You'll need to survey a representative sample of your network to identify the hardware and software typically used on client and server computers. By doing this sample inventory of your company's active equipment, you can accurately simulate the organizational environment in the lab. Such a simulation helps you make broad decisions about your company's computing infrastructure, such as the choice of protocol or the default desktop configuration as it pertains to applications.
Software management tools are available to query computers on the network for hardware and software configurations. For detailed information about a large number of computers on a network, use a system management program such as the Microsoft Systems Management Server to conduct the inventory.