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Getting Started
Guides
Getting Started
Getting Started
When your Snipe-IT installation is first set up, it can be a little overwhelming to figure out where to
get started.
The first place to start is usually your Admin Settings. We go through each of the specific admin
options one by one in the Admin Settings section (and sub-sections) of this documentation, but
that's where you can set your branding (logo, etc), alert preferences, LDAP configuration, two-
factor authentication and so on.
Once you've gotten your settings all sorted, you'll want to think through exactly how your workflow
currently functions, and what that should look like in Snipe-IT.
A common setup will have Assets being checked out to People, however you can also check out
Assets to Locations and other Assets. (That last one can get a little confusing, so we generally don't
recommend it outside of very specific and already-established workflows.)
If you've already been using something (even spreadsheets) to keep track of your asset data, you
probably already have a workflow of sorts, even if it's something very straightforward (and perhaps
not even officially formalized), such as:
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New employee is hired
Asset(s) are assigned to them
System is updated to reflect who the Asset is checked out to
Employee leaves, turns in Assets during final interviews
Asset is marked as "Pending Imaging" and added to the queue to be backed up/wiped
Asset imaging is completed, Asset is put back into circulation to be checked out to someone
else
Some organizations will have different workflows, and Snipe-IT tries to be flexible enough to
accommodate those as well. Additionally, how People and Assets get added into Snipe-IT may
differ depending on your workflow. For example, for some organizations, this process is all manual
(by choice). For others, they may use LDAP sync or rely heavily on importing assets to keep
everything up to date. Even still others use the Snipe-IT API to automate some of these things to
work with the other tools in their Asset Management toolchain.
New to Asset Management?
To figure out what workflow will be best for you, you'll need to examine what tools, IT support staff
and other resources you have available to you - and don't panic. Even a straightforward, manual-
only Asset Management program is better than spreadsheets, and your system will evolve over
time as you tailor your workflow to your own organization and resources. Snipe-IT can grow with
you as you refine your process.
Adding Assets from CSV
How to best start adding assets depends on what information you have to start with. If you have an
existing CSV (Google Doc, etc) with asset data in it, your first stop will be importing your assets
through the Import tool. See the Importing Assets and More documentation for details and sample
CSVs.
Adding Assets Manually
If you don't have any existing asset data and you're just getting started on developing your asset
management program, you'll likely want to start by creating Categories and then Asset Models.
Think of categories as high-level descriptions of your assets, for example "Laptops", "Desktops",
"Servers", etc. You'll want to adapt this for the types of assets you have, but Categories are
important because you'll determine whether or not assets require your users to accept delivery
and/or EULAs of the assets, and whether they should get email notifications on asset
checkout/checkin.
You can learn more about how categories work in the Categories documentation.
Adding Assets via the API
Snipe-IT comes with a powerful API that lets you add/update assets, users and more. If you have
multiple systems that are already scripted, using the API might be your best bet. You'll find
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comprehensive instructions on using the API here .
Note: Adding assets via the API is recommended for developers or folks familiar with scripted
languages only.
Hooking up LDAP
You'll find the LDAP settings in Admin Settings > LDAP . It can be a little tricky to get LDAP working
to start with, and it's difficult for us to document that, since everybody's LDAP/Active Directory is
set up differently, but the LDAP Sync & Login documentation has examples of the most common
settings within LDAP and Active Directory.
Making Assets Available to Only Certain People
If you'd like to limit the assets that your users can see within your Snipe-IT setup, you'll want to
enable Full Multiple Company Support and use different "companies" to segment those users and
assets. (Companies within Snipe-IT don't have to be actual companies - some users prefer to treat
them more as roles or departments.) You can learn more about Full Multiple Company Support
here.
Importing Custom Fields
Custom fields allow you to include arbitrary data with your assets that doesn't come out of the box
in Snipe-IT. Learn more about how to set up your Custom Fields here, and then how to import
those custom fields here.
Permissions
Snipe-IT comes with a sophisticated permissions system that allows you to control what actions
your users can and cannot do.
A common setup for many organizations is to have a small handful of Superadmin or Admin users
who do the checking in and checking out for the organization, and all of the other users are
created without any special permissions. Users who are created without any management
permissions will only be able to see items checked out to them, or items they have requested.
Learn more about permissions here.
Labels
The way labels work with Snipe-IT, they get generated with a QR code and/or a UPC-style barcode.
The QR code allows you to easily scan the code to open the link to that asset on your mobile
device, while the UPC-style barcode is designed to be used in the top search in your Snipe-IT UI.
While you can use your own pre-existing labels for your assets in Snipe-IT, you won't get that built-
in QR code/top search functionality with them. If you don't need that functionality and already
have labels printed out for your assets that include the asset tag, etc, feel free to use your own.
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You can learn more about labels and barcodes here.
Failing Imports
When you first get started importing with Snipe-IT ands you try importing assets, if your import
fails, there's usually something funky in your data - missing fields, BOMs included in the CSV, or
weird characters that got included in your export. Check out our Importer Issues documentation for
help debugging those.
Updated over 5 years ago
Overview Admin Settings
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