User's Manual

About Resource Types and Resource Instances
8-4 Active System Manager User Guide, Release 7.1
About Resource Types and Resource Instances
You use the Active System Manager Inventory perspective to access your managed environment
equipment. Managed equipment refers to the resources or equipment under test (EUT). Resources are
modeled by type, which are specifications by manufacturer and model that you can use as generic elements
in templates you author, and by instance, which are specific resources with unique asset tags.
The generic hardware type is called a resource type. The Active System Manager software uses resource
types as templates to model the various types of hardware resources in your environment. A resource type
is the basic building block of the Inventory perspective. A resource type does not represent a particular
piece of network hardware; instead, it describes the structure of the base model for that equipment.
A resource instance is a particular piece of network equipment residing somewhere in the environment that
has an asset tag. A resource instance can also be considered as a set of provisioning parameters that defines
the interfaces and properties that are being used in the resource type for an actual and specific piece of
hardware. For example, if you want to work with a resource by just its type or model (rather than a specific
piece of equipment), work with the specific resource type, and let the Active System Manager scheduler
decide on the actual equipment for your Template. This method provides you with additional flexibility
since you get more choices (any of environment’s equipment that matches the same resource type can be
used) and a better overall use of your network environment. On the other hand, to use a specific piece of
equipment, you would author the Template by the resource instance.
Accessing Inventory
The Inventory perspective is one of the default perspectives and is used to view and manage your inventory.
The two important navigator views for the Inventory perspective are the Resource Types view and the
Resource Instances view. Figure 8-2 illustrates how your generic type of equipment (resource types) are
displayed within the Resource Types view. For more information about other views associated with all the
perspectives, see the “Views” section on page 1-10.
Figure 8-2 Resource Types View