Working with Collections
After you have audited network nodes, you can analyze gathered data by using Collections.
A Computer, Chromebook or Device Collection includes:
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Computers, Chromebooks or network devices respectively that satisfy the inclusion rules specified for this Collection.
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Computers, Chromebooks or network devices respectively that were manually added to the Collection as static members.
For details about creating and editing Collections, see Configuring Collections. After you have organized audit data in Computer, Chromebook or Device Collection, you can analyze these data using various grid manipulation techniques.
Collections are shown in the Sidebar under Collections > Computers, Collections > Chromebooks or Collections > Network Devices. There are predefined Collections that are shown always: All Computers, All Chromebooks and All Network Devices. There are also several predefined Computer Collections that can be removed; they include computers with specific operating system or installed software. For the computers detected as virtual ones, there is a predefined Virtual Machines collection. For the computers running hypervisors, there is a predefined Hypervisors collection. For computers having solid-state drives (SSD), there is also a predefined Computers with SSD collection.
You can copy a Computer presented in a Site or Computer Collection to another Computer Collection. The Computer will be added to this Collection as a static member.
Collections are meant for analyzing audit data, but you can also perform the Direct Network Scan of computers, Chromebooks and network devices in a Computer, Chromebook or Network Device Collection: right-click the respective Collection in the Sidebar and choose Audit This Collection from the pop-up menu.
Collections may contain Network Nodes associated with several Inventory Servers. For each Node in a Collection the system will try to find associated Inventory Server. For each Inventory Server found, the system will create an Audit Task. This task will include audit of the Collection's Nodes, associated with this Inventory Server.
In case it is not possible to associate a Node with any server, or associated Inventory Server is inactive, the system shows you the warning message. The audit for this Node will not be performed until the server starts. For details about managing Inventory Servers, see Inventory Server Manager.
In case the Node is associated with more than one Inventory Server, audit of the Node will be included in several Audit Tasks.