Datacenter Inventory The vSphere inventory is a representation of the vSphere datacenter and the objects in the datacenter. Knowing how the objects in the datacenter relate to each other helps you traverse the inventory hierarchy and access the objects you want to manipulate. The chapter includes the following topics: ■ Inventory Overview ■ Inventory Hierarchies and ServiceInstance ■ Accessing Inventory Objects ■ Creating Inventory Objects ■ Privileges Required for Inventory Management ■ Managed and Standalone ESX/ESXi Hosts