D
ata Sheet: Asset Inventory and Management
Symantec Discovery™
Track hardware/software assets and monitor license compliance throughout a
multiplatform IT infrastructure
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OVERVIEW
Symantec Discovery™ helps ensure Client Resilience by
identifying and tracking all of your organization's hardware
and software assets. The more knowledge an organization has
about its IT assets, the more control it has over associated
costs, purchases, helpdesk support and overall client
management. This control then helps organizations keep their
IT infrastructures secure, available, and compliant with
corporate standards.
Effective control of assets includes starting with a
comprehensive baseline inventory that includes information
about each computer or other network device, a list of all
installed software, and the physical location of each device. In
order to maintain continued control of network assets, it is
also necessary to perform ongoing audits and generate
comprehensive reports to understand the state of the
infrastructure at any given time.
Using Symantec Discovery, an IT organization can fully
understand where devices are located and how they’re
configured, as well as track a complete history of when any
changes have taken place. Integrated LANProbe™ technology
uncovers and locates every IP-addressable device on the
net
work
, providing a complete and accurate audit every time.
Symantec Discovery can be used as an integral piece of many
IT related projects including managing an OS upgrade or roll-
out, enforcing software licensing compliance, negotiating
license renewals or equipment contracts, benchmarking
existing equipment prior to a hardware refresh, investigating
unauthorized or restricted application use, and reporting on IT
assets for mergers & acquisitions or bankruptcies.
Symantec Discovery works easily with existing lifecycle
management processes and tools, helping minimize the total
cost of owning and maintaining devices and software licenses.
As an essential component of the Symantec LiveState™ Client
Management Suite, it also provides the integral information
needed to manage and track client devices wherever they may
reside in a production environment.
BENEFITS
Help Ensure Client Resilience
• Keep machines secure and available by scanning and
identifying malicious applications and file-types that are
suspect.
• Fast, non-invasive auditing of hardware (CPU, memory,
disk, etc.) and software (OS with version/service-pack
information, commercial products and/or in-house
applications) provides accurate information regarding the
s
tate of each device.
•
Scheduled and on-demand auditing provides the abilit
y to
keep track of ongoing changes throughout an IT
infrastructure and helps ensure devices stay compliant
with corporate standards.
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D
ata Sheet: Asset Inventory and Management
Reduce Cost and Effort
•
Decrease software licensing costs by reclaiming or
reallocating unused or redundant software licenses
b
ased on installation and usage reports.
• Mitigate the risk of licensing non-compliance, including
fines and legal action due to oversubscribing software
licenses.
• Automate manual inventory audits to maintain a more
effective and accurate assessment of your IT assets.
• Simplify & accurately estimate upgrades using a web
based co
sting tool.
Stay in Control of Your IT Environment
• Easily find and track all devices across all network
segments to identify all assets including desktops,
notebooks, servers, routers, and printers, regardless of
how they are connected to the network.
• Ensure the client agent is reliably delivered to users
regardless of operating system, network topology, or
connection type leveraging a comprehensive range of
agent deployment methods such as automatic delivery
over the network, via email, or web installation.
•
Eliminate impact to user productivity or net
work ser
vice
when performing hardware/software audits. Simple and
optimized IP communication enables reliable audits to be
perf
ormed over highly utiliz
ed W
ANs or low bandwidth
connections.
FEATURES
Auto-discovery
• Complete discovery of all network devices across
multiple locations or operating systems, including
desktops, notebooks, servers, routers, and printers.
• Small client and delta-based reporting provides faster
analysis across different connections and enables
identification of hardware, without the need to push an
agent to every device.
• Drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to inventory
and track IT assets by geographical location and
functional grouping.
Location detection
• Patented LANProbe identifies physical device locations
by interrogating all switching and routing devices on the
network, VLAN, and subnet environments.
• Robust asset tracking allows for accurate inventory of
mobile computers and assets at remote sites.
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D
ata Sheet: Asset Inventory and Management
Agent-based inventory management
• Mirroring of Active Directory user groups and
organizational units allows deployment of agents and
reporting of audits using a common view of the network.
• Provides detailed reports of all hardware and software
information on network devices, such as processor types,
BIOS dates, MAC addresses, disk capacities, available
memory slots, software versions and installation dates,
file types, data from custom fields and more.
•
Audits defined per device, scheduled or on-demand.
Multiplatform
• Supports a heterogeneous environment including
Windows®, Linux®, UNIX®, IBM AIX®, and Mac® platforms.
Asset tracking
• Easily track and manage leased IT equipment by tracking
the serial numbers of VDU monitors – ensuring that the
right kit is accounted for at all times and returned at the
end of the lease.
• Maintains a comprehensive audit trail by tracking all
installations, moves, additions, and changes.
•
Hardware changes are dynamically recognized and
reported, allowing IT to ha
ve near real-time asset
inventory information
•
Alerts can automatically no
tif
y adminis
trators when
specific changes occur
, such as removal of memory or
unauthoriz
ed sof
t
ware installation.
Software license and usage monitoring
• Software usage auditing provides details regarding
which users within your organization use a particular
application and how often they use it.
• Software license compliance reports provide a quick and
comprehensive overview of the state of licensing
compliance for each device throughout an organization.
Comprehensive data analysis, reporting, and graphing
• Performs PC & network inventory across distributed
heterogeneous networks rapidly, silently & continuously
to provide a complete, accurate & up-to-date audit.
• Easily customize audit queries and histories
Web access
• Compliance with US Rehabilitation Act Section 508
legislation, provides web reporting that is designed
to help ensure ease of use for those with
accessibility needs.
• Web-based interface offers powerful “what if” tools &
helps managers plan and budget to network changes.
By specifying hardware and software pre-requisites,
component cos
t & labor time, Symantec Discovery can
displa
y a break
down of computer age by department or
globally
, allowing you to ex
amine the sk
ew of
manufacturer or device t
ype acro
ss the organization
and analyz
e asset usage by manufacturer or product
.
•
Easily configure v
arious levels of securit
y access, allow
complete anonymous access to an
y member of s
taff, or to
control by countr
y
, department or o
ther organizational unit.
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ata Sheet: Asset Inventory and Management
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Dashboard View
• Provides administrators and other executive stakeholders
with a clear graphical view of key systems intelligence.
Each Dashboard user can choose from 15 pre-configured
reports covering such areas as license compliance, asset
availability, project planning and risk management.
LAN, WAN, and Internet auditing
• A range of deployment methods helps ensure the client
agent is reliably delivered to users regardless of
operating system, network topology, or connection type.
Supported Environments:
Symantec Discovery Administration Control Center
• Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server
• Web Control Center requires Microsoft IE 5.0 or higher
Server Operating Systems
• Microsoft Windows 2000 (Server Versions)
• Microsoft Windows 2003 (Server Versions)
• IIS 5 or 6 required for Web Server and secure
data transfer
Client Operating Systems
Windows Platforms
• Microsoft Windows 95, 98, 2000, 2003, NT and XP
• Red Hat Linux (Version 7 and above) on Intel
• Sun Solaris on SPARC (Sun OS version 5.6 and above)
• HP-UX on PA-RISC (version 11 and above)
• MAC OSX 10.1, 10.2, 10.3
• SUSE Linux 8.0 and above on Intel
•
IBM AIX 5.1 and 5.2
LANProbe requirements
• LANProbe operates over an IP network on Ethernet
and Token Ring. Physical location is supported on
Ethernet networks utilizing managed SNMP-enabled
switches only.
Network environments
• TCP/IPv4
D
ata Sheet: Asset Inventory and Management
More information
Visit our Web site
http://sea.symantec.com/discovery
To speak with a Product Specialist in the US
Call toll-free 1 (800) 745 6054
To speak with a Product Specialist outside the U.S.
Symantec has operations in more than 40 countries.
For specific country offices and contact numbers, visit
our Web site.
About S
ymantec
S
ymantec is the world leader in providing solutions
to help individuals and enterprises assure the security,
availability, and integrity of their information.
Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has
operations in more than 40 countries. More information
is available at www.symantec.com.
Symantec Corporation World Headquarters
20330 Stevens Creek Boulevard
Cupertino, CA 95014 USA
408 517 8000
800 721 3934
www.symantec.com
S
ymantec and the S
ymantec logo are re
gis
tered trademarks of S
ymantec Corporation and/
or its subsidiaries in the United States and elsewhere. LiveState and Symantec Discovery are trademarks of Symantec
Corporation and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and elsewhere. All other brands and products are trademarks of their respective holder(s) ©2005 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved.
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