User's Manual

Inventory Management 5-1
Chapter 5
Inventory Management
Note This chapter describes tasks and functions that are administrator-specific.
This chapter describes the Active System Manager Inventory perspective and associated tools that you use
to catalog and define the equipment in your network environment. You use the Inventory perspective to
manage resource types, resource instances, and connectivity to reflect the physical inventory of your
environment.
Understanding Resource Modeling
To build your inventory, you should decide which modeling type to use. Table 5-1 lists and describes the
characteristics for the basic modeling type. With basic inventory modeling, you essentially define resources
with interfaces, sometimes referred to as flat or resources.
Table 5-1 Basic Modeling Type Characteristics for Building Inventory
Operations Basic Modeling
Manual 1. Interface types
2. Resource type
3. Resource instance
4. Link
Automated via Tools and Processes 1. Discovery
2. CSV link import
3. CSV resource import
Note Each modeling type comes with its own set of tools to help build your inventory; however, you must
stay within the context of the modeling characteristics.
Table 5-2 outlines the topics (in this chapter) to use for building the inventory. Some topics are common
between the two modeling types.