Inventory

Inventory Configuration Manager offers you the ability to inventory the hardware and software of its client computers. Hardware inventory can gather information from your systems such as processor information, the computer manufacturer, and the amount of installed memory. Software inventory can gather lists of file types and their versions installed on your computers, with EXE files being the default. Combine this with extensive information in the Asset Intelligence (AI) knowledge base, and you can use Configuration Manager to really get a handle on what kinds of hardware and software are being used in your environment. Inventory is the backbone of Configuration Manager; you can run Configuration Manager without enabling inventory, but you really wouldn’t be able to do much, since so many other features, such as software updates, require inventory. Inventory is just about the same as it was in SMS 2003 and Configuration Manager 2007. Inventory is a very important piece of the MOF quadrant. Operations management is easy to maintain with a proper inventory of the IT environment; without one it’s very hard to maintain detailed information about the infrastructure and the current assets. We will go into more detail about this feature in -- “Inventory and Software Metering.”