Option for lsclient to 'push' data into the database

[sticky]

Hi

I'm currently in the process of installing lansweeper in my university environment to help us get a grip on the number and type of machines we have on our network. Being a university, we have a diverse mix of machines and a lot of 'local' support staff that have a tendency to remove 'domain admins' from the administrators group and install non-standard firewalls that we are unable to manage. We've finally convinced the powers that we need to enforce access to all these machines, the problem is identifying what machines we don't have access to and for what reason.

One of the things that initially had me excited about lansweeper was the fact that you had the option of using lsclient.exe on a host to update that devices details in the database. I initially assumed that lsclient 'pushed' the data into the database - so when running as a logon script, it wouldn't matter if the host was behind an inaccessible firewall or the server did not have admin rights on that host.

However since testing I see that effectively the lsclient just tells the server 'I'm here, scan me!'. The server then scans the host remotely.

It would be nice if lsclient had the option to push the data into the db (even if it's just the basic info like OS and primary user). Currently we have approx 6,500 devices scanned, 1,500 of which are unscannable for various reasons - some of them are actually Linux or Mac devices. This would let us identify which devices are actually Windows PCs and thus flag to us we need to take some action to gain access to them.

Thanks
Michael

[Hemoco]

Maybe a good idea would be to use a system startup script (GPO) which disables the windows firewall?

[sticky]

Sorry I should have mentioned - I'm using the premium version, so it's pulled all my computers from AD and added them to the database. This includes linux and Macs that have computer accounts for AD integration - so these devices are all lumped together with the PCs unscannable due to firewalls and/or access permissions.

We have a separate database where network devices are registered, including what kind of device they are. So another option I guess for me would be to write a script to sync this data with the lansweeper db and update devices that are not PCs. This probably wouldn't be an option for most others out there though.

taeratrin - as long as a firewall isn't blocking outgoing connections, it should work ok. We've collected info like this from machines before using .vbs scripts. Am going through those scripts now to see if I can adapt one to update basic info into the lansweeper db at startup or logon. Would just be nice if the lsclient had an option to do it. I know this is an issue with enforcing guidelines - we're trying to use lansweeper to help us do just that :-).

[Hemoco]

LSclient sends the computer name to the server and the server adds it to the database and scans the computer.
This means that you can discover all your machines.
The ones with a firewall on or the ones with wrong permissions will show up in the access denied list.
Linux and Mac machines will not show up when using lsclient.

[taeratrin]

I've been programming in this area (WMI info gathering) for a while, and, from my experience, you're going to have a similar problem. What happens if the client can't access the database due to the same configuration problems you mentioned?

This seems more like an issue with enforcing guidelines.