Hi - and welcome to our brief guide on the installation of NetSupport DNA,
our IT asset management suite.
As you can see on the screen, we have the DNA installation wizard
just about to begin
and we have run this from a setup file which we have downloaded from the
NetSupport DNA website.
So let us click "Next"
and you will see that it is going to walk us through the process
of checking our system and
making sure we have available space for our installation.
Then we can select the components we wish to install.
OK. So let us click "Next".
You will see that the first thing that NetSupport DNA asks us to do
is accept the terms of our licence agreement for this evaluation copy.
It is now going to prompt us for our user name and organisation details.
Nice and simple.
Click on "Next" and you will see that the setup is now asking us to select which
packages we wish to install
for this installation.
Let us briefly run through the key components in order of importance.
The server component is our central repository where all of our DNA
inventory, information and usage data is stored. So this is installed
on one computer
at the centre point of our enterprise.
The client software is installed or deployed
to each and every PC that we wish to gather inventory and real-time usage data from.
The console is our technology used for each operator
to allow them to access the DNA enterprise
and report and monitor all system behaviour.
The Application Packager is a utility that we provide
that allows us to record and create installation packages
for remote deployment.
Finally, we have two gateway components
which can also be installed where we want to provide the DNA
architecture across multiple sites.
The gateway components communicate over http
allowing us to have
machines in different remote networks and locations
and their activity information and inventory information is
automatically and seamlessly pulled back to our central database.
So for the purpose of this, we are going to install all of the main LAN / WAN-based
components: the console; the client; the server; and Application Packager.
Let us click "Next".
Now, not surprisingly, NetSupport DNA needs a database for it to store
all of its information.
As this is a Windows XP system, it is prompting us - or giving us the option at least -
to install the freely distributable Microsoft
Database Engine for SQL.
If you are on a later OS - so Windows Vista or later for desktops or Windows
2008 Server or later -
you will need to have either your own SQL server
or download the freely available SQL Server Express
for you to host your database files on.
For this install, we are just going to accept the default and let NetSupport DNA install
a database engine for us.
So we click "Next".
And, as you can imagine, it is now going to go through
and calculate the disk requirements
and install that process.
We will take a couple of shortcuts so that you are not left watching the progress bar for
each and every section.
OK, it took about two to three minutes for the
SQL free MSD version to be installed for us
and it is now prompting us to specify a username and password
as the main administrator for our DNA console.
We are going to enter a quick password in here -
"Admin" -
and we have our password set.
Now we are going to specify whether we are running an evaluation copy
or whether we are going to apply a licence key which we have purchased.
If we have purchased our licence key, we can select this option and we can browse for
the licence file.
Do not worry if you do not have one at this point: we can do it as an evaluation
and then at the end of the process we will show you how you can apply your
licence key down the line.
Let us click "Next".
At this point it is asking us to configure our DNA server to support
connections from remote networks.
This is the point where, had we chosen to install our DNA server gateway,
we would be specifying the IP address of that gateway machine.
At this point,
the system now has enough information for it to proceed
and actually complete the installation of all of the DNA components
we have selected. So we can click on "Install"
and off we go!
And again we will take a shortcut here so you do not have to watch the progress bar.
OK. And about three or four minutes later, after installing the components,
we finish with our
installation wizard confirming the installation has been completed
and our NetSupport DNA console is now installed.
You will notice at the bottom corner here, we have a NetSupport DNA client that is
also running
and our system is now operational and inventory data is being collected.
So let us finish
our installation wizard
and we can have a look what has been
installed and is available for us.
OK. So let us run our DNA console that we have just installed.
We will enter our password that we specified during the installation.
We say "OK"
and it will take us into our DNA console.
Perhaps not surprisingly
we have one computer that has been discovered - this PC that we happen to have
installed the DNA client on. We have a summary at the top here showing that we
have had one connection today
and there have been 21 hardware changes.
That reflects new hardware information that has been gathered from that target computer -
as well as 35 items of software that have been detected as changed.
So I now have a working NetSupport DNA environment;
I have my server and database running;
I have a client collecting data; and I have my console so I can view information.
In order for me to take it to the next level, what I now need to be able to do is
actually deploy the technology out to all the other computers
on the network.
So I can head to my tools and you will see I have a discovery and deploy utility.
Selecting the discovery and deploy utility allows me to specify
either an IP address range
or to utilise Windows networking
and allow me to
resolve and discover computers on the network
and push out
my configuration file to them.
OK. So I have added an address range here from 10.0.1.201
to 10.0.1.208.
You will see it has discovered a number of computers on the network.
It has actually discovered one - AJK4 -
that already has NetSupport DNA installed - and it confirms it is running
version 3.1.
So if I want to deploy my software to other machines.
I can simply select those computers
and you will see under here, when I select "Deploy" it will push out my client
automatically to those computers in a matter of seconds.
I can select all machines; machines that already have our software enabled;
or machines that are currently not reporting back information to me -
and I can push the software through.
It is nice and simple. And, automatically, NetSupport DNA will start gathering data
from all of those computers.
To take it to the next level in terms of configuration options and utilising
all of the features of NetSupport DNA,
we would encourage you to now take a look at the NetSupport DNA product tour
which provides you with a detailed overview of all of the features, functions
and configuration options available in the product.