ACLS Sensor User guide

For ACLS Sensor v2.1

Authored by Dylan Zhang and Dongming Zheng

Contents

  • Overview
  • Scanned Data
  • Usage (via ACLS Sensor app)
  • Usage (via ACLS Tracker)
  • Viewing Results

ACLS Sensor is an application that gathers system information about your lab resource. The resulting report is automatically uploaded to ACLS. Examples of the gathered information include: operating system, CPU info, memory, disk usage, installed software.

ACLS Sensor can be downloaded as a standalone application that you can run on any computer.

Additionally, ACLS Sensor comes pre-installed with ACLS Tracker. The ACLS Tracker can be used to automatically run ACLS Sensor on regular intervals.

Scanned Data

Note: This documentation applies to ACLS Sensor version 2.0 onwards. If your copy of ACLS Sensor does not contain a version number, or contains a version number lower than 2.0, then this document will not be accurate.

After running ACLS Sensor on a computer, the sensor will acquire the following information:

Acquired Information Description
Device Name The name of the device, as given by Windows.
Windows Edition Info about the operating system, e.g., Is it Windows XP or Windows 11?
RAM The amount of installed RAM (system memory).
CPU Info about the installed CPU.
GPU A list of all installed graphics cards
Physical Disks Information about the storage, e.g., how many TB of storage is installed.
Logical Disks Information about available storage, e.g., how many TB of storage is available to use.
Users Information about the computer’s accounts, e.g., which accounts have admin permissions?
Software A list of all installed software.

Usage (via ACLS Sensor app)

Standard usage:

  1. Download the ACLS Sensor application from ACLS (available to all staff members in ACLS node).
    • Login to ACLS
    • Go to Staff tab -> Utility -> Resource Tracker & Sensor Manager -> Download Sensor
  2. Unzip the downloaded zipped file, and copy the ACLSSensor folder to the C drive.
  3. Run ACLSSensor.exe to start the application.
  4. Enter your ACLS login name and press sign in.
  5. Enter the one-time login code that was sent to your email and continue.
  6. Provide the name of the lab resource associated with this computer.
    • If you are a staff member, you can pick from a list of resources registered with ACLS. If the resource isn’t registered, you may provide a name instead.
    • If you are not a staff member, you must provide the name of the resource.
  7. Press start scan. This will run the scan and upload the report results to ACLS.
    • The application will tell you if the scan is successful or not.
    • If it is not successful, it will give the option to reattempt the upload.
    • The application will also save a local copy of the results into the Documents folder.
    • You can also review the results of the scan directly from the application.

Offline usage:

If the resource computer is under restricted network access, you can follow these instructions to run the tracker in offline mode. In offline mode, you will be able to run the scan without signing in, but you will have to manually upload the scan results to ACLS.

  1. Download the ACLS Sensor application from ACLS.
  2. Press “Use in offline mode” and read the notice.
  3. Provide the name of the lab resource associated with this computer.
    • You must provide the name of the resource. If the resource is already registered in ACLS, give the same name here.
  4. Press start scan. This will run the scan and save the results into the Documents folder. The result is not uploaded to ACLS.
  5. Press “Open Output Folder” to open the folder which contains the results.
  6. Copy the latest scan result to a computer with internet access (e.g., via USB or via network drive).
  7. Log into ACLS and navigate to Staff > Utilities > Resource Tracker & Sensor Management > Sensor Scan Result Upload.
  8. Upload the result file.

Usage (via ACLS Tracker)

Applicable to ACLS Tracker v0.10 onwards. ACLS Tracker comes with ACLS Sensor built-in. If ACLS Tracker is installed on a resource computer, you can enable or disable ACLS Sensor scans via the ACLS web portal.

To enable ACLS Sensor functionality via ACLS Tracker:

  1. Go to the ACLS web portal and navigate to Staff > Utilities > Resource Tracker & Sensor Management > Installed Resource Tracker Status > [Your resource name]’s Edit Tracker Status Button.
  2. On this page, tick “Enable sensor app execution with tracker” and press Accept.
    • After the functionality is enabled from the website, you will have to restart the computer that the tracker is running on.
    • This will enable daily sensor scan and uploads from the resource computer. The results are automatically uploaded to ACLS Sensor once a day around midnight.

Viewing Results

Scan results are available on the ACLS web portal.

Navigate to Staff > Utilities > Resource Tracker & Sensor Management > Installed Resource Tracker Status > Resource Sensor Scan Report.

This table displays the most recent scan result for each resource. This report includes all scanned fields as described earlier.

If you would like to see the scan history of a particular resource, click on “View Scan History.” Additionally, clicking “Resource Windows Chart” will display a percentage breakdown of the various Windows systems installed across the faculty. The “Resource Details” will display the relevant devices for that operating system.