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Ver 1.0 Date 16/11/2015

How to Configure Software Metering

Overview

For an organization, it is important to manage their software assets efficiently and to avoid the risk of license non-compliance. Software metering makes this easier by giving the usage statistics of software in the network. Software metering also gives the frequency of software usage and unused software on the network which will help the IT Managers decide on their organization’s software need of license renewal.

Users can get e-mail alert when any new unused software is detected on the network and users can uninstall unused software manually or automatically. Users can also make use of software metering reports to view the software usage in their organization.

With SapphireIMS software metering capabilities, you can:

-       Register windows devices with software for monitoring software usage

-       Determine how often (and by whom) specific applications are being used

-       Identify unused and underutilized licenses

 

Step 1: Configure Software Metering Policy

·         Go to Settings Tab-> Asset and Inventory Management -> Software Metering.  Click on “Add”

 

1. Select "Software" or "Suite" option. If a suite is selected, it lists executables related to its components also. Executables listed here are collected as part of inventory.

2. Select "Manufacturer Name"

3. Select "Software Name".

4. Enter the description of the software to be metered

5. Click here to add a custom executable file in case the executable is not collected as part of inventory

6. Executable File Name is the file name of the executable used for launching the application.

7. Product Name is one of the file header properties of the executable. This can be found by viewing the properties of the executable.

8. Click "Add" to add the executable file to the list

9. Click "Save" to save the software metering policy details

 

Step 2: Configure Software Metering Profile

 

 

1. In this page all software metering profiles created by the user are displayed. Click here to enable/disable a particular profile. “Profile Status” displays whether the profile is enabled/disabled.

2. Click "Add" to add a new software metering profile

 

 

1.       Select the software metering policy (policies)

2.       Select the “Inclusion Host Profiles” to which the policy (policies) have to be mapped

3.       Click “Add Inclusion Host Profile” to add a new host inclusion profile

4.       Enter the profile name

5.       Select a category from the drop down  box

6.       Click “Add Profile” to add the host profile

7.       Enter the software metering profile configuration name

8.       Click “Save” to save the software metering profile configuration

 

Step 3: Change Software Metering Settings

 

 

General Settings:

 

Software metering feature: The user can enable or disable software metering feature. By default it is enabled.

Data collection interval: The interval in which software metering data is to be collected.

Data purge interval: The number of days the software metering data has to be retained in the database.

 

Usage Level Definition:

Sample data period: Time period to be considered for categorizing software to either “Frequently” or “Occasionally” or “Rarely” or “Unused”. Software is not categorized until the duration of the sample data period.

Frequently used: Minimum usage count to categorize a particular software as frequently used within the sample data period.

Rarely used:Maximum usage count to categorize a particular software as rarely used within the sample period. This value should be less than the frequently used value and greater than 0. Software with usage level 0 is classified as Unused.  Software usage level between Frequently Used Count and Rarely Used Count is classified as “Occasionally used”.

 

Software Uninstallation Settings:

Auto uninstallation of unused software:  Once unused software is detected in the network, the user can either manually or automatically  un-install that unused software.

To uninstall software automatically, 'Auto uninstallation of unused software' setting has to be enabled and if software is Non-MSI, then a package has to be created.

 

Grace period to trigger un-installation: If auto un-installation is enabled, then the end user is given a grace period to use the software. If the unused software is not used during the grace period, then automatic uninstallation is triggered. If the user uses the software during the grace period, then uninstallation does not happen for the corresponding software on the corresponding host.

 

Step 4: Add Email Notification Template

 

 

Email notification is used to send alerts about unused software information on the network. You can edit the pre-shipped e-mail notification template or create your own template. But only one template can be active at a time.

·         Click “Add” to add a new email notification template

 

 

You can add your own e-mail notification template as given above. The above template screen is similar to BSM notification templates or you can create notification template in Settings -> Fault and Notifications -> Notification Templates -> Add -> Software Metering Notification. Here you can define the mail subject and mail content.

 

Following macros are used

 

1.       Rule Name – Name of the rule for which notification has to be sent.

2.       Unused Software Count – Number of unused software found according to a particular rule.

3.       Unused Software Count – Number of machines, the above unused software found.

 

Step 5: Add Email Notification Rules

 

Email notification rules define the conditions to send software notifications for unused software.

·         Click the “Add” button to define a rule

 

 

Rule name is a distinct name for a rule which is used as a macro in an e-mail template.

 

Rule Type:

 

1.     All Software – If a rule is created by selecting All Software, Unused Software Count (Macro) includes all unused software and the corresponding system count is considered as Unused System Count (Macro).

2.     Commercial Software – If a rule is created by selecting Commercial Software, Unused Software Count (Macro) includes only commercial software among all unused software. The corresponding system count                is considered as Unused System Count (Macro).

3.     Specific Software – If you select a specific software, you can choose for which software you want to get notification as displayed in the below figure. Selected software are considered for macro calculation. In the mail, you do not get detailed description of software name and host count. Only consolidated count is sent in the mail. This is a limitation in Software Metering Email Notification.

 

 

Step 6: View Software Metering Statistics

 

SapphireIMS helps you to view the software metering statistics for the software metering profiles configured under Settings > Asset and Inventory Management > Software Metering

 

·         Go to Inventory tab > Software Metering

 

 

The dashboards provided for software metering are:

 

Top n Manufacturer Based Distribution: Displays the software used by a particular manufacturer

Top n Most Used Software: Most used software is calculated based on how frequently a particular software is used. Similarly, you can get information about least used software by selecting Filter by -> Bottom 10

 

 

Usage Level Based Distribution: This dashboard displays the frequently used, occasionally used, rarely used and unused software. Same software can be classified as rarely used and occasionally used for different machines.

 

Usage Summary

 

 

This tab gives the summary of software usage. You can see on how many machines a particular software is installed and in how many machines it is actually used and when it is last used. For unknown software, software name and installed system count will be ‘--‘. If product name property is present, it will be listed in the 'Product Name' column. Here product name is obtained from executable properties and it is not a normalized product that is used in software normalization.

 

Host Usage Summary

 

 

This tab provides summary of software usage host wise and usage level of a particular software on particular host (frequently or rarely or occasionally). If you want to list only rarely used software, you can use Usage Level filter provided in 'Advanced Search'. This usage level categorization works on software which is used beyond the Sample Period specified in Software Metering Settings. Software which is not used beyond this Sample Period is Uncategorized.

 

Usage Details

 

 

Here, software to executable break up is given. In a particular host, for a particular software information such as how many executables are present and which one is getting used can be obtained from this tab.

On click of particular executable name, you can see history of usage of that executable in a pop-up as shown below.

 

 

Unused Software

 

 

This tab gives software which are unused and waiting for uninstallation. Here you can configure uninstall package for a particular software if it is not configured. For MSI package configuration, the column is not applicable because MSI software are uninstalled through WMI and it does not require silent parameter. Once the package is configured, you can select number of software in the host and click uninstall.

The uninstallation job is posted for the corresponding machine with corresponding software. Status of uninstallation job can be viewed under IT Automation -> Automation Tasks -> Automation Task Status.

 

Here if the job is posted through automatic un-installation, the job name is SM_AutoUninstall_MSI_<time> for MSI software and SM_AutoUninstall_<SofwareName>_<version>_<time> for Non-MSI software.

If the job is posted from UI, job name will be SM_Uninstall_MSI_<time> for MSI software and SM_Uninstall_<SofwareName>_<version>_<time> for Non-MSI software.

 

Package Configuration

 

 

For entries with package configuration that are not configured, click “Not Configured” to configure the package. Package configuration is similar to configuring uninstallation package in Settings -> Software Management -> Package and Policy Management -> Create uninstall package. You need to give the silent parameter to uninstall the software, otherwise uninstallation will not happen.

 

Metering Status

 

 

Here you can see the software metering sync time on each machine when software metering data is collected for each host. 

 

Policy Sync Time:  Policy sync time in agent-less machines refers to the time when the last software metering collection attempt was made. In agent it refers to the time when the software metering policy was last applied.

Last Collection Time: The time at which successful software metering data collection happened on each host.