An update from FusionInventory for GLPI development branch …

The future release will be named 2.3.0, and come with major improvements. This release target GLPI 0.78 as the supported platform. The  task management module has been greatly improved.

See also translations of this screencast in french, in spanish and in portuguses.

Quick overview of the improvements :

• Communication mode : both pull and push communication are supported.
  • Pull: The agent takes the initiative to contact the server. The server answer with the list of all tasks assigned to the agent. This is very useful in an environment where the presence of the agents is not predictable. The server is waiting for agents requests and can’t force the precise schedule of a task.
  • Push : The server takes the initiative to contact the agent. The agent, running as a service, is waiting for the order from the server. When waking up, the agent contacts the server. The server answer with the list of all tasks assigned to the agent.

• Schedule : The task’s execution can be scheduled. For tasks using push communication, the starting time is the effective startup time of the action. For tasks using pull communication, the starting time defines the time where the server will begin to distribute the task to the agents.
• Agent selection: You can choose which agents have to perform a task, or let FusionInventory for GLPI dynamically manage a dynamic pool of agents.
• Tasks and Actions : A task can contain an unlimited number of actions. For example a first action will wake up a computer (Wake On LAN) and a second one will perform an inventory.

• Target definition : Action’s target, for example an IP range, a list of devices, a dynamic group of devices, etc…

• Display current running actions: All task in a running state are displayed.
• History : Task execution logs are available as history. Each task actions may have different states : prepared, started, running, ok, error, unknown.
• Dynamic pool of agents: When using the Push mode, the server looks for all agents running and allowed to run a specific module (inventory, netdiscovery, snmpinventory, wakeonlan). The server then balance the load of the process within the agents. For example if you use an IP range with 10 agents, each agent will have to do 1/10 of the whole job.

We added three nice screenshots of Uranos to demonstrate how they use FusionInventory to collect asset inventories.

We’re still working on Windows portage. Progress are good on the Inventory part, there is still some code to clean up and missing section.

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The FusionInventory project

During the FOSDEM meeting, a group of people decided to join their force to create a new independent project called FusionInventory. FusionInventory project aims to provide a better integration between the different asset management projects including OCS Inventory, GLPI and GOSA.

Components

• FusionInventory Agent (former OCS Inventory UNIX agent). We want it to be the sole agent installed on the machines. Because of that we improved its internal architecture to be more modular and we will port it to Windows.
• FusionInventory For GLPI (former GLPI Tracker plugin ). Today’s Tracker is a powerful SNMP/Network discovery extension for GLPI. This plugin will be the interface between the agent and GLPI.

Roadmap

• Feb 2010: Alpha release of the agent including SNMP, WakeOnLan
• Mar 2010: Beta release of the agent including P2P OCS Deployment
• Apr 2010: 2.1 release, Windows support
• May 2010: GOsa² integration including Linux and Windows OS deployment (FAI and OPSI) and LTSP support

Others

• The current agent already supports VirtualMachines detection. We wish to integrate it with GLPI & OCS quickly.

About OCS. We believe in FreeSoftware, standard and interoperability. OCS Inventory is a major software for our users and it’s critical to keep the compatibility with it. That’s why we use OCS network protocol and XML format. We want to continue to work with OCS Team to keep the compatibility as good as possible. This IS a major point for us.

Everybody is welcome in this project. Even more if you love cooperation between projects and are open-minded . We look for:

• Windows packager of the agent
• Perl & PHP programmers
• Beta testers
• Friendly people on IRC
• YOURSELF!

Who we are
- Myself, former OCS Inventory core Team Member and OCS Inventory UNIX Agent maintainer
- Benoit Mortier, GOsa² core Team Member, FAI and OPSI contributor
- David Durieux, “FusionInventory For GLPI” core member, “FusionInventory Agent” contributor, GLPI conributor
- And more…