Episode

An Introduction to Software Inventory Logging (SIL)

This first module, an introduction to Software Inventory Logging (SIL), gives an overview of SIL, advantages of SIL, architecture & components, prerequisites, and an introduction to basic SIL reports.

The Windows Server Software Inventory Logging framework is intended to reduce the operational costs of inventorying Microsoft software deployed across many servers in an IT environment. This framework consists of two components, this SIL Aggregator (SILA), and the Windows Server feature, Software Inventory Logging (SIL). SILA receives, aggregates, and produces basic reports of the number and types of Microsoft enterprise software installed on Windows Servers in a data center. While SIL needs to be enabled in each Windows Server to post local inventory information to the Aggregator over HTTPS. Reports include counts of installations of Windows Server, System Center, and SQL Server.

Learn more about SIL, read deployment guidelines, as well as troubleshooting steps on the primary SILA technet article:

Software Inventory Logging Aggregator 1.0 for Windows Server

Other references
SIL Aggregator PowerShell cmdlets
An Overview of SIL
Managing SIL SIL PowerShell cmdlets