Getting Started, Configuring the Applications

09/01/2020 |

Introduction

Getting up and running is as simple as finding the virtual machines IP and calling the application page’s URL. After that you will want to enter your license (or get a free license) and we would suggest using the Wizard to kick start your journey.

If you need additional configuration over and above what the wizard offers, our applications are all extremely configurable. The in depth material is hosted on each applications individual space within our wiki. For links to those, see the bottom of this page.

If you need assistance, feel free to ask on  Opmantek’s Community Questions site or contact Opmantek Support.

If you have more in-depth or unique requirements Opmantek is ready and able to customise our solutions to meet your needs – just ask!

Accessing the Application Modules on the VM

Finding the IP and hostname of the VM

Log in to the console using username: omkadmin, password: NM1$88 (you’ll need console access if you don’t know the IP to SSH to).

The default credentials can be found here.

By default the VM boots with DHCP enabled. On the command line run the below to determine the IP.
ifconfig | grep inet | grep -v inet6 | grep -v "127\.0\.0\.1"
To determine the VMs hostname, run the below.
hostname

Calling a URL

The applications can be access by using the URL http://{ip from above}/omk

You will be presented with the following screen.

All the module names are clickable and link to the respective applications; but you can also navigate directly to NMIS, Open-AudIT or any of the other Opmantek applications.

Simply open your favorite web browser and navigate to:

  • NMIS 9 Virtual Appliance:
    • http://<vm ip address>/nmis9 for NMIS,
    • or http://<vm ip address>/omk for the list of all Opmantek applications.

The default access credentials are username “nmis”, password “nm1888” (more info regarding credentials can be found on this page).

Once you’ve got either the NMIS dashboard or one of the Opmantek application dashboards open, you can also navigate between modules using the “NMIS Modules” and “Modules” menus, respectively.

Getting Started Wizard

On the default /omk page you will see a section in the top left titled “Simple Configuration Wizard”. We highly recommend you use this to easily configure items such as authentication and email (among others).

Application Module Licensing

The first step to using a module is knowing how to open it, the next is to get a license for it. This process is simple and painless: all products on the appliance now support free licenses (which are not time-limited but limited to 20 nodes). For these applications the initial dialog offers the generation of such a free license.

Simply click “Activate a Free License”:

And then fill out the details, note these details are used for your license key and recovery information, ensure they are accurate:

You can also use the “opLicensing” module (reachable at http://<vm ip address>/omk/opLicense or from the Modules menu) to manage your licenses comfortably (including the ability to download previously purchased licenses from the Opmantek website). More info about opLicensing can be found here.

Exploring and Configuring Application Modules

All modules on the Virtual Appliance come with their configuration set to very minimal but safe defaults; to explore the full functionality available you will very likely have to make config modifications to suit your environment. These configuration options are all documented on the Opmantek Community Wiki, in the per-application section (or “Application Space”); certain common, shared aspects are discussed in the “opCommon” space.

For all recent Opmantek applications you’ll find links to the respective sections of Wiki in the “Help” menu (usually under “Online Documentation”); there’s also an online version check on the welcome/landing page, and on each application’s “About” page which helps with keeping your modules up to date.

Our individual applications are covered in great detail in their own wiki spaces (see below).

20 Years of Open-AudIT

03/19/2018 |

A long, long time ago, in a town far, far away, I used to work for a financial institution. A small financial institution. Quite small. As in no IT management software small. As in if we wanted to update our desktops, we had to write a batch script and copy it “by hand” to individual devices and run it one at a time.

Once upon a time, my manager approached me and asked: “How many installs of MS Office do we have?”. I could not reliably answer the question, so I set about finding out how I would find out. At the time Microsoft had a product called SMS Server. Its purpose was to manage your Microsoft Windows PCs. It was also expensive. Well, it was expensive for a small financial institution. Expensive enough that my manager denied the funding and put me in a car to drive from north to south and record by hand the MS Office installs on 100 PCs across 12 branches and 200 kilometres. Good times!

I’ve always been the kind of guy who likes to write code. I think I first wrote some basic back in about 1982. Damn, I’m showing my age now! Obviously, I was thinking – well, if Microsoft can retrieve the information, then how? How are they doing that? That lead me to VBScript and WMI. For our Windows NT machines, these were optional components, but for our new Windows 98 machines, it was built in, yay! Yes – Windows NT and 98. Things are a little different now, but back then a lot of businesses looked at IT as a simple expense that they didn’t want. Hence as little money as possible was spent on it. Windows NT and 98 it was. And no management software for you.

OK, so I found VBScript and WMI. So what? I somehow need to write a script to retrieve details from PCs and actually store it somewhere. The obvious answer is in a database. We were a Microsoft shop, so SQL server. Uh oh – that costs money. No way. Funding denied. Sigh. Well, guess what? Further research turned up this software called “Open Source”. I could have a web server, a database and even an entire operating system FOR FREE. What? What is this voodoo? Oh, and the kicker – it would run on an old desktop PC we had retired. Call me sold.

I was so enamoured with the idea of open source that when requesting the project approval I stated that the code should be licensed under an Open Source license. I would write it by night at home and use it at work. The copyright would stay with me, but the business would benefit from having a tool to be able to list what software was on our machines. It would cost the business $0. Project approved!

And so was born WINventory. Windows Inventory. It was designed first and foremost to retrieve details from Windows machines. Along the way came a name change to Open-AudIT, a healthy community, the ability to audit network devices (routers, switches, printers, etc) as well as computers running various operating systems (Windows, Linux, MacOS, AIX, Solaris, etc). Open-AudIT has grown and grown.

We added the ability to run reports on the data. Even to make your own reports. To “discover” a network as opposed to running the audit scripts on individual PCs and so much more.

Today, almost 20 years later, I couldn’t be more proud of how far this little spare time project has come and what we’ve achieved. Nowadays I work for Opmantek and develop Open-AudIT for a full-time job. Since arriving at Opmantek, Open-AudIT has gone from strength to strength and shows no signs of slowing down. Indeed we have so many ideas that I don’t know how I’m ever going to realise them all!

So many ideas, so little time.

So that’s how Open-AudIT came to be. We’re not slowing down so get in, sit down, shush up and hang on!

Onwards and upwards.

Mark Unwin.