diff --git a/content/blog/inventory-service/index.md b/content/blog/inventory-service/index.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..662f84c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/content/blog/inventory-service/index.md
@@ -0,0 +1,415 @@
++++
+title = "Introduction to the Inventory service: A replacement for SMD"
+description = "A brief overview of setting up and using the inventory service."
+date = 2026-04-24T00:00:00+00:00
+lastmod = 2026-04-24T00:00:00+00:00
+draft = false
+weight = 10
+categories = ["HPC", "Operations", "Services"]
+tags = ["OpenCHAMI", "Inventory", "inventory-service", "Fabrica"]
+contributors = ["Shane Unruh"]
++++
+
+1. [Inventory Service Overview](#inventory-service-overview)
+    1. [IDs in the Inventory Service](#ids-in-the-inventory-service)
+1. [Running the Service](#running-the-service)
+    1. [Run in a Quadlet](#run-in-a-quadlet)
+    1. [Run from local binary](#run-from-local-binary)
+    1. [Run using docker image](#run-using-docker-image)
+        1. [Example building locally](#example-building-locally)
+    1. [Run in the quickstart](#run-in-the-quickstart)
+    1. [Test With SMD](#test-with-smd)
+1. [REST Endpoints](#rest-endpoints)
+
+
+## Inventory Service Overview
+
+[Inventory service](https://github.com/OpenCHAMI/inventory-service) is a replacement for the older [SMD service](https://github.com/OpenCHAMI/smd).
+It is an OpenCHAMI service developed using [Fabrica](https://github.com/OpenCHAMI/fabrica).
+
+Inventory service implements enough of the APIs on SMD to be a drop in replacement for SMD in OpenCHAMI.
+The goal is to support enough of the original SMD APIs,
+such that exiting clients of SMD do not need to change.
+For example, [PCS](https://github.com/OpenCHAMI/power-control) should work with either SMD or Inventory service.
+Inventory service is not 100% backward compatible with SMD.
+
+The primary way that Inventory service differs from SMD is that SMD supports discovering nodes.
+i.e. it makes the redfish calls to the Node's Management processor and collects all the information about the node.
+Inventory service does not do this.
+
+The rationales for creating Inventory service are as follows:
+1. To be more flexible in the data that is stored. For example, to allow IDs other than xnames.
+2. To support the OpenCHAMI style REST API
+3. To make it easier to add new APIs and capabilities.
+3. To have a service that is less complex then the current SMD.
+   - It does this by not bringing forward the discovery capabilities.
+
+### IDs in the Inventory Service
+
+Fabrica based services assign a UID to each resource when it is created.
+SMD allows the user to pick the ID for each resource, with the exception that the ID is limited to the xname format.
+Inventory assigns UIDs at creation time in the same way as any other fabrica based service.
+It also enforces uniqueness for the fields that were IDs in SMD; however, it does not require that these IDs be xnames.
+
+| Resource            | Unique Spec field                                        |
+|---------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|
+| Component           | Spec.ID                                                  |
+| ComponentEndpoint   | Spec.ID                                                  |
+| EthernetInterface   | Spec.ID                                                  |
+| Group               | Spec.Label                                               |
+| Hardware            | Spec.ID                                                  |
+| RedfishEndpoint     | Spec.ID                                                  |
+| ServiceEndpoint     | Spec.RedfishType + "-" + Spec.RedfishEndpointID          |
+
+The uniqueness of these fields are enforced in the Database schema.
+
+## Running the Service
+
+The service can be run in multiple ways
+
+### Run in a quadlet
+
+This shows to how to run as a quadlet as is done in the [OpenCHAMI Tutorial](https://openchami.org/docs/tutorial/)
+
+Create the file `inventory-service.container` in `/etc/containers/systemd` with the following contents
+
+```
+[Unit]
+Description=The inventory service container
+PartOf=openchami.target
+
+# Don’t start until the network has started
+Requires=openchami-internal-network.service openchami-jwt-internal-network.service
+After=openchami-internal-network.service openchami-jwt-internal-network.service
+
+# Don’t start until JWKS is ready:
+Wants=hydra-gen-jwks.service
+After=hydra-gen-jwks.service
+
+[Container]
+ContainerName=inventory-service
+HostName=inventory
+Image=ghcr.io/openchami/inventory-service:0.1.0
+
+# Environment Variables
+EnvironmentFile=/etc/openchami/configs/openchami.env
+
+# Secrets
+# Secret=
+
+# Networks for the Container to use
+Network=openchami-internal.network
+
+# Unsupported by generator options
+# Proxy settings
+PodmanArgs=--http-proxy=false
+
+[Service]
+Restart=always
+```
+
+### Run from local binary
+
+```bash
+make build
+```
+```bash
+rm -rf data
+mkdir -p data
+```
+```bash
+./bin/inventory-service serve --database-url "file:data/inventory-service.db?_fk=1"
+```
+
+See the learn by example section in [Fabrica](https://github.com/OpenCHAMI/fabrica?tab=readme-ov-file#-learn-by-example)
+
+### Run using docker image
+
+```bash
+rm -rf data
+mkdir -p data
+```
+```bash
+docker run --rm --name inventory-service -d -p 8080:8080 -v $(pwd)/data:/data ghcr.io/openchami/inventory-service:0.1.0
+```
+fabrica style
+```bash
+curl -s -X GET http://localhost:8080/components | jq
+```
+SMD style
+```bash
+curl -s -X GET http://localhost:8080/hsm/v2/State/Components | jq
+```
+
+Stop the inventory container
+```bash
+docker container stop inventory-service
+```
+
+#### Example building locally
+```bash
+make build image
+```
+```bash
+rm -rf data
+mkdir -p data
+```
+```
+docker run --rm --name inventory-service -d -p 8080:8080 -v $(pwd)/data:/data inventory-service:latest
+```
+SMD style request for the component resource
+```bash
+curl -s -X GET http://localhost:8080/hsm/v2/State/Components | jq
+```
+```json
+{
+  "Components": []
+}
+```
+
+
+Fabrica (OpenCHAMI) style request for the same resource.
+```bash
+curl -s -X GET http://localhost:8080/components | jq
+```
+```json
+null
+```
+
+Post a Component using the SMD style API
+```bash
+curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8080/hsm/v2/State/Components \
+  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
+  -d '{ "Components": [{
+      "ID": "x3000c0s19b1",
+      "Type": "NodeBMC",
+      "State": "Ready",
+      "Flag": "OK",
+      "Enabled": true,
+      "NetType": "Sling",
+      "Arch": "X86",
+      "Class": "River"
+  }]}'
+
+```
+
+```bash
+curl -s -X GET http://localhost:8080/components | jq
+```
+```json
+[
+  {
+    "apiVersion": "v1",
+    "kind": "Component",
+    "metadata": {
+      "name": "x3000c0s19b1",
+      "uid": "component-673d2bde",
+      "createdAt": "2026-04-23T18:20:11.798823051Z",
+      "updatedAt": "2026-04-23T18:20:11.798823051Z"
+    },
+    "id": "x3000c0s19b1",
+    "spec": {
+      "ID": "x3000c0s19b1",
+      "Type": "NodeBMC",
+      "State": "Ready",
+      "Flag": "OK",
+      "Enabled": true,
+      "NetType": "Sling",
+      "Arch": "X86",
+      "Class": "River"
+    },
+    "status": {
+      "ready": false
+    }
+  }
+]
+```
+
+```bash
+curl -s -X GET http://localhost:8080/hsm/v2/State/Components | jq
+```
+```json
+{
+  "Components": [
+    {
+      "ID": "x3000c0s19b1",
+      "Type": "NodeBMC",
+      "State": "Ready",
+      "Flag": "OK",
+      "Enabled": true,
+      "NetType": "Sling",
+      "Arch": "X86",
+      "Class": "River"
+    }
+  ]
+}
+```
+
+POSTing the same resource again
+
+```bash
+curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8080/hsm/v2/State/Components   -H "Content-Type: application/json"   -d '{ "Components": [{
+      "ID": "x3000c0s19b1",
+      "Type": "NodeBMC",
+      "State": "Ready",
+      "Flag": "OK",
+      "Enabled": true,
+      "NetType": "Sling",
+      "Arch": "X86",
+      "Class": "River"
+  }]}' | jq
+```
+```json
+{
+  "error": "failed to save Component: failed to create Component: ent: constraint failed: UNIQUE constraint failed: resources.resource_type, resources.resource_id",
+  "code": 500
+}
+```
+The error comes directly from the Database and refers to fields in the database not in the json.
+In the future we may improve this.
+`resource_type` is the `Kind` field in the fabrica style API's output.
+`resource_id` is an internal field. For Components this contains the same value as the ID field.
+
+
+Stop the inventory container
+```
+docker stop inventory-service
+```
+
+### Run in the quickstart
+
+This shows how to run in the [quickstart guide](https://github.com/OpenCHAMI/deployment-recipes/tree/main/quickstart)
+
+Replace the `SMD Init and Server Containers` with the following
+
+```
+services:
+###
+# Inventory Service Container
+###
+  inventory-service:
+    image: ghcr.io/openchami/inventory-service:0.1.0
+    container_name: inventory-service
+    hostname: inventory
+    networks:
+      - internal
+```
+
+### Test With SMD
+
+Running `make test-compare-to-smd` starts a docker compose environment with both SMD and the Inventory Service.
+It also starts a few instances of the [Redfish Interface Emulator (RIE)](https://github.com/Cray-HPE/csm-redfish-interface-emulator).
+This does does the following
+1. Starts a compose environment with the Inventory Service, SMD, and RIE.
+2. Makes requests to SMD to discover the Redfish endpoints emulated by RIE.
+3. Makes REST calls to SMD to get the Resources and POSTs those to the Inventory Service.
+4. Compares the Resources in SMD to the Inventory Service.
+5. Stops the compose environment.
+
+
+Here is an example of running the parts of this test
+
+```bash
+make all
+make start-inventory-and-smd
+```
+```bash
+docker ps --no-trunc --format "table {{.Names}}\t{{.Status}}\t{{.Command}}"
+```
+```
+NAMES               STATUS                    COMMAND
+smd                 Up 9 seconds (healthy)    "/sbin/tini -- /smd"
+postgres            Up 22 seconds (healthy)   "docker-entrypoint.sh postgres"
+rf-x0c0s2b0         Up 22 seconds             "python3 emulator.py"
+rf-x0c0s1b0         Up 22 seconds             "python3 emulator.py"
+rf-x0c0s3b0         Up 22 seconds             "python3 emulator.py"
+rf-x0c0s4b0         Up 22 seconds             "python3 emulator.py"
+inventory-service   Up 22 seconds             "/usr/local/bin/inventory-service serve --port 8080 --database-url file:/data/inventory.db?_fk=1"
+```
+Run the tests. SMD will discover the nodes, the resources will be POSTed to the Inventory Service, and then the Resources in SMD and Inventory Service will be compared
+```bash
+docker run --rm -it --network inventory_internal inventory-test:latest
+```
+```
+=========================================================== test session starts ============================================================
+platform linux -- Python 3.14.2, pytest-9.0.2, pluggy-1.6.0
+rootdir: /app
+collected 1 item
+
+test_compare_to_smd.py .                                                                                                             [100%]
+
+============================================================ 1 passed in 20.05s ============================================================
+```
+
+The `inventory-test:latest` image can be used to make curl calls to the Inventory Service and to SMD.
+
+
+SMD style REST call to Inventory
+
+```bash
+docker run --rm -t --network inventory_internal inventory-test:latest sh -c 'curl -s -X GET http://inventory:8080/hsm/v2/State/Components' | jq -c '.Components[] | { "ID": .ID, "Type": .Type }'
+```
+```json
+{"ID":"x0c0s1e0","Type":"NodeEnclosure"}
+{"ID":"x0c0s1b0n0","Type":"Node"}
+{"ID":"x0c0s1b0","Type":"NodeBMC"}
+{"ID":"x0c0s3e0","Type":"NodeEnclosure"}
+{"ID":"x0c0s3b0n0","Type":"Node"}
+{"ID":"x0c0s3b0n1","Type":"Node"}
+{"ID":"x0c0s3b0","Type":"NodeBMC"}
+{"ID":"x0c0s4e0","Type":"NodeEnclosure"}
+{"ID":"x0c0s4b0n0","Type":"Node"}
+{"ID":"x0c0s4b0n1","Type":"Node"}
+{"ID":"x0c0s4b0","Type":"NodeBMC"}
+{"ID":"x0c0s2e0","Type":"NodeEnclosure"}
+{"ID":"x0c0s2b0n0","Type":"Node"}
+{"ID":"x0c0s2b0n1","Type":"Node"}
+{"ID":"x0c0s2b0","Type":"NodeBMC"}
+```
+
+OpenCHAMI (Fabrica) style REST call to Inventory
+```bash
+docker run --rm -t --network inventory_internal inventory-test:latest sh -c 'curl -s -X GET http://inventory:8080/components' | jq -c '.[] | { "kind": .kind, "metadata": { "name": .metadata.name }, "spec" : {"ID": .spec.ID, "Type": .spec.Type} }'
+```
+```json
+{"kind":"Component","metadata":{"name":"x0c0s1e0"},"spec":{"ID":"x0c0s1e0","Type":"NodeEnclosure"}}
+{"kind":"Component","metadata":{"name":"x0c0s1b0n0"},"spec":{"ID":"x0c0s1b0n0","Type":"Node"}}
+{"kind":"Component","metadata":{"name":"x0c0s1b0"},"spec":{"ID":"x0c0s1b0","Type":"NodeBMC"}}
+{"kind":"Component","metadata":{"name":"x0c0s3e0"},"spec":{"ID":"x0c0s3e0","Type":"NodeEnclosure"}}
+{"kind":"Component","metadata":{"name":"x0c0s3b0n0"},"spec":{"ID":"x0c0s3b0n0","Type":"Node"}}
+{"kind":"Component","metadata":{"name":"x0c0s3b0n1"},"spec":{"ID":"x0c0s3b0n1","Type":"Node"}}
+{"kind":"Component","metadata":{"name":"x0c0s3b0"},"spec":{"ID":"x0c0s3b0","Type":"NodeBMC"}}
+{"kind":"Component","metadata":{"name":"x0c0s4e0"},"spec":{"ID":"x0c0s4e0","Type":"NodeEnclosure"}}
+{"kind":"Component","metadata":{"name":"x0c0s4b0n0"},"spec":{"ID":"x0c0s4b0n0","Type":"Node"}}
+{"kind":"Component","metadata":{"name":"x0c0s4b0n1"},"spec":{"ID":"x0c0s4b0n1","Type":"Node"}}
+{"kind":"Component","metadata":{"name":"x0c0s4b0"},"spec":{"ID":"x0c0s4b0","Type":"NodeBMC"}}
+{"kind":"Component","metadata":{"name":"x0c0s2e0"},"spec":{"ID":"x0c0s2e0","Type":"NodeEnclosure"}}
+{"kind":"Component","metadata":{"name":"x0c0s2b0n0"},"spec":{"ID":"x0c0s2b0n0","Type":"Node"}}
+{"kind":"Component","metadata":{"name":"x0c0s2b0n1"},"spec":{"ID":"x0c0s2b0n1","Type":"Node"}}
+{"kind":"Component","metadata":{"name":"x0c0s2b0"},"spec":{"ID":"x0c0s2b0","Type":"NodeBMC"}}
+```
+
+REST call to SMD
+```bash
+docker run --rm -t --network inventory_internal inventory-test:latest sh -c 'curl -s -X GET http://smd:27779/hsm/v2/State/Components' | jq -c '.Components[] | { "ID": .ID, "Type": .Type }'
+```
+
+```bash
+make stop-inventory-and-smd
+```
+
+## REST Endpoints
+
+| Resource           | Inventory (Fabrica Style) | Inventory (SMD Style)                 |
+|--------------------|---------------------------|---------------------------------------|
+| Component          | /components               | /hsm/v2/Status/Components             |
+| ComponentEndpoint  | /componentendpoints       | /hsm/v2/Inventory/ComponentEndpoints  |
+| EthernetInterface  | /ethernetinterfaces       | /hsm/v2/Inventory/EthernetInterfaces  |
+| Group              | /groups                   | /hsm/v2/groups                        |
+| Hardware           | /hardwares                | /hsm/v2/Inventory/Hardware            |
+| RedfishEndpoint    | /redfishendpoints         | /hsm/v2/Inventory/RedfishEndpoints    |
+| ServiceEndpoint    | /serviceendpoints         | /hsm/v2/Inventory/ServiceEndpoints    |
+| health             | /health                   | /hsm/v2/service/ready                 |
+| liveness           |                           | /hsm/v2/service/liveness              |
+
+