I was wondering if anyone has or might have some suggestions on a good inventory list. I have been tasked with inventorying 40-50 old compaq computers that have been at our agency for years. But i was thinking for good record keeping and a little extra time on the clock, i would come up with an inventory of componets within each computer. I was thinking of listing; Brand and model, CPU, MOBO, HDD, RAM, Display, multimedia adapters,Display, Input, NIC, Peripherals, OS with last update, Drivers with last updates, BIOS, and list the date of last Diagnostic perofrmed.Does anyone have a list like this or any ideas what else to list that would be helpful. Thanks

*PS sorry to the mods for probably posting this in the wrong place.

Ahh...Documentation...your best friend when it's up to date and worst enemy when it falls behind...

I have only 5 systems at my house that I maintain an inventory for, although I just last week got appointed to be the Network Administrator for my department at my college, so I will likely have to start one for the 'puters we have there. Probably will base it off of my old job as a computer operator.

may be an obvious column for your chart, but a serial number system is a great tool, especially when you can put the serial number right on the front of the computer. That way when someone has a problem and calls the help desk, the help desk can jsut look up the specs and drivers of the specific machine in question.

Last Call about the comptuer is a good column, unless you want to include those kind of things on the last performed diagnostic chart. that way if you have a trouble system you can identify it.

Also, vital to the list I maintained as a computer operator was physical location; In a room with 300 servers, all the info in the world means nothing if you dont' know which one is the one you want. Even with a limited number of workstations, it helps when you get an error on a network monitor to be able to look up what room they're in.

One last bit of info I can think of that would be helpful (in my eyes) is the main purpose and dependencies of the server, i.e. if this comptuer goes down, what else depends on it? that last bit (the dependencies) may not exist if you're dealing with workstations, but in an interconnected server and network environment, it's vital to know what you're going to be affecting at a moments notice, if you need to reboot something immediately. either way, when two machines fail, knowing from a central list that one is a hotspare Crystal reports machine, whereas the other is the main accounts machine helps define the priorities.

Of course, with such a large amount of information, format is always an interesting choice. I would incorporate this into a database, probably in access, just cause it's easily available, and I know VB. this puts it one step above spreadsheet format since I can automate much with the VB for applications.

Orion

nice add ons orion. Serial number is a great idea. I dont know about adding a location because they seem to get jugled around pretty often for one reason or another. As for last call i was going to adapt another form sheet that would list last call problem, fixed and time used to fix it. That way i can keep adding call lists without modifying anything. Thanks