The System Information feature provides a wealth of OS and hardware information on a remote machine. It is also a portal to many powerful remote administration tasks such as modifying network settings, or joining a domain. To open the System Information window of a computer, select the computer object in either the Users view or the Machines view, expand it and double click on System Information.
The System Overview is the first window displayed once you open the System Information feature.
It displays an overview of the Operating System and computer hardware. Its contents are divided into multiple categories.
The top section of the Overview window displays extended Operating System information, computer make, model and serial number, BIOS information, and status information.
A Goverlan Agents area is available where Goverlan Agents information and controls are displayed. Use this area to manage the Goverlan Agents on the target machine.
To export all information contained in the Overview Window, click on the Export Information link.
This section displays a summary of common hardware devices on the target machine. It includes summary information about the CPU, Memory, Video Adapters and Local Drives.
To view detailed information about these hardware devices and other hardware devices, click on the Detail Information link. The Hardware Information window can be used to view motherboard, board devices, bus devices, memory slots, system slots, CPU, connectors, video and drive information.
To open the Device Manager feature for this machine, click on the Device Manager link.
An overview of the target computer's network settings including the account's password age (A computer account's password age is a useful piece of information) are displayed in this section.
For each workstation or server that is a member of a domain, there is a discrete communication channel with a domain controller known as the secure channel. The secure channel's password is stored along with the computer account on all domain controllers. The default computer account password change period is every 30 days.
If a computer has been decommissioned, that computer will not change its password and its password age will increase. To create a list of computer accounts which are no longer used, you can create a query for computers with an exceptionally old password age, such as 60 days, or query all computer accounts with an expired password.
To view and modify the computer's IP settings, to rename the computer's name, or to have the computer join or un-join a domain or workgroup, click on the Modify Network Settings link.
If the computer belongs to a domain, you can view and modify the computer's account settings by clicking on the view domain account properties link.
This section displays the logged-in user history recorded by Goverlan. It will show the last 5 user names who logged-into the computer. Note: In order for logged-in user history to be recorded, the Goverlan service must be installed and running on the audited machine.
Click on the View full event log to view the complete log.
The last 5 events of the Remote Control Session History log is also displayed in this section. The session history log contains audit information on the last remote control sessions initiated on the target machine.
Click on the View full event log to view the complete log.
Click on the Detail Information link of the Hardware Information section to open the Detailed Hardware Information window.
This windows displays a graph of available hardware information in sections. As you move your mouse cursor over the graphs, the available sections will be highlighted. Click on a section to view its hardware information.
Once a section has been selected, its hardware objects are displayed in the list on the left. Click on any of the items to view its properties on the right.
The available hardware sections are:
Video Information - Information about the video adapters, monitors and display settings of the focused machine.
Drive Information - Information about the local hard drives of the focused machine.
System Slots - Displays the detected expansion slots on the motherboard.
Connectors - Displays the detected connectors on the motherboard.
CPU - Displays detailed information about the installed CPU on the motherboard.
Memory - Displays the detected memory arrays, slots and installed memory on the motherboard.
Bus Devices - Displays the detected devices which are connected to the bus of the motherboard.
Click on the Modify Network Settings link of the Network Settings section to open the Network Settings window.
The Network Settings window displays the available network adapter connections configured on the client machine. From this window, you can disable/enable a network connection using the item's context sensitive menu.
You can rename a computer remotely using Goverlan. Doing so will require a reboot of the client machines.
Click on the Rename computer link.
Specify the new computer name and primary DNS Suffix.
Check the Reboot computer now if you wish to have the computer rebooted after the rename operation.
Warning: If you select not to reboot the computer, it may become unreachable after the renaming operation.
Click on OK.
You can also remotely change the domain or workgroup membership of a computer. This operation requires a reboot as well.
Click on the Join or Unjoin Domain link.
Select if you want to join a domain or workgroup.
Enter the name of the domain or workgroup.
For a domain, you can click on the browse button to select a destination active directory container. If no container is selected, the default container is used.
Check the Reboot computer now if you wish to have the computer rebooted after the join operation.
Warning: If you select not to reboot the computer, it may become unreachable after the renaming operation.
Click on OK.
You can view and manage the IP settings of a network connection by double clicking on it in the Network Connection list.
The network connection property window is very similar to the native Windows Network Connection Properties window. It includes:
An Adapter tab which displays the network adapter hardware information.
An IP Settings tab which can be used to view and manage the IP and DNS settings of this connection.
A WINS tab which can be used to view the WINS settings (if any).
A DHCP tab which can be used to view the DHCP Leasing information (if any).
The IP Settings tab can be used to change the IP and DNS settings of a network connection, even if it is currently being used by Goverlan to communicate with the target machine. If you change the IP settings of the connection currently used by Goverlan in order to connect to the remote machine, the machine will be temporarily unavailable. Goverlan will wait and attempt to re-establish connectivity at regular intervals.
Since changing IP settings remotely is a delicate operation, the following considerations apply:
Change all IP and DNS settings at once before applying the changes.
If you need to change the primary IP address of a machine, make sure that you have connected to it using the machine DNS / NetBIOS name and NOT its IP address.
If you have connected to the target machine via its IP address and subsequently change the IP address, Goverlan will not be able to reconnect to it.
Changing IP settings may involve DNS updates and synchronizations. After an IP setting change, the Goverlan Agents automatically force a DNS update for the machine. Additionally, Goverlan automatically clears the local DNS resolution cache in order to detect the most recent DNS resolution. However, in large environments, it might still take a while before the machine is reachable again via its DNS name.
Troubleshooting IP Settings Changes
If Goverlan waits to reconnect for an unreasonable time, you can press on the Escape key to abort it. What is failing at this stage is not that the IP settings weren't applied, but that Goverlan couldn't reconnect with the target machine.
If the IP address is known, ping the machine by its IP address
If the ping failed, it may be that the IP settings specified were incorrect and the machine is no longer reachable.
Ping the machine by its DNS name
Check that the IP DNS resolution is pointing to the correct IP address. If it still points to the old IP address, DNS synchronization and replication may not have happened yet, or, the remote machine failed to update the DNS with its new information. If the machine is pingable via its DNS name, simply refresh the object list in Goverlan and try to connect to the remote machine again.
If the computer belongs to a domain, the view domain account properties link is displayed in the Network Settings section. The computer account property window allows you to view and configure the account's information and group memberships.
If you need to view or modify an account property which is not displayed in the Goverlan property window, click on the Native Property Window button to open the MMC Users & Computer Snap-in account property window.