samccroskey asked a question.
Besides marking an asset that has been disposed as Ignored in All inventory. Is the best practice to delete the device from All Inventory as we have the history of the device in All Assets? (this is for Desktop, Laptop, IPad/Tablets)
We are looking at cleaning up our All Inventory, and we are wondering if for devices that we know have been disposed and will never come back into the environment, should we delete them from All Inventory as we already have the history of the device in All Assets.
@samccroskey​
I think that some organizations' practice is to clean up inventory by deleting inventory after a pre-configured period of time, e.g. using Flexera One ITAM's built-on capabilities:
I would personally prefer to clean the older inventory that is considered redundant (noise) unless there's a business reason for keeping it... However, I would appreciate others to chime in with their experience and recommendations.
Thanks,
John Sorensen
John,
Thanks for the above information. I do have a couple of follow up questions though.
In our environment we have a tendency to change the device name based on its location. So, a device with the SN12345 for example could be reporting in under name vwnash, then report under name vwwash. If we were to set this up to the 60days I would expect to see both names listed but after the 60days only the name that has not been used in 60days will go away?
Another way to put this is we get a new device and call it Test for SN45678, if is ok and works we put it in storage for 90days. We then send it out under its new name and once the new user gets it and turns it on, we will see it going forward?
@samccroskey​
I would personally prefer to process wise ensure that the original device (vwnash) either is deleted, or at least gets updated status wise so that your licenses consumed by this device get released when the new device (vwwash) inventory is imported. Otherwise, your organization would be over-consuming some licenses during this 60 days period.
And for the device in storage use case, I would also make sure that it's cleansed/wiped before it's placed there and as such avoid it potentially consuming any licenses while being placed there for 90 days or more.
Anyway, back to your questions, yes, the automation would delete the old devices that no longer are updated inventory wise.
Thanks,
John Sorensen