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Pulling list of serial numbers for cisco devices?

I am trying to match items in solarwinds against a list of devices we are paying for coverage on at out company. I have spent a few days trying to create a report that would do this for me, but I haven't been able to get serial numbers/service tags for all devices. I am relatively new to solarwinds so I may not be doing things correctly.

How I have found info for SOME of our devices:

1. Click on the device itself

2. In node details page, scroll down until I find a box labeled "hardware details". This gives me info on "Model" and "Service Tag"

This is the most useful to me so far, as the service tags match what we have on our coverage report. I can easily compare these two in Excel to see what matches. (Unfortunately we have hundreds of devices on our coverage report, so its usefulness has all but evaporated, hence wanting to create a report.)

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I am unsure if some devices are running protocol more friendly to SW and as such are able to pull this information while the majority of other are not.

My current report:

1. Caption - Displaying the name of the machine within SW (Displaying given name of machine in SW)

2. Machine Type (Showing manufactures name for the machine IE: Windows 2008 R2 Server, Cisco 3845, Hyper-V Server ect.) This is very useful to me if it can be combined with a serial/service number or model number.

3. Description. Detailed description of device (IE Windows 2016 Server =  Hardware: Intel64 Family 6 Model 63 Stepping 2 AT/AT COMPATIBLE - Software: Windows Version 10.0 (Build 14393 Multiprocessor Free). This I plan on removing so things look a little nicer.

4. Service Tag. This is what i actually need. Currently it is only displaying the ST of Cisco 3845, Catalyst 4948, Cisco WSC 6513 and some others that are actually of use (though very few).

5. Description. Showing the manufacture of the device IE windows, cisco, riverbed technology ect.

TL:DR

My company has tasked me with finding out what devices we are actually using that we are paying for, versus what we are paying for and not using.

I need a way of pulling as may serial number/ service tags as possible, export this list (I know how to do this), compare this list to another list of devices my company is paying for coverage on.

I am having trouble pulling a large amount of serial numbers/ service tags

I am more than happy to answer any questions and will do so to the best of my ability. I greatly appreciate any feedback you may have.

Regards,

Gus E.

Parents
  • I wanted to give you an update. In spare time, I have been working on a manner of reconciling Chassis Serial Numbers in NPM and NCM with reports you can download from Cisco. I pretty much completed it. It is important to update Cisco device firmware in order to apply security fixes, operational fixes, etc. It is important to know whether devices are covered by Smartnet, because updating devices not covered is a violation of licensing (not legal advice, but check it out). If your environment is large, with thousands of devices, it will takes a long time to cross reference your inventory in Orion with the Inventory from Cisco.

    If you use tables like, "[NCM_VulnerabilitiesAnnouncements]", you can create a report of all serial numbers which are covered under Smartnet, and have a vulnerability with CVSS score of 9 or higher, according the in actual inventory NPM and NCM know about. Cisco provides a report of devices it knows about in spreadsheet workbook format, including a page for Covered, one for Not Covered, and one for all devices, among other sheets in the workbook. By creating your own database, importing from the Cisco Workbook, and from Orion, and then using set theory, you can find out things like:

    • Which serial numbers are in Orion but not on (any) page of the Cisco report.
    • Which serial numbers are on the All Equipment page, but not on the Covered or Not Covered pages, and hence you haven't a clue whether they are covered or not.
    • Which serial numbers are in the Cisco workbook, but not in Orion.
    • Which serial numbers match on IP address between Orion and Cisco, but not on hostname/caption.
    • Which serial numbers match on Hostname/Caption between Orion and Cisco but not on IP Address.
    • Which hostname/IP address combinations match between Cisco and Orion, but not on Serial numbers.

    Using reports like those, you can determine which devices to remove from Smartnet Renewal. Which devices need to be added to Smartnet. Which devices might have escaped being entered into Orion. If there are errors in Smartnet coverage which could cause delays later if/when Smartnet is needed to obtain service on a device.

    So, I'd like to share this with the community here. serena or yumdarling​ or other -- where should I post this? It is big. I mean really big. I did a write-up to document how to run it, for others at my company (in case something catastrophic befalls me). This would be the basis of my post. But it will be quite long, probably better to post in 4 parts [Importing from Orion, Importing from Cisco, Combining Data, Running Reports].

  • Hi Eric!

    This would be great in the Network Configuration Manager​ forum!!

    Thanks for posting emoticons_happy.png

  • Hey ebradford as yumdarling​ said, please drop this into the NCM forum! I cannot wait to read your write up.

  • Yes. I will post it there. It is 30 pages long in MS Word. I am proof reading it right now.

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