GLPI — Open Source IT Asset and Service Management

Introduction

GLPI (Gestionnaire Libre de Parc Informatique) is a mature open-source ITSM platform that has been actively developed since 2003. It provides IT teams with a centralized system for tracking hardware and software assets, managing support tickets following ITIL best practices, auditing software licenses, and documenting data center infrastructure. Its plugin ecosystem extends functionality to areas like project management, forms, and approval workflows.

What GLPI Does

• Maintains a comprehensive inventory of hardware, software, and network assets with lifecycle tracking
• Provides an ITIL-aligned help desk with incident, request, problem, and change management workflows
• Tracks software licenses, contracts, and warranties with expiration alerts
• Maps data center infrastructure including racks, PDUs, network connections, and enclosures
• Supports automatic asset discovery through agents and network scanning plugins

Architecture Overview

GLPI is a PHP application backed by MySQL or MariaDB. The web interface is served by Apache or Nginx with PHP-FPM. An optional inventory agent (GLPI Agent, successor to FusionInventory) runs on endpoints to collect hardware and software data and push it to the server via REST API. The plugin system loads additional PHP modules that hook into GLPI's event and rendering pipeline. Background tasks handle notifications, SLA escalations, and scheduled imports via a cron mechanism.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Install on any LAMP/LEMP stack with PHP 8.1+ and MySQL/MariaDB, or use community Docker images
• Run the web-based setup wizard to configure database connection and create the admin account
• Deploy GLPI Agent on endpoints for automatic hardware and software inventory collection
• Configure entity hierarchy to support multi-site or multi-tenant deployments with delegation
• Install plugins from the marketplace for additional features like forms, approval workflows, and dashboards

Key Features

• Full ITIL service desk with SLA management, automatic assignment rules, and satisfaction surveys
• Asset lifecycle management from procurement through deployment, maintenance, and retirement
• Financial management for tracking TCO, contracts, budgets, and supplier information
• Customizable dashboards and reports with export to PDF, CSV, and graphical charts
• Plugin marketplace with hundreds of extensions for specialized functionality

Comparison with Similar Tools

• Snipe-IT — Focused purely on asset management without the ITSM help desk component
• Zammad — Help desk focused; lacks the asset inventory and CMDB capabilities of GLPI
• iTop — Similar ITSM/CMDB scope but with a more complex data model and steeper learning curve
• OTRS/Znuny — Mature help desk system with ITIL support but weaker asset management features

FAQ

Q: Does GLPI support automatic inventory discovery? A: Yes. Deploy the GLPI Agent on endpoints to automatically collect and push hardware, software, and network data to the server.

Q: Can GLPI handle multi-site deployments? A: Yes. The entity system supports hierarchical organizations with delegated administration, separate inventories, and per-entity configuration.

Q: Is there an API for integration? A: Yes. GLPI provides a REST API for managing tickets, assets, users, and most other objects programmatically.

Q: How does license management work? A: GLPI tracks software installations across inventoried machines, compares them against purchased licenses, and flags compliance issues.

Sources

• https://github.com/glpi-project/glpi
• https://glpi-project.org/documentation/