So, today we're going to be playing with a inventory system called GLPI, and a plugin called FusionInventory. It's an inventory and case management / support ticket system.
Note, I won't be going over all the details here, because it's quite a large system, it's only the basics to get it up and running on a Debian server, and installing the Windows client, to inventory Windows machines.
For this you would need a Debian webserver with MySQL, PHP and Apache installed, and some php-extensions for getting GLPI up and running.
So, why GLPI and FusionInventory ?. I mention it here because it's a nice system for tracking inventory, especially in an environment where machines join and leave the network all the time, or for tracking something like laptops. Yes, I do know you can do this with Active Directory, but this is meant for someone who needs / wants asset tracking and deployment, without MS AD. Small organizations , advanced private users, and everything in between. If you can afford MS AD, this is likely not for you ;)
Let's get to it. if you got Apache installed, and MySQL set up, let's move on to the extensions you need.
apt install libapache2-mod-php php-mbstring php-apcu php-xmlrpc php-zip php-bz2
#restart apache
systemctl stop apache2
systemctl start apache2
Now, go download glpi and the fusioninventory plugin and agent from here
https://glpi-project.org/downloads/
http://fusioninventory.org/documentation/installation/
First unpack the glpi package into /var/www/html, and chown all the files to www-data, and unpack the fusioninventory plugin into the plugins directory in /var/www/html/plugins.
Don't install it, do that from within the GLPI control panel. Now, go to the webserver page, and you should get a setup installer for GLPI, simply walk through it, and it should set everything up, and present you with a login prompt.
Log in with glpi and glpi.
Now, go to plugins, and you should see fusioninventoy there, click install, and remember to turn it on when it's done. Log out, and log in again, to reload the menus.
On a windows machine, download the client, and run the installer. You only have to accept the default values, except for the server, point it to your own installed server using something like this url. http://yourserver/plugins/fusioninventory/, and finish the installation. If you choose to run an inventory right after installation, the machine should check in, and you can now find it under Administration --> FusionInventory --> Agents, or under Assets --> Computers, and see a detailed description about the machine, operating system, disk space and so on.
Now, you can make groups, users, and start to organize everything neatly. If you ticked the checkbox, you also get an option to deploy software from GLPI & FusionInventory, That you can read about here http://fusioninventory.org/documentation/tasks/deploy/