Dell KACE K1000

Author: Igor Balen

Dell KACE K1000 is a device management system suited for devices like servers, PCs and notebooks (Windows, OSX or Chrome OS platforms), smartphones, tablets, printers and other network devices. It’s available as a physical or a virtual machine.

Its primary task is to create an inventory database – for example, a list of computers and their contents, along with monitoring, creating and deploying scripts, a service center where end users can report problems, remote installation of applications and software to specific devices. It also monitors the duration of specific licenses for certain software, and location of the device. The system can manage up to 20,000 PCs and servers.

To get a list of specific devices on your network, you need to enter the IP address range that will scan your system and set up the so-called inventory. Before the start of the scan, you need to install an agent on the devices that we want to have in inventory, after which the agent communicates with the server and sends all information about hardware, software and applications with these devices. Agent is installed to the KACE K1000 interface, after which an installation is deployed on all the devices, or it can be installed manually on each computer.

To help manage the inventory which can get rather crowded, depending on the devices and size of the corporate network, there is the option of smart labels, where you can manually assign certain parameters. For example, if you want to find all devices that have a specific IP address range on the network, and you previously marked them all with smart labels, you’ll see a list of these devices. We can also sort the inventory by all devices that use a certain software (or anything else), for ease of reference. For each device that is found during the scan, the inventory will contain all information about hardware, software, licenses and other related information.

Certain devices on the network that are more important, such as various servers, we can mark them with the monitoring option, which in addition to classical monitoring also creates various records that can be viewed later. The above option is very useful and practical in solving potential problems, because the monitoring takes place in the background, which allows administrators a timely response.

The “Assets” option enables inventory tracking like printers, scanners, phones and similar devices, so they are separated from the “main” inventory, for easier and more user friendly display devices on the network.

KACE K1000 has the Service Desk option, which allows the end user to submit errors or tickets by e-mail or through a user console where you can sign in and send a bug report or anything of the sort. After that, the service team receives it via e-mail and the administrator console. Category and fields related to the ticket can be adjusted if necessary (status, priority), and the tickets can be organized according to different criteria.

Dell KACE K1000 has an integrated knowledge base called ITninja. Itninja.com is an independent forum for IT administrators, led by Dell. It provides a comprehensive system management knowledge database. K1000 service center is integrated with ITninja Forum which has relevant information, so that the end user can try to handle some problems first, without sending a ticket to the service team.

Creating and deploying scripts makes it possible to perform tasks on target devices over the network, using a custom script that is run in accordance with your wishes. The option allows you to perform automated tasks such as installing software, checking the status of antivirus software, changing settings, and the like.

KACE K1000 is accessed through its administrator web interface, where you can find all the options and features needed to administer devices on the network. The interface itself is very well designed and intuitive.

In any case, KACE K1000 is an excellent device with a variety of options for easier control and administration of devices that will  make the job of every network administrator much easier.