Installation

After downloading the script, first type the command

chmod 755 <script_name>

to make it executable. Then, you can call the script. One prerequisite for the installation routine is a previously installed functional LAMP environment. The script copies the files to the appropriate directories, sets attributes and parameters (if necessary), and launches the daemon. The routine prompts you to approve the individual work steps in a user dialog in each case.

After a few minutes, the system is ready for use, and you can call the web interface in your browser by entering the URL http://localhost:8042. After logging in with username admin and password password, you reach an overview page showing the Open-AudIT variants. The user has the option of enabling the Community variant or the Enterprise version with a capacity of up to 20 nodes. It is immediately enabled after you enter some additional information, such as your name and email address (Figure 5).

Figure 5: After calling the Open-AudIT dashboard, you will find an overview of all available versions of the program.

Inventory

The software then goes to the main screen. Open-AudIT checks the server configuration during the call and immediately shows you any problems in the bottom left section of the window, if the check revealed any. In many cases, it will warn you that Nmap is missing; it needs Nmap to detect the network infrastructure. After installing Nmap and reloading the page, you can start acquiring data.

Open-AudIT supports both manual and automatic detection of existing components. To start the automatic scan, first click Views | Discover a Subnet in the menubar – which is horizontal with a black background – at the top of the program window. The software now prompts you for the of the subnet to be scanned in a clearly arranged dialog and then branches to the Log Viewer. In the Log Viewer, you can track the progress of the scan (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Open-AudIT informs you of the nodes it has found in an intuitive list.

Acceleration

Depending on the size of the subnet, this initial scan can take some time to complete, but because the configuration mask also lets you input an IP address range, you can accelerate data acquisition, in particular on smaller networks, by specifying the first and last IP addresses to be scanned.

To enter components manually, go to the System | Devices | Add a Device (manually) menu. Then add the data in an input mask. Devices added in this way are also included in the software's reports and are incorporated into the graphs on the dashboard, as well.