Inventory in Configuration Manager
Content
Inventory in Confguration Manager Y You ou can use Confguration Confguration Man Manager ager 2007 inventory inventory hardwar e and sotwYou sotware are on Confguration Manager 2007 clients and totocollect fles hardware rom those clients. can view inventory or a client in Resource E!lorer" and you can #uery on inventory !ro!erties to generate re!orts or create collections. Hardware Inventory :
$hen ena%led" the Confguration Manager 2007 hardwar hardware e inventory client agent automatically automaticall y collects detailed inormation a%out the hardware characteristics o clients in a Confguration Manager 2007 site. &y using this eature" you can collect a wide variety o inormation a%out client com!uters" such as memory" o!erating system" and !eri!herals or client com!uters. 'he hardware hardware inventory eature collects collects data rom client com!uters %y #uerying #uerying several data data stores on client com!uters" such as the registry and $indows Management Instrumentation ($MI) names!ace classes. 'he hardware hardware inventory client agent does not #uery or all !ossi%le $MI classes" %ut it does !rovide the a%ility to re!ort on a!!roimately *"+00 hardware !ro!erties rom almost *00 di,erent $MI classes %y deault.
Note
The information queried by the hardware inventory agent can be modified to inventory custom inventory needs for your organization. For more information about modifying the default information collected by the hardware inventory client c lient agent, see How to Extend Hardware Inventory. Inventory.
'he initial collection client hardware hardware inv collected %y the hardware hardw are inventory inven agent is .mo agent a ull inventory %ased inventory on entory the re!orting re#uirements s!ecifed intory the client site-s M/de.mo M/de fle stored on the !rimary site server. 'he initial ull inventory esta%lishes a %aseline or uture inventory collections. u%se#uent inventory collections are !erormed at the schedule s!ecifed in the hardwar hardware e inventory client agent !ro!erties. 'y!ically" only inormation that has changed" or deltas" will %e collected rom the initial %aseline inventory re!ort created during the frst ull inventory inventory.. elta inventory re!orting greatly reduces networ1 trac generated %y client inventory re!orting %ecause the delta inventory data is usually only a raction o a com!lete inventory collection. Client hardware hardware inventory inormation can %e #ueried to %uild collections. 3or eam!le" you could create a collection o all com!uters that have 4entium 5 !rocessors and at least +*2 M& o R6M. $ith everywith hardware inventory collection" Confguration Manager 2007 u!dates the site data%ase the current inventory inormation while 1ee!ing a history o !revious
inventory inormation collected rom the client. &oth the current and historical hardware inventory inormation or a client can %e viewed using Resource E!lorer. 3or more inormation a%out Resource E!lorer" see see 6%out Resource E!lorer. E!lorer. 'he hardware hardware inventory client agent agent also collects collects some %asic %asic inormation a%out a%out installed installed client sotware. You can collect inormation a%out the a!!lications installed on clients and registered in the client-s registry. owever" %y using sotware inventory" you can collect a signifcantly signifcantl y larger amount o inormation a%out client sotware. 'o ena%le and confgure hardware 'o hardware inventory client client agent settings settings or a site" site" you use the general ta% o the hardware inventory client agent !ro!erties. 3or more inormation a%out ena%ling and confguring the hardware inventory client agent" see ow to Confgure ardware ardwar e Inventory or a ite. ite.
Software Inventory :
hen enabled, the !onfiguration "anager #$$% software inventory client agent can collect software inventory data directly from files &such as .exe files' by inventorying the file header information. !onfiguration "anager #$$% can also inventory un(nown files ) files that do not have detailed information in their file headers. This *rovides a flexible, easy+to+maintain eas y+to+maintain software inventory method. ou can also have !onfiguration "anager #$$% collect co*ies of files thatusing you s*ecify. -oftwar e inventory and collected file information for a clientsee can be viewed esource-oftware Ex*lorer. For more information about esource Ex*lorer, /bout esource Ex*lorer . hile software inventory is ca*able of inventorying encry*ted and a nd com*ressed files, software inventory may run much slower due to the additional *rocessing required. hen encry*ted files are inventoried, an un+encry*ted co*y co* y of the file must be created to inventory. In addition, if antivirus software is running on the client machine, the antivirus software will detect the inventory agent o*ening the files scanned by software inventory and will rescan them to ensure they are not infected with a virus. The file collection tab of the software inventory client agent *ro*erties is used to enable and configure software inventory client agent settings for a site. For more information about enabling and configuring file collection *ro*erties, see How to !onfigure -oftware Inventory for a -ite. -ite . Note
otware inventory can use considera%le networ1 ca!acity. 'he amount o networ1 ca!acity used de!ends on the num%er o Confguration Manager clients you have" how re#uently you schedule sotware sotware inventory" and the si8e o the fles you collect (i any). I you e!ect that sotware inventory will signifcantly a,ect networ1 activity" consider running this !rocess during non9!ea1 hours.
Does SCCM 2007 Manage Printers?
&y using the :etwor1 discovery method you are a%le to discover networ1 !rinters" routers" and stu, li1e that. owever" since you can not n ot install a CCM client agent on them" you can not manage them with them with CCM. ;ocal !rinters can %e inventoried %y the normal ardware inventory cycle. owever" you need to ena%le it in the M/E3.mo
Inventory Files :
Te Con!g"ration#$of Con!g"ration#$of fle fle is used to add new data class inormation to clients or hardware inventory re!orting.
' 'o o etend hardwar hardware e inventory using the Confguration.mo fle *. <n the the !rimary !rimary site site server server com!u com!uter" ter" navi navigate gate to =ConfgMgr installation directory>?in%oes?clifles.src?hinv directory. 2. @sing :ote!ad.e :ote!ad.ee" e" o!en the Confguration.mo Confguration.mo fle fle and ma1e any necessary necessary changes. A. Clos Close e the Confgu Confguratio ration.mo n.mo fle and and save save changes changes..
The SMS_def.mof file file is used to modify or add new re*orting class information for client hardware inventory re*orting. 'he M/de.mo fle consists o a list o classes and attri%utes that relate to data classes stored in the $MI re!ository o Confguration Manager 2007 clients. Classes and !ro!erties that have the re!orting #ualifer set to 'R@E are collected and those set to 36;E are not. owever" there is an ece!tionB i a class is set to 'R@E then any class !ro!erties with the 1ey attri%ute are collected" even i the individual !ro!erty is set to 36;E. You can use :ote!ad.e You :ote!ad.ee e to modiy the M/de M/de.mo .mo fle. I there are are !ro!erties or classes that you no longer want to collect" set them to 36;E. I you want to inventory new classes or !ro!erties" set them to 'R@E.
I$%ortant
&e careul when modiying the M/de.mo fle. It was not designed to %e eecuted with with all or most o the class re!orting #ualifers set to 'R@E. 'he si8e o the inventory re!ort fle can a,ect the !erormance o your networ1. I you modiy the fle" frst veriy the si8e o a ty!ical client-s com!lete hardware hardware inventory and ma1e sure it is acce!ta%le or your networ1ing environment. 'hen" test the new fle in a test la% %eore re!lacing re!lacing the deault M/de M/de.mo .mo on the !rimary site server.
'o etend hardwar 'o hardware e inventory using the M/de.mo fle *. <n the the !rimary !rimary site site server server com!u com!uter" ter" navi navigate gate to =ConfgMgr installation directory>?in%oes?clifles.src?hinv directory. 2. @sing :ote!ad.e :ote!ad.ee" e" o!en the the M/de.mo M/de.mo fle and ma1e ma1e any necessary necessary changes. changes.
0. Close the M/de.mo fle and save changes. 'he IDMIF and N&IDMIF collection can %e used to etend Confguration Manager 2007 client inventory inormation re!orted %y clients. :<IMI3 fles etend the hardware inventory inormation or eisting Confguration Manager 2007 clients. IMI3 fles are used to add inormation to the site data%ase or devices and o%ects that are not Confguration Manager 2007 clients.
I$%ortant
Confguration Manager 2007 creates new ta%les or modifes eisting ta%les in the site data%ase to accommodate the !ro!erties in IMI3 and :<IMI3 fles. owever" IMI3 and :<IMI3 fles are not validated" so they could %e used u sed to alter ta%les that you do not want altered. Dalid data could %e overwritten %y invalid data. ;arge amounts o data could %e loaded" causing delays in all Confguration Manager 2007 unctions. 'o 'o mitigate this ris1" you should ena%le IMI3 and :<IMI3 collection only when needed.
@sing :<IMI3 3iles to Etend ardware Inventory :<IMI3 fles are used to add additional data to inormation stored in the site data%ase or Confguration Manager 2007 clients during hardware inventory.
To extend hardware inventory collected from clients using a NOIDMIF le *. @sing a tet editor editor such as :ote!ad.e :ote!ad.ee" e" create a :<IMI3 fle containing containing the data that will %e added to the client hardware hardware inventory inormation re!orted during hardware inventory" and save it with a .MI3 fle name etension. 2. 4lace the :<IMI3 :<IMI3 fle fle in the $indir?ys $indir?ystemA2?CCM?inven temA2?CCM?inventory?noidmis tory?noidmis directory on a Confguration Manager 2007 client. A. $hen the client !erorms !erorms its net scheduled scheduled hardwar hardware e inventory" inventory" the inormation stored in the :<IMI3 fle will %e added to the client inventory re!ort sent to the site server or !rocessin !rocessing. g.
@sing IMI3 3iles to Etend ardware Inventory IMI3 fles are used to add nonclient inormation to the site data%ase during client hardware inventory.
I$%ortant
&ecause IMI3 fles are not associated with a Confguration Manager 2007 client" they are collected %y the hardware inventory client agent and sent to the site server along with the client hardware inventory re!ort. e!ending on the maimum custom MI3 si8e s!ecifed or the site" IMI3 collection may cause increased networ1 %andwidth usage during client inventories and should %e !lanned or %eore ena%ling IMI3 fle collection.
To extend hardware inventory collected from clients using an IDMIF le *. @sing a tet editor editor such as :ote!ad.e :ote!ad.ee" e" create an IMI3 fle containing containing the data data that will %e added to the site data%ase during hardware inventory" and save it with a .MI3 fle name etension. 2. 4lace the IMI3 fle in the $indir?ystemA2?C $indir?ystemA2?CCM?inventory?idm CM?inventory?idmis is directory directory on a Confguration Manager 2007 client. A. $hen the client !erorms !erorms its net scheduled scheduled hardware hardware inventory" inventory" the IMI3 fle will %e co!ied" and the co!y will %e sent to the site server-s inventory !rocessing in%o or !rocessing.
