Patent ID: 7979530

Claim:
A method comprising: storing, with an inventory management system, inventory information associated with a plurality of network devices; sending requests for current inventory information, with a network scan module of the inventory management system, to at least one of the network devices; receiving current inventory information, with the network scan module, from the at least one of the network devices in response to the request, wherein the current inventory information uniquely identifies one or more individual internal elements of the network devices across the plurality of network devices; comparing, with an event generator of the inventory management system, the stored inventory information with the current inventory information to detect a difference between the stored inventory information and the current inventory information, wherein the difference between the stored inventory information and the current inventory information indicates that a first individual internal element has moved from a first network device to a second network device; upon detecting the difference between the stored inventory information and the current inventory information during the comparison, generating, with the event generator, an add event for the second network device, and a delete event for the first network device, wherein the add event indicates an association of the first individual internal element with the second network device, and wherein the delete event indicates a termination of an association between the first individual internal element and the first network device; and updating the stored inventory information to reflect the current inventory information while maintaining the previously stored inventory information as historical data, wherein the historical data comprises a sequence of the events for the first individual internal element, and wherein the sequence of the events comprises entries associated with one or more network devices over a period of time.