K1000 - Using to prepare for a Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration
Hi,
I'm at a clients site who have around 1000 Windows XP and 200 Apple Mac's. They have it deployed and have all the auditing data.
The client tells me that KACE will can tell me which applications are installed and which are Windows 7 compatible.
All I can find is a WMI query-like dump of all the applications installed across the estate. That's 12,000 lines of garbage, drivers and multiple versions of the same programs. There is no aggregation of products suites, licensing requirements and it doesn't tell me if anything is Windows 7 compatible.
The client is pushing me for a report of applications within a couple of days, Red for won't work, Amber for needs upgrading and Green for ok. He doesn't want a dump of all applications and wants it aggregated into business friendly suites.
As far as I can see KACE is just a dump of raw data and at a count of 12,000 application it is impossible to use KACE to deliver what the client wants. This is made worse because all their DOS/Windows 95 Apps don't even show up in KACE because they aren't an "installed application" and it is these they are most worried about.
Does anyone know if KACE can deliver what the client wants and if so any pointers?
Answers (2)
GW,
The only reporting that I am seeing in Kace is the ability to determine if the hardware is compatible with Windows 7. I will keep checking around and post back.
Don
After some time with the K1000 I can see that there is no "Windows 7 compatibility" feature in KACE, so this has to be done the hard way, looking at each software version and checking with the vendor.
To move forward with this I've had to ignore the software inventory (12,000 items) and instead talk to the business/IT to get an authoratitve list of application they know/care about. I then create them as a Software Asset in KACE and define a Smart Label that captures the appropriate software from the inventory for each application.
I add custom fields in the Asset to record compatibility information, actions, support info etc.
Its a bit long winded but it is the only way I can find that allows me to tie up the KACE software inventory with anything useful.
Comments:
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PS This takes a long time but KACE does offer the flexibilty to achieve what we need in terms of reporting on software for the migration. Just not a quick built in feature of KACE and also require strong SQL query skills to report on the Software Assets. - Geedoubleu 12 years ago