Patch management and new asset inventory view
Dear partner,
We are pleased to announce that there are several feature enhancements in the Managed RMM product.
Expanded support for out-of-band patches for N-sight
Last year we added support for out-of-band patches, but occasionally Microsoft only releases these as manual downloads and installations by listing them in their online update catalog with a download link. This meant that while our engine was technically capable of finding and installing these types of patches, it couldn't do so because they weren't available through the channels scanned by the Windows Update Agent (WUA).
Starting with future versions, we will offer these patches. We will use the same functions for this that we use to support older updates that Microsoft no longer offers, such as the cumulative updates from previous months or security-only updates for older operating systems.
For this purpose, our database collects the relevant information from Microsoft, the patch engine retrieves the information from our database and checks the patches directly on the device during an extended part of the normal detection scan to see if they are applicable.
To receive these patches, you must use the upcoming version of the Patch Management Engine (PME) starting from version v2.10.1.
This engine entered an RC phase last week and is scheduled for full release by September 13th.
→ Release notes from the manufacturer here read (EN).
New asset inventory view with asset search, data export, and custom views for technician workflows.
The next important step in improving and modernizing the user experience has been announced with the introduction of a brand-new asset inventory view. We will be rolling out this feature to all our Managed RMM partners in the coming days.
The new view offers a modern appearance and significantly simplifies the viewing, filtering, searching and exporting of inventory data for servers and workstations.
You can also use the new view and its granular filtering options to create custom device lists for technician workflows and daily device management.
The new asset inventory view is accessible via the left navigation bar and is just the beginning of a series of measures to introduce a more modern and flexible user interface. A whole host of updates to the view are planned for the coming weeks and months, including additional asset data (e.g., BIOS, hard drive, device age), asset status information, interactive widgets for summaries, saving and sharing custom views, bulk actions, technician tools such as Take Control, Reboot, and more.
Here are some further details on how the new asset inventory view can support you in your daily tasks:
Creating customer reports for device lifecycle management
Using the filters, you can create customized device lists to identify older or underperforming devices. You can then export the data to Excel with a single click.
To further improve functionality, the manufacturer is working on expanding the view to include additional system data, including BIOS, operating system installation date, hard drive details, and system age, to help you manage your system inventory.
Use filters to create custom device views in the “north pane” of the dashboard.
Now you can search, filter and group devices by inventory data such as serial number, IP address, manufacturer, processor and RAM, and display these devices in the “north pane”.
This means you have new and improved options for creating custom views for day-to-day device management. For example, it's now possible for the first time to list devices in the "north pane" by device model and apply a specific check or task to that group of devices.
Using the new asset inventory view in this way can increase the efficiency of technicians and provides a better overview of the assets and their settings.
Below is a brief summary of the most important features of the new view:
- Column filter: Use column filters and search to break down specific devices.
- “Filter builder”: Use the filter creation option to create very detailed device views.
- Seek: Use the search field to quickly find specific devices, e.g., by serial number.
- Drag and drop columns: You can arrange the columns as you like, show and hide columns, adjust the column width, and freeze the columns by right-clicking on the column header – very handy when you scroll through the columns so you always know which device you are currently viewing.
- Display options: Show or hide column and row lines, and click the "Reset table" option to restore the default settings.
- Select the number of assets: Choose the number of assets you want to display on the page, between 25 and up to 1000 devices.
- Add device: Click on “Add device” to create a new agent installation package and add new devices to your account.
- Export to Excel: Click the "Export" button in the top right corner to export the current set of assets, as defined by your filters, directly to Excel.
- Display devices in the “north pane”: Click the button to display the device list in the original “north pane”, from where you can perform all the usual device actions.
Next Steps
Here are some of the points the manufacturer plans to work on next:
- Additional asset data (e.g., BIOS, drive, age)
- Export all or only selected columns to Excel
- Interactive widgets for summaries
- Saving custom views
- Filtering and search for all columns
- Asset status data
- Technician tools such as Take Control and Remote Background
- And much more!
Service Release Summary
- New Asset Inventory View
- N-sight console v2023.09.05
- No change to the agents
N-sight console v2023.09.05
FEATURE: Introduction of the new asset inventory view with granular filtering and device data export
FEATURE: Creating custom device views in the “north pane” with Asset Inventory
→ Release notes from the manufacturer here read (EN).