Workspace

Introducing the main window

Main program window
    1. The Network tree
    2. The Main area
    3. The Sidebar

    The right side of the Main menu contains:

    • The menu containing buttons that start the deployment and network monitoring programs.
    • The menu containing buttons that start the deployment and network monitoring programs;
    • The Feedback  menu;
    • The Options  button;
    • The Help menu, which contains tools that allow you to check for updates, register your copy of TNI and upgrade your license.

    The Network tree and the Sidebar can be temporarily hidden in order to maximize the main area. This can be done by clicking the small Hide/Show network tree  and Hide/Show sidebar  buttons located on both sides of the tab bar. The sidebar can be hidden only on the Software accounting and Licensing tabs.

    You can alter the widths of the Network tree and the Sidebar by dragging their edges.

    Application events

    In the bottom right corner of the program window, you will find the Application Events button Application Events. Application events allow you to view the notifications for major events in TNI. For example, when an asset is added or updated, when the scan is finished, when the AD synchronization is completed, or when software is automatically merged in Software accounting (provided that the corresponding checkboxes are ticked in Options Logs ).

TNI events

Using the context menu, application event information can be selected, copied, or cleared.

Pressing Clear will remove all notifications regardless of the selection.

Basic operations with the Network tree

The Network tree displays the contents of the currently opened Storage.

To select an asset to display in the main area, left-click its node.

In order to choose several assets at once, tick the Multiple selection checkbox on the toolbar above the Network tree. A checkbox will be displayed next to every node for you to select the necessary assets. To return to the normal selection mode, untick Multiple selection.

To create a new group, right-click the parent group or Storage root and select Create group. To move some assets into a new group, first select them using your mouse’s Rectangle selection or keyboard keys Shift and Ctrl and then drag them onto the group node. Alternatively, you can use the Move to group option from the context menu of a node.

Selecting nodes using the Rectangle selection, Shift and Ctrl is not the same as ticking nodes in the Multiple selection mode. The former is only used for operations with several nodes (e.g. moving and deleting) and does not influence the contents of the main area.

There’s a way to start working with normally selected assets in the main area. To do that, use the Choose option after right-clicking one of the selected assets. The assets will become selected with Multiple selection.

Groups in the Network tree replicate the structure of directories on the hard drive as described in the Storage section. Thus, operations such as creating, deleting, or renaming groups and moving assets between them can be performed in any file manager.

TNI view modes

There’s a separate view mode in TNI for each specific task. View modes can be switched by clicking on tabs above the main area. The Sidebar is automatically adjusted to always display an appropriate set of controls.

Pressing Ctrl + <tab number> provides quick access to the desired view.

Display setting

The option allows you to change the position of all modes of the program. Settings can be specified by specifying items in the Display modes or the Drop-down menu. The drop-down menu is located in the rightmost tab of the program by clicking on the corresponding buttonAdd menu ico.

Using the display control options , you can move the selected item up, down, or hide it. When you click on the icon , the element will be hidden from the list of modes, but you can return it by clicking on in the left panel.

Mode Description

Scanner

Before any of the information on remote assets becomes available for viewing and building reports, these assets have to be scanned. The Scanner view makes collecting asset information a breeze.

TNI can collect information from Windows, macOS, Linux and ESXi computers and VMs or scan any other devices via the SNMP protocol. See the Whitepaper section on how to ensure that all the conditions for successful scanning are met.

Read more: Network scanning.

Viewer & reports

This mode displays the first thing you'll want to see after you've scanned your network: common reports. These reports contain detailed information on hardware and software of each scanned asset sorted into convenient categories and available for instant search. It's possible to build descriptive and accurate reports, print them or export them to PDF, RTF, HTML, CSV, ODT.

Read more: Common reports.

Table reports

Here it's possible to create a table that contains only the necessary information. Rows can represent individual devices or any device components such as HDDs, monitors, RAM units, software items, etc. Columns represent the properties of the selected object. When the table has been built, it can be sorted, filtered, printed or exported for further analysis.

Read more: Table reports.

Software accounting

Here you're able to see the list of software found on Windows and Mac assets in the Storage. For each software item you can display the full list of computers that it's installed on. Software can be organized, searched and filtered in a multitude of ways.

Read more: Software accounting.

Licenses

(This mode is unavailable for owners of a Standard license)

This mode offers many tools for tracking and managing software licenses, storing license keys, and finding license complieance issues.

Read more: License asset management.

Change log

After scanning an asset several times over a period of time, you may want to know what has changed in terms of hardware or software installed on the asset, system parameters, disk space usage, connected peripherals, etc. In this mode, you'll find a precise list of all changes. Also at your disposal are: advanced search, filtering and reporting tools.

Read more: Change log.

Network map

(This mode is unavailable for owners of a Standard license)

Here you can create and manage your infrastructure layouts as maps. A map can be used to monitor the online status of devices added to it. You can embellish the map with shapes and images.

Read more: Network map.

Edit

This view mode allows changing properties of individual assets or the Storage itself, manage user records, their privileges, custom fields, etc.

Read more:

  • Scheduler: creation and management of schedule scanning, building reports, backups tasks, etc;
  • Users: viewing and editing information on network asset users.
  • Snapshots: viewing and deleting configuration snapshots;
  • Logins: managing logins and linking them to assets;
  • Network node properties: network identifiers, alias, description, etc;
  • Special fields: adding or changing unique information;
  • Barcodes: creation and management various barcodes for devices;
  • Default logins: creation and management of default logins for each of the protocols
  • Data transfer: creation and management of various data transfer methods for receiving and sending information;
  • Storage properties: storage name, company name and logo, inventory number generator;
  • TNI Users: adding and managing existing users of the program;
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