You can count the total number of hosts corresponding to each type of inventory item. Obtaining the totals for different types of inventory information is useful for managing software licenses and managing hardware usage in the network. You can also display the counting results as graphs.

(a) Counting hosts by software program

You can count the number of hosts at which each software program is installed. This information enables you to determine whether any license limitations have been exceeded.

(b) Counting hosts by system information

You can count the number of hosts to which various types of system information are applicable.

This information helps you manage hardware resources and utilization status.

The following are examples of system information counting:

• Checking the hard disk space
  You can classify hosts by the amount of available hard disk space. If you want to install a software program that requires 80 MB of free space, you can identify and exclude the hosts that have less than 80 MB of free space available and avoid creating space shortages at those hosts during remote installation.
  
• Checking memory size
  You can classify hosts by memory size in order to avoid creating space shortages as a result of remote installation of a software program that requires a large amount of memory.
  
• Checking the OS
  You can classify hosts by OS. For example, if you are migrating the OS on clients from Windows 98 to Windows 2000, you can check the OS status by counting hosts by OS type.
  
• Checking the version information of the JP1/Software Distribution Client programs installed on clients
  You can classify hosts by the version of JP1/Software Distribution Client or UNIX JP1/Software Distribution Client running on the client systems. Because available facilities depend on the product version, this information helps you determine which hosts can support a desired facility.
  

(c) Counting the number of relay systems and clients

You can count the number of relay systems and clients. This information helps you understand the size of the network managed by JP1/Software Distribution.

(d) Counting hosts by user inventory

You can obtain the number of applicable hosts for each user-managed inventory item, such as by the number of client users in each department or project.

You can export the collected inventory information to a CSV file. You can open this CSV file with a spreadsheet program, so you can easily sort the information or create management documents.

You can use Inventory Viewer or the CSV output utility to export inventory information to a CSV file. For details, see 4.5.2 Exporting to a CSV-formatted file and 9.1 Using the CSV output utility to output information to a file in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 1.

You can print acquired inventory information in list format. By adding a header, footer, and other additional information, you can create a finished document or report.

For details about how to print inventory information, see 4.5.3 Printing in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 1.

The HP OpenView linkage enables you to manage inventory information from outside the managing server that manages JP1/Software Distribution.

For details about how to manage inventory information for JP1/Software Distribution by linking with HP NNM, see 3. Managing JP1/Software Distribution from HP NNM in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 2.