IT Asset Management system recommendations?
Posted by No-Room2990@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 113 comments
Hello,
For some time now, we've been using Excel spreadsheets to manage assets in the business. When I say assets, I mean not just laptops, but also monitors, firewalls, switches, docking stations, meeting room kits, and anything like that. We are just looking to manage:
-
Where the asset is
-
Who has it
-
What desk it's on
-
When it was purchased
We have Intune, so we use that for the more technical stuff about deployment and Autopilot, so I'm not looking for that. However, I am interested to see what asset management solutions people are using to manage not just laptops and computers, but also items like monitors and docking stations etc.
Thank you.
slocs1@reddit
Lansweeper for Asset Inventory
HaloITSM for CMDV
Fraktyl@reddit
Lansweeper onPrem here as well. We did connect it to the cloud for some of the better reporting, but it's all self hosted.
We use the help desk feature as well. Industrial environment, so 80ish users. We support the plant as well so it's hard to give an end point count.
slocs1@reddit
You scan OT? We have a similar setup. Might i pm you? We will implement OT scanning soon
Fraktyl@reddit
Sure. We're not scanning everything though. We're not air gapped between our plant network and office network, but it's firewalled pretty heavily.
McDeth@reddit
I want to like lan sweeper, but the fact that they use a garbage database combined with requiring MSQL for anything of substance means that even with a small infrastructure for about 2 to 300 assets, it performs like absolute garbage.
RareGoal1619@reddit
How do you find this? Possibly considering this for a project. Anything you'd do differently? We already use Lansweeper but perhaps not to its full potential
slocs1@reddit
Dont go lansweeper cloud. This doesnt seem to be finsihed. Discuss with Halo to get Lansweeper on prem connection via azure api or something
RareGoal1619@reddit
We're on prem anyway but this might be unpopular with our push to cloud. Definitely gave me something to think about though, thanks :)
slocs1@reddit
Sales of LS talks about cloud is the future. Tech doesnt recommend ITagent to be installed and recommended us LSagent
kungisans@reddit
Since moving away from spreadsheets, we're using SnipeIT. It's... okay, and it's cheap
fkick@reddit
We also used used SnipeIT…300 end users and about 10k assets across locations
martinkrafft@reddit
It's a shame SnipeIT doesn't support PostgreSQL as backend.
GolemancerVekk@reddit
It sort of does. It uses a database abstraction layer (PDO) so in theory you can use it with Postgres if you install the Postgres PDO driver for PHP instead of the MySQL driver.
A couple of years ago the devs stated they run some (minimal) tests against SQLite and Postgres, just enough to detect if they ever use "mysql-isms" so it should work.
On the flip side, this approach means they don't take advantage of any special features or optimizations that any of these databases have. On the other hand it's not a very complex schema so it shouldn't matter that much.
THe_Quicken@reddit
It’s free if you host yourself, runs great on Almalinux.
Carvtographer@reddit
SnipeIT has been good, but yes, kinda meh. Wish there were way more features, better integrated search (without using Advanced Search), better asset page customization, etc.
TooManyRequests_429@reddit
We also self-host SnipeIT. All endpoints for 200ish users, and all IT infrastructure. We’ve liked it. It’s simple and straight forward with decent reporting
No-Room2990@reddit (OP)
Thanks! Are you hosting it yourself or with them? How has it been?
esoogkcudkcud@reddit
Self hosting on AWS for 6+ years. The biggest hassle are the updates have to be through the backend, which usually go smoothly but not always.
ickyickes@reddit
Self hosted but on AWS? Doesn't that just give you the downsides of both on prem and cloud?
ImNotABotScoutsHonor@reddit
Yuuuuup
kungisans@reddit
We used to have it self-hosted, but as the company grew, and the IT team didn't, we decided to host with them directly, less maintenance from our side.
It's much better than spreadsheets. It has API access, so we are able to integrate it with other tools
thanatossassin@reddit
How was the migration process?
RustyRoot8@reddit
We host snipe-it. Easy deployment, customizable, API works well with Kandji/Iru. Working on Intune integration.
NUTTA_BUSTAH@reddit
Also observed SnipeIT setup over spreadsheets and it was fine for a small studio (<100 employees).
sdeptnoob1@reddit
We use jira to combine assets and helpdesk
maniac365@reddit
assettiger is what we use
groovespot@reddit
We built it with Jira Assets in JSM, deeply integrating with everything we have in Jira including automatic task creation upon new employee arrival etc. But there are many other wellbuilt products as other commenters recommend.
kmanix50@reddit
Microsoft Access should be good or just build a powerapp with powerBI in front of sharepoint repo.
neevotit@reddit
We use GLPI
Coriron@reddit
Looks like it is chargeable rather than free, although you can download it from GIT? Are there limitations if you don't pay?
neevotit@reddit
It is Open Source but you can license it
endbit@reddit
+1 for GLPI, using it as the asset manageent backbone and it's APIs for the custom web interface that front desk uses.
Wolfjacks@reddit
Damn I ain’t ever heard of this one and it seems better than snipeIT regarding how manual entry it is?
Toinopt@reddit
Only "manua"l entry is phones where we copy the serial of the number to the app before pushing, pcs is fully automatic with Ninjaone, every computer added to NinjaOne automatically runs the glpi agent install/update and then once per day.
theabnormalone@reddit
A note on why this might be appropriate for you.
As well as having an agent you can deploy to your machines so they automatically update the asset register, it'll detect any accessories (usb drives, monitors etc) it's connected to.
Additionally you can create your own custom asset types too, so you can create meeting room kits, don't cling stations etc as a type of asset with the fields that are valid for them. Strongly recommend giving it a go - it'll give you a bunch more things you didn't know you needed as well.
Ihaveasmallwang@reddit
Wouldn’t that get annoying if users take their laptops home and plug it into their own keyboard/mouse, or monitor and then it now thinks that someone’s personal property is company property?
theabnormalone@reddit
Not at all. Asset tag your monitors and note the serial number when doing your first deploy, then when the agent is rolled out go through the monitors and add the tag to the matching serial number. Those with an asset tag are yours, those without aren't.
Ihaveasmallwang@reddit
Can you configure it to ignore anything without an asset tag?
gudmundthefearless@reddit
And how is it gonna know that?
BFguy@reddit
Tell me more good stranger
firedelis@reddit
Super system, some great community plugins for agents, gdpr, budgets etc as well.
babieslovesu@reddit
🤣 I read that as GLP-1
Eug1@reddit
Well if it loses devices every week then it might just be
Cremageuh@reddit
I highly recommend Dazzm's Octopus.
It includes ticketing, inventory management, stats, multiple teams managing. It is highly customizable.
Leading_Rest325@reddit
HaloITSM
AllergicToPecans@reddit
Glpi
BolaBrancaV7@reddit
We are trying glpi
picardo85@reddit
Well, im a ServiceNow IT operations management consultant... So, that. But you need to be made out of money for that to make sense.
Nipsy_uk@reddit
Sn is the worst sw I have ever had the misfortune to use, and am sadly stuck with it. And asset management is an expensive extra, that it is appalling at.
The only people who rate it are SN consultants and the poor sap that purchased it and has to pretend that they made a good choice. The rest of us look at indeed a lot for a job that does use SN.
picardo85@reddit
ITAM is a free module. HAM is an expensive extra.
Nipsy_uk@reddit
Someone managed to sell it to my boss unfortunately.
id be better off with a spreadsheet, how anyone has the nerve to sell this shite is beyond me
kremlingrasso@reddit
And people will still dump it full of old bad data from spreadsheets and old tools, don't to update it ever, don't know how to use its functions, rather do double work to maintain a local spreadsheet or (ghasp) tool made in access and the CMDB team refuse to align or sync the two together.
HayabusaJack@reddit
I wrote a server asset management system (discovery at the time and I’ve modified it to define servers) many years back because the system that was in place didn’t grok virtual machines. The asset management system was there for Finance and not for the grunts.
After a while, more and more departments were using my system. To the point it was defined as the ‘Database of Record’. We went to one asset management system and then we went to Service Now.
The problem though is folks would want a report which would go to the Asset software support team, would go through an approval process, and at times, would be denied. So folks would continue to use my system in part because it would take me a few minutes to whip up the report. It didn’t need to be perfect, it didn’t need fancy colors, and it didn’t need to be presented to management. Some team wanted to know how many servers had Oracle installed.
xCharg@reddit
There's a bunch of free tooling that will answer that question in a matter of seconds, i.e. pdq inventory or zabbix (yes I know these aren't comparable but both could be used to answer such question)
HayabusaJack@reddit
For sure. It started out as a small environment; 160 servers, and over time got to about 6,000 servers, mostly VMs. Also it was a mixed environment of Solaris, RHEL/CentOS, FreeBSD, HP-UX, and Tru64 systems. It’s been a while, but I’m sure there are still HP and Solaris systems there. The Tru64 system was retired while I was still there :)
It’s the same reason all my scripting while I was there was in Korn Shell since that was the only shell that was available across all the platforms (well and sh of course).
When working in a large environment, consistency and lowest common denominator are critical. We even had RHEL systems that didn’t work with Ansible.
Specialist_Guard_330@reddit
Grok virtual machines!? - @grok is this real?
Wolfjacks@reddit
I appreciate the honesty in this
rossumcapek@reddit
Asset Tiger. It's okay.
ukulele87@reddit
You really need to think about options that can integrate with your ticketing system.
Since tickets are the usual cause of modification to assets, you need to be able lo link them in your tickets.
Not only for physical changes but could also be useful for change management.
Id probably go with whatever your ticketing system offers instead of going for a whole new solution and integrating it manually, but idk.
Amorphical6@reddit
Insight from Atlassian
mike_dowler@reddit
Reftab here. It has the flexibility of Snipe-IT (custom fields etc), but has more scope for automations (both within the platform, and via webhooks)
Reftab@reddit
Thanks so much for the mention! Yea, our focus really is to offer a simple platform loaded with automation. Glad to hear you're finding the platform useful!
Imaclassicman19@reddit
We’re using Monday.com even though I heavily advocated for SnipeIT but I was overruled. Anyone else using Monday?
lurker1B@reddit
I've come to like assettiger, though I've also liked the asset tracker module for request tracker at times, more for being integrated into the ticketing than anything else for the latter, the former is nice for a decent free tier and having a lot of the different side aspects like maintenance history and tracking and depreciation, insurance, disposao, and other side aspects of tracking beyond what/where/who.
Netbox also has a role in the network gear in the exact where (campus/building/room/rack/rack unit and front/ back of rack) and how it's connected physically and logically
AluminumFalcon969@reddit
https://ezo.io/ezofficeinventory/
Warm_Share_4347@reddit
Intune connected to siit could be a good option for what you are looking for
lerrigatto@reddit
I used snipeit, hosted. It's super cheap, the folks behind it are very nice and it just works. It doesn't have anything fancy but it works and it's reliable. I had 6 locations, remote people and tracked a couple thousands assets (laptops, printers, network stuff, phones, etc).
almightyloaf666@reddit
GLPI
dartheagleeye@reddit
Last place I worked we used Hudu
Qcsmocker@reddit
Netbox
MoneySuggestion4062@reddit
SnipeIT
No_Bookkeeper_2097@reddit
I’ve been working on developing an ITSM tool called Regulus. Allows tracking of assets regardless if they’re on the network or not. Works for both Linux and windows. Going to be adding support for mobile phones. There’s also support for tracking physical assets like monitors, docks and stuff like that which also reports to you when warranty is due advising you to replace it. If you’d like to test it out see if it’s a suit for you I’d be happy to let you into a sandbox environment (hopefully ok to post here)
didact@reddit
Do you have an ITSM system already? If so, and you all are going to keep it for a decade, flow everything into that. If you're scratch building, or your ITSM doesn't have a CMDB then yeah, world is your oyster.
Snipe-it is a good start. Many, many plugins that get most of the fields you want in it. You may also want to have a DCIM like netbox to document how all your infrastructure is wired up - fair warning, fewer plugins available in netbox.
Crimtide@reddit
SnipeIT
pnkluis@reddit
Snipe-IT here. Self hosted. Been growing strong since 2022. Org headcount is almost X6 now.
Glad I moved away from spreadsheets when it was "overkill".
Running smoothly on a small machine too, crazy how light it is.
Ay0_King@reddit
I personally took the initiative and requested a license to the Power Platform at my company and have been building custom solutions.
Cultural_Equivalent@reddit
We have been using LOGINventory for many years, and still super happy. It even detects serial numbers of screens and docking stations, all agentless. You can create QR codes for all devices, scan them and assign them to users. What stands out in my opinion: their AI feature. It really makes sense: you can ask your questions about your inventory or have it create queries. Most other “AI integrations” don’t deserve that term… And everything on prem
Khue@reddit
Is anyone tracking objects in Azure as assets? If so what are you using to track these?
JustMeClinton@reddit
Just build it yourself and host it internally.
retro_grave@reddit
I just joined an org that has two snipe-it instances. One for "assets" (IT supplies) and one for "inventory" (manufacturing parts). Seems like pretty good software. I didn't look close enough if two separate instances make sense, but it's what they've done.
Fit_Prize_3245@reddit
GLPI
isThisRight--@reddit
Oooooh i made a thing just for this. Check out nodebyte. It’s totally self hosted open source etc, I think it’s great.
https://github.com/dot-billy/nodebyte
official_work_acct@reddit
We use Jira Assets. It’s fine. The main benefit for us is we are fully in the Atlassian ecosystem, so we can link JSM tickets with assets and track asset-related requests. We also treat software as assets, so whenever anyone requests a new SaaS app, we track that as well.
To load everything in, I built a series of scripts a few years ago which effectively take data from any API, normalize it, and create assets out of it. From what I understand Assets now has a tool which can do this, but I haven’t looked into it as my scripts work fine.
Agent_DekeShaw@reddit
We use Asset Panda. It's pretty good I guess.
rushandidan@reddit
They use InvGate where I'm at for what you mentioned. It does the asset management and ticket management.
Adam_Kearn@reddit
SnipeIT.
I’m using it for an academy trust with about 17 schools now
About 8k assets and every staff member synced to the system to checkout devices.
I’ve setup our system in a way that it’s 99% automated and requires very little manual input.
I’ve used the API and about 12 different powershell scripts to connect things like Intune and 365 to sync iPads computers and our users.
I also have linked it into 3rd party tools that we use such as ViewSonic for our smart boards and Panda (our RMM software) so all staff/students devices automatically every day.
We also have systems such as NetDisco and LibraNMS that logs all of our network devices (switches/routers/APs/printers) these get synced with snipe every 4h automatically.
This means as soon as a printer is connected to the network or a switch is replaced it will update snipe with the details automatically.
Every device has an attribute for the “next audit date” this gets in +30 days added to it. So if a device has not been seen for a month it will be moved automatically into an “inactive” status.
Then after 6mo of being inactive it will be “archived”. Nothing is ever deleted it will stay in archive till the end of time.
Doing it this way does over complicate things but once you have the system setup and optimised it means nothing is missed or forgotten about.
I’ve then altered the labels PHP file locally so I can design our asset labels to fit our branding needs and add extra attributes to it.
I used to also have scripts that run on the windows devices to add connected monitors to the system but I’ve since then removed this feature as it’s not a needed metric we need anymore.
Snipe is really powerful when you add lots of meta data to each asset too.
When I get a big order of computers come in I will also add the PO to every serial number so in the future when creating reports we can easily see what device was ordered from.
Makes it also easier to track things like warranties.
Alaknar@reddit
Are you on Entra ID + Intune? And, if so, does SnipeIT integrate nicely?
Adam_Kearn@reddit
Yeah just setup SSO like any other website.
I believe you can also do SCIM with Entra too which will create your users automatically in snipe too.
Took me about 30mins to get the SSO setup after I read the docs
_Tails_GUM_@reddit
Microsoft Lists is a good alternative for Excel. And there’s Snipe IT which you can self host if you can have on prem servers. I don’t know if there are better options, but those two are definitely better than Excel
Alaknar@reddit
Please, no, don't...
I mean, yes, technically Lists is better than Excel, but... just spin up a cheap VM and self-host SnipeIT!
foSec@reddit
Been using Axonius for over a year. It aggregates lots of systems together to give one inventory solution. VMware, Azure, SCCM, Intune, AD, Vuln Mgmt, FW, Network Access Control (Clearpass), etc. It then deduoes all the records for a true view of assets. It is by far the most complete picture we have had.
Dear_Algae3186@reddit
Lansweeper
OSUTechie@reddit
I've been slowly moving my company over to snipe-it. It's nice, I really don't like how they treat consumables and accessories. Which I know has been a feature request/complaint.
But overall it's been nice. I need to figure out how to integrate it with our RMM for more real-time updates.
yowanvista@reddit
Snipe-IT, easy to deploy with docker and has SSO support
tech-guy-says-reboot@reddit
Snipe-IT. We do the cloud hosting so if everything burns to the ground we still have our inventory for insurance purposes.
ScallionOk7761@reddit
I am also a Snipe-IT user. It’s just the best for the price. No frills but it meets all your requirements.
No-Room2990@reddit (OP)
Thanks! Are you hosting it yourself or with them? How has it been?
AnywhereOk3723@reddit
Snipe-IT is the obvious answer and most people here will recommend it, but worth mentioning a couple of others depending on your setup:
Snipe-IT — open source, self-hostable, clean UI. Does exactly what you listed. Has an Intune integration too which is a bonus since you're already using it.
GLPI — more complex but extremely flexible. If you ever need to expand into helpdesk/ticketing it's all in one place. Steeper learning curve though.
Device42 — more enterprise-y, great for network asset discovery, but overkill if you're just tracking physical location and ownership.
For your use case (who has it, where it is, what desk, purchase date) Snipe-IT is probably the sweet spot. Free, well documented, and the community is active if you hit issues.
AnywhereOk3723@reddit
Snipe-IT is the obvious answer and most people here will recommend it, but worth mentioning a couple of others depending on your setup:
Snipe-IT — open source, self-hostable, clean UI. Does exactly what you listed. Has an Intune integration too which is a bonus since you're already using it.
GLPI — more complex but extremely flexible. If you ever need to expand into helpdesk/ticketing it's all in one place. Steeper learning curve though.
Device42 — more enterprise-y, great for network asset discovery, but overkill if you're just tracking physical location and ownership.
For your use case (who has it, where it is, what desk, purchase date) Snipe-IT is probably the sweet spot. Free, well documented, and the community is active if you hit issues.
Euphoric-Blueberry37@reddit
KACE mostly does this for us
evilkasper@reddit
We use KACE too. It might have other feature they already have though.
xemity@reddit
We use ManageEngine for both asset tracking and ticketing. It has an agent that also scans for software compliance and other hardware.
TechGjod@reddit
Snipe it, but just put in glpi for tickets, so we may switch to that.
TatraPoodle@reddit
IT glue, also used as password/access manager . We are an IT helpdesk provider.
Ready_Anything4661@reddit
We use Drupal, but then again we’re a Drupal first org and have lots of Drupal talent already.
If we didn’t, we’d use Snipe
Ok_Ad_857@reddit
Another vote for SnipeIT. Recent versions let you check accessories out to a location. Been huge for us. We create a location in Snipe for each workstation/office. Monitors, docks etc get checked out to the location and items that the user carry’s daily get checked out to the user.
We add a picture of the location setup and the user signs for everything assigned to them.
Jellovator@reddit
I am using Snipe-It
No-Room2990@reddit (OP)
Thanks! Are you hosting it yourself or with them? How has it been?
Jellovator@reddit
Self hosting, and it's been good. Small environment though, like 200 users. I like that it also has a section for licenses, and that you can attach assets to other assets like if you want to keep monitors and peripherals attached to a desktop for example.
True_Move_7631@reddit
OCS, should meet most of your needs.
Curious-Drawing-1234@reddit
Snipe-IT
Early_Water4058@reddit
For such cases im building a tool about it. It has many automations SnipeIT does not have and im on a beta state now. If you want to check out we can set up call for a demo show.
Im a solo developer with IT helpdesk background.
blow_slogan@reddit
Your HRIS system. Your MDM Your RMM