Inferit ITMen 6.5: Simplifying Agent Management and Expanding Inventory for Complex Infrastructures

"Inferit ITMan" is a system for accounting and controlling IT assets. In developing the product, we primarily focus on practical operational scenarios: a large number of nodes, different types of devices, non-standard data sources, and limited resources of IT services. In version 6.5, we made another step in this direction.

Centralized Agent Management

One of the key areas of the release is the development of agent management. In large infrastructures, agents often become a point of operational strain: they need to be updated, configured, and monitored, all while not creating extra burden on administrators.

In version 6.5, we expanded the capabilities of centralized agent management. Now agent configurations can be edited centrally, and updates can be launched both manually and automatically. Updates can be scheduled immediately for selected agents or postponed until the agent appears on the network. This is especially relevant for distributed environments where some nodes connect irregularly.

Additionally, we have added a mechanism for controlling update permissions. This allows us to take into account information security requirements and corporate regulations without complicating maintenance processes and turning agent updates into a series of manual operations.

Development of Network Inventory

The network inventory in 6.5 also received significant improvements. We updated system sensors and implemented WMI — WinRM polling chains. In practice, this enhances stability and completeness of data collection in heterogeneous environments where different OS versions and various remote access mechanisms are used.

New fields for inventory purposes have also been added. This provides more flexibility in task configuration and in forming the overall picture of the infrastructure.

REST API as a Full-fledged Inventory Tool

Another important change: we have added the REST API network inventory protocols to the list. This allows collecting data from devices and systems that do not support traditional polling methods: specialized equipment, infrastructure components, API-oriented services.

In the REST API tasks, support for multiple inventory targets has been introduced. We have improved the authorization mechanisms, including Redfish scenarios, and added data processing tools: storing objects in storeFields with access to their fields, Base64 encoding, and string processing patterns. As a result, the system can be adapted to non-standard data sources without developing separate integrations for each case.

Convenience of working with data and hierarchies

As the infrastructure grows, not only data collection comes to the forefront, but also the convenience of working with it. In version 6.5, we improved navigation through objects and implemented flag-based separation of data by types: operating system, files, software, and other categories.

We also added the ability to find child objects by a list of identifiers. This simplifies working with complex hierarchies and interrelated components, for example, in networking and infrastructure scenarios. Additionally, there is now the option to ignore data from specific scripts if they are not needed by the client in reports but are used for building relationships during inventory.

Updating the data model

We have redesigned the data model considering the accumulated operational scenarios to provide a more detailed and structured representation of information about IT assets and their relationships. This is the basis for further development of analytics and reporting in future versions.

In conclusion

Version 6.5 is a step towards greater scalability and manageability. We continue to develop “Inferit ITMan” as a tool that helps IT departments reduce operational costs and confidently manage infrastructure of any scale, from individual segments to complex distributed environments with thousands of devices, non-standard protocols, and increased security requirements.

The update is now available to "Inferit ITMen" users. To get started, simply update the system and agents to version 6.5.