Getting started with the Inventory navigator
Customize the view into your by grouping the inventory objects in a way that is the most relevant to your business. Once you've defined the view and the hierarchy structure, the Portal presents only the reports relevant to that structure. This allows you to see the reports and analyze the data faster and more efficiently.
View your inventory by the following organization structures:
Object type and subsystem
Location and object type
Domain
Cloud
Custom attributes
Host groups
You can also create ad hoc custom object lists for homogenous objects and see the relevant reports.
See Create custom object lists.
Further, the information is presented in two view options, a list view and a reports view.
The following figure highlights key terms and functional areas in the Inventory.
Hierarchy Toolbar - Use the toolbar to quickly organize and refresh the display of your inventory. The icons stay highlighted to indicate the view you selected. Select from:
Object type and subsystem (default organization)
Location and object type
Host groups.
See Use host groups to organize your data.
Refresh - When the icon displays a notification badge, rollover to identify what changes have been made in the Portal.
Configure. Set the hierarchy manually using any of the defaults or create a custom organization.
See Hierarchy toolbar to organize your data.
Note:
You can also create ad hoc lists for like objects, for example a specific set of hosts, and view relevant reports for just that selection. These object lists are displayed in the .
Hierarchy Panel - Navigate through the inventory by expanding and collapsing categories. Select a category or an individual object to display relevant reports. If an attribute is used to group objects, this is easily identified in the panel. Clickable Alerts are also displayed in the hierarchy.
Details View - Displays the relevant information as it applies to the selection in the Hierarchy panel. You can toggle this area to display the information in a grid, or Inventory List view, or as a set of preselected reports, or Inventory Reports view.
Navigation Buttons - Navigate within a single session, to jump back and forward through your history. This is useful when trying to complete a root cause analysis and you need to jump between multiple objects/pages within the Inventory.
Note:
Changing the hierarchy or logging out clears the history.
Pin a Report - Allows you to keep your favorite reports open and associated with an Inventory Object Type. Pinned Reports can also be renamed.
Select Reports - Click to view and choose each new report for the selected object in the .
Data Age Indicator - When a report is served from the browser cache, an indicator icon is displayed on reports and dashboards. You can roll over the indicator to show the age of the report from the cache. Click the icon to purge the old report from the cache and rerun the report from the database.
When you run a report, the Portal takes the scope of the report, and checks if the cache contains the same report, for the same scope. If it does, the results are displayed from the cache. If the combination does not exist, the report is run from the database, saved in the cache, and then sent to the user interface. Cached reports are shared across users who belong to the same home host group.