Update LS database with warranty information from Dell's site

[Corbett]

FYI: Lansweeper 5.0 which is currently in beta will have this feature build-in for Dell, HP, Lenovo

This isn't exactly a "custom action" but this topic seems the best. I wrote an application that when executed it will update the Purchase Date and Warranty Date custom fields of all Dell computers in the LS database. It accomplishes this by making an HTTP request to Dell's support site and pulling down the appropriate dates. Some assumptions are made here: The oldest date found on the support page is the purchase date and the most recent date found on the page is the warranty expiration date.

EDIT (3/21/2012): Dell changed their support site which broke the program. The program now uses the web service that Dell provides for getting warranty information. Due to this change a new line needs to be added to the .config file:

<add key="DellWarrantyURL" value="http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx"/>

This is a .NET application and therefore requires Framework 3.5.

Before running the program be sure to edit the .config file and set the connectionString option with the appropriate SQL Server computer name, database name, username and password.

In my situation I used the Task Scheduler to run this application once a week (UpdateDellWarrantyInfo -all) to make sure all computers have the most recent warranty information and once a day
(UpdateDellWarrantyInfo -warrantyInfo) to get the warranty information for new computers.

12/21/2009, 4:15PM ET - Added most recent version of utility.
12/24/2009, 10:50AM ET - Attached most recent version (v1.4) of utility and updated the documentation.
01/04/2010, 1:30PM ET - Fixed bug where invalid Asset Tags (AAAAAA5 for example) would throw an exception. It now just skips it and keeps going. Attached v1.5.
01/13/2010, 10:07AM ET - Added a proxy authentication mechanism (integrated authentication only), fixed a SQL statement that failed on SQL 2000, added -verbose option for troubleshooting (rewrote argument handling routines), added stack trace to error output for additional troubleshooting. Attached v1.6.
01/18/2010, 8:16AM ET - Rewrote date handling routine to better handle different date formats. Attached v1.7.
07/02/2010, 12:16PM ET - I haven't had much time to maintain this lately. Attached v1.7 of the source.
03/21/2012, 8:26AM ET - Rewrote the warranty fetch routine to use the Dell web service. Note this version now requires a DellWarrantyURL key in the .config file. Attached v2.0.

Usage: UpdateDellWarrantyInfo [options] [-verbose]

Options

-all
Will update the warranty information for all Dell computers in the Lansweeper
database.

-warrantyInfo
Will update the warranty information only for the Dell computers that have
empty warranty and purchase dates in the Lansweeper database.

-assetTag <assetTag>
Will update the warranty information for a single Dell computer based on the
asset tag.  Must provide a single asset tag.

-computer <computerName>
Will update the warranty information for a single Dell computer based on the
computer name.  Must provide a single computer name.

-verbose
Print troubleshooting information to the console.

-help
Will display this screen.

NOTE: If no options are provided, will update all Dell computers.

[Kupe]

Yes, I'll add my thanks as well. I inherited a network with a bunch of old leased Dells, and this allows me to easily see which ones are out of warranty and need to go back. We're switching to HPs, so I'll add another whine for HP functionality. I'm glad to even have this though!

[derek_rose]

Thank you for this amazing utility! Worked quickly and perfectly and is very helpful!!

[metafex]

this would be great if this could work for HP.

i allready found a topic here but that doesn`t work.

look at this topic: here didn`t work for me 😞

[Mamba]

So I'm a bit confused. Latest version of LS already has reports built-in like "Workstation: Out of warranty in 90 days", etc.. Is this add-on still needed or is this now just part of LanSweeper?

[Hemoco]

Mamba wrote:
So I'm a bit confused. Latest version of LS already has reports built-in like "Workstation: Out of warranty in 90 days", etc.. Is this add-on still needed or is this now just part of LanSweeper?

For the report to work you must enter the warranty date (or use this tool for dell computers)

[fred_barzycki]

Any luck with getting this to work with Lenovo computers?

[aparker_dfwhc]

Nevermind, scratch that...all is working. Thanks!

[aparker_dfwhc]

Whenever I run this (either on my Vista SP2 machine or on the Windows Server 2003 machine Lansweeper is running on), Windows pops up an error message saying the program is not responding and needs to close, and then in the cmd box it says:

Unhandled Exception: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to
an instance of an object.
at UpdateDellWarrantyInfo.Program.Main(String[] args)


It has all the latest service packs, .net 3.5, etc.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[jrhessey]

aparker.dfwhc wrote:
Whenever I run this (either on my Vista SP2 machine or on the Windows Server 2003 machine Lansweeper is running on), Windows pops up an error message saying the program is not responding and needs to close, and then in the cmd box it says:

Unhandled Exception: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to
an instance of an object.
at UpdateDellWarrantyInfo.Program.Main(String[] args)


It has all the latest service packs, .net 3.5, etc.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

I am getting this exact same error. Windows 7 64 bit box, .net 4 Framework Extended and Client Profile installed. Am I missing something else?

[bpc]

Corbett,

Thanks again for an excellent tool and for posting the source-code. This is very impressive.