Mac Sys Admin who also has Windows boxes...
I'm in the process of evaluating the K1000 for our company and we are trying to discover whether or not the appliance will be well suited for our organization. We are mostly an Apple shop, with around 85% of our employees using Macs and another 10% on Windows boxes and VMs and 5% or so VMs that run some flavor of Linux.
I'm a Help Desk guy who is in need of a system that will allow me to organize and inventory our machines in a simple and efficient way. I like the ease of installing the agent on machines so far, I've actually found it to be easier to install on Mac than Windows. This is mostly because there is less to configure for the different versions of the OS vs the firewall and other settings you have to do for various versions of Windows.
My main question/concern is do you think Kbox is a good solution for inventory? We come from another web based solution that is pretty bad, called Syslist. I would always have trouble with installing their agent (which I had to do manually on each machine) and the site was hosted so I was dependent on their uptime and support.
I really only need to be able to inventory the machines and have an accurate record of who had what machine and use some custom asset fields to define things like department and our internal asset numbering system. So far I've been impressed, but my boss tells me he likes the software except for the Dell logo at the top (I tried to then inform him that Kace was only recently acquired by Dell and that shouldn't be a deterring factor).
I'm a Help Desk guy who is in need of a system that will allow me to organize and inventory our machines in a simple and efficient way. I like the ease of installing the agent on machines so far, I've actually found it to be easier to install on Mac than Windows. This is mostly because there is less to configure for the different versions of the OS vs the firewall and other settings you have to do for various versions of Windows.
My main question/concern is do you think Kbox is a good solution for inventory? We come from another web based solution that is pretty bad, called Syslist. I would always have trouble with installing their agent (which I had to do manually on each machine) and the site was hosted so I was dependent on their uptime and support.
I really only need to be able to inventory the machines and have an accurate record of who had what machine and use some custom asset fields to define things like department and our internal asset numbering system. So far I've been impressed, but my boss tells me he likes the software except for the Dell logo at the top (I tried to then inform him that Kace was only recently acquired by Dell and that shouldn't be a deterring factor).
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Posted by:
squeakstar
14 years ago
Dude if all you're wanting is inventorying check out Spiceworks. It scans the network - agentlessly - no software on clients required, for installs, patches event logs etc. has self defined fields for devices; can create a network map and connect to snmp devices such as printers and routers/switches. It has a built in help-desk system, which is web based and can monitor virtual machines too... oh and its free (supported by ads in the browser mind but relevant to IT and fairly unobtrusive) and links to a fab community of fellow IT dudes; bit of a social network for IT people, really helpful and friendly forums... check it out!!! http://www.spiceworks.com
Posted by:
jkatkace
14 years ago
Wow, Spiceworks must be getting desperate to invade our forums. Ad revenue slowing down?
Posted by:
squeakstar
14 years ago
not an official spiceworks dude - just very enthusiastic - also i do big-up this forum and appdeploy.com for deploying app stuff hints and tips over at spiceworks.
I'm a busy cross-pollinating bee, I am.
See you're quick to respond in the forums when there's a threatening product mentioned. Spiceworks is hardly desperate anyway they just not so long since went over the million user mark!
I'm a busy cross-pollinating bee, I am.
See you're quick to respond in the forums when there's a threatening product mentioned. Spiceworks is hardly desperate anyway they just not so long since went over the million user mark!
Posted by:
jkatkace
14 years ago
Well, while I'm sure Spiceworks appreciates your enthusiasm, it's considered bad form and off-topic to post about competitive products on single-product forums. We don't invade the Spiceworks forums; please don't invade ours.
If you have a particular KACE-related comment to make based on your experience with the product, we welcome it. Random product evangelism trolling is kind of rude.
That said, an agentless product like Spiceworks has security concerns: you need to keep ports open on the agent at all times, ports which not only Spiceworks can access, but which have been proven to be vectors for all sort of bad things. It's why we didn't go with that design decision ourselves, restricting the opening of particular ports to a narrow window for agent provisioning. And you don't need to use our agent provisioning if you don't want to.
My apologies to DavidC for not addressing his question. I'd encourage him to look at everything the product has to offer in gaining control of his endpoints, going beyond simple inventory.
If you have a particular KACE-related comment to make based on your experience with the product, we welcome it. Random product evangelism trolling is kind of rude.
That said, an agentless product like Spiceworks has security concerns: you need to keep ports open on the agent at all times, ports which not only Spiceworks can access, but which have been proven to be vectors for all sort of bad things. It's why we didn't go with that design decision ourselves, restricting the opening of particular ports to a narrow window for agent provisioning. And you don't need to use our agent provisioning if you don't want to.
My apologies to DavidC for not addressing his question. I'd encourage him to look at everything the product has to offer in gaining control of his endpoints, going beyond simple inventory.
Posted by:
squeakstar
14 years ago
Security concerns are no more than the ports one would have open on a general network anyway - file sharing/WMI access.
I'll take note which particular forum i'm in in future but was drawn to this forum from an auto email which i don't particular remember subscribing to. I'd even left it 9 hours before i responded and you've still not helped the guy.
Post wasn't off-topic becasue it responded to his needs in my opinion.
Are we allowed to discuss distributing software in the group policy forums then - that's surely a competing product?
I'll take note which particular forum i'm in in future but was drawn to this forum from an auto email which i don't particular remember subscribing to. I'd even left it 9 hours before i responded and you've still not helped the guy.
Post wasn't off-topic becasue it responded to his needs in my opinion.
Are we allowed to discuss distributing software in the group policy forums then - that's surely a competing product?
Posted by:
bkelly
14 years ago
To be clear it is definitely okay to discuss other products at AppDeploy-- just look at the Tools section of the site where every competing product in the industry is cataloged for all. I'm very proud of the fact that AppDeploy has remained independent through the KACE acquisition and that shows no sign of changing with Dell in the picture. However, when a post "sounds" like a sales pitch in any forum, I am always alerted to it by multiple users as I was by this one. I think the sensitivity here is that your post looked like another sales pitch, but you explained yourself. No problem here.
Posted by:
squeakstar
14 years ago
thanks for your comments bob - i'm defo not a sales person or a troll and will continue to loiter round here and steer dudes at the spiceworks forums over here for useful information too as appropriate.
btw - no-one still has not answered davidc's question from Kace's point of view!
btw - no-one still has not answered davidc's question from Kace's point of view!
Posted by:
jkatkace
14 years ago
I think I gave DavidC some information on exploring the other capabilities of the appliance, outside pure inventory. Those are detailed in the Guided Tour tab.
In particular, I'd look at software compliance (License Assets and Metering), overall Asset Management, and the Service Desk. If you use another Service Desk product, there are advantages to having one integrated with your management solution, so take a look at ours.
And, to go back to the security of open ports question, the number one concern that prospects raise when evaluating the product is the opening of those ports for provisioning the agent. It would seem there are quite a few security professionals out there who would disagree with you on the wisdom of leaving those ports open on desktops, particularly mobile desktops. Once again, that's why we went with a secure agent approach; we can also secure with SSL all the data streams used for transmission of data to the appliance.
In particular, I'd look at software compliance (License Assets and Metering), overall Asset Management, and the Service Desk. If you use another Service Desk product, there are advantages to having one integrated with your management solution, so take a look at ours.
And, to go back to the security of open ports question, the number one concern that prospects raise when evaluating the product is the opening of those ports for provisioning the agent. It would seem there are quite a few security professionals out there who would disagree with you on the wisdom of leaving those ports open on desktops, particularly mobile desktops. Once again, that's why we went with a secure agent approach; we can also secure with SSL all the data streams used for transmission of data to the appliance.
Posted by:
squeakstar
14 years ago
Not every one is running a financial institution or ministry of defence, you have to weigh up risk and benefits and do what's appropriate to you regarding ports. Security professionals say alot of stuff most networks will never encounter, but if one takes the risk of opening ports you make sure you're passwords are secure and you're pcs are covered by sensible threat management measures, which we do.
Plus, with regards mobile devices, if running vista or win7 can have multiple network profiles for private domain networks and public access networks and can configure open ports for each profile, so when they are out in the wild only the barest minimum of ports are open. There are advantages and disadvantages to each product of course.
Plus, with regards mobile devices, if running vista or win7 can have multiple network profiles for private domain networks and public access networks and can configure open ports for each profile, so when they are out in the wild only the barest minimum of ports are open. There are advantages and disadvantages to each product of course.
Rating comments in this legacy AppDeploy message board thread won't reorder them,so that the conversation will remain readable.
