Unofficial Spiceworks

So as most people know the first Spiceworks 5.0 beta was released on Wednesday and seems to have already been a hit with SpiceHeads around the world. Not all the features planned for the final version have been released in this beta they will be slowly added in as the program moves along.

The SpiceLords have however pulled out another stunning version of Spiceworks and in this beta build (5.0.53561) we see:

• Multi-site Helpdesk – Using remote collectors you can now setup multiple helpdesks all feeding back to the one place. This is designed to help MSP’s get more out of Spiceworks and the helpdesk, allowing them to manage multiple clients from one location, securely. Each helpdesk portal and email notification can be tailored to each site and in the future each site will also be able to integrate into separate active directory domain.

• Purchasing – To help you manage all your IT purchases in one place 5.0 brings a new purchasing area to help you manage and track IT purchases against tickets. Adding this into Spiceworks will allow you to quickly charge out the right price for the right item to the right department as well as giving MSP’s a way of tracking sales. From the purchasing screen you can also click directly though to CDW or do a community search for the product you are looking for.

• LDAP Authentication via SSL – Keeping account information safe and private is often a key priority for SpiceHeads around the world, so to help IT pro’s use feel safer using Spiceworks you can now use SSL for LDAP Authentication.

• Hyper-V support – In Spiceworks 4.6 we saw the release of VMware virtualization server support to allow you to scan and display the virtual machine information, in 5.0 this is taken to a whole new level brining in Hyper-V support. Towards the end of the beta program we will also have the functionality to start and stop virtual machine remotely, this is all part of Spiceworks’ plan of being able to manage everything cloud.

• NAS support – By inspecting the web interface of some Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices, well Buffalo and Netgear devices for the moment. Spiceworks is able to gather information about the device like: Disk Space, Raid Health / Status and show the changes over time.

• Backup/Configuration of network devices – With the built in TFTP server you can now configure and backup your network devices as well as compare configuration versions and watch for changes. This is all designed to help you track and troubleshoot network issues. Checkout the 5.0 “A Network Config Conquest” to see how it might help you.

• SNMPv2c and SNMPv3 support – To give you a bigger and better overview of your network you can now scan devices using SNMPv2c and SNMPv3, this will also help build a better network map.

Hows the beta going?

So fair the beta seems to be going well, yes ok if you checkout the Spiceworks 5.0 Features, News & Beta Testing Group you will see some bugs reported but after all its a first beta so you can’t be too picky, some of the issues logged are where people are also learning about the new features rather than having problems with them.

The support team are doing a great job ensuring any bugs reported are looked at quickly and either flagged as a bug or the user guided into how it should work.

On a quick glance at some of the posted in the group there appears to be people from around 9/10 countries testing the beta from new Anaheim’s up to Pure Capsaicin (me) it is a great testament to how much people love Spiceworks to see so many users wanted to test out the latest version and give their feedback.

Whats next?

In either the next beta or if not one soon we will start to see the people browser to allow you to manage your users.

You will get to know the person behind the machine… to help you track if a problem is just user error or if its a problem with the machine! People View lets you track all of your information by user, plus perform key support tasks!

• See all of a user’s devices (including the manual ones who have a habit of disappearing)
• View which ticket volumes by department (or user!)
• Access all of the info you already have on your users (via Active Directory) as well as do things like unlock accounts and reset passwords.

Links

• 5.0 Beta I Build Now Available (5.0.53561)
• 5.0 Testing Guidelines
• 5.0 Test Plan
• SpiceworksLounge.com Review of Spiceworks 5.0 – worth reading, there is a translator on the right hand side of the page if you need it