Hardware and Software Inventory
SMS performs hardware and software inventories on SMS client computers. You can run a wide variety of reports against the resulting data, so you can plan upgrades, track hardware and software assets, or check software license compliance.
Before you deploy a new software package, you can build a report that shows how many destination computers have the required memory and disk space to support the software package that is planned for distribution. This allows you to upgrade noncompliant systems before the deployment begins, ensuring a higher overall project success rate.
You can customize which of the more than 700 classes of data should be recorded when you gather information during hardware and software inventory collection. This allows you to select the appropriate balance between performance and inventory depth for your organization.
SMS 2003 also gives you more control over which software files should be scanned. Software inventory can scan specific directories and drives, using environment variables to optimize the data-gathering process.
The following table summarizes the core SMS 2003 hardware and software inventory features.
Table 1.1 SMS 2003 Hardware and Software Inventory Features
Feature |
Description |
|---|---|
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)-based hardware inventory |
SMS has been designed to use WMI (which is built into the Windows operating system) to collect inventory data. WMI is based on the Common Information Model (CIM) standard. SMS has access to data from many sources, including the Win32® API, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), and Desktop Management Interface (DMI), which provides administrators with a broad collection of inventory and configuration data. |
Support for WMI 1.5 and later |
WMI enhancements are included in WMI 1.5 (which is installed and used by SMS 2003). These enhancements allow improved client-side performance during hardware and software inventory. |
Discovery-based software inventory |
SMS examines every configured file type for version and developer information rather than relying on file-to-product mapping databases. |
Granular file inventory search |
SMS 2003 can be configured to retrieve only the necessary asset discovery. This is done with wild cards, environment variables, and file properties to control software inventory searches more effectively. Other options allow for compressed and encrypted files to be skipped. |
Add or Remove Programs search |
Installed software registered in Add or Remove Programs or installed by the Windows Installer service is inventoried and reported as part of normal hardware and software inventory collection. This is a checkpoint against file-based inventory for accurate descriptions of installed applications (not just the files present on a computer). |
For More Information
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