithNetworkInventoryAdvisorTechRepublic

information into reports, but the result might not be what you saw while building the report. NIA is
different in that what appears on the screen in a generated report is what you will get when printing
the report. I like this as it allows you to build a report in almost a preview mode. If reporting is easy,
it will be used more frequently, and I don't think it gets much easier than this.

The Reporting interface is very straight forward: Inventory Advisor offers pre-dened reports,
custom reporting, and DIY options. The reporting page and toolbar are shown below:

Figure C

(https://tr1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2015/05/07/eeaa631f-f4a5-11e4-940f-
14feb5cc3d2a/reports-screen-g-c.png)

Reporting with Network Inventory Advisor (click to enlarge)

Figure D

(https://tr1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2015/05/07/ef0e5bc9-f4a5-11e4-940f-14feb5cc3d2a/reports-toolbar-g-d.png)

Controlling reporting settings with the Toolbar

Integration

Many asset tools are their own adventure, all things are managed there and kept there and other
tools do not worry about them. NIA supports full command line functionality to help it have results
included in other existing solutions. If your company uses a CMDB or other solution, scripts can be
written or commands sent to retrieve information and bring it in to the other solution. This helps
keep all of your management solutions working together.

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/datacenter/auditandmanageyournetworkwithnetworkinventoryadvisor/ 4/10
3/21/2017 AuditandmanageyournetworkwithNetworkInventoryAdvisorTechRepublic

The bottom line

In my limited testing environment, Network Inventory Advisor was very fast. It had no trouble
discovering the nodes in my environment. The speed of the tool was better than some other
utilities I have tried, which was a nice change.

I was also impressed with the volume of information returned. If you are in the market for an
inventory tool that offers ease-of-use, Network Inventory Advisor is denitely worth the time to test
in your own environment.

About Derek Schauland

Derek Schauland has been tinkering with Windows systems since 1997. He has supported Windows
NT 4, worked phone support for an ISP, and is currently the IT Manager for a manufacturing
company in Wisconsin.

Recommended PromotedLinks byTaboola

End Your Nightly Snoring Nightmare With This Simple Solution

My Snoring Solution

5 tricks to learn any language with an app in 2017

Babbel

Now You Can Track Your Car Using Your Smartphone

TrackR Bravo

Raspberry Pi rival: Asus launches Tinker Board, faster, with 2X memory and 4k video

Classic Windows on a $35 computer: How to re up Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and XP on your Raspberry Pi

How to get all the information you need about your Linux machine with a single command

WHITE PAPERS, WEBCASTS, AND DOWNLOADS

White Papers // From Microsoft

Your Guide to Building Great Apps

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/datacenter/auditandmanageyournetworkwithnetworkinventoryadvisor/ 5/10
3/21/2017 AuditandmanageyournetworkwithNetworkInventoryAdvisorTechRepublic

Your Guide to Building Great Apps

Visual Studio 2015: turn great ideas into great business applications. Our exible cloud
platform and enterprise-scale DevOps tools make it easy to create scalable, state-of-
the-art business applications for any platform - web, mobile, cloud, or on-premises.

LEARN MORE

White Papers // From CA Technologies

The ABCs of CA Workload Automation

READ MORE

White Papers // From Intel Security

Bust the myth of the malware silver bullet

LEARN MORE

Webcasts // From eSignLive by VASCO

Live Webcast - Digitize Your Business: Dening Your E-Signature Requirements

WATCH NOW

Webcasts // From IBM

Live Webcast: Put the Best Content to Work Every Time with Watson

SIGN UP

EDITOR'S PICKS

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/datacenter/auditandmanageyournetworkwithnetworkinventoryadvisor/ 6/10
3/21/2017 AuditandmanageyournetworkwithNetworkInventoryAdvisorTechRepublic

Google Fiber 2.0 targets where it will stage its comeback, as AT&T Fiber prepares to go nuclear

The truth about MooCs and bootcamps: Their biggest benet isn't creating more coders

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/datacenter/auditandmanageyournetworkwithnetworkinventoryadvisor/ 7/10
3/21/2017 AuditandmanageyournetworkwithNetworkInventoryAdvisorTechRepublic

How Mark Shuttleworth became the rst African in space and launched a software revolution

Inside Amazon's clickworker platform: How half a million people are paid pennies to train AI

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/datacenter/auditandmanageyournetworkwithnetworkinventoryadvisor/ 8/10
3/21/2017 AuditandmanageyournetworkwithNetworkInventoryAdvisorTechRepublic

RECOMMENDED SponsoredLinks byTaboola

Now You Can Track Your Car Using Your Smartphone

TrackR Bravo

Start Your Vacation With Cheap Hotel Deals!

tripsinsider.com

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/datacenter/auditandmanageyournetworkwithnetworkinventoryadvisor/ 9/10
3/21/2017 AuditandmanageyournetworkwithNetworkInventoryAdvisorTechRepublic

RelatedAds

1 MalwareRemoval 5 CertificationPrograms

2 WhatIsAnIPAddress 6 NetworkInventory

3 InternalAuditPlan 7 NetworkAudit

4 BrandNewIPhone 8 FreeMicrosoftOffice

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/datacenter/auditandmanageyournetworkwithnetworkinventoryadvisor/ 10/10