Overview

You can use JP1/Software Distribution's inventory management facility to manage the client system information that is registered in the managing server.

• For details on system information that can be managed by JP1/Software Distribution, see 2.2.1 Acquiring system information.

By using the managing server's Inventory Viewer, you can use system information collected from clients: for example, to count the clients that satisfy specific hardware conditions or to display count results as a graph.

If you output count results to a CSV file or a printer, you can use the results as a ledger for managing hardware assets.

The following figure illustrates the general procedure for managing clients' hardware assets.

Figure 4-3 General procedure for managing clients' hardware assets

Operating procedure

To manage the hardware assets:

1. Collect system information from clients.
   
   • For details on collecting system information, see 3.1.1 System information collection procedure in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 1.
2. Count the collected system information items.
   
   • For details on starting Inventory Viewer, see 4.1.1 Starting Inventory Viewer in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 1.
   • For details on using inventory information to count clients, see 4.2.1 Counting procedure in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 1.
   • For details on displaying count results, see 4.2.3(6) Counting hosts by system information items in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 1.
3. Output the count results.
   Display the count results as a graph.
   
   • For details on displaying the count results as a graph, see 4.2.6 Displaying count results as a graph in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 1.
   Export the count results to a CSV file.
   
   • For details on exporting the count results to a CSV file, see 4.5.2 Exporting to a CSV-formatted file in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 1.
   Print the count results.
   
   • For details on printing the count results, see 4.5.3 Printing in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 1.

Notes

• For notes on collecting system information, see 3.1.4 Notes on collecting system information in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 1.