Release notes

Version: 5.8.0
Build number: 16210
Release date: 2024-11-29 (general availability)
Server version: nanitor-5.8.0.13022-16210-master
Agent version: nanitor-5.8.0.13022-16210-master
Collector version: nanitor-5.8.0.13022-16210-master

Welcome to Nanitor v5.8.0!

Nanitor v5.8.0 introduces powerful new features and improvements to streamline asset management, optimize issue tracking, and enhance overall system performance. Key updates include multi-organization support for saved filters, advanced EOL device filtering, and the ability to transfer agents between organizations via the UI. This release also resolves several critical bugs and improves overall stability and performance.

Highlights

Custom Field-Based Automated Asset Labeling Rules

Enhanced automation and flexibility for asset categorization
The automated labeling rules now support conditions based on custom fields, specifically for text fields using "contains" and "starts with."

Why it matters: This enhancement allows users to dynamically categorize assets based on whether a custom text field contains or starts with a specified string. While currently limited to these two conditions, additional types may be added in the future (depending on user feedback).

Example: Here we have created an automated labeling rule to label all devices with the Physical Location field including the text Iceland:

Custom asset labeling rules — Use custom fields to automate asset labeling for custom field values.

Saved Filters Across Organizations for MSPs

Simplifying multi-organization workflows for MSPs
Managed Service Providers (MSPs) often need to navigate and manage issues across dozens or even hundreds of organizations. Previously, saved filters were limited to individual organizations, requiring users to recreate filters in each one. This update introduces the ability to apply saved filters across multiple organizations, streamlining workflows and ensuring consistency in issue tracking.

Why it matters: This feature helps MSPs save time and improve efficiency by eliminating redundant tasks, enabling them to focus on high-priority issues. With inheritable filters, parent organizations can standardize how issues are prioritized and managed across their entire structure.

Saved filters across organizations for MSPs — Saved filters simplify workflows across organizations for MSPs.

NOTE: For single organization setups this option is not available for simplicity.

Move Assets Between Organizations via the UI

Streamlined asset and agent management across organizations
In multi-organization setups, administrators often need to correct asset assignments. Previously, moving assets between organizations required unregistering and re-registering them, which was both error-prone and time-consuming. This update introduces the ability to move assets between organizations directly from the UI.

Why it matters: This feature improves operational efficiency for administrators, reducing manual effort and potential disruptions. It is especially beneficial for MSPs and IT teams managing assets in dynamic or evolving environments or addressing mistakes where an asset was signed up in the wrong organization.

The action is available under Actions both in the Asset Detail and Asset Inventory list (by selecting the assets to move first):

Move assets between organizations — Move agents between organizations directly via the UI.

Keep in mind:

This is only available in MSP multi-organization setups; for simplicity, it is not visible in single-organization setups.
This works for all types of assets, including agent- and collector-monitored assets. For collected assets, the transferred asset will be added to the collector in the target organization that has the largest number of assets currently assigned. If the target organization has no collector, collected assets cannot be transferred to it.
Moving the asset is essentially archiving the asset in the source organization and recreating it with a new ID on the target organization. Only basic information is preserved. The information starts populating when the asset starts checking in to the new organization.
The user must have sufficient access permissions in both the source and target organizations.

EOL Device Filtering in Issue Lists

Target issues more effectively by filtering out unsupported devices
End-of-Life (EOL) devices are often a low priority for patching and remediation, as they may no longer be maintained. Conversely, users may also need to focus specifically on EOL devices to plan upgrades or migrations. The new EOL device filter provides the ability to include or exclude these devices from issue lists, giving users more control over how they view and act on issues.

Why it matters: By allowing users to isolate or exclude EOL devices, this feature ensures that IT and compliance teams can focus on actionable issues that align with their current priorities, such as maintaining compliance or reducing operational risks.

EOL device filter in issue lists — Filter EOL devices to focus on relevant issues.

New Features

Issue Detail: Display Hostnames in Affected Assets

The Issue Detail view now lists the top three hostnames (highest priority) under each operating system in the "Assets Affected" widget. Clicking these hostnames provides direct access to device details.

Why it matters: Improves visibility and quick access to the most relevant affected devices, aiding faster issue resolution.

Display hostnames in affected assets — Hostnames are now displayed in the "Assets Affected" widget for better issue visibility.

Switch Collectors in Bulk for Assets

Users can now transfer all assets from a collector to a different collector. While it was possible before to select multiple assets and update their assigned collector using the "Set collector" option, this would only go through if the new collector was able to connect to the asset. With the new transfer option, all assets will be transferred immediately, and any assets the new collector cannot connect to can be addressed later when the collector fails to check them in. This makes it a better option when, for example, wishing to archive the old collector.

Why it matters: Simplifies collector reassignment for large deployments, saving time and reducing errors during migrations or reorganizations.

Bulk collector switching for assets — Move all assets from one collector to another.

Keep in mind:

This transfers all assets assigned for the source collector to the target collector.

Export Open Ports from Asset Details

Easily share information about specific device configurations
Users can now export a list of open ports directly from the asset details page. Previously, exporting open ports was limited to inventory-wide views, which required additional filtering and manual work for device-specific reports.

Why it matters: This feature enables faster, more targeted reporting for specific devices, improving audit processes and communication with external teams.

Export open ports from asset details — Export open ports directly from the asset details page.

Improvements

Custom Asset Fields Usability Enhancements

The custom field functionality has been enhanced with smoother inline editing for dates and dynamic page refresh to maintain context while editing fields.

Why it matters: Makes managing custom asset fields more intuitive and user-friendly for asset inventory teams.

Consistent Report Filenames

Exported CSV and PDF reports now include asset name, date, and organization in the default filename for easier management. The filename format is [organization]-[report]-[date]-[time].EXT.

Example: relbuild-device-ADFS2-report-2024-11-27-14-53.pdf

Configurable Asset Columns in Issue Detail

Users can now choose more columns to display in Issue Detail - Asset lists. This helps users see the asset properties that are most useful to them.

New Setting for Archived Assets Detected on the Network

To address user feedback and improve clarity, we’ve added a new setting: "Always flag archived assets discovered on the network." This setting gives users control over how archived devices are handled when they are detected on the network after being manually archived.

Notes:

Previously: This behavior was always enabled by default, causing confusion when devices flagged as archived reappeared in Nanitor after network discovery.
Now: The setting is off by default, ensuring archived assets are ignored entirely unless the user explicitly enables this behavior.
Default behavior: When the setting is off (default), manually archived devices that are discovered on the network are completely ignored.
Optional behavior: When the setting is on, such devices are flagged with a new activity problem (displayed as a yellow warning triangle) in the asset state, along with an explanation that the asset has been detected on the network after being manually archived.

Why it matters:
This update resolves a common point of confusion for users trying to remove devices from Nanitor. The new setting ensures users can choose whether to ignore archived devices or flag them for attention. This flexibility accommodates different operational needs, such as identifying mistakenly archived devices or tracking assets that unexpectedly return to the network.

Archived assets network discovery setting — Enable this setting to flag archived assets discovered on the network, or leave it off to ignore them.

Include Notes in Asset Inventory Text Search

The asset inventory text search now includes the "Notes" field. This improvement makes it easier to find assets based on user-added comments, such as device owners or additional context.

Traceability for EOL Issue Changes

EOL issue events in the activity log will now show the updated OS details to help trace changes.

Bug Fixes and Performance Enhancements

Most Impactful Issues Widget: Corrected issue where exceptions were ignored when calculating remediation values for identity issues, causing excluded identity issues to appear high in the "Most Impactful Issues" widget on the Health Status dashboard.
Excluded Disabled AD Accounts from Identity Issues: Disabled AD accounts are irrelevant and should not be flagged.
Improved Load Times for Software Inventory: The performance of the software inventory page in large environments has been improved.
Activity Log Performance Optimization: Querying the Activity Log has been made more efficient, improving the responsiveness of Activity Log pages and reports.
Benchmark Result Storage Optimization: Through improved hashing, storage of redundant entries for benchmark results has been reduced for better disk space utilization and performance.
Performance Optimization for Issue Trend Metrics Calculations: Reduced processing time for background processing calculations for the Issue Trend Metrics dashboard and report. This can improve the processing time from hours to minutes for some cases on servers with many organizations (mainly affecting MSSPs). This improves performance and leaves more resources to the server for handling other tasks.
IIS Benchmark Processing Error: Fixed a rare case where the IIS benchmark would fail to be properly processed.
Resolved Duplicate Devices from AD Discovery: Fixed an issue where duplicate devices could be created repeatedly when discovered during AD discovery. This bug was limited to AD devices that did not have a domain specified (such as Linux devices).
Identity Issue Detail Timeout: Resolved performance issues that caused timeouts when fetching progress timelines for older identity issues.
Performance Enhancement for Maintenance Tasks: Optimized scheduled background processes for health and priority calculations, cutting down processing times significantly.
This helps with performance, especially for large organizations with complex datasets.
Software Version Reporting Discrepancies: Resolved an issue where Nanitor failed to reflect updated software versions correctly, particularly for WinSCP and Google Chrome. This occurred when devices had multiple versions of the same software installed, leading to incorrect merging of results.
Database Benchmark Improvements: Improved database benchmarks by restricting probes to relevant devices based on their types. This prevents unnecessary checks and enhances overall benchmark processing efficiency.
Fixed Issue Type Text in PDF Reports: Identity issues shown in the asset PDF report have been corrected to show "Identity" as their issue type rather than "User" (legacy).
Resolved Discrepancies in Identity Issues: Fixed a discrepancy that could result in mismatches in reported assets for identity issues.
Various other small fixes and performance improvements.