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

Yesterday Spiceworks announced the release of Spiceworks 5.0 beta 1.

Checkout the Spiceworks 5.0 group for more information.

Unofficial Spiceworks will be doing a full review of the beta(s) soon

5.0 delivers the next frontier of "everything IT" with features to help you manage your network, people & purchasing: Config Management. Newly Tuned Network Map. Microsoft Hyper-V Support. People View. Purchase & Cost Tracking. ….& more, letting you navigate your wild-frontier of a workday like the IT maverick you are!

Spiceworks 5.0 is set to be their biggest release yet with some huge new features for managing your network, the people and purchasing.

The major thing for a lot of people will be the speed, Spiceworks believe the start-up will be around 40% quicker and after that the pages will load 30% quicker. This is a major boost to help allow you to navigate it quicker and more effectively.

Managing Your Network

Backup and restore network device configurations

Spiceworks 5.0 brings some great new network device configuration features that are designed to make it a lot easier for you to ensure all your network devices like switches, routers and hubs (who uses hubs these days?) are configured correctly and that if you make a silly mistake you can quickly restore it to a working version, keeping your network up for longer. With Spiceworks 5.0 you will be able to:

• Quickly and automatically back-up network device configurations
• Receive alerts on device configurations changes
• See how a rule change can and will impact your network
• Compare the current configuration to backed-up versions to find issues
• Push configuration changes to devices or restore configurations to a previous version

More devices and details in the network map

The developers have also been hard at work on the network map in 5.0 aiming to delivery you a more complete picture of your network and its overall health.

• More devices like Network Application Storage (NAS) thanks to the SNMP v3 support helping you get rid of more unknowns!
• Get more bandwidth information with better detection of end-point devices like desktops and laptops.

Discover and manage virtualized machines

Spiceworks already has the ability to discover VMware virtualization servers but 5.0 will add support for Hyper-V hosts.

• See all the virtual machine data on MS (& VMware) virtual servers as well as details like allocated RAM and hard disk space.
• Start and stop your VMs when the need arises – allowing for more sophisticated virtualization management.
• See and report changes over time for a VMs state and configuration
• See all your VMs across all your hosts

Manage Your People

See the people and the devices in a whole new way

5.0 will include a people view in which will allow you to track all all your user information plus perform key tasks like locking accounts.

• 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.

User Permissions

Spiceworks 5.0 will bring user roles into Spiceworks allowing you to manage who can access what withing Spiceworks better. Some of the new roles will be ‘help desk admins,’ inventory admins’ or ‘portal admins.’

Management dashboard of helpdesk activity

Get a new insight into your team’s workload, progress and clients helping you get the big picture on how productive your team really is.

• See who is working on what client & how long tickets are taking them
• View total number of open tickets
• See ticket trending to identify any abnormal spikes or dips in ticket volume

More MSP features!

You will now be able to run separate, custom portals for each of your clients and still manage them all in one location, allowing you to quickly deploy a single helpdesk system to everyone and manage it all in one place.

• Manage multiple, custom user portals – all of which are integrated to your single, central Spiceworks installation
• Manage all of your clients’ tickets from a single location – and see them all in the same interface!.
• Allow local authentication for your users

Manage Your Purchasing

Streamline and control your purchasing

After researching the right solution (hopefully in Spiceworks!) and placing your order, keeping track of purchases as well as how much you’ve spent on products (or even departments or users) can be a royal pain in the you know what! 5.0 makes purchasing smoother for you by letting you track the process and costs.

• Use a pre-built workflow – “approve-purchase-receive” – to track your purchase process from request thru delivery
• Quickly see which orders have been placed – but not yet delivered
• Access the shipping status of your purchases in one-click
• Track and report on the time and equipment costs associated with your tickets
• See how much you spend by department, device or vendor – including the breakdown of hardware vs. time-and-labor

Manage Your Equipment & Labor Costs (Especially for MSPs!)

Want a quick and easy way to manage your costs – straight from within Spiceworks? 5.0 delivers!

• Track , view and report on equipment and labor costs of your tickets – including things like price/hour, total time spent, cost of equipment and cost/ticket.
• Track, view and report on your clients including things like total cost broken down by time, equipment, departments, or even individual users

Checkout the Spiceworks Feature and News group for more information

• Spiceworks 4.7 Release Notes

• Spiceworks now supports Exchange 2007/2010

• See whether your Dell devices are still under warranty

• New: Rackspace Email Hosting Integration in Spiceworks

Download and Install Spiceworks 4.7.50667 Now

md5sum = 782faf3d594159576583b6dd73476913

And yes your eyes are right, that is a screenshot of the Performance monitor. I’m trying to hunt down some more information on it at the moment.

• Helpdesk Notifications – One thing people have wanted is to be notified when a ticket is assigned, so from 4.6 you will have the option to set a notification for notifies all admins when a ticket is assigned, so that they know a new ticket has been assigned.
• Helpdesk UI – The helpdesk UI will now allow you to resize the helpdesk view to show more tickets, and customize the view a bit more including we believe showing different fields on the main page.
• Notification Toolbar – The toolbar along the bottom will now show more information, such as your community inbox status and updates
• Network Map discovery – Spiceworks have been hard at work increasing the range of SNMP device discovery
• Loads of bug fixes – With every release Spiceworks will fix loads of bugs and 4.6 is no different.

As we hear more we will let you know.

• Network Map: disconnecting a node, then clicking undo causes it to turn orange – fixed
• Network Map: Unable to save a view after adding devices – fixed
• Network Map: possible to make the delete popup relative to the mouse – fixed
• Remote Collector: Network scans will not run if the Remote Collector link is clicked and the setup is not completed – fixed
• User Portal: "ticket is too old to be reopened" typo – fixed
• User Portal: Allows view ticket block to be removed, which renders the page useless – fixed
• Looking at a device in browse view, then switching to software view and selecting a package does not update the display – fixed
• Using Date strings in relative format (e.g. 7 days from now) then clicking calendar button causes date errors – fixed

This does still mean we are awaiting 4.6 which has some new features ear wigged but we don’t know what yet.

Download 4.5.46618 now

. 

Happy Birthday Arno (ObieOne)

Now on with the story. For his birthday ObieOne has released version 2.3 of the much loved and used Spiceworks MobileHelpdesk.

The mobile helpdesk allows you to view, edit and update tickets on nearly every mobile device from iPhone, Windows Mobile or BlackBerry. There have also been reports of it working on some nokia’s.

MobileHelpdesk uses Tickets Anywhere to allow you to remotely update your tickets as if you were at your desk, allowing you to quickly resolve problems on the go. Its simple to install and setup using .NET, IIS and a SQLite connector. Its easy to setup, and once ready you just surf to the website you setup, login and away you go.

So far ObieOne is very pleased with all the feedback he’s getting and he sure hope people will enjoy it.

Read on for the new features and bug fixes or download it now

Screenshots

New and fixed in version 2.3:

• Fixed several issue’s with the data adapters after the Spiceworks 4.5 upgrade. (un-assigned tickets page works again).

• Open tickets page now also view un-assigned tickets.

• Changed some typo’s in the web.config notes sections.

• Changed some typo’s and instructions, so the installation procedure is more clear.

• Issue fixed with User Details and Change Password screen crashing.

• Home page now shows actual un-assigned open tickets.

• Add comment now sends to the right #ticketID again.

• Edit ticket statics now sends to the correct #TicketID again.

All these fixes are implemented and tested with special thanks to Ben, Barb E, Mark J Gosling, Mike384 and Miiiki.

If you haven’t tried it, then go ahead and do.

Download the MobileHelpdesk from the community.

• x64 bit installs will now pickup software better
• Its now able to find SQL Server x64 installs
• If “Stay logged in” is unchecked it will forgot you when closing browser
• Scan Error count now decreases if scan errors are fixed on a scan
• Network map
• Users are no longer able to add the same device more than once to a single node
• When deleting a connection between nodes, a large black spot no longer super imposes itself on the map
• Users are now able to add sets of devices; if a node is disconnected and then reconnected, the line no longer stays orange
• Changing a node to be the root node no longer removes the connection
• ISA server no longer creates a node that prevents the network map from rendering
• Remote Collector – Restarting or connecting to the remote collector installation no longer goes to the dashboard

Just to show how Spiceworks are always working to improve the product.

Download and Install Spiceworks 4.5.45710 Now

To update from a previous version just install over the top.

They did add a monitor SQL server page though…

So what are you hanging about for?