Introduction
This guide was designed to help a user that is new Software License Monitoring in LANDesk Management Suite to get started with basic concepts and setup
introduced in 9.5. It does not represent a comprehensive in-depth guide, only a general use case scenario.
Assumptions
The user must have a working LANDesk Management Suite Core Server and console. Inventory scans from devices that contain the software we wish to monitor, and available vendor licensing information.
Basics
We need to start with acknowledging the basic concepts LANDesk uses.
1. Normalized Products
- Normalized products are products that SLM has identified as a software package and combined into one.
2. Custom Products
- Custom products are products that the User has defined based upon file name and / or file version and created a single product.
3. Licenses
- Licenses are granted by the software vendor and input by the user to define how many are available.
4. Compliance
- Compliance shows how close to the number of granted licenses have been used by devices.
UI Basics
The SLM UI is broken up into 4 basic groupings, the groupings are found running down the left hand side of the window.
1. Dashboard
- Dashboard is your basic view into your basic licensed environment it contains the following:
a. Audits
- This tool gives you a quick view of the products you are monitoring and their license usage.
b. Compliance
- This tool gives you a quick view of total compliance by product in your enterprise.
C. License Optimization
- This tool gives you a quick view of products that are out of compliance and what it would take to bring them into compliance.
2. Products
- Products allows to find and select products monitored by SLM. In contains the following tools:
a. Monitored
- This tool shows products that your enterprise has chose to monitor and basic informtion on the product.
b. Discovered
- This tool shows all software discovered by the LANDesk Inventory process.
c. Ignored
- This tool shows all software that your enterprise has determined should not be monitored by LANDesk.
d. All installed products
- This shows all products from every group.
e. Licenses
- This tool shows all licenses your enterprise has entered. From here they can be added, edited, imported, and deleted. Licenses can be imported or exported to or from CSV.
3. Administration
- Administration allows the user to configure the settings used by SLM. It contains the following tools.
a. Computer Groups
- This tool allows you to add groups with will be configured to use SLM in your environment. Groups can be LDMS Device Groups or Queries.
b. Manufacturers
- This tool shows all inventoried software manufacturers. From here they can be grouped or moved to normalized manufacturer.
c. Calcuations
- This is where all background processes inportant to SLM can be found. They run on a typical schedule but can be forced to run by clicking "publish".
4. Reports
- Reports allow the user to view information gathered by SLM and other tools withing LANDesk.
Creating a Custom Product
- Creating a custom product is simple but can be confusing because of differences in how manufacturers define their manufacturer name, filenames, and file version. To create a basic one follow these basic instructions:
1. Go to Products > Discovered. It may take a little time for all discovered products to load.
2. Find your product by typing your intended product in the search box.
3. Multiselect the versions you wish to have in the Custom Product.
4. Right click and choose "Group".
5. Change your definitions as necessary.
6. Define any dynamic rules. I use a wildcard here.
7. Define your unit price.
8. Click "Save". The product will now be found in "Monitored".
Adding a License
1. Go to Products > Licenses
2. At the top of the window click "New", then "License..."
3. Add a License name, license quantity, unit price, vendor, purchase date, expiration date, and compliance type in the License Details.
4. Add any Associated Products by clicking on the "+" sign.
5. Type the name of a product you have.
6. Click "OK".
5. Verify that the license is associated with the product.
6. Add license specific information in "Records".
7. Click "Save".