Way back in October 2012 when I was upgrading a vCenter Server to 5.1 I wrote up a few Installation guides for the various services of vCenter. In one of the guides, Installing vSphere 5.1 -- vCenter Inventory Server. I joked about how I had little or no idea what the inventory service is.
Recently I was listening to a podcast with Justin King (@vCenterGuy) doing a Tech Deep Dive on vCenter Server 5.1. In it he briefly discusses what the Inventory Service is. He did an excellent job of filling in a lot of the missing gaps I had about what the Inventory Service does.
Below is the summary from Justin on the Inventory Service.
- Used since vCenter 5.0.
- Used by web clients only.
- Cache for vCenter inventory
- Used to offload read-only requests from the VPDX
- Allows for better performance, more connections, to vCenter.
- Enables use of Tags (only in web client). Can lead to better organisational structure.
- Inventory Service uses an XML xDB file to store data.
I can’t believe it’s taken this long to get some of these answers on the Inventory Service, but I’m glad I finally have them. Full credit to Justin and his Tech Deep Dive on vCenter Server 5.1, well worth a watch.
Reference
#vBrownBag Follow-up vCenter 5.1 Technical Deep Dive with Justin King (@vCenterGuy)