Understanding Server Inventory

The Server Inventory component of Novell^® ZENworks^® 6.5 Server Management gathers hardware and software inventory information from Novell NetWare^® and Windows* servers in your enterprise and stores into a centralized database. Using this database, the network administrator can view and query for complete inventory information for the enterprise.

The inventory information can be useful to help you make business decisions on how to manage servers. The following are some of the business decisions that you can make once you have obtained the inventory information:

• Servers that need new applications
• Servers that need updated hardware and drivers
• Servers that conform to the corporate hardware and software standards

This chapter provides a basic overview of Server Inventory. It contains the following information:

• Server Inventory Terminology
• Overview of Server Inventory Components
• Understanding Inventory Scanning Cycle
• Understanding the Inventory Server Roles