Online Help | Network Inventory

Audit Credentials window

Introduced in 8.5

Use the Audit Credentials window to add or modify a set of credentials for auditing computers or other devices using the Direct Network Scan. This article describes controls available in this window.

These types of credentials exist: Windows, Linux and Mac, ESXi/vSphere/Citrix, Google, SNMP.

  • Windows

    Windows credentials are used to audit Windows computers. The audit account that you define must be a member of the local Administrators group on each Windows client computer, either directly or through the membership in a Windows domain group.

    We recommend that you use a domain administrator's account. You can also specify a local account as long as this account exists on every computer you want audited.

  • Linux and Mac

    Linux and Mac credentials are used to audit Linux and macOS computers . Credentials must allow logging on to these computers.

    We recommend that you provide credentials for an account with root rights, i.e. the root account or the account that can run the dmidecode command with administrative rights. Otherwise, Network Inventory will not be able to collect SMBIOS hardware informational on Linux computers. Collecting the list of services (daemons) on macOS computers also requires root rights. If you need this information, you should also use the root account or configure the launchctl command to run with elevated (root) privileges under a non-root account.

    For connecting to Linux and Mac computers via SSH, Network Inventory utilizes Plink-a command-line network connection tool which is a part of the PuTTY product, distributed under the free MIT license. Plink is included in the Network Inventory installation package; the executable file name is plink.exe. For more information on PuTTY and Plink, see the following website: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/.

  • ESXi/vSphere/Citrix

    ESXi/vSphere/Citrix credentials are used to audit ESXi/vSphere and Citrix hypervisors. Credentials must allow logging on to these computers. We recommend that you use an account with administrative privilege. For Citrix hypervisors, audit credentials must allow logging to the computers using the SSH protocol.

  • Google

    Google credentials ate used to collect audit data on Google Chromebooks. Google credentials must allow access to the inventory information about Chromebooks enrolled in the domain.

  • SNMP

    SNMP credentials are used to collect inventory data about networked printers, scanners, hubs, routers, and other devices. Network Inventory detects and identifies those network devices via SNMP.