Sherry Kissinger at myITforum.com

Finding seldom used computers in your company

Todd Miller shared a neat MOF snippet.  He had a need to find seldom-used computers in the organization so they could be repurposed.  The value he used to track this is noting when the screen saver activates on a continuously running computer.  There are a few caveats: there must be a screen saver enabled, and it's assumed that these computers aren't shutdown at night, then powered up every day--but no one ever uses them.  Although it could be argued that if someone is taking the time to shutdown & startup daily, someone cares that it's there, maybe not being used, but someone remembers it!

Here's the forum entry for more information.

The snippet:

//  <:[-<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>- ScreenSaver Activity-<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>-]:>
//   If ConfigMgr, this section in configuration.mof
//
#pragma namespace("\\\\.\\root\\cimv2")
#pragma deleteclass("ScreenSaverActivity",NOFAIL)
[Union,
ViewSources{"Select * from Win32_process where Name like '%.scr'"},
ViewSpaces{"\\\\.\\root\\cimv2"},
dynamic,Provider("MS_VIEW_INSTANCE_PROVIDER")]
class ScreenSaverActivity
{
[PropertySources("Handle"),Key] String Handle;
[PropertySources("Name")] string Name;
[PropertySources("CreationDate")] DateTime CreationDate;
};

// If ConfigMgr, this section in sms_def.mof

#pragma namespace("\\\\.\\root\\cimv2\\SMS")
[SMS_Report(TRUE),
SMS_Group_Name("Screen Saver Activity"),
SMS_Class_ID("MICROSOFT|ScreenSaverActivity|1.0") ]
Class ScreenSaverActivity: SMS_Class_Template
{
[SMS_Report(TRUE),Key]  String Handle;
[SMS_Report(TRUE)]  string Name;
[SMS_Report(TRUE)]      DateTime     CreationDate;
};
//  <:[-<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>END>>- ScreenSaver Activity -<<END<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>-]:>

Mini Monster Mof Builder Updated to v1.6

The .hta builder has been updated to v1.6   http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/skissinger/archive/2008/10/28/mini-monster-mof-builder.aspx

A few people had a problem running the sms2003-specific build, so I changed that.  Hopefully it won't make it more confusing for the SMS2003 folks.  Also added in the Dell Warranty mof snippet.

Dell Warranty Info - Hardware Inventory extension

New Update 5/11/2011:  http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/skeiffer/archive/2011/05/11/dell-warranty-info.aspx

Update:  Based on community feedback, the Dell web site was returning slightly different results.  Attached --> here <-- is an updated script.  Many thanks to Todd Miller.

John Marcum shared a script he had received for gathering Dell Warranty Information from a list of Dell Service Tags.  With some testing, we've modified that script to run individually on your clients (as an advertisement) to populate WMI.  Then with a MOF extension, you could gather that information into your SMS or ConfigMgr database.

I have 2 big reservations with sharing this script and MOF edit--I almost didn't share it.  The reasons are that the script which the clients run to populate WMI locally needs internet access from the machine account.  Not everyone allows machine accounts through their firewall for security reasons.  The other major reason is the script depends upon Dell continuing to offer this information at a specific web site address, and returned in a specific format.  Dell could at any time change the web site, remove it, or change the format of the returned information.  If you are relying on this script and it's results in SMS/ConfigMgr, the data will simply no longer be there--it'll start disappearing from your database.

So, here's my recommendation.  Feel free to use this script and MOF edit if you feel it will add value to people that need to monitor Warranty information; but make it very clear to them that it should not be the primary source of information.  They should always use their normal channels at Dell to get summary reports of warranty information for the company.

There's also a report in this thread by Tom Watson (with a community effort, he credited George [aka Meenenta]) which wouldn't store anything in the DB, it provides a link to the manufacturers' web sites so you could interactively check warranty information on a per-client basis, right from the report.

On to the good stuff.  Attached in the .zip file are a vbscript (rename it from .changeme to .vbs) to run on your Dell clients as a recurring advertisement.  In the zip file is a mof edit to add to sms_def.mof (nothing needs to be added to configuration.mof; the script does that).  Below is a sample report to get you started, and a screenshot of what a report might look like; note there will be multiple rows returned for many of your clients because of extended warranties or other multiple services for a particular box.

A sample report like:

select sys.netbios_name0,
  wi.ServiceTag0 [Service Tag],
  wi.provider0 [Provider],
  wi.shipdate0 [Ship Date],
  wi.Startdate0 [Warranty Start Date],
  wi.Enddate0 [Warranty End Date],
  wi.DaysLeft0 [Warranty Days Remaining],
  wi.WarrantyExtension0 [Warranty Extension],
  wi.SystemType0 [System Type],
  wi.datescriptran0 [Timestamp data gathered],
  wi.dellIBU0,
  wi.Description0 as [Description]
from v_r_system as [SYS]
join v_gs_Warranty_Info0 as [WI] on sys.resourceid=wi.resourceid
order by sys.netbios_name0

would result in something like this:

--------

For Historical purposes, old versions of the script, which may or may not work:

Update #2: Ryan updated the warranty script to make it cleaner

Update #1:  As anticipated, Dell could (and did) modify the web site used by the script.  Grab the updated script --> here <--, or here.

Original:  Original