The Hardware Window
HSTracker is designed to be self-explanatory. Almost every item and button on the screen has a tool tip. If you are not sure what something does, just point the mouse at it and you should see some text explaining its use. HSTracker has a built-in Help system, available from the Help menu.
HSTracker is aimed mostly at Mac office and/or IT admin's. If you are one, you will be familiar with the headaches associated with keeping track of hardware repairs and personnel changes. But the worst task has to be keeping track of software licenses, some are limited by seats, some are locked into a specific computer, some must be un-installed before a computer is decommissioned, etc.
HSTracker aims to let you get on top of this difficult admin task by allowing you to enter data about your computers and software licenses and then linking them so that you can always see which computer has what software and vice versa. It enables you to do so in several ways.
HSTracker handles two basic types of information - hardware and software. You can use HSTracker to store information about all your hardware - computers, printers, switches and more, as well as all your software licenses, including information about the license codes, number of users and other factors.
The hardware windows display a list of your hardware or single hardware items in detail. In the detail view you can view and edit various details such as serial numbers, CPU type, memory configuration and more. You can use the Apple Specs button to locate your computer on the Apple Specs site or the Remote button to remote control a computer on the network (requires OS X 10.5 or another VNC handler).
The hardware detail view also features five tabs. The history tab can be used to enter faults, repairs, memory upgrades and other events in the history of the hardware that you may wish to track later. The licensing tab let you view, assign and remove software licenses from the system.
The software windows are similar and offer two key displays - List view and Detail view that enable you to enter information about your software licenses. Like the hardware windows, you can also use the software windows to assign licenses to one or several computers.
HSTracker works like most applications, allowing you to enter new data in place. Just press the green New button to create a new entry. Just type in and use the Tab key to advance to the next field. Press Enter when you are done.
HSTracker deploys predictive text to help you enter data, but in many cases you would want to import data into HSTracker from another application. HSTracker can import many data formats including CSV, tab-delimited text, FileMaker, Excel and others. Simply select Import Hardware or Import Software from the File menu and follow the prompts to get the data into HSTracker. If you use Apple Remote Desktop the process is even simpler.
Sometimes you may want to create many similar items, such as several license keys for the same software. HSTracker makes this easy. Simply create the first software item and enter the data as you would normally. Then select Duplicate Software from the Software menu (or press cmd-shift-D). Enter the number of duplicates you want when prompted and press OK. A similar feature is available for hardware items.
In most cases, pressing the blue Find button (cmd+F) and entering some text works well, but HSTracker lets you perform more complex searches. Holding Shift while pressing Find (cmd+Shift+F) will find all items while holding down Alt (cmd+Alt+F) enters advanced find mode where you can use wildcards and other operators to refine your searches.
One useful method of searching is to search for alike items. Click in any field and select Find Like This from the Hardware or Software menu (cmd+Alt+L) to find similar items. You can use this feature to find all computers in the same department for example.
Once you have your basic data in - the best way of achieving that is probably using a combination of Apple Remote Desktop and manual input - you are ready to link the licenses and the computers.
Go to the Hardware List as shown above (click top left Hardware button) and mark the computers on the list you want to assign the software license to. Next, select the appropriate software license from the Assign license menu at the bottom of the window, in this example I selected Apple Logic Pro 7. If you assigned a picture to the software you should also see the button on the right of the menu change accordingly. Then press the ++ button. If you now click the software button next to it you should see the computers listed under that software. You can similarly use the -- button to remove the software license from several computers. The license assignment can equally be done from any other main HSTracker window.
You can label up to eight custom fields which are available for both hardware and software items. You could use custom fields to add data such as purchase order number, internal office references, etc.
To edit the custom field labels select HSTracker Preferences... from the HSTracker menu, make your edits and press OK.
The custom fields are accessible for editing and searching under the Custom tab in the main HSTracker hardware and software windows.
HSTracker lets you attach files such as images and text documents. This can be a useful way to store license agreements, manuals and more. To attach a file, select the Files tab from the hardware or software detail view and press the + button. To open an attachment, simply click on its icon or name.
The best approach with individual machine licenses (as opposed to site licenses) is to create a software item instance for each license. If you purchase a 5 user pack of FileMaker you will receive 5 different license codes. Go to software Detail and create the first one, then duplicate it 4 times using Duplicate Hardware from the Hardware menu and entering the unique license code for each instance. Now assign each of these to the appropriate computer from the Software Detail page for example. HSTracker tracks software items with different license codes as separate entities, as they should be.
HSTracker provides direct links to a few useful Mac related sites that enable you to find more information about your computers and other Apple hardware products. If you entered your Mac product serial number into the appropriate field in the Hardware Detail window, you can use the Apple Specs button to link directly to a page about that particular model on the Apple support site.
Use Apple Remote Desktop as shown on the right to collect a full System Overview Report (tick All Fields) and then export the report as a tab-delimited text file to your desktop.
Next, in HSTracker select Import ARD Report… from the File menu. Select the file you just saved and press Open.
You may optionally set all the imported computers' status to Working. When the import process is complete, the newly added and updated computers will be listed.
If you hold down the Alt key while selecting Import ARD Report, you will be given more advanced options for controlling the process, but in most cases this is not required.
Enable directory integration in FileMaker Server admin console. Then create two groups on your directory server:
hstracker - for standard users with full access
hstrackerro - for users with read-only access
Add the users you want to the respective groups.
RealPower is an attempt to calculate the effective power of multi-cpu computers. It is a rough but useful guide number. A dual-CPU 2GHz G5 has a RealPower number of 3.2 which means that it would perform similarly to a theoretical 3.2GHz CPU. Despite the hype, Intel and G5 CPUs perform similarly with most day-to-day tasks when running at similar speeds. The Intel's greatest advantage are the higher clock rates as well as multi-core CPUs now a standard across the Mac product line. RealPower is no replacement for real benchmarks with the applications you use.
Sorting by CPU in the Hardware List window uses the RealPower factor to estimate and sort the computers according to their likely performance. You can, for example, search for all free and working computers and then sort them by RealPower (click the CPU header) to quickly find the best candidates for a new employee.
The RealPower value is also displayed in the Hardware Details window, along with some Geekbench stats.
Using the built-in VNC software in Mac OS X 10.5, HSTracker lets you remote control a computer directly from the application. Use the button next to the primary IP address field to connect directly to the computer's screen to observe it or remote control it. This requires that Remote Management on the target machine is enabled under System Preferences: Sharing.
If you also enter your routers and other network devices you can use the HTTP button to connect to the device using a web browser. If your device requires a connection on a non-standard port just add it to the address in the format ip:port (192.168.1.1:8080 for example).
You can also use HSTracker to ping and wake a device (v1.3.0). Waking a computer only works if both you and the target computer are on the same physical ethernet network. VPN and wireless connections are not supported.
HSTracker saves data automatically, but you can also save manually using Save under the File menu, or by pressing cmd-S on your keyboard.
You can also export data from HSTracker into Excel or CSV file formats directly to your Desktop. Select Export Excel Report or Export CSV report from the File menu and follow the prompts. You may find our utility MacCSV2UnixCSV useful if you need to move data from HSTracker to a Unix based database such as MySQL.
Use the File menu and select Backup to create an archive of your data in your Documents folder. HSTracker also makes an automatic backup when ever you quit the application. If you are running the multi-user version of HSTracker, use the FileMaker Server Admin Console to schedule regular backups.
HSTracker runs on top of the FileMaker database engine. You can set the preferences that relate to the core database by selecting Preferences from the HSTracker menu (FileMaker menu in multi-user version).
To change HSTracker specific preferences select HSTracker Preferences from the same menu. Here you can edit custom fields and enable automatic software update checks.
This normally happens if your Apple computer had its motherboard replaced while being repaired. You can still find the serial number on the back of the computer.
Currently, only the multi-user version supports Windows. Several features do not work when HSTracker is run on a PC:
We are working to improve PC support.
If you have a problem to report or a question you can contact us by emailing hstracker@gal.co.uk or directly from HSTracker's Help menu.
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