Planning the Installation

This page provides a recommended sequence for setting up xAssets IT Asset Management after the software has been installed. Installation itself is covered in the separate xAssets Installation Guide -- this page focuses on the decisions and steps that come after installation to get your system into a productive state.

When to Plan

No planning decisions (other than server-related decisions) are required at installation time, except where separate networks exist for implementation which include discovery. Once installation is complete, some basic reference data is created, and an initial discovery is conducted to give you information to work with. This helps the decision-making process in terms of:

• Which departments, locations, and cost centres exist
• What kind of assets you want to discover and track
• What custom reports are required
• How frequently you will run discovery
• Whether to load data immediately or overnight

Recommended Setup Sequence

The specific plan will depend on your environment and how many assets exist on the network. The following sequence is a sound approach for an organisation with 1,000 nodes or fewer. Larger environments may need to adjust timings but the overall sequence remains the same.

1. Training

Get familiar with using and navigating the system before making configuration changes. The Getting Started chapter covers browser setup, login, and interface navigation.

2. Active Directory Integration (Optional)

1. Configure Active Directory integration to point at the correct servers and Organisational Units (OUs).
2. Run the integration to pull in Locations, Users, and Computer Names.
3. Check that AD users have loaded correctly into the Custodians reference data.

Tip: AD data quality is often poor in many organisations. If your AD OUs do not correspond to real-world locations, consider using IP range-to-location mappings instead. These can be configured later and will automatically set each asset's location based on its IP address.

3. External Integrations (Optional)

Connect integrations to third-party management tools such as Microsoft Intune, SCCM, JAMF, Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud. See Capabilities for the full list of supported integrations.

4. Locations

1. Manually enter locations, or review the location hierarchy imported from AD OUs.
2. Where AD integration is not used, or where the AD OUs do not correspond to real-world locations, define which IP ranges correspond to which locations.
3. IP range-to-location relationships can be used as the primary method for setting asset and user locations, especially where AD data is unreliable.

5. Initial Discovery

1. Run an initial discovery and let the data load into the main database.
2. Check the results -- review the Asset Inventory Dashboard to confirm assets have been discovered and classified correctly.
3. Decide how frequently discovery will take place (e.g., daily, weekly) and what information should be collected.
4. Decide what custom reports are required beyond the built-in queries.
5. Decide what email alerts are required for changes, thresholds, or events.

6. Software Inventory

1. Run the software licence compliance reports to understand what software exists on the network.
2. Load a software inventory spreadsheet through the standard import for Software Licence Assets, or enter software licences manually.
3. Run the software licence compliance reports again to compare discovered usage against purchased licences.
4. Assign computers to software licences where specific allocation is needed.
5. Review unrecognised software titles and classify them.

Scaling for Larger Environments

For organisations with more than 1,000 nodes, consider the following adjustments:

Related Articles

• Capabilities — full list of features and integrations
• IT Asset Management Configuration — what can be configured and which guide covers each area
• Preparing the Browser — browser setup before first login