Inventory Terms

In an SMS site database, the inventory has a hierarchical structure. An architecture defines the structure for a set of objects. Each object is composed of groups, which contain attributes.

All inventory objects in the SMS system use the following structure:

Architecture

A standard structure for inventorying a set of related objects. An architecture is defined by the Architecture group, which specifies a unique architecture name. For a specific object, the attributes of its Identification group combine to form a unique identifier for the object. For example, the Personal Computer architecture has a structure for storing inventory for Intel x86, Alpha, MIPS, and Macintosh-based computers. The Identification group for Personal Computer objects contains six attributes that are used to uniquely identify a computer.

Object

A specific item with a specific architecture that is stored in the inventory database. For example, a specific Macintosh computer can be included in the inventory database as an object of the Personal Computer architecture. In a MIF file, an object is equivalent to a component block. A first-class object is one that is known directly to the API and does not require any additional information. For example, the system knows about architectures and platforms but cannot know about attributes without first knowing about an architecture and a group class.

Group

A structure for defining the distinct parts of an object. A group combines a set of attributes into a single identifiable entity. For example, Processor, Network, and Operating System are some of the groups that can exist on a computer with the Personal Computer architecture. In the Personal Computer architecture, groups can be used to store the properties of a hardware device (such as a COM port or mouse), a piece of software (such as the operating system or a defined software package), or any logical entity (such as asset or employee information through custom MIFs).

A group also has a class name that is used by SMS to uniquely identify a group. A class name is composed of the organization name (usually, the organization that defined the group), a name for the group, and the version number.

Attribute

A property of a group. Each attribute is assigned a value. The set of attribute values for a group makes up the inventory for the object. For example, a Disk group on a workstation has attributes such as Drive Index, Storage Type, Free Storage, and so on. In a computer's inventory, a Disk Drive Letter attribute can be assigned a value such as A, B, C, and so on.