diff --git a/src/fu-engine.c b/src/fu-engine.c
index e04a9b914..b532ce791 100644
--- a/src/fu-engine.c
+++ b/src/fu-engine.c
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 #include <gio/gunixinputstream.h>
 #include <glib-object.h>
 #include <string.h>
+#include <sys/utsname.h>
 
 #include "fwupd-common-private.h"
 #include "fwupd-enums-private.h"
@@ -1199,6 +1200,43 @@ fu_engine_get_item_by_wildcard (FuEngine *self, AsStore *store, GError **error)
 	return NULL;
 }
 
+static GHashTable *
+fu_engine_get_report_metadata (FuEngine *self)
+{
+	GHashTable *hash;
+	struct utsname name_tmp = { 0 };
+
+	/* used by pretty much every plugin and are hard deps of fwupd */
+	hash = g_hash_table_new_full (g_str_hash, g_str_equal, g_free, g_free);
+	g_hash_table_insert (hash,
+			     g_strdup ("FwupdVersion"),
+			     g_strdup (VERSION));
+	g_hash_table_insert (hash,
+			     g_strdup ("AppstreamGlibVersion"),
+			     g_strdup_printf ("%i.%i.%i",
+					      AS_MAJOR_VERSION,
+					      AS_MINOR_VERSION,
+					      AS_MICRO_VERSION));
+	g_hash_table_insert (hash,
+			     g_strdup ("GUsbVersion"),
+			     g_strdup_printf ("%i.%i.%i",
+					      G_USB_MAJOR_VERSION,
+					      G_USB_MINOR_VERSION,
+					      G_USB_MICRO_VERSION));
+
+	/* kernel version is often important for debugging failures */
+	if (uname (&name_tmp) >= 0) {
+		g_hash_table_insert (hash,
+				     g_strdup ("CpuArchitecture"),
+				     g_strdup (name_tmp.machine));
+		g_hash_table_insert (hash,
+				     g_strdup ("KernelVersion"),
+				     g_strdup (name_tmp.release));
+	}
+
+	return hash;
+}
+
 /**
  * fu_engine_install:
  * @self: A #FuEngine
@@ -1236,6 +1274,7 @@ fu_engine_install (FuEngine *self,
 	g_autoptr(FwupdRelease) release_history = fwupd_release_new ();
 	g_autoptr(GBytes) blob_fw2 = NULL;
 	g_autoptr(GError) error_local = NULL;
+	g_autoptr(GHashTable) metadata_hash = NULL;
 
 	g_return_val_if_fail (FU_IS_ENGINE (self), FALSE);
 	g_return_val_if_fail (device_id != NULL, FALSE);
@@ -1447,6 +1486,10 @@ fu_engine_install (FuEngine *self,
 	/* mark this as modified even if we actually fail to do the update */
 	fu_device_set_modified (device, (guint64) g_get_real_time () / G_USEC_PER_SEC);
 
+	/* build the version metadata */
+	metadata_hash = fu_engine_get_report_metadata (self);
+	fwupd_release_add_metadata (release_history, metadata_hash);
+
 	/* add device to database */
 	checksum = g_compute_checksum_for_bytes (G_CHECKSUM_SHA1, blob_cab);
 	fwupd_release_set_version (release_history, version);