KACE Product Support

We created a special asset type and copy data from machines based on serial numbers. This way, we've got data on each unique piece of hardware. We can also toast the inventory records to clear up licenses and reports without losing the historical data in the assets.

Ok. I have created a new Asset Type called Retired Computers. What I am not sure of, is how do I get assets added to it?

I guess I don't know what you mean by copy the data in.

You have to write custom ticket rules to inject the data. It's an advanced procedure, and you'll need to be fairly comfortable with MySQL query writing to pull it off.

Almost any queries related to assets are custom because the structures for the asset data are unique on every kbox. So it would be tough for airwolf or myself to share any code here that would help you.

Another option is a export / import process using reporting and assets.
Steps:

1. that you could run a report against the machine fields you are interested in. e.g. name , bios s/n, os
2. Make sure that all these fields also exist (albeit empty) in the asset type definition for computer
   
3. Then run a report that spits out a csv of the machines you are retiring.
   
4. Then import that data via asset import. Probably use machine name or bios s/n as the PK for the import
5. delete the machine record in inventory -- the computer asset will still be there.
6. repeat anytime you retire machines
   

We set the MIA deletion policy to 60 days (120 over the summer) and that deletes them from Inventory automatically if they are no longer in use (http://kbox/adminui/computer_inventory_mia.php then Choose Action and Configure settings). There is still an Asset record which looses the details provided by the Inventory record but maintains the history. In all the years we've had the system I don't recall ever needing to access the old computer records in Assets! If a computer got deleted due to inactivity but still has the client installed, when turned on again it will re-create an inventory record and re-associate with the asset record.

In our environment we are statically assigning IP addresses from our DHCP server based on MAC address. We cross check KBOX to our DHCP server nightly and if the MAC address is not active in KBOX then it gets disabled in DHCP so it won't get an IP when it gets turned back on and won't work until the record gets manually restored in DHCP. This motivates our techs to keep their records up to date in KBOX.

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What do you know, there's an FAQ on this

[/align][/align] I hope it can help~ http://www.goodwillswpa.org/computer-recycling

Andy, have you ever considered adding to your auto-import the ability to log multiple users in the asset. I know that data is available in the asset history but if you had an asset field associated to a user records and only updated that field if a unique user was found on inventory. Then, in theory, you would have a fairly complete list of all the users that have used that machine.