SCCM Hardware Inventory

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (or SCCM) is a tool designed to give you the ability to manage application deployments for devices across your environment from a single software interface. A SCCM hardware inventory is the list of hardware managed through the Configuration Manager interface.

If you use SCCM to configure and monitor your hardware inventory, the application can collect information about the configuration of the networked devices within your environment. Once you have enabled SCCM on the client side, each hardware inventory cycle will send configuration details to the SCCM site server to be stored.

While it’s possible to track hardware inventory in SCCM directly, performing this process manually can be time-consuming since you’ll need to check SCCM frequently to detect changes and know the current status. Automating hardware inventory management using a tool can help cut down on human error while also centralizing the data—giving you and your team more time to focus on resolving issues that may be more urgent.

Hardware inventory management is an essential practice to keep track of the devices making up your infrastructure and perform regular audits. The auditing process can help keep users well-informed of outages with specific devices, whether these are singular incidents or a recurring issue indicative of a device nearing the end of its use life. The hardware inventory management process can also be critical for ensuring all hardware is updated on schedule—or, if you aren’t using certain hardware, you can better ensure it’s appropriately deprovisioned. 

Hardware inventory software can help automate the updating and auditing process, while offering additional functionalities to help streamline hardware inventory management.

Auditing your devices can be both complicated and time-consuming if you attempt to do it manually, as this involves tracking and managing granular details like device’s serial number and warranty information. Manual auditing can also lead to unwieldy or cumbersome spreadsheets. 

Implementing hardware inventory software can help speed up the process of discovering new devices on the network, searching your hardware for specific details or configurations, and tracking service tickets associated with specific hardware assets. Hardware inventory software can also use an overview of your network devices to help ensure all are patched and updated on schedule, and you have visibility into any devices missing updates.

Patch Manager is designed to function as an alternative to the SCCM hardware and software inventory tool and offers several advantages.

While some solutions may use SCCM, Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), or System Center Update Publisher (SCUP) to manage your inventory, these Microsoft products typically don’t give you the same ability to patch third-party applications.

Patch Manager is built to extend standard SCCM and WSUS capabilities by using the same server infrastructure for the deployment, management, and reporting of third-party and custom packages, so you can more easily update third-party apps like Oracle Java, Adobe Reader, and others.

With SolarWinds Patch Manager, patching is designed to be more comprehensive with features that help make it easier to track software and hardware inventories and updates in your environment—all within the same dashboard. Patch Manager also includes ready-to-deploy configuration packages that give you the ability to not only update third-party applications but also help you keep them updated on your own schedule.

Other SolarWinds Tools to Help Manage or Monitor IT Asset Inventory:

• SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
• SolarWinds Service Desk
• SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Related Features:

• SCCM Software Inventory Management
• Application Patch Management
• SCCM Patch Management for Third Party Patching
• Virtual Patching for Endpoint Security
• SCCM Alternative
• Software Deployment Tool
• Remote Patch Management