1. Inventory Widget

Contents

Inventory Widget

1.1. Purpose

The main purpose of the widget is to count the number of objects respecting certain conditions. Moreover it can sum them and group them according several criteria. The inventory is computed over a sliding period of time that can be of any length independently of what is available in the Engine. For exemple, one can define an inventory with a period of 60 days; it means that every day, the inventory will be computed for the last 60 days. The widget doesn't record the whole history; only the current count of objects (e.g., for the last 60 days) is available.

1.2. Creating widget

To create an Inventory widget, please follow the following steps:

1.2.1. Step 1

choose what you'd like to count. It can be either
- all objects (i.e., all sources, all users, ...)
- or objects retrieved with an investigation. $/!\$ In this case, only the investigation's conditions are considered.
enter the time period (in days)
choose how tendencies shall be marked: no care, up is bad and down is good, up is good and down is bad.
select the Engines on which you want to do the inventory

1.2.2. Step 2

select the attributes for the "sum by"; these are limited to some attributes and categories of the object to be counted. One can select 0 to n attributes. Their order as well as the separator can be changed.
choose the computation mode. Two modes are available:
- current status: only the current status of each object is taken into account.
- all statuses: all statuses of each object during the time period is taken into account.
See below for detailed explanations on how calculation is performed.
optionally select a criterion for grouping results ("group by"); it can be any category on any object type. If one has selected attributes for the "sum by" and a criterion for grouping, one can also chooses which one is displayed as rows or columns.

1.2.3. Step 3

select the ratios available in the visualization. Four options are available:
- overall: the value corresponding to the total for all columns and rows is the reference
- per column: for each column the total of the column is the reference
- per row: for each row the total of the row is the reference
- ratio: the reference is the corresponding value in another inventory widget. In the list appears only inventory widgets based on same object and having the same time period, "sum by" attributes and "group by" option.
Only options which make sense are enabled. Options "per column" and "per row" are enabled only if there is more than one dimension in the resulting table.

1.3. How the calculation is performed

1.3.1. Counting objects

Given for example a certain machine M, let us see how it is considered.

Machine M:       A+  A+      A-

           ——|——————————————————|—> time
                    period     now

In the time period ending now (i.e. last night), the days the machine was active are considered: A+ and A-
A+ means: the machine is active and matching the investigation's conditions
A- means: the machine is active but not matching the investigation's conditions
Note: if the count was defined by the pull-down menu, rather than by an investigation, there are only A+

The 'Base inventory on' option determines if the machine is counted or not:

'all statuses during the time period': There must be at least one A+. In the above example, the machine would be counted.
'current status only': The most recent status counts. In the above example, the machine would not be counted, because in its last active state, it was not matching the investigation's condition.
In any case, the machine is not counted if it has never been seen during the period.

1.3.2. Summing

The option 'Sum counts by' define groups of counts. All seen combinations of values of the selected attributes determine these groups.

Using this option will turn the displayed results to a list.

A given object is counted in one group only. So if it changed of group during the period, it will be counted in the group corresponding to its last state seen.

1.3.3. Group by

The 'Display results' option set to 'grouped by' an object category defines an additional grouping,

Using this option will turn the displayed results to a list if the option 'Sum counts by' was not used, and to a table otherwise.

When an object changes of group during the period, it may be counted multiply or not, depending on the 'Base inventory on' option:

'all statuses during the time period': There may be duplicates
'current status only': There are no duplicates, and the object is counted in the last group it was seen.

1.3.4. Recap

Counted objects:

		Base inventory on
		all statuses...	current status only
Count	all objects	counted if seen at least once
	investigation	counted if conditions are met at least once when active	counted if conditions are met when last seen active

Display:

		Base inventory on
		all statuses...	current status only
Display results	Sum by	no duplicates (last state)	no duplicates (last state)
	Group by	duplicates (for each state)	no duplicates (last state)

1.4. Using widget

If neither "sum by" attributes nor "group by" criterion is selected, a single value is provided:

If only "sum by" attributes or a "group by" criterion is selected, a one-dimensional table is displayed:

If both "sum by" attributes and a "group by" criterion is selected, a two-dimensional table is displayed:

1.4.1. Ratio

In tables, depending on what was configured, one can choose to display percentages per row, per column, overall, ratio or no percentage at all.

Here is an example of the ratio based on an another inventory widget:

One can see the counted values of "Desktops accessing critical servers" and then the same values but referenced by the widget "Active Desktops"

1.4.2. Details

One can click on the value to access to the list of objects in a separate dialog.

1.4.3. History

Near the value, the last change is displayed using an icon as configured in first step. The first time the widget is computed, the evolution doesn't appear since it needs two computation to compute the evolution.

One can click also on this value to display the history of the inventory. Values for each computed day could be consulted.

They are different modes in the history dialog:

last change: display objects which have been added or removed
specific dates: display the history between two dates
last days: display the history from today for the last x days
month: display the history for a given month
quarter: display the history for a given quarter
semester: display the history for a given semester
year: display the history for a give year

For each mode, the available choices correspond to the dates computed for the widget.

The last change mode display the evolution between two computation of the widget and list the objects added or removed.

All other modes display a chart with the values corresponding to the selected period of time. The minimal and maximal values are highlighted.

Note that, all tables can also be directly exported in CSV for processing in another system (e.g., Excel).

doc/3.2.1/Working With Portal/Inventory Widget