Mechanisms are provided to inventory groupings of components, e.g., the physical chassis of a networking device as well as the various cards, modules, and/or blades inserted within the chassis. The inventory may be performed remotely. Some implementations also provide mechanisms to determine remotely the physical location of the asset. Preferred implementations of the invention can provide such functionality regardless of whether a main power supply of the physical device is on or off. Some embodiments of the invention employ radio frequency identification ("RFID") technology.