You can obtain four types of inventory information:

System information

You can obtain information about the hardware at each client, such as the amount of available hard disk space, the type of operating system, and registry information:

Figure 1-7 System Configuration window (system information)

For details about the types of system information that you can obtain, see 2.2.1(1) System information that can be obtained from a Windows client and 2.2.1(2) System information that can be obtained from a UNIX client.

Software information

You can obtain the types and versions of the software products installed at each client. You can manage the software information that is shown in Add/Remove Programs, which is accessed from the Windows Control Panel, and search by file name for software that is installed at the clients. For anti-virus products, you can also obtain information such as the resident/nonresident settings and the version of the virus definition file. Additionally, you can obtain information about patches that have or have not been applied to the client computer, and manage such information in the same manner as the software information. WUA or MBSA 1.2.1 functionality is used to obtain patch information.

Figure 1-8 System Configuration window (software information)

For details about the types of software information that can be obtained, see 2.2.2(1) Available software information.

User inventory information

You can manage items of interest to the system administrator, such as user names and the serial numbers of computers. Although client users usually enter client information, a system administrator can also enter it in a batch operation.

Figure 1-9 System Configuration window (user inventory information)

Directory information

You can manage the user and computer information obtained from Active Directory according to the hierarchical structure in Active Directory.

Figure 1-10 Directory Information window (directory information)

Once you have acquired inventory information, you can correlate inventory data and display the results in a graph. You can also save desired information to a CSV-format file, and print it. Some examples of using inventory information are given below.

Managing hardware and software usage status

You can use hardware or software information as a condition, and then count the number of clients that satisfy a particular condition. Counting the number of clients according to hard disk or memory capacity can be useful for planning purposes: for example, in developing a hardware-purchasing plan.

Figure 1-11 Count Clients window (counts for free hard disk space)

Managing software licenses

You can determine the number of clients in which a particular type of software is installed, and use this information to manage software licenses and upgrades.

Figure 1-12 Count Clients window (counts for each type of installed software)

Counting according to job goal

By linking with client information, you can total the values provided for software installation statuses and operation statuses. Since search conditions are provided according to job goals, you can obtain precise counting results for each goal.

Figure 1-13 Software Applied window

Using inventory information as a resource management ledger

Because you can display or print required inventory information, you can use this information as a resource management ledger.

Editing and using inventory data

Inventory data can be output to a CSV-format file. This CSV data can then be input into spreadsheet software, which makes it easy for you to sort the information and create reports.

Using inventory information to group clients

You can create a group of clients that all have the same inventory information and specify the group as a destination for software distribution. For example, you can define all clients on which Microsoft Word 2000 is installed as a group and specify that group as a remote installation destination for Microsoft Word 2003.

A JP1/Software Distribution system distributes software and manages inventory over a network. It also enables you to obtain inventory information from stand-alone PCs without using a network. This facility is useful when you want to manage the inventory of PCs that are not on the network, as well as the PCs on the network. This facility is available for stand-alone PCs (offline machines) on which JP1/Software Distribution Client is installed.

To obtain inventory information from an offline machine, at the managing server you first create a program to obtain the inventory information and then save the program to storage media, such as a FD, CD-R, or MO. You then transport this media to the location of the offline machine and execute the program. Save the acquired inventory information to storage media and then input the information to the managing server where it can be managed.