Users Guide

Introducing IT Assistant 13
Dynamic Groups
You can create dynamic groups of devices to help you manage and monitor them more effectively. For more
information, see the Group Configuration topic in the IT Assistant online help.
NOTE: You can re-use the device selection queries created in one module of IT Assistant in other modules as well.
For example, a query created from the search-devices module will also be available when you are creating or
editing a report, an alert filter, or a task.
Application Launch
IT Assistant provides a consolidated launch point for the following Dell systems management
applications: Server Administrator, Array Manager, Remote Access Console, PowerConnect, and
Digital KVM (keyboard/video/mouse). For more information, see the Application Launch topic in the
IT Assistant online help.
NOTE: Network Address Translation (NAT) is not a supported configuration on IT Assistant. Therefore, application
launch does not work in conjunction with NAT, even though IT Assistant successfully discovers the managed
systems. You should use IT Assistant to connect only to the IP address with which a system was discovered. Other
IP addresses available on the system may not be accessible to IT Assistant. In many implementations, such as a
server farm or load balancer implementation, the system will be behind a NAT. In such environments, IT Assistant
will fail to connect to Server Administrator running on those systems.
Reporting
IT Assistant offers a customizable reporting feature that gathers data from the Microsoft Data Engine
(MSDE) or SQL Server database. Report results are based on the data gathered in the last discovery
and/or inventory cycle.
The report interface wizard is designed to allow you to select actual fields in the IT Assistant database.
You can create a report containing information such as:
• Details of the hardware devices being managed by IT Assistant, including systems, switches, and
storage devices
• BIOS, firmware, and driver versions
• Other asset or Cost Of Ownership details
You can also specify the output format, such as HTML, XML, or comma-separated values (CSV). CSV is
normally used in a spreadsheet tool, such as Microsoft Excel. IT Assistant saves the report definitions for
later use and retrieval.
To use the IT Assistant report wizard, select Views→ Reports. A full description of the capabilities and
steps for using the report wizard is available in the IT Assistant online help.