Topic last updated—November 2007
Within Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, a resource is a managed object discovered by one of the available Configuration Manager discovery methods. As such, a resource can take a variety of forms: it can be hardware such as a computer or a router, or it can be a user or a user group.
Configuration Manager 2007 divides resources into the following types, each of which has a number of attributes that can be used to describe the properties of that resource:
- User Group resources. These consist of
discovered user groups, with distinct attributes such as user group
name, domain, creation date, and agent site.
- System resources. These consist of
discovered computers and IP-addressable resources, with distinct
attributes such as operating system name and version, NetBIOS name,
system role, and MAC address.
- User resources. These consist of
discovered users, with distinct attributes such as user name,
organizational unit, and domain.
The operations you can perform on a resource vary with the type of resource. For example, if the resource has the Configuration Manager 2007 client agent installed, operations include the following:
- Viewing hardware
- Viewing software inventory
- Starting remote tools
- Distributing software packages.
If the resource is a user or a router, Configuration Manager 2007 cannot install any software agents, so the operations are more limited. Operations on non-client resources include the following:
- Viewing the discovery information for that
resource
- Reporting on the resource
- Grouping the resource into collections
In most cases, resources are more effectively managed and handled using collections. Depending on the resources of your organization and the membership rules governing them, these collections can be as small as a single user resource or can encompass thousands of client computers. A resource is often a member of more than one collection. For example, a client can belong to the "Engineering," "Northern California," and "All Windows XP Systems" collections.
You can define collections of resources to represent any useful groupings for your organization, such as the following:
- Geographical area
- IP network
- Customer-specific departments
- Areas of administrative responsibility
- Computers that have a specific processor
type