Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 Administrator's Manual

AdminWorks

Console Administrator’s Guide

Version 1.2

TM

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Table of Contents

Contact Information...................................................................................................... 6

What is Avocent AdminWorks management suite? ................................................... 7

Summary of Features................................................................................................7

Accessing the Help Messages and FAQ...................................................................8

Definitions.................................................................................................................9

System Requirements ................................................................................................ 10

AdminWorks Console..............................................................................................10

AdminWorks Agent .................................................................................................11

Invoking the AdminWorks Console program............................................................12

Components of the Main Console Window...............................................................13

Topology Frame......................................................................................................14

Organization...................................................................................................... 14

Task Groups...................................................................................................... 15

Using the pop-up menu.....................................................................................15

New Group.................................................................................................. 15

Rename Group............................................................................................16

Delete Group...............................................................................................16

Workgroup Frame...................................................................................................16

Illustrations of System Status Icons...................................................................19

Information Frame...................................................................................................20

System Display section .....................................................................................21

Information Display section ...............................................................................22

Summary.....................................................................................................22

Hardware.....................................................................................................22

Software......................................................................................................23

Health..........................................................................................................23

CPU Temperature..................................................................................24

CPU Fan................................................................................................25

Board Temperature................................................................................26

Board Fan..............................................................................................27

Power Supply.........................................................................................27

Hard Disk(s)...........................................................................................29

Indicators for “Sensor Not Detected” vs. “Off-line”.............................................30

If the System is On-line but Sensor is not Detected.....................................30

If the System is Off-Line..............................................................................30

Status Frame ..........................................................................................................31

The Menu Bar..............................................................................................................32

Console Menu.........................................................................................................32

Discover............................................................................................................32

Poll....................................................................................................................33

System Logs... ..................................................................................................34

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Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

Discovery..................................................................................................... 35

Polling.......................................................................................................... 36

Agent ID Sync.............................................................................................. 36

Hardware Change Alerts and the Hardware Change Log............................37

Event Filter.............................................................................................38

Event Properties.................................................................................... 39

Deleting all entries in any of the Logs.......................................................... 39

Exporting any of the Logs............................................................................40

Setting the number of entries to be saved in each Log................................ 40

Preferences....................................................................................................... 41

General tab.................................................................................................. 41

Launch AdminWorks Console at System Startup ..................................41

Temperature Scale ................................................................................ 42

Company Information............................................................................. 42

View tab....................................................................................................... 43

Logs tab....................................................................................................... 44

Discovery...............................................................................................44

Poll Information......................................................................................44

Agent ID Sync........................................................................................44

Hardware Change..................................................................................44

Discovery tab............................................................................................... 45

Auto-discovery at Console startup.........................................................46

Schedule Enabled..................................................................................46

Set IP range to discover systems across routers...................................46

Exit....................................................................................................................47

Client Menu.............................................................................................................48

Add to Group..................................................................................................... 48

Managing Systems......................................................................................48

Adding an UnManaged System to a Group in Managed Systems..........49

Moving Managed Systems..................................................................... 51

Remove............................................................................................................. 52

Cancel............................................................................................................... 52

Refresh ............................................................................................................. 53

Sync Agent ID With... ........................................................................................53

Power Off..........................................................................................................55

Restart .............................................................................................................. 55

Configure Restriction......................................................................................... 55

Group Menu............................................................................................................ 58

New Group........................................................................................................58

Rename Group.................................................................................................. 59

Delete Group..................................................................................................... 59

View Menu.............................................................................................................. 60

Tool Bar............................................................................................................. 61

Status Bar .........................................................................................................61

Windows ........................................................................................................... 62

All Systems .......................................................................................................62

Online Systems.................................................................................................62

Absent Systems ................................................................................................63

Over 3 Days................................................................................................. 63

Over 1 Week ............................................................................................... 63

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Over 1 Month............................................................................................... 63

Over 3 Months.............................................................................................63

Large Icon.........................................................................................................64

Small Icon .........................................................................................................65

Detail List ..........................................................................................................65

Adding/Removing Columns.........................................................................66

Re-arranging Column Sequence .................................................................67

Sorting Information by Column ....................................................................68

Moving Column Dividers.............................................................................. 68

Tools Menu............................................................................................................. 69

Report Generator... ...........................................................................................69

System Asset Report................................................................................... 70

Adding, Removing, and Re-sequencing Columns.................................. 72

Moving Column Dividers........................................................................73

Sorting Information by Column............................................................... 73

Entering Comments...............................................................................73

Displaying Report Summary Data in Chart Form...................................74

Software Asset Report................................................................................. 75

Adding, Removing, and Re-sequencing Columns.................................. 75

Using the Tool Bar in the Report Windows.................................................. 77

Print....................................................................................................... 77

Print Setting........................................................................................... 78

Preview..................................................................................................78

Previewing the System Asset Report...............................................78

Previewing the Software Asset Report.............................................80

Using the Tool Bar in the Print Preview window...............................81

Export.................................................................................................... 83

Help....................................................................................................... 85

Exit.........................................................................................................85

Find...................................................................................................................86

Help Menu...............................................................................................................90

AdminWorks Help .............................................................................................90

Check Updates.................................................................................................. 90

Enter Activation Key.......................................................................................... 91

If the Trial/Evaluation version expires.......................................................... 91

Contact Us ........................................................................................................92

About AdminWorks ...........................................................................................93

About Box for Console program...................................................................93

About Box for Agent program ......................................................................93

General tab............................................................................................94

About tab............................................................................................... 94

Frequently Asked Questions...................................................................................... 95

Index............................................................................................................................ 99

4 Table of Contents

Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

Copyright Information

This User’s Manual, as well as the software described in it, are furnished under license and may
only be used or copied in accordance with the terms of the license. This document is furnished
for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a
commitment by Avocent Corp. Avocent Corp. assumes no responsibility or liability for any
errors or omissions that may appear in this document or any software that may be provided in
association with this document, and makes no warranties for damages resulting from corrupted
or lost data due to misuse, wrong operation, or malfunction of the products.

Except as permitted by such license, no part of this document, in whole or in part, may be
copied, reproduced, adapted, transmitted, reduced, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or
translated into any human or computer language, in any form or by any means, either
mechanically, electronically, or manually, without prior consent in writing from Avocent Corp.

The illustrations that appear in this User’s Manual may differ slightly from the screens that
actually appear when you operate the product. All names, telephone numbers, E-mail
addresses, and other data shown within the examples are fictional and for illustrative purposes
only. Any similarity to actual names, telephone numbers, E-mail addresses, and other data is
purely coincidental.

Avocent AdminWorks™ is a trademark of the Avocent® Corporation.
Avocent®, the Avocent logo®, and “The Power of Being There™” are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Avocent Corporation or its affiliates.
Microsoft® and Windows® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United
States and other countries.
Intel®, Pentium®, and Celeron® are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries
in the United States and other countries.
The names of other actual companies, products, and brands mentioned herein may be claimed
as the trade/brand names, service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of others.

First Edition for version 1.2 July 2005
Copyright © 2005 Avocent Corporation

All rights reserved.

Copyright Information 5

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Contact Information

U.S. CORPORATE MAILING ADDRESS:
Avocent Corporation

4991 Corporate Drive
Huntsville
Alabama 35805

Telephone: [phone]
Toll-free telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Web site: http://www.avocent.com/adminworks
Product support: [e-mail]
Sales and marketing: [e-mail]
Other inquiries: [e-mail]

6 Contact Information

Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

What is Avocent AdminWorks management
suite?

Avocent AdminWorks™ management suite (also referred to simply as “AdminWorks” in this
document) is a simple-to-use and yet powerful application that provides a complete physical
blueprint of desktop hardware and software to facilitate centralized asset management. It
allows System Administrators to perform many of their daily tasks from their Console screen,
rather than physically visiting individual workstations. Your everyday desktop or laptop PC is all
that it takes to put IT management at your fingertips, such as keeping track of inventory,
diagnosing faulty hardware, generating analytical reports, being alerted to unexpected
hardware changes, remote power off/restart, and preventing a system remotely from
performing certain operations such as using a diskette drive or downloading files.

In order for the Console to be able to remotely manage systems, the Avocent AdminWorks
Agent program must first be installed on each of the desired systems. The Avocent
AdminWorks Console program will then be able to “discover” those systems. This includes
UDP broadcast discovery and polling of nodes (systems) within the Local Area Network; and,
for cross-router discovery, systems for which IP address ranges have been set for scanning
capability.

Information polled from the systems is stored in a database. Therefore, if there is more than
one Administrator in the same organization, they can all share the same database information.
In the Task Group topology, you can view and manipulate your Managed Systems. In the
Organization topology, you can switch between Managed Systems and UnManaged Systems.

Summary of Features

Without leaving your own desk, you can simultaneously manage the desktop PCs, NoteBook
PCs, and Servers of the organization. Among other things, Avocent AdminWorks allows you to:

 Manage systems
 Un-manage/remove systems from groups
 Know at a glance what the status of each system is

On-line, off-line, absent for various periods of time, being managed by another
Administrator, restricted usage, or “pending” (a state when an action is in progress or
waiting in queue).

 View system information, both hardware and software

Asset tracking management automatically captures detailed configuration and
logs/monitors any asset changes. If hardware is found to be changed or missing, you
will receive an alert in the Console window and an entry will be made in the Hardware
Change Log.

 Search for and display only systems meeting your specified constraints and criteria.

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 View the Health/sensor data history of managed systems

Avocent AdminWorks monitors the hardware of the systems in the network for
temperature, voltage, fan, hard drive, etc., and logs all abnormalities.

 View system logs (Hardware Change, Discovery, Polling, Agent ID Synchronization) and

set the maximum number of entries you want to retain in the history.

 Set restrictions on the usage of managed systems

Remote hardware and software restriction management capability allows Administrators
to prevent a remote system from downloading or creating files of the specified filetypes.
Usage of a USB storage device, a CD-ROM, a diskette drive, or 1394 mass storage
devices can be “locked” remotely to prevent data exchange.

 Generate reports

System Asset Reports and Software Asset Reports with charts can be generated at any
time for tracking and information analysis. These can be printed or exported to a new
file. Preview and adjust reports before printing if desired.

 Synchronize Agent IDs

Agent ID synchronization allows Avocent AdminWorks to retain the history data of a
system on which the Agent was re-installed, instead of recognizing it as a new, offline
system.

 Customize auto-discovery settings.
 Poll systems in the database to refresh the information and keep it up-to-date.
 Power off, or re-start, your managed systems remotely.

Accessing the Help Messages and FAQ

If you have questions about a particular command or procedure while using Avocent
AdminWorks, you can probably obtain the answer by consulting the built-in Help messages.

 In the main Console window, select AdminWorks Help from the Help Menu.
 If the Report window is currently active, click the Help button in the Tool Bar to access

the Help.

In addition, at the end of this User’s Manual there is a Frequently Asked Questions section
which includes trouble-shooting tips.

8 What is Avocent AdminWorks management suite?

Definitions

In this document, the following terms are used.

System

Three types of computers can be managed by the AdminWorks Console: Desktop

computers, NoteBook computers, and Servers. In AdminWorks, these are

referred to as individual “systems.” (The AdminWorks Agent must be installed on a

system in order for the Console to be able to discover it.)

Discovery

During the installation of the AdminWorks Agent program on a system, a unique ID

known as the “Agent ID” is generated and stored in the system. The term

“Discovery” refers to the process whereby the Console sends a broadcast to detect

any systems on the network that are identified by Agent IDs, retrieves those

systems’ most up-to-date information, and saves it in the AdminWorks database.

Managed System

A system on which the Agent program has been installed and which has been

discovered, and which you have chosen to add to a group in your “Managed

Systems” (and the owner of the system has agreed) so you can monitor and control

it (to a certain degree) using your Console.

Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

UnManaged System

A system listed under “UnManaged Systems” in AdminWorks is a system on the

network in which the Agent has been installed and which has been discovered by

the Console, but which you have not yet chosen to list in your Managed Systems.

(Note that it could be a system that is currently being managed by another Console

Administrator.)

Absent System

A system that has previously been discovered, but has not been detected during the

Discovery process for a period of time since the most recent discovery. In the

Workgroup frame, you can filter the view so that only the systems that have been

absent for three days, or one week, or one month, or over three months are

displayed.

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System Requirements

AdminWorks Console

After you have installed the Console program, you can use it to “discover” and manage systems
on which the Agent program has been installed. The machine on which the Console program is
installed should have the following minimum requirements.

Supported Operating System:

 Microsoft® Windows® XP Home/Professional/Professional x64, Server 2003

Hardware:

 Intel® Pentium® III 500 MHz or higher (or Celeron® equivalent)
 256 MB of RAM or higher

Available Hard Drive Space:

 20 MB of free space for AdminWorks Console installation
 100 MB of free space for the database

Minimum Recommended Display Configuration:

 800 x 600 with 16-bit color

NOTE: When you install the Console program, one of the Setup windows will



require you to select Typical or Agent Only. The Typical button is selected by
default and will install the Agent program on that computer along with the Console
program. (You will still need to install the Agent program individually on the other
computers that you wish to manage.)

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Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

AdminWorks Agent

The AdminWorks Agent program must be installed individually on each system that you want
the Console to be able to detect and recognize. The installation process places an Agent ID on
the system, enabling the Console program to “discover” it. The Agent program can be installed
on Desktop computers, Notebook computers, and Servers.

Any machine on which the AdminWorks Agent is installed should have the following minimum
requirements:

Supported Operating Systems:

 Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Professional/Server/Advanced Server
 Microsoft® Windows® XP Home/Professional/Professional x64
 Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003

Hardware:

 Intel® Pentium® III 350 MHz or higher (or Celeron® equivalent)
 128 MB of RAM or higher

Available Hard Drive Space:

 5 MB of free space for AdminWorks Agent installation

Minimum Recommended Display Configuration:

 800 x 600 with 16-bit color

NOTE: If you run the standard Setup program to install the Agent program on each



system, follow the instructions on the screen (make sure to select Agent Only when
prompted).

Alternatively, you can use the batch (.bat) files that are provided with the installation
package. This reduces the installation to one step. Batch files are provided for each
system type: Desktop, Notebook, and Server. Simply run the appropriate batch file.
For example, when installing the Agent program on a Desktop computer, just run your
batch file for Desktop computers.

System Requirements 11

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Invoking the AdminWorks Console program

After you have installed the AdminWorks Console, a shortcut icon will be placed on your

desktop:

You can launch the Console program the first time by double-clicking on the desktop icon, or by
selecting Start Menu > Programs > Avocent AdminWorks > AdminWorks Console.

If you want the AdminWorks Console to start automatically every time the computer that it’s
installed on is booted up, select the Console Menu > Preferences... > General tab and then
select the Launch AdminWorks Console at system startup checkbox. By default, the
checkbox is not checked, as shown in the figure below.

In fact, after AdminWorks is initially started, we recommend that you select Preferences... from
the Console Menu, and customize the settings available in all four of the tabs to your
preference, as explained later in this Manual.

NOTE: Unlike the Console program, the Agent program never needs to be



specifically invoked. After installation on a system, the Agent program automatically
runs (transparently to the user) whenever that system is started. There is no need to
separately start the Agent program every time the system is booted up.

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Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

Title Bar

Menu Ba

r Tool Bar

(contains four buttons)

Components of the Main Console Window

The main components/areas of the AdminWorks Console window are identified below and are
explained on the following pages.

Topology
Frame

Workgroup
Frame

Status Bar ¯

Temporarily displays information
about operations currently in
progress.

Status
Frame

Information Frame ¯

You can choose to display Summary,
Hardware, Software, or Health

information related to the selected system.

Components of the Main Console Window 13

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Topology Frame

As shown in the illustration on the previous page, the Topology frame is the leftmost frame of
the AdminWorks Console window. This frame can be re-sized by placing the mouse pointer on
the right border of the frame, then pressing the left mouse button and dragging left or right.
Likewise, the bottom border can be moved up or down (but this also affects the bottom border
of the Workgroup frame).

The Topology frame can be hidden temporarily or re-displayed using the View Menu >
Windows > Topology command, or drag the right border of the frame all the way to the left to
hide it. To hide the Topology frame as the “permanent” default behavior, use the Console
Menu > Preferences... > View tab.

There are two types of topology structures provided in AdminWorks, each serving different
purposes: Organization and Task Groups. To switch between the two, click the Organization
button or Task Groups button directly above the Topology frame.

Organization

This is a one-to-one topology, meaning that one system can only belong to one group
(organization) under this topology. This topology is intended to be used in asset and
management report generating. As the Console administrator, you can create new groups, and
sub-groups within the groups.

The first time you invoke AdminWorks Console, it will search for (“discover”) all systems on the
network on which the AdminWorks Agent program has been installed, and will list them under
UnManaged Systems in the Organization topology. You can then select which systems you
want to move into Managed Systems.

By default, the root level group is named “Organization Tree.” This root level cannot be
deleted, but you can rename it using the Console Menu > Preferences... > General tab. The
text entered into the Company Name field will be used as the name of the root level in the
Organization topology.

As explained later in this User’s Manual, you can use the New Group command on the Group
Menu to create new groups under Managed Systems. Then use the Add to Group command
on the Client Menu to move the systems you want to manage into the desired groups. You can
also manage the managed systems by dragging-and-dropping them from one group into
another group.

The Remove command is available on the Client Menu only when the Organization topology is
active. You must use this command if you want to un-manage a system (you cannot drag-and­drop to UnManaged Systems).

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Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

Task Groups

For task-oriented purposes, Task Groups is more flexible for managing systems. Task Groups
is a one-to-many topology, meaning that one system can simultaneously belong to multiple
groups. You can drag-and-drop a system from Managed Systems to any or all of the groups
you have created under Task Groups, or from within a group to another group, where it will then
co-exist in both.

Also unlike the Organization topology, this is a single-layer topology, meaning that sub-groups
cannot be added within groups.

When Task Groups is active, you cannot view UnManaged Systems. Click the Organization
button at the top of the Topology frame if you want to work with the UnManaged Systems.

Using the pop-up menu

After you have created new groups under Organization and/or Task Groups, you can right-click
on a group name to open the pop-up menu shown in the example below. Or, select the group
in the tree that you want to operate on, and then click anywhere within an empty area of the
Topology frame.

New Group

When you are in the Organization topology, as shown in the example above, you can right-click
on any group name, then select New Group to create a sub-group under that group. Type the
desired name for the group, then press the <Enter> key on your keyboard.

In the Task Groups topology, all groups are on the same level. You cannot add sub-groups.
Therefore, if you right-click on a group name in Task Groups, the New Group command will not
create a sub-group under the selected group. Instead, New Group will add a new group of the
same level.

Components of the Main Console Window 15

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Rename Group

Allows you to change the name of the selected group in either the Organization topology or the
Task Groups topology.

Delete Group

Allows you to delete any group with one exception: the “Organization Tree” group in the
Organization topology cannot be deleted.

Whenever an add/delete/rename operation has completed successfully, a message will indicate
such in the Status frame of the main AdminWorks Console window.

NOTE: You can also add, delete, and rename groups using the commands on the Group
Menu.

Workgroup Frame

The Workgroup frame is the central frame of the AdminWorks Console window. It displays the
discovered/un-managed or managed systems, and the results of searches for specific systems.
For example, in the Topology frame, you can select Managed Systems, UnManaged Systems,
and/or a particular group. The related systems will then be shown in the Workgroup frame.

The icons at the top of the Workgroup frame provide convenient shortcuts for you to switch the
view and filter the view. Hover the mouse pointer over an icon to view the ToolTip for that icon.
These functions are also available on the View Menu, and are explained later in this User’s
Manual in the View Menu section.

You can filter the view to display only the:

Online Systems

All Systems

Absent Systems ¯ Over 3 Days

Absent Systems ¯ Over 1 Week

Absent Systems ¯ Over 1 Month

Absent Systems ¯ Over 3 Months

An “absent system” is a system that has previously been discovered, but has not been detected
during the Discovery process for a period of time (at least four days) since the most recent
discovery.

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Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

You can switch the view so that the systems are displayed as:

Large Icons

Small Icons

Detail List

Also in the View Menu sub-section entitled Detail List, you will find information about
adding/removing columns, re-arranging column sequence, sorting information by column, and
moving column dividers within the Workgroup frame. Detail List view is illustrated below.

When you use the above icons to change the view, the change is temporary; that is, it is not
saved when you exit. Each time AdminWorks is invoked, it will revert back to the default view
that you have specified in the Console Menu > Preferences... > View tab > Workgroup Frame
field.

The name of the currently selected group will be shown at the top of the Workgroup frame. In
the example below, no specific group has been selected. All Managed Systems are being
displayed in this example. You can drag-and-drop a system to a group in the Topology frame,
or use menu commands to add systems to groups as explained later in the Client Menu
section.

This frame cannot be hidden, but it can be re-sized by dragging the left, right, and/or bottom
border of the frame to the desired position.

The illustration of the Workgroup frame below shows the pop-up menu that appears when you
right-click on a system, and also shows Detail List view as being the active view.

Components of the Main Console Window 17

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In addition, the pop-up menu shown below appears when you right-click anywhere within an
empty area of the Workgroup frame.

The commands on these menus are all available from the Menu Bar also, and are explained in
detail later in this User’s Manual in their respective sections.

Illustrations of all possible System Status icons that might appear in the Workgroup frame are
shown on the next page.

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Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

Illustrations of System Status Icons

Three types of computers can be discovered and managed by the AdminWorks Console:
Desktop computers, NoteBook computers, and Servers. In AdminWorks, these are referred
to as individual “systems.” (The AdminWorks Agent must be installed on a system in order for
the Console to be able to discover it.)

During your usage of AdminWorks, you will see the systems represented with various icons
which provide a visual clue as to the type of system, and current status. These will display in
the Workgroup frame.

DESKTOPS NOTEBOOKS SERVERS THE ICON INDICATES THAT THE

SYSTEM IS IN THIS STATUS.....

On-line

Off-line

Being Managed ¯ The system

is already being managed by
another Console administrator.

Pending ¯ When AdminWorks
is currently performing a process,
such as a “manage request,” the
system is temporarily shown as in
a “pending” state.

In addition, the System Name will be shown under each icon. For example:

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Information Frame

The Information frame is the rightmost frame of the AdminWorks Console window. This frame
is comprised of two sections, System Display and Information Display, as shown below.

System Display
section (explained

on next page).

You can drag this
border up or down.

Click on the desired

“tab button”

(Summary,
Hardware,
Software, and
Health) to display

the related
information. In this
example, the
Summary button is
selected.

Information
Display section.

In this example,
Summary
information is
displayed for the
system currently
selected in the
Workgroup
frame.

You can drag this
border left or right.

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Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

The Information frame can be hidden temporarily or re-displayed using the View Menu >
Windows > Information command during the course of an AdminWorks session. Or, to hide
the Information frame as the “permanent” default behavior, use the Console Menu >
Preferences... > View tab > Information Frame field (select Open or Closed; default is Open).

System Display section

The System Display section is located in the upper portion of the Information frame. It displays
various data concerning the system currently selected in the Workgroup frame. The Update
Date field refers to the most recent date and time that information was polled and refreshed for
this system. The Last Detected date indicates the last time the system was detected by the
Console (could be through Discovery, Polling, Alert, etc.).

Right-clicking on the system icon in the System Display section displays the menu
shown below. The commands on this menu are also available from the Menu Bar and
are explained in detail later in this User’s Manual in their respective sections.

Components of the Main Console Window 21

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Information Display section

The lower portion of the Information frame displays various data concerning the managed
system which is currently selected in the Workgroup frame. The exact data displayed depends
on which “tab button” is selected: Summary, Hardware, Software, or Health.

Summary

When you click the Summary button, details concerning Processor, Board, and System are
displayed. An example illustration of the Summary information was shown earlier in this
section.

Hardware

Clicking the Hardware button displays hardware information concerning the selected managed
system. This information may be used, for example, to determine upgrade-ability of
components in the system.

One category of information at a time is shown. By default, Board data is displayed (shown
below on the left). To view a different category of data, click on the related “button.” Available
categories are Board, Processor, Cache, Memory (shown below on the right), Onboard
Devices, and Hard Drive.

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Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

Software

Click the Software button in the Information frame if you wish to view an alphabetical listing of
software applications that are installed on the managed system. Version information will also
be listed, if available. A partial illustration is shown below.

Health

When you click the Health button, the general “health status” of the managed system is
displayed. From the drop-down list, select the category of sensor data you want to view,
including:

 CPU Temperature
 CPU Fan
 Board Temperature (displays a maximum of two temperature sensors)
 Board Fan (displays a maximum of two fan sensors)
 Power Supplies
 Hard Disks

Components of the Main Console Window 23

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CPU Temperature

In the illustration below on the left, the CPU Temperature data is shown.

From the drop-down list in the Interval field, you can specify how often you want AdminWorks
to check the various sensor data and record it into the Console’s database. The choices are 30
seconds, 60 seconds, 20 minutes, and 60 minutes.

Click the History button to view the History data of the sensors. AdminWorks retains sensor
data for the most recent seven-day period. An example is illustrated on the right above. You
can select a date from the drop-down list to view the saved data (the most recent 24 items) for
that date.

You can choose whether you want the CPU and Board temperatures to be displayed and
recorded in Celsius or in Fahrenheit. As explained later in this Manual, you can use Console
Menu > Preferences... > General tab > Temperature Scale to this. The temperature data in
the sample illustrations above is shown in Celsius degrees.

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Red line indicates the threshold
temperature for the sensor.

Yellow line indicates the most recent
readings for the sensor.

You can “hover” the mouse pointer
over the indicator to display the
threshold temperature, as illustrated
here (in this example, the Threshold
Value is 100 degrees Celsius).
Normally, this reading is shown in
green color. If the temperature
exceeds the threshold, the reading will
be shown in red.

CPU Fan

CPU Fan data and History are displayed in screens similar to the ones explained above. The
fan speed is shown in RPM (revolutions per minute) measurement. If the fan has stopped, data
will continue to be recorded at the 0 (zero) level.

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Board Temperature

Although the sample illustration below shows only one board, up to two different board
temperatures can be monitored, if applicable. If there are two, both temperatures will be shown
simultaneously. In the graph, each board temperature will be shown in a different color. One
will be shown as a yellow line, the other will be shown as an aqua-blue line.

As with “CPU Temperature” illustrated earlier, the related Threshold Value will be displayed
when you hover the mouse over the Temperature 1 indicator or the Temperature 2 indicator.

Select Temperature 1 or Temperature 2 from the drop-down list (if applicable) to view the
related most recently recorded data in the lower portion of the Information frame. Likewise, in
the History dialog box, select the Temperature 1 button or the Temperature 2 button.

Recall that you can use Console Menu > Preferences... > General tab > Temperature Scale
to change the temperature scale from Fahrenheit (the default setting) to Celsius if desired.

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Board Fan

As with “CPU Fan” data shown earlier, the Board Fan speed is measured in RPM (revolutions
per minute). If the fan has stopped, data will continue to be recorded at the 0 (zero) level.

Up to two different board fans can be monitored, if applicable. If there are two, data concerning
both board fans will be shown simultaneously. In the graph, each board will be represented
with a different color. One will be shown as a yellow line, the other will be shown as an aqua­blue line. (The illustration of the Board Fan screen in “If the System is Off-Line” at the end of
this section shows two Board Fan indicators.)

Select Fan 1 or Fan 2 from the drop-down list (if applicable) to view the related most recently
recorded data in the lower portion of the Information frame. Likewise, in the History dialog box,
select the Fan 1 button or the Fan 2 button. (The Fan 2 option is not available if there is only
one fan detected.)

Power Supply

When you select Power Supply, different indicators might be displayed, as shown in the
example illustrations on the next page.

Unlike the “Board Fan” and “Board Temperature” sensors described above, which will display
data for multiple fans or multiple boards simultaneously in the graph area, the Power Supply
screen displays data for only one at a time. The graph changes according to the voltage type
selected.

For example, Volt Core has been selected from the drop-down list in the figure on the left (on
the next page), so the line in the graph is gray to indicate the most recently gathered Volt Core
data from the sensor. If Volt +3.3 is selected, the line in the graph will be yellow. If Volt +5 is
selected, the line will be blue. If Volt +12 is selected, the line will be green.

When the selected system is on-line, you can hover the mouse pointer over a voltage indicator
to view both the upper and the lower Threshold Values for that voltage type.

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Likewise, when you click the History button, the Power Supply History window will contain a
button for each voltage type available. After selecting the desired voltage button, choose the
date you want to view from the drop-down list. An example is illustrated below.

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Hard Disk(s)

When you select Hard Disk(s) from the drop-down list, all hard disks that have been detected
will be available for selection in the drop-down list under the graph. To view the memory
available for a particular hard disk, select it from the drop-down list. The line in the graph will
then indicate the memory available for that disk.

In addition, the S.M.A.R.T. status of all hard disks is monitored. If all hard disks are found to be
without any indication of malfunction, the indicator “light” to the left of O.K. will be shown as a
green circle, as shown in the example above. (When the system is off-line, the indicator will be
gray.)

However, if any of the disks is found to be abnormal, the color will change to red and the word
“WARNING” will display. In this case, you should hover your mouse pointer over the indicator
immediately, to see which hard disk is possibly failing, and then back up that disk.

NOTE: S.M.A.R.T. stands for Self-Monitoring and Reporting Technology. It is a



standard interface that allows the disk to check its status, report it, and predict a
gradual degradation of the disk. If an impending failure is detected, the red “light”
provides a Warning so that you can take appropriate action such as backing up.

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Indicators for “Sensor Not Detected” vs. “Off-line”

If the System is On-line but Sensor is not Detected

If you select a specific type of sensor from the drop-down list, but that sensor is not detected, a
message will inform you of such in an otherwise blank screen. In the example shown below on
the left, the sensor for the Board Fan was not detected. (This message does not mean that the
system is “Off-line.”)

If the System is Off-Line

If the selected system happens to be off-line, the normal Health screen displays, but the word

“Offline” displays in the indicators. The example illustration above, on the right, is also for
“Board Fan.”

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Status Frame

The Status frame is located in the lower left portion of the AdminWorks Console window,
directly above the Status Bar. The illustration below helps you differentiate between these two
areas.

The Status frame displays messages that inform you of operations that have already been
completed. In the example below, the Status frame shows that a group has been renamed,
and displays the old name as well as the new name. It also shows the results of a Discovery.
For example, by default, Console Menu > Preferences... > Discovery tab > Schedule Enabled
is set to perform an automatic discovery every 5 minutes. This means every five minutes (after
the discovery process is finished), the results will be displayed here in the Status frame.

Use the vertical scroll bar at the right side of the frame to scroll the contents. All data that is
gathered during the current AdminWorks session is concatenated in the Status frame, but this
data is cleared when you Exit the program. Each time you re-start the AdminWorks Console
program, the Status frame is empty.

You can also drag the top border up, to expand the Status frame and view more lines of data.

Drag this border up to expand the area of the Status
frame, or drag it all the way down to hide the frame.

You can drag the right border to the left to reduce
the area of the Status frame (and back to the right
only after dragging to the left).

Status Frame

Status Bar

In addition to dragging the upper border of the Status frame down to hide it, you can hide the
frame temporarily or re-display it using the View Menu > Windows > Status command during
the course of an AdminWorks session. Or, to hide the Status frame as the “permanent” default
behavior, use the Console Menu > Preferences... > View tab > Status Frame field (select
Open or Closed; default is Open).

NOTE: The Status Bar can be hidden independently of the Status frame using the



View Menu > Status Bar command. This is shown later in the sub-section entitled

Status Bar.

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The Menu Bar

The Menu Bar is located just under the Title Bar of the AdminWorks Console window. The
menus available on the Menu Bar are Console, Client, Group, View, Tools, and Help. The
commands on each menu are explained in this section.

NOTE: The Tool Bar, which is located just under the Menu Bar of the Console window, is
explained in the View Menu section. The Status Bar is also explained in the View Menu
section.

Console Menu

The Console Menu is pictured below.

Discover

The Discover command initiates the discovery process.
Recall that during the installation of the AdminWorks Agent program on a system, a unique ID

known as the “Agent ID” is generated and stored in the system. The term “Discovery” refers to
the process whereby your Console program sends a broadcast to detect any systems on the
network that are identified by Agent IDs, retrieves those systems’ most up-to-date information,
and saves it in the AdminWorks database. Systems that were previously discovered, but not
found during a subsequent discovery, are shown as off-line systems.

By default, AdminWorks is set to perform a discovery automatically, every 5 minutes. As
explained earlier, you can use Console Menu > Preferences... > Discovery tab to change the
interval, or to disable the “automatic discovery” function entirely. In any case, whether enabled
or disabled, there may be times when you will want to perform a discovery manually. Use the
Discover command on the Console Menu to initiate a manual discovery, or the Discover
button on the Tool Bar, or press the Ctrl+D keyboard shortcut.

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During the time when a discovery is in progress, a message and an animated icon will display in
the Status Bar, as shown below.

After the discovery process has completed, the results of the discovery will be displayed in the
Status frame of the Console window. An example of this was shown two pages ago in the
Status Frame section. However, the text displayed in the Status frame is temporarily viewable
only during the current AdminWorks session.

Therefore, AdminWorks also keeps a log of previous discovery data, so that the data is
available for your future reference. The log can be exported to a separate file, if desired.
Information about this is given in the upcoming section entitled System Logs... (Console
Menu).

Poll

Whereas the Discovery function described above simply scans for the presence of systems on
the network (both managed and unmanaged) on which the Agent has been installed, the Polling
function allows you to read the actual system information, but only for the managed systems
that are currently on-line. The Polling function gathers the most current system information for
all of the on-line managed systems, and updates it in the AdminWorks database.

It doesn’t matter whether or not any of the systems are individually selected in the Workgroup
frame at the time you select Poll. All of the on-line managed systems will be polled.

To update system information, use any of these four methods:

 Select the Poll command from the Console Menu.
 Click the Poll button (
 Press the Ctrl+P keyboard shortcut.

 Right-click anywhere within an empty area of the Workgroup frame, then select Poll

from the pop-up menu.

During the time when polling is in progress, a “Polling.....” message will display briefly in the

Status Bar.
To view the updated information for any of the systems, click on the desired system and you will

see the related data in the Information frame at the right side of the Console window.

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After the polling process is completed, a message (similar to the example illustrated below) will
display in the Status frame.

This text displayed in the Status frame is temporarily viewable only during the current
AdminWorks session. Therefore, AdminWorks also keeps a log of this data, which you can
view at any time, or export to a separate file, if desired. See the next section, System Logs...,
for information about this.

System Logs...

Most of the AdminWorks actions and results are shown in the Status frame of the Console
window (as shown in the example figure above), but the Status frame is cleared of all data
when you exit the Console program. Therefore, AdminWorks saves data related to certain
events into logs for your future reference.

To view the logs, select System Logs... from the Console Menu. When the System Logs
window first opens, the current size of each log file is displayed in a table. To view a log, click
on Discovery, Polling, Agent ID Sync, or Hardware Change in the panel at the left side of the
window, or double-click on the log name within the table.

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Each of the logs is explained below.

Discovery

Whenever the Console discovers (either by schedule or manually) systems on a network, an
entry will be generated and added to the Discovery log. Each entry in the Discovery log shows:

 Start Time — The date/time the Discovery process began. (Sorted by this column.)
 Type — Shows the type of Discovery that took place (manual or automatic).
 Total — The total number of discovered systems.
 Desktop — Number of Desktop PCs discovered.
 Notebook — Number of Notebook PCs discovered.
 Server — Number of Server machines discovered.

The total number of entries in the currently-displayed log is displayed under the table. In the
example above, 300 entries currently exist in this log.

After a log has been opened, you can select All, Today, This Week, or This Month from the
drop-down list, if you wish to view only the entries for a certain period of time. In the example
above, the default All is selected. (The first figure on the next page illustrates the drop-down
list.)

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Polling

System information related to your on-line Managed Systems can be refreshed by polling
(Console Menu > Poll; or click the Poll button on the Tool Bar). A log entry will be generated
each time this function is executed. Each entry in the Polling log shows:

 Start Time — The date/time the Polling process began. (Sorted by this column.)
 System Polled — Shows the total number of systems that were polled for information.
 System Updated — Shows the total number of systems for which information was

updated.

Agent ID Sync

For every UnManaged system that is synchronized with a Managed system, a log entry is
generated (Client Menu > Sync Agent ID with...). Each entry in the Agent ID Sync log shows:

 Date/Time — The date/time the Agent ID was synchronized. (Sorted by this column.)
 System Name — Shows the System Name of the Agent ID that was synchronized.
 Original ID — Shows the original ID of the Agent that was synchronized.
 New ID — Shows the new ID of the Agent that was synchronized.

The example below shows the message that displays when no entries exist in a log file.

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Hardware Change Alerts and the Hardware Change Log

The AdminWorks Agent program installed on each of your Managed Systems will detect if
changes have been made to any of the following hardware items:

 Memory
 Processor
 Onboard Device
 Storage Device

When a change to any of the above hardware is detected, whether expected or unexpected,
the Agent notifies your Console immediately by displaying a Hardware Change Alert icon ( ) in
the lower right of the Console window. At the same time, it creates a log entry for that event,
and adds it to the Hardware Change log.

You can use any of these methods to view the information related to a Hardware Change Alert
that you have received:

 Hover the mouse pointer over the Hardware Change Alert icon ( ) in the lower right

corner of the window. A ToolTip will display, which contains information concerning that
particular alert (System Name, Event Type, and Description).

 Double-click on the icon to open the System Logs window, with the Hardware

Change Log tab already displayed.

 Select the System Logs... command from the Console Menu, then click on Hardware

Change. Usage of the Hardware Change Log is discussed below.

There are four columns in the Hardware Change log, illustrated on the next page. The first
column contains an icon that indicates the current status of the entry, as follows. (You can use
Event Properties, shown on the page after next, to change the status.)

— means the change alert has been acknowledged by the system administrator.
— means the system administrator has seen the alert, but has not yet determined

whether or not this hardware change is legitimate.

— means the alert record has not yet been processed by the system administrator.

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The second, third, and fourth columns contain this data:

 Date/Time — The date/time that the Agent detected the hardware change. (Sorted by

this column.)

 System — Shows the System Name of the Agent from which the Change Alert was

sent.

 Event Type — There are four possible types that could be listed here: Processor,

Memory, Onboard Device, and Storage Device.

Event Filter

To display the entries for only certain types of Hardware Change events, click the Event Filter
icon ( ), then select the Memory, Processor, Onboard Device, and/or Storage Device
checkboxes in the Event Filter dialog box:

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Event Properties

To view a description of the missing or replaced hardware, select the desired entry in the log,
then click the Event Properties icon ( ). The Event Properties dialog box will appear.

You can also select a different status for this entry in the Status drop-down list
(Acknowledged, Warning, and Unknown). An example is shown below.

The Hardware Change Log provides an additional drop-down list, at the right side of the dialog
box, which is not available in the other three logs. It lets you further filter the entries displayed.
If you select a particular System Name from this drop-down list, only the entries related to that
system will be displayed in the Hardware Change log.

Deleting all entries in any of the Logs

After opening a log, you can optionally delete all entries currently in the log by clicking the Clear
icon ( ) above the table. You can also clear a log even without opening it. When the four log
names are listed in the table, click on the desired log name in the table to select it, then click
the Clear button. A message will appear and require you to confirm the operation.

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Exporting any of the Logs

After opening a log, you can optionally export it to a text file by clicking the Export icon ( )
above the table. The Save As dialog box will open. In effect, the current contents of the log is
copied to a separate CSV file and saved in the folder you specify.

You can also export a log even without opening it. When the four log names are listed in the
table, click on the desired log name in the table to select it, then click the Export button.

Setting the number of entries to be saved in each Log

By default, the maximum number of entries in each of the four logs is set to 300. This means
that if a log file reaches the limit of 300 entries, then the next entry (301st entry) would overwrite
the oldest (first entry) in the log, the 302nd entry would overwrite the second entry in the log,
and so on. In this way, the most recent 300 entries are always retained.

To change the maximum number of entries to be saved in any of the logs, select Console
Menu > Preferences... > Logs. The minimum value allowed is 1, and the maximum allowed is

9999. This is explained in detail in the next section.

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Preferences...

When you select Preferences... from the Console Menu (or press the Ctrl+O keyboard
shortcut), the Preferences dialog box appears. Four tabs are available. In the left frame of the
dialog box, click on the tab you want to open: General, View, Logs, or Discovery. By default,
the General tab is shown when the dialog box initially opens.

NOTE: After you have finished changing settings in any of the four tabs, click OK at the
bottom of the Preferences dialog box to save changes and close the dialog box, or click Apply
to save changes and keep the dialog box open (if you want to view/change other tab settings).

General tab

The General tab is illustrated and explained below.

Launch AdminWorks Console at System Startup

If the Launch AdminWorks Console at system startup checkbox is checked, the
AdminWorks Console program will automatically be invoked every time the computer is
powered-on or re-booted. By default, this option is un-checked. (The example above shows it
as being checked.)

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Temperature Scale

AdminWorks displays various system temperatures in the Health tab of the Information frame
(at the right side of the Console window). The Temperature Scale section of the General tab
lets you choose whether to display the system temperatures in Celsius degrees or Fahrenheit
degrees. By default, the Fahrenheit button is selected.

Company Information

The Company Information section of the General tab lets you specify a Company Name or a
Company Logo to appear on the report header in the Preview window and on the actual printout
(both the System Asset Report and the Software Asset Report produced by the Tools Menu >
Report Generator... command). The “Company Name” text will also be applied to the
Organization topology root name.

Company Name

Enter your company name (or any desired text string) in the Company Name field. In addition
to displaying in the Report Preview window and on report printouts, the text you enter will also
be used in the Topology frame, at the root level of the Organization topology.

The default text in the Company Name field is “Organization Tree.” If you do not change the
default value in the Company Name field by typing your own text, then the default text

“Organization Tree” will be used as the root folder name for your Organization topology and will

also display in the Header of your reports.
If you delete the text in the field and leave it blank, no Company Name text will display on the

report preview or printout, but the “Organization Tree” text will still be used as the root of the
Organization topology.

NOTE: If you specify a Company Logo (see below), the Company Name text will not



be displayed on the report preview or printout; the Company Logo will display instead.

Company Logo

You can also optionally specify an image (such as your company logo) to appear on the report.
You can use any JPEG or BMP file for this feature, but the recommended minimum height for
the image is 0.6 inches (177 pixels) at least.

In the Company Logo field, type the full path and filename of the JPEG or BMP image you want
to use. Or, click the ellipsis button (...) to open a standard file browser, then conveniently
browse to and select the file. The selected file will be previewed at the right side of this Load
Company Logo Image File dialog box. Click OK to upload the file. The image will appear in the
Header of your report printouts and in the Preview window.

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Note that Company Name and Company Logo cannot both be displayed on the report. If you
specify both a Company Name and a Company Logo, then the Company Logo takes
precedence and will be displayed. Company Name will not be displayed if a Company Logo
image has been specified.

View tab

The View tab allows you to set the default Console view. That is, you can specify the frames
you want to be displayed by default every time the Console window opens, and whether to list
the systems in an Icon view or a List view in the Workgroup frame.

In the Topology Frame, Status Frame, and Information Frame fields of the View tab, select
Open for the frames you want to be displayed, and Closed for the ones you want to hide.

The Workgroup frame cannot be hidden. In the Workgroup Frame field of the View tab, you
can specify how you want the systems to be listed by default when the Console opens each
time. Choices are Large Icon (the default), Small Icon, or Detail List. After you change the
setting in this field, you will need to exit and re-start the Console in order to make the change
take effect.

NOTE: At any time during an AdminWorks Console session, you can also switch the



view immediately by clicking on the Large Icon, Small Icon, or Detail List icon at
the top of the Workgroup frame. However, this is a temporary view (not saved when
you exit). The settings in the View tab determine the default behavior, so when the
Console is re-started it will always revert to the view specified in the View tab.

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Logs tab

Click on Logs in the left frame of the Preferences dialog box to open the tab shown below.

The Logs tab allows you to set the maximum number of entries that you want AdminWorks to
retain in the following logs:

Discovery

Whenever the Console discovers (either by schedule or manually) systems on a network, a log
entry will be generated. (Select Discover from the Console Menu, or click Discover on the
Tool Bar, to “discover” manually).

Poll Information

System information can be refreshed by polling (Console Menu > Poll, or click the Poll button
on the Tool Bar). A log entry will be generated each time this function is executed.

Agent ID Sync

For every UnManaged system that is synchronized with a Managed system, a log entry is
generated (Client Menu > Sync Agent ID with...).

Hardware Change

Each time the AdminWorks Agent detects that a change was made to a hardware item on a
Managed system (Memory, Processor, Onboard Device, and/or Storage Device), a log entry is
created. For more information about hardware change alerts, please refer back to the section
entitled Hardware Change Alerts and the Hardware Change Logs.

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By default, each of these fields is set to 300. This means that if a log file reaches the limit of
300 entries, then the next entry (301st entry) would overwrite the oldest (first entry) in the log,
the 302nd entry would overwrite the second entry in the log, and so on. In this way, the most
recent 300 entries are always retained.

If desired, you can change the value in any of the log fields by either typing it manually, or by
clicking the up/down buttons. The minimum value allowed is 1, and the maximum allowed is

9999.

NOTE: These logs can be viewed using the Console Menu > System Logs...



command.

Discovery tab

The Discovery tab allows you to enable or disable auto-discovery, specify the frequency of
auto-discovery (if enabled), and set up IP ranges if the discovery involves crossing routers or a
firewall.

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Auto-discovery at Console startup

By default, this checkbox is checked, so the discovery process will be performed immediately
after the AdminWorks Console is started. If you do not want discovery to be automatically
performed every time the Console program is launched, uncheck this checkbox.

NOTE: If you elect to disable automatic discovery, remember that you can manually



invoke the AdminWorks discovery process at any time by selecting the Discover
command from the Console Menu, or by clicking the Discover button on the Tool Bar.

Schedule Enabled

By default, the Schedule Enabled checkbox is not checked, meaning that AdminWorks will not
perform a periodic discovery.

If you do want AdminWorks to perform automatic discoveries when the Console program is
running, ensure that this checkbox is checked. Then specify the desired frequency in the
Discover every _____ minutes field. By default, this field is set to 5 minutes when initially
enabled. You can change the discovery interval by clicking on the “increment” or “decrement”
arrows ( ) in this field, or you can manually type a value between 1 and 9999. (The
maximum interval allowed of 9999 minutes is approximately 166.65 hours.)

Set IP range to discover systems across routers

Discovery of systems involves sending a broadcast to detect systems on which the
AdminWorks Agent has been installed, and retrieving the most updated information of those
systems. However, in cases where there are routers or a firewall within the managed network,
you will need to specify IP ranges in order for the application to be able to scan across the
routers/firewalls.

Adding an IP Range

To specify an IP range, click the Add button. An input field will appear. Type the IP address
range, then click the Add button again. Multiple ranges can be added. (An example was
illustrated in the figure on the previous page.)

Enabling and Disabling Existing IP Ranges

If you just want to temporarily enable or disable various existing IP ranges without removing
them, check or uncheck the related checkboxes as desired. The Discovery process will ignore
an IP range that is unchecked, and will recognize only the checked ranges as enabled.

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Deleting an IP Range
To delete an IP range entirely, select it (check its checkbox) and then click the Remove button.

Edit

If you want to modify an existing IP range, select it (check its checkbox) and then click the Edit
button to enable the editing mode.

Exit

Selecting Exit from the Console Menu (or pressing the Ctrl+X shortcut) terminates the
AdminWorks Console program.

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Client Menu

The commands enabled on the Client Menu will vary depending on the current topology and on
the status of the current selected system, if any.

Add to Group...

After you have created the desired groups using the New Group command (on the Group
Menu), you can add the systems you want to manage to those groups, using the Add to
Group... command.

Managing Systems

When in the Organization topology:

The Add to Group... command is available only when a system under UnManaged Systems is
selected. Systems listed in your UnManaged Systems are those on which the AdminWorks
Agent has been installed, but that are currently not being managed by you. They are either
being managed by another Console administrator, or are not currently being managed by
anyone.

Examples:

This icon appears only in your UnManaged Systems and indicates that this
desktop computer is already being managed by another Console administrator

All of the status icons were illustrated earlier in the section entitled Illustrations of System
Status Icons.

(but you can still use Add to Group... to attempt to manage it).

This icon would be shown in your Managed Systems for an on-line desktop
computer which you are currently managing. But it could also be shown in
your UnManaged Systems to indicate an on-line desktop computer that is
currently not being managed by anyone.

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Each system can be managed by only one Console administrator at a time. However, if you
wish to manage a system that is already being managed, you can still select Add to Group...
and attempt to manage it. A notification will be sent to the Owner of that system and if he/she
agrees, then Console management of that system will be switched to your Console.

When in the Organization topology, the Add to Group... command is enabled on the menu only
when a system under UnManaged Systems is selected, but you can still perform the “Add to
Group” function by dragging-and-dropping a system from your Managed Systems into a group
you have created (that is, drag-and-drop the system icon from the Workgroup frame into the
desired group in the Topology frame when Managed Systems is active). However, note that
systems under the Organization topology can exist in only one group at a time. Therefore,
when you drag-and-drop a system into a different group within Managed Systems, that system
will automatically be removed from the group it was previously in, at the same time that it is
added to the group you moved it to.

When in the Task Groups topology:

In contrast to the Organization topology, the Add to Group... command is available on the
menu for all systems listed in the Task Groups topology, even though the systems in Task

Groups are already being managed by you. This is because the systems under Task Groups
can simultaneously exist in more than one group.

Since the Owners of these systems have already agreed to allow you to be their Console
administrator, there is no “manage request” dialog box (illustrated on the next page) sent to the
Owner when you add a system to a group in the Task Groups topology.

NOTE: Only Managed Systems are displayed in Task Groups. To view Unmanaged



Systems, switch to the Organization topology.

Adding an UnManaged System to a Group in Managed Systems

1. To add an un-managed system to a group in your Managed Systems and become its
Console administrator, do any of the following:

 Left-click on the desired system, then select Add to Group... from the Client Menu.
 Or, right-click on the desired system, then select Add to Group... from the pop-up

menu.

 Or, drag-and-drop the system from UnManaged Systems to a group under

Organization.

NOTE: Recall that if you want to select multiple non-contiguous systems, you can do so
by pressing Ctrl + left-click on each desired system. Or, use Shift + left-click to
highlight a contiguous range of systems.

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2. The Select a Group dialog box will open (unless you used the drag-and-drop method). In
the dialog box, click on the group to which you want to add the system.

3. Click OK.
After you have done this, AdminWorks will send out a “manage request” to notify the

System Owner that you wish to manage his/her system (unless the Owner has already
agreed to a previous “manage request” from you). The dialog box seen by the System
Owner will look similar to the illustration below.

During this time, while AdminWorks Console is waiting for the System Owner to respond to the
“manage request,” the status icon on your Console screen will indicate that the system is in a
Pending status. The sample illustration below shows a Notebook computer that is currently in a
Pending state:

After the System Owner accepts your “manage request,” then you become the Console
administrator of that system. The system is then moved into the group you previously chose in
the Select a Group dialog box. Therefore, even if the system was previously managed by a
different Console administrator, you become the new Console administrator after the System
Owner gives his/her approval. The previous Console manager will receive a message in the
Status frame of the Console window stating that he/she is no longer the manager of that
system.

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On the other hand, if the System Owner declines your request to be the Console administrator
of his/her system, you will receive a notification that indicates your request was rejected. The
status of that system on your Console screen will then revert from “Pending” back to its original
status.

Moving Managed Systems

Systems that you are currently managing will be listed under Managed Systems in the
Organization and/or Task Groups topologies. Since the Owners of these systems have already
agreed to allow you to be the Console administrator, there is no “manage request” involved
when you move them from one group to another. You can conveniently move individual or
multiple systems using the drag-and-drop technique within your managed systems.

 In the Organization topology, simply drag-and-drop the desired system(s) from one group to

another group.

 In the Task Groups topology, drag-and-drop the desired system(s) from Managed Systems

to a group.

NOTE: You cannot un-manage systems by dragging and dropping them to your



UnManaged Systems. You must use the Remove command as explained on the next
page.

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Remove

The Remove command is available on the Client Menu or pop-up menu only when one or more
Managed Systems is selected in the Organization topology. This command is used for un­managing systems; it removes them from both Organization and Task Groups, and will then
place them under your UnManaged Systems.

You cannot un-manage systems by dragging and dropping them to UnManaged Systems. You
must use the Remove command.

First, select the managed system(s) you want to un-manage. You can select a batch of
systems by pressing CTRL + left-click individually on systems, or by using Shift + left-click to
highlight a range of systems.

Then do either of the following:

 Select Remove from the Client Menu.
 In the Workgroup Frame (the center frame of the Console window), right-click on the

icon of the system you want to un-manage, then select Remove from the pop-up menu.

A dialog box will appear and require you to confirm that you want to un-manage the selected
system(s).

If any of the selected systems happen to be currently on-line, an additional dialog box will
appear for each on-line system to notify you of such. If any of those systems are detected
later, they will then be located in the root level of UnManaged Systems.

After a system has successfully been removed, a message in the Status Frame will confirm the
new un-managed status.

In addition, any usage restrictions that may have been set on that system previously using the
Configure Restriction... command on the Client Menu will be lifted.

Cancel

This command cancels the previous request, and changes the Pending status to Normal status
for one or more selected systems. For example, if you attempt to manage a system using the
Add to Group... command, the icon of that system will indicate that it is in a Pending status
while waiting for a response from the System Owner. If it remains in a Pending status for
several hours and you wish to cancel the “manage request” shown in the previous figure, select
the icon and then select Cancel from the Client Menu. Or, right-click on the icon and select
Cancel from the pop-up menu. Or press Ctrl + C on your keyboard.

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Refresh

This command is available for systems that are currently on-line and in your Managed Systems.
Select one or more systems, then select Refresh from the Client Menu to refresh the system
inventory information. Or right-click on the system and select Refresh from the pop-up menu,
or press Ctrl + R on your keyboard.

Sync Agent ID With...

When you install the AdminWorks Agent on a system, an Agent ID is created. This Agent ID
enables your Console to discover that system.

If you ever install the AdminWorks Agent program again on a system on which the Agent was
already previously installed, the program will generate a second Agent ID for that system. Your
Console will then recognize these two Agent IDs as representing two separate systems. It will
recognize the new Agent ID as being a new system, and will show the original Agent ID as
being an “Offline system.”

In order to retain the history data of this system, it is strongly recommended that you use the
Sync Agent ID With... function to synchronize the Agent IDs. Synchronizing combines the
database of the two Agent IDs, and the AdminWorks Console will thereafter recognize the
system by its newer Agent ID.

NOTE: This command is only available when the UnManaged Systems are displayed in the
Workgroup frame. It is disabled when multiple systems are selected, or when a managed
system is selected.

1. Only one un-managed system can be synchronized at a time. Highlight the desired
system.

2. Do either of the following:

 Select Sync Agent ID With... from the Client Menu.
 Right-click on the desired system, then select Sync Agent ID With... from the pop-

up menu.

The Synchronize Agent ID dialog box opens. The upper right portion of the dialog box
displays data about the un-managed system you just selected, for your reference (the
System Name, the Agent ID, and the IP Address).

3. The left side of the dialog box lists your Organization and Task Groups topology “trees.”
From these topologies, select the managed system that you want to synchronize the un­managed system with. After you have done this, the data of the selected managed system
will be shown in the lower right portion of the dialog box.

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The figure below shows an example of the Synchronize Agent ID dialog box, after Step 3

has been performed.

4. Click the Sync button to synchronize, or click Cancel to abort.

After you have performed Step 4, the behavior is the same as when the Console attempts to
manage any un-managed system. That is, AdminWorks will send out a “manage request” to
the Owner of the un-managed system. At the same time, the system icon changes to “pending
status” under the UnManaged Systems. (The “manage request” dialog box and the “Pending”
icon were illustrated earlier in the sub-section entitled Adding an UnManaged System to a
Group in Managed Systems.)

After the System Owner accepts the manage request, the system becomes successfully
synchronized, and will move from UnManaged Systems to Managed Systems.

However, note that the System Owner can also choose to refuse this manage request. In this
case, you will receive a notification of such, and the system icon's Pending state will be
suspended. The synchronization will not take place if the System Owner declines to accept
your manage request.

NOTE: You can select Console Menu > System Logs... > Agent ID Sync to view a history of
recent synchronization logs, and use the Export button if you wish to copy logs to another
folder.

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Power Off

When you select one or more managed systems that are currently turned on, the Power Off
command will be available on the Client Menu and the right-click popup menu. Select Power
Off if you wish to turn off the system remotely. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl + Alt + S.

After you select Power Off, a warning message will pop up on the target system, notifying the
user of the impending shutdown. The message says “This system will be shut down by the
controlling host in 30 seconds. How do you want to proceed?” The user cannot reject or
cancel the shutdown. He or she can click the Shut Down Now button in this message box; or
can delay the shutdown by selecting a number of minutes (the default is 3 minutes) and then
clicking the Notify Me Later button. This is useful for the user in the event that he or she
needs a period of time to finish something, save work in progress, and close applications
normally.

After the AdminWorks Agent service has been stopped successfully by the Power Off
command, that system's status will be shown as “Off-line” in the Console window (Workgroup
frame), after the next system Discovery.

If a group of managed systems is selected, and if some of those systems are already off-line,
the Power Off command will ignore those off-line systems and will just serve to turn off the
systems that are currently on-line.

Restart

The behavior of the Restart command is the same as that of the Power Off command
described above, except that the target system will be re-booted, not powered off. This
command is available on the Client Menu and pop-up menu only when one or more on-line
managed systems are selected. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl + Alt + R.

Configure Restriction...

An important capability of AdminWorks is that it allows you to remotely set (and lift) hardware
and software usage restrictions on your managed systems without leaving your computer. This
is done through the Configure Restriction... command.

You can disable certain hardware devices on any or all managed systems to prevent the usage
of:

 Diskette drives
 USB and Firewire (ieee 1394) mass storage devices
 CD and DVD ROM drives

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In addition, on the selected managed system(s), you can prohibit the download (or creation of)
the filetypes you have selected in the Restriction dialog box (such as .exe, .mp3, .pif, etc.)

1. Highlight the desired on-line managed system(s). Note that this command will be
disabled if you select an un-managed system or an off-line system.

Recall that you can select a batch of systems by pressing CTRL + left-click on systems
individually, or by using Shift + left-click to highlight a range of systems.

2. Select Configure Restriction... from the Client Menu. Or, right-click on the desired
system, then select Configure Restriction... from the pop-up menu. The Restriction
dialog box will open (illustrated on the next page).

3. In the upper part of the Restriction dialog box, click on the checkbox(es) of the item(s)
representing the hardware device(s) you want to lock on the selected system(s).

Note that a checkmark to the left of the item indicates that the related hardware device is
locked. To unlock it, click on the checkbox to remove the checkmark.

4. In the lower part of the dialog box, select the filetypes you want to prohibit. This will
prevent download of the specified filetypes, and also will prevent creation of those
filetypes system(s) you selected in Step 1.

If you want to prevent download or creation of a filetype that is not included in the list,

you can add it to the list yourself. Click on the button. A text box will open, in
which you can enter a file extension. This is illustrated on the next page.

5. Click OK to confirm and exit, or click Cancel to abort the changes and exit.

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To add a new filetype to the list:

Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

If you want to prevent
download or creation of a
filetype that is not included in
the list by default, you can add
the new filetype to the list
yourself. Click this button.

After you click on the button, a text box will open,
in which you can enter any desired file extension.

Then press the <Enter> key. Initially, the new item
will be at the bottom of the list. But after the dialog
box is closed and re-opened, the alphabetical sort
order will be refreshed.

To modify an existing filetype:

If you want to modify an existing filetype in the list, click on it to highlight it, then click it again. It
will then be enclosed in a text box, and you can edit it. When done editing, press the <Enter>
key on your keyboard. Click OK to save the change.

To remove a filetype from the list:

To delete a file extension from the list, click on the file extension, and then click the button.
Click OK to save the change.

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Group Menu

The commands on the Group Menu let you create, rename, and delete groups in either the
Organization topology or the Task Groups topology. This same menu appears if you right-click
anywhere in the Topology frame.

New Group

This command allows you to create new groups and sub-groups. (You can then move the
systems you want to manage into the desired groups using the Add to Group... command on
the Client Menu, explained earlier).

1. Do either of the following:

 Click on the desired group in the Topology frame, then select New Group from the

Group Menu (or press Ctrl + N on your keyboard).

 Or, in the Topology Frame, left-click on the desired group name, then right-click on it

and select New Group from the pop-up menu.

2. An edit box containing the words “New Group” will appear under the group you selected
in the Topology frame. This edit box is illustrated below. Enter the name you want to
assign to the new group.

3. Press the <Enter> key on your keyboard after typing the new name. A notification will
appear in the Status frame (lower left of the Console window) to indicate that the new
group has been created.

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Rename Group

This command allows you to rename a group or sub-group.

1. Do any of the following:

 Click on the desired group in the Topology Frame, then select Rename Group from

the Group Menu.

 Or, in the Topology Frame, left-click on the desired group name, then right-click on it

and select Rename Group from the pop-up menu.

 Or, click on the desired group once to select it, then click on it again to invoke the

edit box.

 Or, select the group, then press F2 on your keyboard.

2. The group name you selected will then become editable within an edit box in the
Topology frame. Type the new name you want to assign to the group.

3. Press the <Enter> key on your keyboard to save the edited name. A notification will
appear in the Status frame (lower left of the Console window) to indicate that the group
has been successfully renamed.

Delete Group

This command allows you to delete a group or sub-group. There are three ways to delete a
group:

 Click on the desired group, then select Delete Group from the Group Menu.
 Right-click on the desired group, then select Delete from the pop-up menu.
 Select the group you want to delete, then press the Delete key on the keyboard.

If the group you are trying to delete is not empty, then a dialog box will appear and give you a
choice as to where to move the systems currently assigned to that group. You can move them
to UnManaged Systems, or you can keep them in Managed Systems by moving them to the
root of the Organization Tree.

A dialog box will require you to click Yes to confirm the deletion.
A notification will appear in the Status frame (lower left of the Console window) to indicate that

the group has been deleted.

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View Menu

The commands on the View Menu are divided into three categories. They allow you to:

Hide or re-display the various areas of the main
Console window as desired, any time during the
AdminWorks session

Filter the display of systems to show only those
currently on-line, or only those not detected for various
periods of time, or all

Choose a view method of displaying the systems

On the View Menu, checkmarks will be shown to the left of the currently selected items. The
illustration of the View Menu above shows the initial default values for each menu item, after the
AdminWorks Console program is installed. The sub-menus for the Windows item and the
Absent Systems item are illustrated later in their own sub-sections.

Note that the settings on the View Menu are temporary; that is, valid only during the course of
the current AdminWorks session. After you exit AdminWorks, the settings revert back to the
default settings when it is re-started.

If desired, you can change the default display settings for Workgroup (Large icon/Small
icon/Detail list), Topology, Information, and Status, using the Console Menu > Preferences...
> View tab, as explained earlier in that section. But if you only want to make a temporary
display change, the View Menu is convenient.

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Tool Bar

This command functions as an on/off toggle, allowing you to hide and re-display the Tool Bar.
By default, it is displayed, as indicated by the checkmark to the left of the Tool Bar command
on the View Menu.

The Tool Bar contains four buttons representing frequently-used functions. Click on a button to
invoke the related command. These can also be accessed from the Console Menu or the Tools
Menu, as follows:

 Discover ¯ Console Menu > Discover command
 Poll ¯ Console Menu > Poll command
 Find ¯ Tools Menu > Find... command
 Report Generator ¯Tools Menu > Report Generator... command

These four commands are explained later in this Manual in their related sub-sections of the
Console Menu section and Tools Menu section.

Status Bar

This command functions as an on/off toggle, allowing you to hide and re-display the Status Bar
at the bottom of the Console window. By default, it is displayed, as indicated by the checkmark
to the left of the Status Bar command on the View Menu.

During the times when AdminWorks is in the process of performing a function such as a
“manage request,” a discovery, polling, etc., the Status Bar temporarily displays a message to
inform you of the progress.

The example above shows a message that appeared after Discover was selected from the
Console Menu. In this case, the number at the right of the message is continuously
incremented as each new system is discovered. When the discovery process is completed, the
message (and the circular animated icon to the left of the message) disappears from the Status
Bar.

NOTE: Whereas the Status Bar generally informs you of the progress of operations



currently being performed by AdminWorks, the Status Frame displays messages that
confirm the completion of operations and summarize the results. This was shown
earlier in the section entitled Status Frame.

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Windows

Selecting Windows from the View Menu opens the submenu illustrated below.

These three commands function as on/off toggles, allowing you to hide and re-display these
frames temporarily during the current AdminWorks Console session. By default, they are
displayed, as indicated by the checkmarks on the sub-menu.

If desired, you can permanently change the default display settings for Topology, Information,
and Status, using the Console Menu > Preferences... > View tab, as explained earlier in that
section. But if you only want to make a temporary display change, the View Menu is
convenient.

For illustrations and explanations of these frames, please refer back to the sections entitled
Topology Frame, Information Frame, and Status Frame.

All Systems

The Workgroup frame displays the Managed Systems or UnManaged Systems, depending on
which is selected in the Topology frame. By default, All Systems is active (both on-line and
off-line systems will be displayed). If you previously selected Online Systems from the View
Menu to display only the systems currently on-line, and then decide you want to switch back to
displaying all systems, select All Systems. (Selecting All Systems will automatically de-select
Online Systems.)

Alternatively, at the top of the Workgroup frame, you can click the icon to display all
systems.

Online Systems

The Workgroup frame displays the Managed Systems or UnManaged Systems, depending on
which is selected in the Topology frame. By default, both on-line and off-line systems are
displayed. You can further filter the display. To display only the systems currently on-line,
select Online Systems from the View Menu. Selecting Online Systems will automatically de­select All Systems on the View Menu.

Alternatively, at the top of the Workgroup frame, you can click the icon to display only the
on-line systems.

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Absent Systems

Selecting Absent Systems from the View Menu opens the submenu illustrated below.

An “absent system” is a system that has previously been discovered, but has not been detected
during the Discovery process for a period of time (at least four days) since the most recent
discovery. In the Workgroup frame, you can filter the view so that only the systems that have
been absent for over three days, over one week, over one month, or over three months are
displayed.

You can use these menu commands, or the icons at the top of the Workgroup frame (illustrated
below), to filter the display as follows:

Over 3 Days

Displays only the systems that have been absent for over 3 days. You can click the icon in
the Workgroup frame to do the same thing.

Over 1 Week

Displays only the systems that have been absent for over seven days. You can click the
icon in the Workgroup frame to do the same thing.

Over 1 Month

Displays only the systems that have been absent for over thirty days. You can click the icon
in the Workgroup frame to do the same thing.

Over 3 Months

Displays only the systems that have been absent for over ninety days. You can click the
icon in the Workgroup frame to do the same thing.

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Large Icon

By default, the systems shown in the Workgroup frame are displayed as large icons. If you
previously selected Small Icon or Detail List from the View Menu during the current
AdminWorks session, and then decide you want to switch back to the default view, select Large
Icon from the View Menu.

Alternatively, at the top of the Workgroup frame, you can click the icon to list systems in
Large Icon view. An example of Large Icon view is shown below.

NOTE: When you switch to another view, it is valid only for the current



AdminWorks session. When you exit and then re-start AdminWorks, the view will be
reset to the default. You can specify the view to be recognized as the “permanent”
default view by using the Console Menu > Preferences... > View tab > Workgroup

Frame field.

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Small Icon

Select Small Icon from the View Menu if you wish to display the icons in the Workgroup frame
in Small Icon view.

Alternatively, at the top of the Workgroup frame, you can click the icon to list systems in
Small Icon view. An example of Small Icon view is shown below.

Detail List

Select Detail List from the View Menu if you wish to display the systems in the Workgroup
frame in a List view. Alternatively, at the top of the Workgroup frame, you can click the icon

to display systems in Detail List view. An example of Detail List view is shown below. You
can customize the view (change the column sequence, add columns, remove columns, move
column dividers, and sort in various ways, as explained in the subsections below.

Click on this
icon to open
the Configure
Columns
dialog box,
shown on the
next page.

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Adding/Removing Columns

There are two methods you can use to add or remove columns from the Detail List view. One
way is to use the Configure Columns dialog box, shown below. Click on the Configure

Columns icon ( ) in the upper right corner of the Workgroup frame, to open the dialog box.

To remove an existing column from Detail List view, select it from the list on the right side of the
Configure Columns dialog box, then click the Remove button. To add a column, select it from
the list on the left, then click the Add button.

To re-arrange the column sequence using the Configure Columns dialog box, click on the
desired column name on the right side of the dialog box, then click the Up or Down button to
move it up or down in the sequence (that is, to move it left or right within the table).

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Or, use the pop-up menu:

Alternatively, you can right-click within any column heading in Detail List view to open the menu
shown below. In this menu, click on the column you want to add. Or, un-check the column you
want to remove. Note that this menu only allows you to make one adjustment at a time; it
closes when you click on any item. If you wish to make multiple adjustments, you might find it
more convenient to select the Configure Columns... command at the bottom of the menu, then
use the dialog box (illustrated on the previous page).

Re-arranging Column Sequence

One way to change the order of the columns in Detail List view is to use the Configure Columns
dialog box (illustrated on the previous page). In the “Selected Columns and Order” column on
the right side of the dialog box, select the column you want to move, then click on the Up or
Down button until the column is in the desired position.

Or, drag-and-drop columns:

Alternatively, you can position the mouse pointer within the heading of the column you want to
move, then press the left mouse button and drag the column to the left or right. Release the
mouse button to fix the column in the new location.

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Sorting Information by Column

You can sort according to any desired column of data in Detail List view. To sort
alphanumerically by a different column, click within the header of the column you wish to sort
by. The first time you click, an upward-pointing triangular icon will appear, indicating that the
sort will be performed in ascending order. If you wish to sort in descending order, click within
the header again; the icon will change to a downward-pointing triangle.

Moving Column Dividers

In addition, you can manually drag the column dividers to the right or left as desired. To do this,
place the mouse pointer over the divider between column headings (the mouse pointer will
change to a vertical bar shape). Then drag the divider left or right, and release the mouse
button to fix the position.

NOTE: If you have added many columns to the Workgroup frame, and want to utilize



more space within the AdminWorks Console window to display them, you can use the
View Menu as explained above to hide the Topology, Information, and/or Status
frames. In addition, you can adjust the borders of the Workgroup frame as explained
in the earlier section entitled Workgroup Frame.

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Tools Menu

The commands on the Tools Menu allow you to generate reports, and to search for computers
meeting specific criteria in your Managed Systems.

Note that both of these commands are also conveniently available as buttons on the Tool Bar
(the two rightmost buttons). The Tool Bar is illustrated below.

Report Generator...

The Report Generator function generates reports on the hardware and software assets of all
currently Managed Systems. You can view, preview, configure print settings, print, and export
the reports.

The Report Generator can be launched in any of these ways:

 Select Report Generator... from the Tools Menu.
 Click Report Generator on the Tool Bar.
 Press the Ctrl + G keyboard shortcut.

It doesn’t matter whether Managed Systems or UnManaged Systems are displayed when you
select the Report Generator... command. Reports for your Managed Systems will immediately
be generated.

A separate new AdminWorks Report window will open. Two types of reports are available in
this window: A System Asset Report, and a Software Asset Report. View one or the other by
clicking the related tab at the bottom of the window.

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System Asset Report

This report contains four main sections (Report Summary, Detail, Chart, and Comment) in
which a variety of information is displayed in the form of text and charts.

Scroll to see more of the upper Report
Summary area. Or, drag the divider
down to expose more of it, as shown
on the next page.

Click to hide the
Report Summary
(allows more space for
Details to display).

Click to hide
or re-display
the Chart
section.

In the Chart
section,
select a
category of
data from
the drop­down list,
and select a
chart type.
The Pie
Chart is
selected by
default.
(On the next
page, a

Vertical Bar
Graph of this

same data is
shown.)

You can move column dividers, and/or
scroll to see more of the data in this
table, and can add/remove/re-sequence
columns, here in the Detail section.

Comment
section.
You can
optionally
enter
comments
about this
report.

The figure above shows how the System Asset Report displayed when it initially opened. In the
figure on the next page, changes have been made to each section of the screen for illustrative
purposes.

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In this example, the lower border of the Report
Summary area has been dragged down so that

more of the data can be viewed without scrolling
(compared to the figure on the previous page).
This Report Summary is available only in the
System Asset Report (not in the Software Asset
Report), as explained later.

Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

In the figure on the previous page, Platform data was shown
in the form of a Pie Chart. Below, the same Platform data is
shown in the form of a Vertical Bar graph (the Vertical Bar
graph icon has been selected). From the drop-down list,
select the type of data you want to display in chart form.

In the figure on the previous page, the default column sequence
and width was shown. In the example above, more columns of
data have been added, and the column dividers have been
manually dragged to a different position. You can also use the
scroll bars to view more data. Right-click anywhere within the
Detail section to open the pop-up menu. (See the next page for
information about the pop-up menu, adding/removing columns,
and changing the sequence of columns.)

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You can also
drag this
divider to the
left or right
as desired.

You can optionally type
any comments here.
This text is automatically
saved, and it will be
included on the printout
whenever you print the
report. Right-clicking will
open a pop-up menu of
standard editing
commands.

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Adding, Removing, and Re-sequencing Columns

If you only want to add one column or remove one column of data, the pop­up menu shown at left is convenient. Right-click anywhere within the Detail
section of the AdminWorks Report window to open this pop-up menu. The
currently selected columns are indicated by a checkmark on the menu.

To remove a column using this menu, simply click on the item you want to
remove. The menu will close and the column will be removed from the
Report window immediately.

Likewise, to add a column, click on the related item on the pop-up menu.
The menu will close, and the new column of data will be added.

If you want to add/remove more than one column, or if you want to change the sequence of the
columns, you can click the Configure Columns... command at the bottom of the pop-up menu.

Or, click on the icon in the System Asset Report window. Either of these actions will open
the Configure Columns dialog box shown above on the right. To remove an existing column,
select it from the list on the right, then click the Remove button. To add one column, select it
from the list on the left, then click the Add button. Or use Add All or Remove All if you want to
add or remove all of the items.

To re-arrange the column sequence using the Configure Columns dialog box, click on the
desired column name on the right side of the dialog box, then click the Up or Down button to
move it up or down in the sequence (that is, to move it left or right within the table).

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Alternatively, you can re-arrange the column sequence manually. To do so, place the mouse
pointer within the desired column heading, press and hold the left mouse button, then drag-and­drop the column left or right.

Moving Column Dividers

You can manually move column dividers to the right or the left. For example, if a serial number
is unusually long, you can drag the right border of the Serial Number column to the right, until
the entire serial number can be viewed.

To move a column divider, note that you must place the mouse pointer over a divider between
column headings. The mouse pointer will change to a vertical bar shape with left-right arrows.
An example of this mouse pointer is shown below.

You can then drag the divider to the left or right.
However, note that if you change the position of any column dividers, this re-positioning is not

retained after you close the AdminWorks Report window. Each time the Report window is re­opened, it reverts back to the default positions.

Sorting Information by Column

In addition, you can sort according to any desired column of data. To sort alphanumerically by
a different column, click within the header of the column you wish to sort by. The first time you
click, an upward-pointing triangular icon will appear, indicating that the sort will be performed in
ascending order. If you wish to sort in descending order, click within the header again. The
icon will change to a downward-pointing triangle, and will be re-sorted immediately.

Entering Comments

In the Comment section at the right side of the Report window, you can optionally enter any
desired free-format text notes. You can access a pop-up menu of standard editing commands
by right-clicking anywhere within the Comment section.

When the Report window is closed, the typed text is automatically saved. The text will be
shown in the Print Preview window, and will be included on the actual printed report.

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Displaying Report Summary Data in Chart Form

The Chart section is located in the upper right area of the System Asset Report. It allows you
to display/print various Report Summary data in three different types of charts: Click the icon of
the chart type you want:

Pie chart

Vertical bar chart

Horizontal bar chart

From the drop-down list in the Chart section, choose the desired data category: Platforms,
Total Memory, Processors, Hard Disks, or Operating Systems.

NOTE: The Chart section is not available in the Software Asset Report.

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Software Asset Report

This is an all-text report (no charts) that lists information about all the software that has been
installed on your Managed Systems. Click the Software Asset Report tab at the bottom of the
AdminWorks Report window to view this report.

Adding, Removing, and Re-sequencing Columns

Similar to the System Asset Report described on the previous pages, you can specify which
categories of data will be displayed in the Software Asset Report.

By default, three categories of data are listed in the Software Asset Report: The names of the
installed software applications, the versions of the software (if available), and the owner names.

In the example above, we have added the optional System Name column. The method of
doing this is explained on the next page.

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If you only want to add one column or remove one column of data from the
report, the pop-up menu shown at left is convenient. Right-click anywhere
within the table listing the software data, in the Software Asset Report, to
open this pop-up menu. The currently selected columns are indicated by a
checkmark on the menu.

To remove a column using this menu, simply click on the item you want to
remove. The menu will close and the column will be removed from the
Report window immediately.

Likewise, to add a column, click on the related item on the pop-up menu.
The menu will close, and the new column of data will be added.

If you want to add/remove more than one column, or if you want to change the sequence of the
columns, you can click the Configure Columns... command at the bottom of the pop-up menu.

Or, click on the icon in the Software Asset Report window. Either of these actions will open
the Configure Columns dialog box shown above. To remove an existing column, select it from
the list on the right, then click the Remove button. To add a column, select it from the list on
the left, then click the Add button. Or use Add All or Remove All if you want to add or remove
all of the items.

To re-arrange the column sequence using the Configure Columns dialog box, click on the
desired column name on the right side of the dialog box, then click the Up or Down button to
move it up or down in the sequence (that is, to move it left or right within the table).

Alternatively, you can re-arrange the column sequence manually. To do so, place the mouse
pointer within the desired column heading, press and hold the left mouse button, then drag-and­drop the column to the left or to the right.

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In the Software Asset Report, the methods of moving column dividers, sorting data, and
entering comments are exactly the same as those explained previously in the System Asset
Report section. For information about these procedures, please refer back to the sub-sections
entitled Moving Column Dividers, Sorting Information by Column, and Entering
Comments.

Using the Tool Bar in the Report Windows

The Tool Bar in the Report window is the same whether the System Asset Report or the
Software Asset Report is displayed. It contains six buttons, as described below.

Print

Click the Print button in the Tool Bar of the AdminWorks Report window (or press Ctrl+P on
your keyboard) to print both the System Asset Report and the Software Asset Report
immediately on your default printer. It doesn’t matter which report is displayed on your screen
when you select Print. Both reports will be printed.

If you want to access the standard Print Setup dialog box and change some settings before
printing, click the Print Setting... button.

If you want to see a preview of the printout on your screen first, click the Preview button before
printing.

NOTE: This Print button automatically prints both reports. If you only want to print



one of the reports, use the Print Preview window. Click Preview in the Report
window Tool Bar to open the Print Preview window, then select the report you want to
print, then click the Print Current icon in the Tool Bar. (See the upcoming sub­section entitled Using the Tool Bar in the Print Preview window for illustrations.)

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Print Setting...

Click the Print Setting... button in the Tool Bar of the AdminWorks Report window (or press
Ctrl+S on your keyboard) if you need to open the standard Print Setup dialog box.

Among other things, you can select a different printer, set the desired Properties for that printer,
change the paper size, change the orientation, etc.

Preview

When you click the Preview button in the Tool Bar of the AdminWorks Report window (or press
Ctrl+V on your keyboard), the Print Preview window opens, in which you can see what your

reports look like before actually printing them. Note that the AdminWorks Report window also
remains open separately, but you cannot close it or use any of its functions as long as the Print
Preview window is open.

Previewing the System Asset Report

It doesn’t matter which report is displayed in the AdminWorks Report window when you select
Preview. The System Asset Report will always be displayed first in the Print Preview window,
exactly as it would appear if printed. An example is shown on the next page. This example
also shows that we have specified a Company Logo to appear in the header of the report, using
the Console Menu > Preferences... > General tab > Company Logo field (explained earlier in
this Manual).

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Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

If you are not satisfied with something you see in the Print Preview window, you can close the
window and then make the desired changes, before actually printing the report. For example, if
you decide that you would rather have the Processor data represented in Vertical Bar Chart
form instead of in a Horizontal Bar Chart as shown in the figure above, close the Print Preview
window and then change the chart type before printing.

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Previewing the Software Asset Report

To preview the Software Asset Report before actually printing it, click the Software Asset
Report tab near the lower left of the Print Preview window. An example is shown below.

Note that any comments you may have entered in the Report window will be displayed at the
top of this report. Also in this example, a company logo appears in the header because it was
specified in the Company Logo field of the General tab (Console Menu > Preferences...).

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Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

Using the Tool Bar in the Print Preview window

In the Print Preview window, you can hover the mouse over any of the icons in the Tool Bar to
view the related ToolTip, which indicates the function of that button. The Tool Bar in the Print
Preview window is illustrated below, and each of the components is explained in order of
appearance from left to right.

Print All

It is not necessary to return to the AdminWorks Report window if you are ready to print now.
You can click this Print All icon to print both the System Asset Report and the Software Asset
Report from the Print Preview window (same behavior as the Print button on the Tool Bar in the
AdminWorks Report window).

Print Current

Prints only the report currently in focus. If you only want to print one of the reports, first display
the report you want to print, then click the Print Current icon.

NOTE: This Print Current function is the only way in AdminWorks to print either



the System Asset Report or the Software Asset Report individually. Other print
functions will automatically print both reports.

First

If the first page of the report is not currently displayed, you can click the First icon to jump back
to the first page.

Previous
If the first page of the report is not currently displayed, you can click the Previous icon to
display the previous sequential page.

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Page Indicator (non-editable)

The Page Indicator field is for display only. The first number displayed is the page number of
the current page. The second number indicates the total number of pages in the report. In this
example, the second page of a three-page report was being displayed in the Print Preview
window.

Next

If the last page of the report is not currently displayed, you can click the Next icon to display the
next sequential page.

Last

If the last page of the report is not currently displayed, you can click the Last icon to jump
forward to the last page.

Zoom In

Each time you click the Zoom In icon, the report display is enlarged on your screen, up to a
maximum of 200%. If you want to enlarge the display more than 200%, you can do so by
entering a value into the Zoom combo box described below.

In addition, you can simply click anywhere within the Print Preview window to toggle back and
forth between the most recent Zoom In value and most recent Zoom Out value. When the

mouse pointer appears as it indicates that clicking the mouse will enlarge the display to
the most recent “Zoom In” size.

Zoom Out

Each time you click the Zoom Out icon, the report display is reduced in size. The size cannot
be reduced to a value smaller 10%.

In addition, you can simply click anywhere within the Print Preview window to toggle back and
forth between the most recent Zoom In value and most recent Zoom Out value. When the

mouse pointer appears as it indicates that clicking the mouse will reduce the size of the
display to the most recent “Zoom Out” value.

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Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

Zoom combo box

When you click the Zoom In and Zoom Out icons described above, the enlargement/reduction
occurs in pre-defined increments. Alternatively, you can use the Zoom combo box. You can
select a Zoom value from the drop-down list (illustrated below). Or, you can enter any arbitrary
value between 10% and 500%. In this example, “54%” was manually typed into the text box.

Close

Clicking the Close icon exits the Print Preview window. Focus will then be returned to the
AdminWorks Report window. (Note that all functions in the AdminWorks Report window will be
disabled as long as the Print Preview window is open.)

Export

In the Tool Bar of the main AdminWorks Report window, you can click the Export button to
conveniently export the report currently in focus, and even opt to export only specific columns of
data in the report. The Export feature will create a new Microsoft® Excel file, copy the selected
data to the file, and place it in the folder you specify. By default, the filename will be composed
of the report title and date, and will have a file extension of .csv (for example, System Asset
Report-20050730.csv).

1. Make sure the report you want to export is currently displayed in the AdminWorks Report
window.

2. Click the Export icon in the Tool Bar, or press Ctrl + E on your keyboard. The Select
Data Field dialog box will open.

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The Select Data Field dialog box will contain different items for selection depending on whether
the System Asset Report or the Software Asset Report is currently displayed in the

AdminWorks Report window at the time you click Export. The illustration below shows the
Select Data Field dialog box for the System Asset Report.

3. If you want to export the entire report with the data in the same sequence as the report,
simply click the Same as Report button.

Or, if you only want to copy certain columns of data to the new exported file, use the
Add, Add All, Remove, Remove All, Up, and Down buttons as needed to select the
desired columns and arrange the sequence you want.

4. Click the Next button. A standard Save As dialog box will open. Specify a folder and a
filename (or use the default filename), then click Save in the Save As dialog box to create
the file.

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Help

In the Tool Bar of the AdminWorks Report window, click the Help button (or press F1 on your
keyboard) to access the on-line Help messages. This Help button is context-sensitive.
Therefore, since you are accessing the Help from the Report window, the Help topic explaining
how to use the Report Generator functions will display first. From there, you can navigate to
other Help topics if desired.

Exit

Click the Exit button in the Tool Bar of the AdminWorks Report window (or press Ctrl+X on
your keyboard) to close the window and exit Report Generator.

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Find...

There may be times when you will want to find and display only certain systems in your
Managed Systems. You can use the Find... command to enter one or more “search filters.” If
systems matching the specified criteria are found, they will be listed in the Workgroup frame.

1. Select Find... from the Tools Menu on the Menu Bar, or press Ctrl + F on your keyboard,
or click the Find button on the Tool Bar. The Find Managed Systems dialog box will
open, as shown below.

Filter Category¯

The five main categories
available in the drop­down list are illustrated
here.

Filter Constraint ¯

The selections available in this drop­down list fluctuate according to which
item you selected in the Filter Category
field. (See table on next page.)

Filter Criteria ¯

The selections available in this drop-down
list also fluctuate according to which item
you selected in the Filter Category field.
(See table on next page.)

2. First select a Category in the leftmost field (the drop-down list is illustrated above). This
will determine which Constraints and which Criteria selections will be available in the
other two fields.

3. In the center field, select a Constraint. See the table on the next page for information on
which Constraints are available for which Categories.

4. In the rightmost field, select the desired Criteria. See the table on the next page for
information on how to specify various types of Criteria.

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IF YOU SELECT

THIS

CATEGORY.....

System Type Is

System Name Is

Owner Name Is

Processor Type Is

THE CONSTRAINTS

AVAILABLE ARE.....

Is Not

Is Not
Contains

Is Not
Contains

Is Not

Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

AND THE CRITERIA AVAILABLE ARE.....

Desktop, Notebook, Server

Type the desired System Name (or part of the System
Name, if you chose the “Contains” Constraint). If
typing more than one, separate each name with a
comma. Text entered in this field is not case-sensitive.

Or, click the button and browse to the desired
name(s) in the Select System dialog box, which lists

your managed systems in Organization and Task
Groups. To select more than one, press the <Ctrl> key
or <Shift> key when clicking.
Type the desired Owner Name (or part of the Owner
Name, if you chose the “Contains” Constraint). If
typing more than one, separate each name with a
comma. Text entered in this field is not case-sensitive.

Or, click the button and select the desired name(s)
in the Select Owner Name dialog box, which lists your

managed systems by Owner Name. To select more than
one, press the <Ctrl> key or <Shift> key when
clicking.
AdminWorks detects the Processor Types contained
within your currently managed systems, and lists them
in the drop-down list. Therefore, the selections
available will vary according to the processor types in
your particular managed systems. An example is
illustrated below.

Last Detected
Date

Specify a range of
dates by selecting
(or typing) the
Beginning Date.
Clicking here
opens a calendar
(shown at right).

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Specify the Ending
Date. As in the
previous field, you
can type the date
manually, or select it
from this calendar.
Click the left or right
arrows to access the
previous or next
month’s calendar.

The Power of Being There™ ¯ www.avocent.com

Note that if you use the Last Detected Date search filter, and you wish to narrow the search for
a system or systems that were last detected on one individual day, simply specify the same
date in both fields.

5. Click on the button to add this search filter to the list in the Find Managed Systems
dialog box.

If you wish to add more search filters, repeat Steps 2 through 5. In the figure on the next
page, four sample search filters have been added.

Only one of each type of “search filter” rule is allowed. For example, you would not be
be permitted to add two System Type Is search filters. However, it is permissible to add
a System Type Is and a System Type Is Not search filter. This is shown in the figure on
the next page.

NOTE: If you have added a “search filter” to the list and then decide you want to



remove it, select it and then click the button. To select all search filters for
simultaneous removal, use the standard method of pressing the <Shift> key and then

left-clicking.

6. Click the Find button to start the search. Both on-line and off-line Managed Systems will
be searched. (Or, click Cancel if you wish to abort.) Note that it doesn’t matter what is
shown in the three fields at the top of the dialog box at the time you click Find; only the
search filters that have actually been added and that are currently listed in the dialog box
will be utilized by AdminWorks during the search process.

The search result will be displayed in the Workgroup frame, and the number of matches
found will be indicated at the top of the frame, for example: . If no

matches were found, “Search Result (0)” will display at the top of the Workgroup frame.

Note that the next time a “Discover” is performed (either an automatic discovery or a manually­initiated discovery), all the discovered systems will once again be listed in the Workgroup
frame, replacing the results of the Find... command.

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In this example, four different search rules have been added.

After you have clicked the Find button and have performed a search, the rules you added will
be retained in the Find Managed Systems dialog box, if opened again during the current
AdminWorks session. However, if you click the Cancel button or exit AdminWorks, the rules
are not saved and are cleared from the dialog box.

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Help Menu

The Help Menu contains commands that allow you to access the built-in Help messages; to
check the AdminWorks web site for newer versions of the program; to convert from Trial
version to Full version; to enter our company’s web site or write e-mail to us if you have queries;
and to view version and copyright information about the product.

AdminWorks Help

When you select AdminWorks Help from the Help menu (or press F1 on your keyboard), the
AdminWorks Help window will open, containing the main Table of Contents. Select the topic
you want to view.

If the Report Generator window is open, you can click the Help button on the Toolbar (or press
F1). In this case, the Help topic explaining the usage of the Report Generator functions will be
displayed when the Help window initially opens. You can then browse to other Help topics, if
desired.

Check Updates

At any time, you can select Check Updates to check whether or not there is a newer version of
the AdminWorks management suite available on the AdminWorks web site.

If a newer version is available, an Update Available dialog box will appear. Click the Yes button
in the dialog box if you wish to go to the web page from which you can download the latest
version of AdminWorks and update your existing version.

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Enter Activation Key

The Trial/Evaluation version of Avocent AdminWorks management suite will operate with all
features enabled for 45 days from the date of installation. All functions will operate without
restriction, but the maximum number of Managed Systems is limited to 20. After the 45-day
trial period has expired, some of the AdminWorks features will no longer function.

If you are currently using a Trial/Evaluation version of AdminWorks, the Enter Activation Key
command will be available on the Help Menu. It opens the dialog box shown below. The upper
field is non-editable and displays the Serial Number of your copy of Avocent AdminWorks
management suite.

After you have purchased AdminWorks, you will be given an “Activation Key.” In order to
convert your Trial/Evaluation version into the Full version, you need to enter that number into
the lower field of the dialog box and click OK. If found to be a valid Activation Key, a message
will inform you that it was successful.

If the Trial/Evaluation version expires.....

The first time you attempt to invoke the AdminWorks Console program after the 45-day trial
period has expired, a message similar to the one illustrated below will appear.

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You may click the OK button in the message box and continue to use the Trial version of
AdminWorks, but some of the functions will be disabled. Below is a partial list of the disabled
features:

 The Power Off and Restart commands on the Client Menu.
 The Print, Print Setting..., and Export buttons on the Report Generator toolbar.
 The Print All and Print Current buttons on the toolbar of the Print Preview window.
 Other features may also be disabled in certain versions.

NOTE: The Full version of AdminWorks allows for 200 Managed Systems, and of



course none of the functions will ever expire.

Contact Us

When you select Contact Us from the Help Menu, a dialog box opens which contains two
hyperlinks. Click on the URL link in the upper part of the dialog box to go directly to the home
page of the Avocent AdminWorks web site. For example, instructions for purchasing the Full
version of AdminWorks can be found there.

Or, if you have a question and cannot find the answer in the AdminWorks web pages, click on
the E-Mail link in the lower part of the dialog box to open a standard “Compose E-mail” window
in which the [e-mail] E-mail address is already entered.

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About AdminWorks

About Box for Console program

The About AdminWorks command on the Help Menu of the main Console window opens the
About Avocent AdminWorks dialog box, which displays copyright, version, serial number, and
registration information concerning your current copy of the AdminWorks Console program.

If you are currently using the Trial/Evaluation version of the AdminWorks Console program, the
expiration date of your copy will also be displayed in the About Avocent AdminWorks box for
your reference. In addition, an Enter Activation Key button will be enabled. After purchasing
AdminWorks, you can click this button and enter your Activation Key number to convert the
Trial version to the Full Version. (The Enter Activation Key dialog box was illustrated and
explained earlier in the sub-section entitled Enter Activation Key.)

About Box for Agent program

The About box shown and explained above is for the AdminWorks Console program.
Another About box, containing two tabs, will be available on computers on which the

AdminWorks Agent has been installed, providing information about the Agent program.
To open the About AdminWorks Agent dialog box, right-click on the AdminWorks Agent icon

( ) in the System Tray (lower right corner of your screen), then select Information... from the
menu. This dialog box is illustrated on the next page.

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In the About AdminWorks Agent dialog box, you can view data about the Agent ID program that
has been installed on the computer, and also modify the Owner Name and select a different
System Type. This dialog box contains the General tab and the About tab, as explained below.

General tab

System Name — The name of the computer on which the Agent program is installed (not
editable).

Owner Name — The Owner Name that was entered when the Agent program was installed.
This field is editable.

System Type — You can choose Desktop, Notebook, or Server from the drop-down list if you
want to change the current value in this field.

Agent ID — This field shows the AdminWorks Agent ID that was generated when the Agent
program was installed. The Agent ID is what identifies this system (computer) to the Console,
and is not editable.

Version Number — This is the version of the AdminWorks Agent that has been installed.
Control Host — The System Name of the host who is currently managing the Agent, if any.
Restricted Items — If the Console manager has chosen to prohibit any hardware or software

items using the Client Menu > Configure Restriction... command, they will be listed here.

About tab

The About tab displays product name, version, and copyright information for the installed
AdminWorks Agent.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Thanks to its easy-to-use interface and built-in Help messages, many users will be able to start
operating the AdminWorks Console productively without reading this User’s Manual. This FAQ
section is provided as an additional quick-reference for those who might only need the answers
to a few particular questions, and who prefer to just keep the Manual handy as a reference
guide.

Q: Can I un-manage a system by dragging and dropping it to UnManaged Systems in the

Topology frame?

A: No. It is necessary to use the Remove command on the Client Menu (or the pop-up

menu) to remove it from Managed Systems.

Q: Why does “Sensor Not Detected” display in the Health section of the Information frame,

even though the system's sensors are working?

A: Presently, AdminWorks management suite 1.2 supports the following sensor chip

models: LM85, SMSC17xx, and Asus X100. Sensors not supported cannot be read
correctly.

Q: Why can't I see system information in the Information Frame of the Console window?
A1:

System information is available only for the systems in your Managed Systems. It will
not be shown for UnManaged Systems.

A2:

You can try updating the information via polling. Select Poll from the Console Menu, or
click Poll on the Tool Bar. Polling refreshes the system information of the online
managed systems, and updates that info in the AdminWorks database.

Q: Why is some of the system information incorrect?
A: Some system information may be incorrect due to the source (from which the information

is provided) being inaccurate.

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Q: Why is the program sometimes in a pending status temporarily?
A1:

The Console might be in the process of “discovering.” The program can be set up to
discover automatically at specific intervals using Console Menu > Preferences... >

Discovery tab.

A2:

It may be that the program is in the process of polling information.
(When in a pending state, AdminWorks is trying to communicate with the system’s

Agent to obtain the information.)

Q: It appears that some graphs in Report Generator have no legend.
A: You can expand the size of the frame to see the legend.

Q: Why can't I discover systems in my network?
A1:

The system must have the AdminWorks Agent program installed on it, in order for the
Console to be able to find it.

A2:

The access to that system may be blocked by firewall software.

Q: Can I filter out and list only certain systems? For example, I want to display only the

Notebook computers in the database that were last detected between Wednesday and
Friday last week.

A: You can set up filters and search according to a variety of criteria using the Find...

command on the Tools Menu (or click Find on the Tool Bar).

Q: I found that the History for the various logs (which I can access from the Console Menu

> System Logs...) only saves the most recent 300 entries. I would like to set the History

to maintain the most recent 600 entries for each log. How can I do this?

A: You can change these values easily using the Console Menu > Preferences... > Logs tab.

96 Frequently Asked Questions

Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

Q: Can I “hide” one or more of the frames in the Console window as the default behavior?
A: Yes. Select Preferences... from the Console Menu and use the View tab.

Q: How can I check for newer versions of AdminWorks management suite?
A: On the Help Menu, select the Check Updates command.

Q: Why can't the Console discover some systems on which I already installed the

AdminWorks Agent?

A1:

If the AdminWorks Agent is installed on systems that are on a closed network/not
connected to the Internet, each system must have a fixed IP in order to be discovered by
the Console.

A2:

If a firewall has been opened on the Microsoft® Windows® XP environment, do the
following to enable the systems in that environment to be discovered by the Console:

1. Right-click on the My Network Places icon of the system with the AdminWorks

Agent installed.

2. Select Properties from the pop-up menu, then in the left panel of the dialog box,

select Change Windows Firewall Settings.

3. In the Windows Firewall dialog box, open the Exception tab and click the Add Port...

button.

4. In the Add a Port dialog box, enter “AdminWorks Agent” in the Name field.

5. If the TCP button is selected, enter “2804.” Or, if the UDP button is selected, enter

“9999.”

6. Click OK. In the Windows Firewall dialog box, the checkboxes related to the

information you specified will be checked. Click OK to confirm.

Frequently Asked Questions 97

The Power of Being There™ ¯ www.avocent.com

A3:

If a firewall has been opened on the Microsoft® Windows® XP SP2 (Service Pack 2)
environment, do the following to enable the systems in that environment to be discovered
by the Console:

1. Right-click on the My Network Places icon of the system with the Agent installed.

2. Select Properties from the pop-up menu.

3. Right-click on the icon of your current network, then select Properties again. The

Network Connection dialog box opens.

4. Open the Advanced tab and click the Settings... button.

5. In the Advanced Settings dialog box, open the Service tab and click the Add button.

6. In the Service Settings dialog box, type “AdminWorks Agent” in the Description text

box (the first field in the dialog box).

7. If the TCP button is selected, type the external Port number in the third text box. Or,

if the UDP button is selected, type the internal Port number.

8. Click OK. You will be returned to the Advanced Settings dialog box. Click OK to

confirm.

A4:

If a firewall has been opened by some “firewall software” which has been installed on an
individual system, it is currently not possible for the Console to discover that particular
system.

98 Frequently Asked Questions

Index

A

About AdminWorks (Help Menu)....................................93

Absent systems

Defined ..........................................................................9

Absent Systems

Buttons in Workgroup frame .................................16, 63

Defined ........................................................................63

View Menu command..................................................63

Add to Group... (Client Menu) .........................................48

Adding/Removing columns..............................................66

AdminWorks

Agent Information........................................................93

Console Window Layout .............................................13

FAQ.............................................................................95

Finding/filtering systems..............................................86

Invoking the Console...................................................12

IP range set-up (routers/firewalls)................................46

Launching automatically with system startup..............41

Menu Bar.....................................................................32

On-line Help ............................................................8, 90

Overview........................................................................7

Reports, generating......................................................69

Status Bar.....................................................................61

System requirements....................................................10

System Status icons illustrated.....................................19

Tool Bar.................................................................61, 69

Topologies (Organization/Task Groups)......................14

Trial version, converting to Full ..................................91

Updating to newer version.....................................90, 97

Web site and E-mail address........................................92

AdminWorks Help (Help Menu) ......................................90

Agent ID Sync log (System Logs)....................................36

Agent ID, synchronizing...................................................53

Agent Information About box...........................................94

All Systems

Button in Workgroup frame.........................................16

View Menu ..................................................................62

Auto-discovery at startup..................................................46

B

Board fans/temperatures .............................................26, 27

C

Cancel (Client Menu) .......................................................52

Category/Constraint/Criteria (Find...)...............................87

Avocent AdminWorks 1.2 User’s Manual ¯ July 2005

Celsius temperature setting .............................................. 42

Chart section of Report windows..................................... 70

Chart section of System Asset Report..............................74

Check Updates (Help Menu)...................................... 90, 97

Client Menu

Add to Group...............................................................48

Cancel.......................................................................... 52

Configure Restriction... ............................................... 55

Power Off.................................................................... 55

Refresh ........................................................................ 53

Remove........................................................................ 52

Restart ......................................................................... 55

Sync Agent ID With.................................................... 53

Close (Tool Bar icon in Print Preview window).............. 83

Columns

Adding to WorkGroup Detail List view...................... 66

Adding/Removing/Resequencing in reports.......... 72, 75

Moving column dividers ............................................. 73

Sorting data by column................................................ 73

Comments section (Report windows).........................73, 75

Company Logo field......................................................... 42

Company Name field........................................................42

Configure Columns dialog box

Software Asset Report.................................................76

System Asset Report....................................................72

Configure Restriction... (Client Menu) ............................ 55

Adding/Removing filetypes.........................................57

Console About dialog box................................................93

Console Menu

Discover ...................................................................... 32

Exit.............................................................................. 47

Poll.............................................................................. 33

Preferences.................................................................. 41

System Logs................................................................ 34

Console screen components ............................................. 13

Contact Us (Help Menu) .................................................. 92

CPU fans/temperatures............................................... 23, 25

D

Definitions of terms............................................................ 9

Delete Group (Group Menu)............................................ 59

Delete Group (pop-up menu) ........................................... 16

Detail List

Adding/Removing columns......................................... 66

Button in Workgroup frame ..................................17, 65

Configure Columns dialog box ................................... 66

Moving column dividers ............................................. 68

Re-arranging column sequence ................................... 67

Sorting information by column.................................... 68

View Menu.................................................................. 65

Detail section of Report windows .............................. 71, 75

Index 99

The Power of Being There™ ¯ www.avocent.com

Discover command (Console Menu) ................................32

Discovery

Automatic...............................................................32, 46

Manual...................................................................32, 46

Scanning across routers/firewalls...........................46, 97

Trouble-shooting....................................................96, 97

Discovery log (System Logs)............................................35

Discovery tab (Preferences...)...........................................45

Disks

Hard Disks (system health)..........................................29

Drives/storage devices, restricting....................................56

E

Enlarging report display (Zoom In) ..................................82

Enter Activation Key (Help Menu)...................................91

Evaluation version, converting .........................................91

Event Filter (Hardware Change log).................................38

Event Properties (Hardware Change log) .........................39

Exit

Console Menu..............................................................47

Print Preview window Tool Bar...................................83

Report window Tool Bar .............................................85

Export

Report window Tool Bar .............................................83

Exporting a system log to a file ........................................40

F

Fahrenheit temperature setting..........................................42

Fan

Board (system health)..................................................27

CPU (system health)....................................................25

FAQ..................................................................................95

Filetypes

Adding/removing for restriction ..................................57

Restricting usage..........................................................56

Filtering

Category/Constraint/Criteria........................................87

Displaying absent systems...........................................63

Displaying all systems..................................................62

Displaying only on-line systems..................................62

Searching for specific managed systems......................86

Find... (Tools Menu)...................................................86, 96

Firewalls (enabling Discovery).........................................97

First (Tool Bar icon in Print Preview window).................81

Frames

Hiding/displaying in Console window.........................43

Information ............................................................13, 20

Status .....................................................................13, 31

Topology................................................................13, 14

Workgroup.............................................................13, 17

Full version, purchasing..............................................91, 92

G

General tab (Preferences...)...............................................41

Glossary.............................................................................. 9

Group Menu

Delete Group............................................................... 59

New Group.................................................................. 58

Rename Group............................................................. 59

Groups

Adding......................................................................... 58

Adding systems to....................................................... 48

Deleting....................................................................... 59

Renaming .................................................................... 59

H

Hard Disk info.................................................................. 29

Hardware Change log (System Logs)............................... 37

Hardware data (Information frame).................................. 22

Health data (Information frame)

Board fan.....................................................................27

Board Temperature......................................................26

CPU Fan...................................................................... 25

CPU Temperature........................................................23

Hard Disk(s)................................................................ 29

Power Supply ..............................................................27

When sensor is not detected .................................. 30, 95

When system is off-line............................................... 30

Help Menu

About AdminWorks.................................................... 93

AdminWorks Console Help......................................... 90

Check Updates............................................................. 90

Contact Us...................................................................92

Enter Activation Key...................................................91

Illustration of menu..................................................... 90

Help messages.............................................................. 8, 85

Hiding/displaying

Information frame........................................................ 62

Status Bar....................................................................61

Status frame...........................................................31, 62

Tool Bar ...................................................................... 61

Topology frame...........................................................62

I

Image, adding to report header......................................... 42

Information frame

Hardware..................................................................... 22

Health

Board Fan............................................................... 27

Board Temperature................................................. 26

CPU Fan................................................................. 25

CPU Temperature................................................... 23

Hard Disk(s) ........................................................... 29

History....................................................................24

Power Supply ......................................................... 27

Setting refresh interval............................................24

Hiding/displaying........................................................62

Illustration ...................................................................20

Information Display section ........................................22

Refreshing the data...................................................... 95

100 Index