Casper > WebHelpDesk Discovery

[#1]

I have a question regarding the Asset Tag, Bar Code 1 and Bar Code 2
fields within the JSS database inventory. Aside from manually inputting
data into those fields via the JSS web-interface, or via Recon, is there a
way to enter that info? Preferably during/prior to the imaging with Casper
Imaging?

Reason I ask...we run WebHelpDesk for our help desk tickets and asset
management database. WHD can query Casper for asset discovery/updating,
however, in discovering assets since there is nothing in the Asset Tag
field on the JSS, the machines serial number is defaulted to for the asset
number. We place a barcode sticker on every asset that comes into our
building, and that asset barcode number is the asset number in WHD. It
would make my life exponentially easier if I could input that barcode
number into one of those fields within the JSS and have it sync to WHD.

Thanks,
Steve

--
Steven Diver, Network Manager
Adlai E. Stevenson High School - http://www.d125.org
Email: sdiver at d125.org - Phone: 847.415.4304

"Be not simply good, be good for something."
-Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

[ernstcs]

Others may have a good answer to this that actually use these pieces, but there should be a way. However, it requires you to know the MAC addresses of your systems before they arrive and I’m not sure that’s helpful or not. As I understand it you should be able to request a list of MAC addresses for the systems you are expected to receive so that you can pre-populate your JSS for either just adding the systems by hand before they arrive or for pre-stage imaging (Pg 275 of the JSS Manual for 7.1). At what point in an order you can request those I’m not certain since I’ve never done it.

To add a system manually before you image or recon it, just go to the Inventory tab of your JSS and select the ‘Add Computer Manually’ link to the right of the search box.

It sounds like to me that at the time you order a system you have an entry for it already in your WHD?

Not sure how much this will help your situation, but it’s all I got...

Craig E

[John_Wetter]

A couple ways to do this...

Even with pre-staged imaging, you can't enter the asset tag infor via that. You can get the mac addresses from Apple though in a CSV, you just need to ask for it. I've been told you can only get that in orders of 40 or more.

As for putting in the asset tag info, what we've done and JAMF support has worked with us on is the once a year we do it (or in this case in one big batch) we have a sql script that writes in the asset tag into the field based on either the serial number or the mac address of the computer. So, in our case, for our couple hundred machines at a time, we send a CSV of the serial numbers and asset tags to support, and they send us a sql script to add the asset tags into the JSS. That's how we do it... I'd love for the JSS to be able to pull in the CSV of this by itself *Feature Request Alert*.

I hope this helps.
John

--
John Wetter
Technical Services Manager
Educational Technology, Media & Information Services
Hopkins Public Schools
952-988-5373<livecall:952-988-5373>

[jarednichols]

I ended up making an AppleScript studio application that prompts the user for two things, their standard username (something we have a convention here for) and the asset tag of the computer. This does two things, both using the Jamf binary. It sets the standard username as the “username” filed in the computer’s info, and sets the “assettag” field in the same record.

I’ve got Casper setup with an LDAP lookup so that I can then go into the computer record and do a lookup on the location. Since “username” is now filled in, it will query LDAP with the standard username, thus returning things like their real name, position, office location, building, department, phone number and email.... All those fields in the Location tab of the computer record are then filled in with information from LDAP. It’s hot. Also, we’ve got the asset tag of the sticker that’s on the computer.

How’d I do that?

Use the ‘jamf’ binary. If you do a ‘jamf help recon’ you’ll see that there are some fields that you can set, from the client, in to the JSS. Two of them are “assetTag” and “endUsername”. The downside, is that to run the recon with these switches, you need admin privs. Or, at least the way my app turned out you do. So, you could either have a deploy tech do it, when you know who the computer’s going to, or you could put it in self service. I have a smart group setup where the asset tag field is empty, it then fires off the asset tag app that I made. The user only sees it once and it’s done with.

Personally, I wish like Dells, you could burn an asset tag ID into the computer’s firmware. Tools like SCCM (from Microsoft) can then query this information straight out of BIOS. Dell can even slap our asset tag on it and burn it into BIOS before it leaves the factory. I’m not aware of anything like this on a Mac so we’re stuck doing some gymnastics like above.

j