Agent

The agent resides on the managed asset and performs the tasks scheduled for a computer or user. The agent can perform many tasks, such as hardware and software inventory scanning, software distribution jobs, and remote control activities.

Primarily, the agent performs the following functions:

Checks the scalability server for jobs and collect tasks scheduled on the computer where the agent resides.
Runs the jobs and collect tasks.
Saves the collected data in the scalability server's collect area.

You can deploy the agents by running either the product installation wizard (from DVD or a share) or the Deployment wizard. The agent must be deployed on the computers that need to be managed by the asset management system. You can use the deployment wizard to deploy the agents based on any of the following criteria:

Computers in a domain
Computers within an IP address range
Specific computers
Computers in an LDAP directory (including Active Directory).

After the agent is deployed, the asset appears in the list of managed assets. Computers in this list are ready to run the asset jobs and collect tasks. The information collected can be extended through the use of the Management Information Format (MIF).

More information:

Management Information Format (.MIF) Files

Non Resident Inventory