The inventory software that runs on client machines is not called an agent just by pure coincidence. If we look up the definition of the noun 'agent', we end up with something like this: a representative who acts on behalf of other persons or organizations.
No doubt, the inventory agent fulfils that status quo. The organization for which the agent works is the central management server. Their work is clearly defined; they gather information, and send them back to the central server. They can also act as spies on identifying other hosts that are not inventoried. Network discovery is covered in Chapter 5,Investigating the Process of Gathering Inventory Data.
Besides these tasks, the agent also serves as a key position with regards to package deployment. When this situation occurs, the agent can ask for the file information from the deployment server, request the package, and prepare it for deployment execution.
We have enumerated the tasks of...