Overview

Teaching: 30 min
Exercises: 0 min

Questions

• How do I add assets

• How do I check in or out?

• How do I fix my mistakes?

Objectives

SnipeIT Inventory System

In 2017, OTN deployed the SnipeIT Inventory system to track equipment shipments to partners and internally. This is an open-source tool with an underlying database, which OTNDC can access for internal metrics. To ensure its success, there are a couple of additional features we should add to our regular repertoire.

General Tasks

OTN Field technicians utilise SnipeIT on a regular basis, mainly doing the following activities:

Checking gear in/out

When a shipment is sent to/returned from a partner, or deployed/recovered by OTN Field Ops, its important to update the project the equipment (asset) is associated with.

Checking out equipment:

• Use the left-hand menu, under Assets there is an option for Bulk Checkout
• Ensure you know the project code (User) or create a new user for that project - see section below.
• Search for the assets you wish to checkout to that user. Only assets who’s Status is deployable will appear
• Press “checkout” when completed and review your work on the Dashboard!

If you don’t know the correct collectioncode for a project please reach out to OTNDC staff to clarify.

Checking in equipment:

• Use the left-hand menu, under Assets there is an option to List All
• Here you can use the search bar in the top and type in the asset’s serial number
• Once you find the asset, click on the Asset Tag to see the asset page
• Choose the Actions button in the top-right
• Choose Checkin Asset
• Select an appropriate Status for the asset (in house, RMA, deployable, ready to deploy etc).
• Press “checkin” when ready, and review your work on the Dashboard!

Changing status of equipment

Sometimes, you need to change the status of equipment in order to checkout the asset. The status will also need to be changed for units which are lost or being shipped for RMA.

• Use the left-hand menu, under Assets there is an option to List All
• Here you can use the search bar in the top and type in the asset’s serial number
• Once you find the asset, click on the Asset Tag to see the asset page
• Choose the Actions button in the top-right
• Choose Edit Asset
• Select an appropriate Status for the asset (in house, RMA, deployed, ready to deploy, etc).
• Press “save” when ready, and review your work on the Dashboard!

Batch Import

When a new order of equipment has been received, its important to import the assets to the inventory as quickly as possible, so they can be shipped and deployed without issue.

Import Template

In order to use the batch import function, a .csv file needs to be created, following this standard template - Snipe Asset Import Template

The mandatory columns and their formats are:

• serial number: numeric and unique, like 250688
• category: one of Acoustic Release, Acoustic Receiver Deckbox, Transducer, Acoustic Transceiver, or Deckbox/Hydrophone
• manufacturer: one of Vemco, Edgetech, Benthos, Seabird, Star Oddi, Subsea Sonics etc. You can see a list of manufactuers here
• model name: short name for model, like VR4, VR2AR, PORT-MFE etc.
• full model: model from the vendor specifications, like VR4-UWM-100-BAT-LI
• asset tag: vendor (shortened if needed) + model name + serial number, like VEMCO-ASCENT-1234356, or EDGET-PORT-MFE-34429.
• mftr no: vendor sales order, like 34561
• purchase date: in format YYYY-MM-DD
• purchased for: project code. can be blank
• status: Ready to Deploy, Deployed, In House, RMA etc. You can see a list of status labels here
• checked out to: project code - based on the list of Users in Snipe. can be blank if the asset is not yet assigned to a project.
• date shipped: in format YYYY-MM-DD. can be blank
• expected return: in format YYYY-MM-DD. can be blank
• notes: freeform text. Please include transmitter ID (ex: A69-9001-12345) here, when relevant (for VR2ARs, VR2TXs, HR2s etc)
• purchase cost: numeric price per unit, like 123.00
• order number: Dalhousie PO number, like P09134476

You may edit the file in Excel, but please save as a .csv when you are finished. This will eliminate all special characters and formatting. If you have any issues, please reach out to OTNDC staff.

Batch Import Steps

• Use the left-hand menu there is an option to Import
• Choose select import file and browse for the file on your computer
• Once you have selected the import file you will be taken back to the main Import dashboard
• Now, you must find your file in the list on the Dashboard (should be at the top!) and press Process
• Ensure that you map all the column names to their correct SnipeIT database field (some may be auto-mapped).
• Once the processing has been successful, review your work on the Dashboard!

If you have any issues, please reach out to OTNDC staff.

Creating New Users

When there is a new project receiving OTN equipment, this project will need a User in SnipeIT.

Creating a new user:

• Use the left-hand menu, choose People
• There are two options to create a User:
  1. Clone an existing User by clicking on its name and choosing Clone User from the right-hand menu
  2. Create a new user by clicking Create New on the current user dashboard page
• Either way, to create a User you need to fill out the following mandatory fields:
  • Firstname = project collectioncode
  • Username = project collectioncode
  • Email = if required, put otndc@dal.ca here
  • Password = anything random! no one will need to login
  • Confirm Password = match above! no one will need to login
  • Unselect the “Login enabled” button - no one will need to login
  • OPTIONAL: add some notes
• Press Save and you can now checkout equipment to this project!

If you have any issues, please reach out to OTNDC staff.

Fixing Errors in SnipeIT

The SnipeIT underlying database is backed up periodically by Dal IT staff, so the history is possible to recover if you make an error. However, its possible that the problem is easily fixable, depending on what happened! If you’re unsure, please reach out to OTNDC staff. Currently, Brian Jones is the staff member responsible for Snipe.

Key Points

• Inventory is important to keep up to date