Network hardware fails quietly into unsupportability: firmware stops receiving security updates, support contracts lapse, and the vendor announced end-of-life two years ago. This inventory surfaces those dates before they become an incident.
Record both end-of-sale and end-of-support. End-of-sale is a procurement signal. End-of-support is the security cliff: after it, vulnerabilities in that device will never be patched. Budget against end-of-support.
Track firmware against vendor advisories. Network devices are high-value targets and frequently internet-facing. Check installed firmware against your vendors' advisory feeds each month and record the result here rather than in a separate process.
Flag devices with no redundancy. A single core switch with no spare is a business continuity risk expressed as a hardware fact. Making it visible in the inventory is what gets it funded.
Here's a preview. Unlock the free download to get all 3 sections (2 more below).
| Hostname | Role | Model | Serial | Site | Firmware | Latest firmware | Support ends | End of support (vendor) | Redundant | Spare held |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| fw-lon-01 | Firewall (HA primary) | FortiGate 100F | FG100F0001 | LON | 7.4.3 | 7.4.5 | 2027-03-14 | 2029-09-30 | Yes (HA pair) | No |
| sw-lon-core | Core switch | Catalyst 9300 | FOC2512X1AB | LON | 17.9.4 | 17.12.2 | 2027-01-30 | 2030-04-30 | No | No |
More free templates IT teams use alongside this one.
Network documentation fails because it is written once, as a project deliverable, and then diverges from reality within a quarter. This template is scoped to the things that change slowly and are expensive to rediscover at 02:00.
Patching breaks things, which is why teams delay it, which is why they get breached through something with a patch available for six months. This schedule is built around deployment rings, so a bad patch hits a pilot group of twenty people rather than the whole company.
Most asset registers die of one disease: nothing in the organisation forces them to be updated. This one is built around the three events that actually change an asset's state (assignment, repair, and disposal), so the register is maintained by the work rather than by an annual audit.
Hostname, role, model and serial, site, installed and latest firmware, support contract expiry, vendor end-of-support date, whether the device is redundant, and whether a spare is held. End-of-support is the field that drives budget.
End-of-sale only means you cannot buy more. End-of-support means the vendor will not issue security patches, so any vulnerability found afterwards remains permanently unfixed, on a device that is often internet-facing.
Monthly against vendor advisories, with out-of-band action for actively exploited vulnerabilities. Network appliances are high-value targets, so they warrant a tighter cadence than general endpoint patching.
