It is extremely important that you keep the inventory data – and thus the data basis of your IT documentation – up-to-date. This is the only way to achieve a high-quality IT documentation, as it is quite improbable that an IT network remains absolutely static for some time. This is why you should pay particular attention to the update service for your inventory data. Docusnap relieves you from the chore of constantly having to remember that you must start inventory scan jobs because it allows you to schedule your defined jobs for automated execution. This way, you only have to verify briefly that each job has been executed without errors.
If the scheduling feature has been enabled in the basic settings of Docusnap, the wizard for system inventory scans includes an option for the time-controlled execution of the job. The procedure is described in detail in the Docusnap User Manual.
Splitting inventory jobs
Depending on the size of your network and the resulting number of systems to be inventoried, you can define separate jobs. It is not recommended to have all systems scanned by a single job. Creating multiple jobs allows you to stagger your inventories in terms of time, so that critical systems can be scanned overnight. With distributed jobs, you have more granular control over your inventory process. While these inventory scans should not result in performance losses, we recommend nevertheless that you separate such activities in time for security and availability reasons. Make sure that these jobs will not overlap with any data backup jobs, if possible.
Always remember that each inventory scan increases the traffic in your network. Of course, the decision about whether you should split your inventory into multiple smaller jobs again depends on the size of your network. If your network is small and comprises only a few IT systems to be documented, you can easily run a single job for the entire inventory. This way, your job management does not become too complex. In other cases, it might soon include some dozens of jobs.
For all systems which cannot be scanned automatically, you need to come up with suitable processes to avoid that the documentation of these assets is obsolete in no time. For these systems, you need to find a way how to also document changes during your daily business. Here, it is up to the IT staff and manager to devise a good solution, otherwise the overall quality of your IT documentation will suffer.
