I will admit it. I have worked with Altiris products for about three years now and as I have encountered more new situations and new products I have been impressed time and time again. Maybe my expectations are low, but the Asset Management Suite has so far turned out to be more flexible than I could have imagined. Here is a little example of what we did with customizing the Asset Management Solution and CMDB, creating a new Asset Type.

Recently our organization has gone through, what I would call a large Asset Management Solution implementation. There were a number of major parts to the migration that included things like pulling information in from another system and making sure that associations were set properly. At first it seemed as if it was a very daunting task, but these migrations are still possible with a little bit of focus and some careful planning. In the end it turned out to be much easier than we had originally assumed.

The key to our success was the flexibility Altiris' Asset management Solution provided while we defined our new processes. Upon looking at what assets we needed to migrate over from our old system (an overly detailed dinosaur that tracked mice, yes mice) we realized that a lot of very valuable items were listed as simply miscellaneous. The most important of these items were the ever popular Hardware Locks.

Making a Case for a New Asset Type

For those of you who do not know what a hardware lock really is I must first say I envy you. Secondly I would describe the item as a small USB key that connects to either a server or local workstation. Many software programs, mostly of the engineering or license managing variety in my experience, will then check for the existence of these USB keys before the product will run. It is another form of license management and, for those who have never lost a hardware lock, it can be a very expensive one.

Tracking these items can be very important, but they are not really software licenses that can be easily tracked using the contract and compliance modules. Most hardware locks allow for hundreds of installs, because you can not really use the application unless your lock is also connected.

Modeling Required Data

The first step to defining your new asset type is to understand what information you need to track for it.

For our lock we will want to track the following information:

• Product Name
• Product Version
• Serial Number
• Status
• Cost
• Owner

After deciding what information you want to track you will want to categorize these items a couple of different ways. First we will decide which data types will be static information that will exist in only this record and which ones are going to be linked to other resource types within the Altiris console.

For our example we will classify Product Name, Product Version, Serial Number, Status, and Cost as items that will reside in our custom data class for this resource (more on that later). For the case of Owner we will want to link to the User resource so we can link these items to things like the owner's department for reporting.

Creation of Asset Type

After knowing what data we want to record I usually create the first, from within the NS Console browse to your "Configuration" tab. On the configuration tab you will need to navigate to the folder where you will store the custom Resource Type. My recommended location for something like that would be Resource Settings > Resource Types > Asset Types > User Defined. Once here right-click and select New > Resource Type, a new resource type screen will then be opened.

Right now you have a few options including basing this type off another type. When you inherit information essentially all the information from one class and put it into the new one. This is very useful for things like multifunction devices or copiers that can be based off printer objects. Also it is why I recommend mapping out what information you want to include in your new resource type. This way you can make an educated decision on how to get the best information into your asset database. Our new asset type of Hardware Lock will not be inheriting any information so we can show you how to build a new base type.

After building this type we will, however be able to base other items off this base item. In fact in this case we might be able to create two types of hardware lock, one attached locally to workstations and another type that reflects those attached to servers that run licensing services. I will not be doing that for this example so I will just continue on with our example.

When saved the empty resource type will now look something like this:

Click to view.

Creation of Extended Details

After defining our Resource Type we will want to create a new data class to store our information. This will be created, again on the configuration tab, within the Resource Settings > Data Classes > User Defined folder. To create a new data class right click and select New > Editable Data Class, here is where we will put in the fields we are going to track on our new asset type. On this screen we need to give it a name, I usually choose Extended "Resource Type name" Details as recommended by a consultant. Next we choose what tab to place this on, the default is General. If you give it a name that is not a tab on the Resource Type a new tab of that name should be created.

Now we define each Attribute as we go down the list of items we track. For each one we define a Name, what type of data it is, some information specific to the type (such as length or what values are used when selecting a list), and what order the items will be displayed in. Not all of the information we are tracking will go in this data class, but you can get a good glimpse here.

Click to view.

Creation of Resource Associations

To create a new Resource association brows back to Resource Settings > Resource Associations > User Defined, then right click and select New > Editable Association Type. Here we are tracking the Owner of the Hardware lock. To keep it simple we will leave it on the general tab and select each resource to be associated, in this case Hardware Lock and User. In our example I have set it as a one to one association and enabled it to be edited from the Hardware Lock edit screen only.

Click to view.

Using New Asset in Helpdesk Module

Not everyone is using the Altiris Helpdesk Module in conjunction with their Asset Management implementations, but if you are then it might be important to use your new asset type in the Helpdesk Module. Those assets can easily be chosen for use in the helpdesk by an Administrator. From the worker console select Admin > Resource Types. This screen lists the asset types that are currently available for use in the Helpdesk module. By clicking edit at the bottom of the page you should be able to list the available asset types that are on that notification server. Your asset type will most likely not have a title attached to it (I am still looking for a way to add that one).

Thank you for taking the time to review this article. I know that many people might find these kinds of things simple, but I hope you at least find value in seeing what other organizations have done.