Extending the SMS Inventory

The Microsoft® Systems Management Server (SMS) inventory is a database of all objects in your administrative system. To help you store and manage inventory information, SMS provides the following predefined architectures: Personal Computer, SMSEvent, PackageLocation, JobDetails, and UserGroups. If these predefined architectures do not meet your requirements, you can extend the inventory by defining custom architectures.

The significant issues related to inventory architecture, composition, and design are:

• Structuring the inventory
• Utilizing and automatically generating Management Information Format (MIF) files
• Collecting inventory information
• Using inventory history
• Employing the desktop management interface
• Incorporating custom architectures

For more information about inventory topics, see the Microsoft Systems Management Server documentation in the "Setup and Systems Management Services" section of the Microsoft Platform SDK.