Software license monitoring is designed to give you accurate data about your organization's use of software licenses, in a format that is readily accessible. New features and enhancements include the following:
New user interface: Software license monitoring functionality is now managed in a new console that offers three perspectives (products, computers, and licenses) to give you the tools you need for the task at hand. In each perspective, two independent controls let you filter the data that's displayed in the bottom pane of the console.
Improved console performance: The software license monitoring console displays inventory data from the database, but does not perform real-time updates. The new interface is designed to be responsive so you can quickly and easily find the data you need.
Usage calculation on demand: Usage is calculated regularly, when inventory maintenance is run on the database. If you want to update the current data in between calculations, click the Re-calculate usage button to retrieve the most current data from the database.
Software license compliance calculations: License compliance is calculated regularly, when inventory maintenance is run on the database. Data is updated from the inventory scans that have been run on your managed devices. You can also run compliance calculation on-demand in between regular calculations.
Normalized product data and more accurate recognition: This version of software license monitoring is enhanced by a normalized database of over 22,000 product definitions, which makes it easier to identify which software products are in use. Installed products are recognized by executable files installed, file size, and other characteristics, so products are more accurately identified.
Improved ad-hoc reporting: Six types of report outputs are now available when you click the View as report button, giving you the data that is displayed in the console, in the format you want. In addition, Management Suite includes predefined reports for license and product usage.
Role-based administration filtering for users: A user's ability to view data is tied to the role and scope assigned to that user. Depending on the user's scope, some or all product, computer, and license data is displayed in the console. Only data for computers within the user's scope is displayed.
Dynamic product definitions: You can now group different versions of a software product so they are reported as the same product. For example, minor (point) revisions of a product (such as version 9.0, 9.0.1, and 9.1) can be combined in a single product definition with a wildcard (9.*) version. This reduces the number of different products you manage.
Flexible product types: Product licenses are now defined as single products, dynamic products, and suite products, which include all the individual products that can be sold in a suite.
If you have used previous versions of software license monitoring, note the following changes in this version:
Compliance tree replaced by new console: There is no longer a Compliance tree; this functionality is included in the new console. Computer groups are based on Management Suite groups and queries, so you can specify a scope for a product group when you define the group or query.
Denying use of products: If you want to prevent users from installing or running specific software, use the Application blocker feature, which is now found under the Security group of tools (click Tools > Security > Patch and compliancein the Management Suite console).
Managing software definitions: To manage the software products that are tracked (which was formerly done by editing the LDAPPL3 files), you can now add product definitions in the software license monitoring console. When you do this, the product information is automatically added to the LDAPPL3 file so that inventory scans include the product you defined. To add products only for inventory scanning (but not for license tracking), use the Manage software list tool, which is a separate tool under the Reporting/Monitoring group of tools (click Tools > Reporting/Monitoring > Manage software listin the Management Suite console).
Inventory feature: The list of files that the inventory scanner uses to identify products now includes the normalized product data that is added in this version. You can still create custom definitions, but we suggest that you look for existing product definitions before creating custom definitions.
Alias feature: Aliases are now handled with wildcards in the license definition. You can associate different versions of a product under one product definition by using a wildcard (* character) in the version number. You can use the wildcard at any level, so you can combine all versions of a product (revisions 1, 2, and 3 with version "*") or all point revisions of a product version (revisions 4.0, 4.1, and 4.5 with version "4.*"). Manufacturer name aliases are now handled by the normalized software product data that is included in this product.
License data format: The format of database tables containing license information has changed in this version. To import license data from a previous version, you need to export the old license data, reformat it using the new data structure, and import it into the database using the Import licenses button in the software license monitoring console. For instructions on importing data, see How do I import licenses into SLM in LDMS 9.