How to Audit Your Infrastructure with Trogon Network Inventory
Maintaining a precise, up-to-date map of your IT assets is critical for security, compliance, and budget optimization. Manual tracking via spreadsheets quickly fails as networks scale. Trogon Network Inventory automates this process, providing a centralized platform to discover, audit, and manage your hardware and software assets.
Here is a step-by-step guide to conducting a thorough infrastructure audit using Trogon Network Inventory. 1. Define Your Audit Scope
Before launching a scan, clarify what parts of your network need auditing. Defining your scope ensures you capture critical data without overwhelming your system with irrelevant traffic.
Identify Subnets: Gather the IP address ranges, Active Directory (AD) domains, or specific workgroups you need to audit.
Determine Asset Types: Decide if you are auditing the entire infrastructure (servers, workstations, network switches, routers) or focusing strictly on specific targets like remote endpoints.
Establish Timelines: Plan to run extensive network-wide scans during off-peak hours to prevent any potential bandwidth issues. 2. Configure Discovery and Scanning Methods
Trogon Network Inventory offers multiple scanning methods to accommodate diverse IT environments. Setting up the correct discovery protocols ensures complete visibility.
Agentless Scanning: Utilize built-in protocols like WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) and WinRM for Windows machines, and SSH for Linux and macOS systems. This allows you to collect data without installing software on every endpoint.
Network Device Discovery: Enable SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) to detect and audit non-computer hardware, such as managed switches, routers, network printers, and NAS devices.
Credential Management: Input administrative credentials into Trogon’s secure credential manager. The software uses these credentials to log into targets and extract deep configuration details safely. 3. Execute the Network Scan
With your parameters set, you can initiate the network discovery process to build your inventory database.
Run the Initial Scan: Start the scan based on your defined IP ranges or Active Directory structure. Trogon will ping the network, identify active nodes, and begin querying them for specifications.
Monitor Progress: Watch the real-time scanning dashboard to track completed tasks, successful audits, and any connection timeouts.
Troubleshoot Failures: If specific machines fail to report back, check for blocked ports, firewall restrictions, or incorrect administrative credentials. 4. Analyze Hardware and Software Data
Once the scan concludes, Trogon compiles the raw data into an organized, readable inventory. This is where the core analysis of your audit takes place.
Hardware Evaluation: Inspect the centralized dashboard for detailed hardware profiles. Review CPU types, RAM allocation, motherboard details, storage capacities, and serial numbers. Use this data to identify aging hardware due for a refresh.
Software Inventory: Examine the complete list of installed applications across your network. Trogon tracks software versions, installation dates, and executable paths.
License Compliance: Compare your purchased software licenses against the actual installations detected by the tool. Identify unauthorized software installations or underutilized licenses that you can reallocate to save costs. 5. Generate Reports and Maintain the Inventory
An audit is only valuable if the data is actionable and kept current. Trogon provides reporting tools to share your findings and automation tools to keep data fresh.
Built-in Reporting: Export pre-configured or custom reports detailing operating system distribution, hardware vulnerabilities, or software patches missing across the fleet. These documents are ideal for compliance audits and executive reviews.
Schedule Automated Audits: Transition from a one-time audit to continuous monitoring. Set up weekly or monthly automated scans within Trogon to track changes, new devices, and software updates seamlessly.
To help tailor this workflow to your specific IT environment, please let me know:
What operating systems make up the majority of your network (Windows, Linux, macOS, or a mix)?
Are you auditing local office networks, or do you need to account for remote/VPN users?