Software Usage Tracking

Software usage tracking is only available on Windows and Mac computers.
If you need to track application usage, the best practice is to use the software usage tracking option that Inventory Solution provides.
You can manage software products, track software usage, and view gathered usage tracking data in the Symantec Management Console
Software
view. You see the
Software
view if you have installed the following:
  • Symantec Management Platform
  • Inventory Solution
  • Software Management Solution
  • ITMS Management Views
On Windows computers, you can track usage of the managed software at the software product level. Inventory Solution uses inventory filtering criteria that are defined in software products. If a software component that is discovered in your environment matches the filtering criteria, Inventory Solution associates the component to a relevant managed software product. Inventory Solution also implements intelligent identification of software components and key program files and creates component-to-file associations. When you enable usage tracking for a software product, you specify usage tracking rules that define the program files that you want to track. This way you can track software usage at the product level instead of the file level. For example, you can track Microsoft Office 2008 as a separate software product. You can see it in usage tracking reports as Microsoft Office 2008, not as
winword.exe
.
On Mac computers, you can track usage of the managed software at the software product level. For software tracking on Mac computers, Inventory Solution uses inventory filtering criteria that are defined in software products. Inventory Solution automatically associates all relevant Mac applications with the corresponding software components of the software products. These component-to-file associations are stored locally on the client Mac computers. The associations are not sent to the CMDB and not displayed in the Symantec Management Console. Inventory Solution uses the associations when you enable the usage tracking option for a particular software product that has software components installed on Mac computers.
The software-based usage tracking option also helps you to prepare for managing software licenses and for software audit. It lets you see which software is installed and used in your environment, and how many software licenses you use. For example, before the Adobe software audit, you can view all the versions of Adobe products that are installed in the company environment.
Process for software usage tracking
Step
Action
Description
Step 1
Prepare computers for tracking usage of the managed software products.
Target computers must be discovered, managed with the Symantec Management Agent, and have the Inventory Plug-in and the Application Metering Plug-in installed.
Step 2
(Optional) Configure settings for gathered application metering data.
You can configure the purging settings for gathered application metering data.
Application metering data that is older than two months is deleted by default.
Step 3
(Optional) Ensure that the proper replication rules are enabled.
If you use hierarchy with customized settings, ensure that the following replication rules are enabled:
  • File Resources for key executable files
  • Metered Files Properties Data class data
  • Metering Summary Data class data
  • Software Component Resources for installed software components
  • Software Components
  • Software Products
  • Software Products and metering/track usage configuration for the products
You enable the replication rules in the
Symantec Management Console
, at
Settings > Notification Server > Hierarchy > Hierarchy Management > Replication > Resources
.
note that if you track usage of the managed software products in hierarchy with the default settings, these replication rules are enabled by default.
Step 4
Gather software inventory.
You can track usage of software products that are installed and discovered in your environment.
Use the following software inventory method to discover and gather the required software inventory data:
Software inventory of Windows
Add or Remove Programs
list and UNIX/Linux/Mac software packages
Step 5
Manage the software product that you want to track.
You can track usage of a software product only if the software product is managed.
After software inventory data is gathered and entered into the Configuration Management Database (CMDB), you have the following options for managing a software product and its components:
  • Inventory Solution provides the list of predefined managed software products that have defined inventory filtering criteria. If the software product that you want to track is predefined, Inventory Solution automatically associates discovered and matching software components with your product. The software component that gets associated with a managed software product becomes a managed component. Note that if you later decide to make the software product unmanaged, the software components that belong to the product become unmanaged.
    The predefined nightly task ensures that each software component is associated to an appropriate software product.
  • If the software component that you want to track does not belong to the predefined software product, you can manually create a managed software product for this software component.
You view the managed software products in the
Symantec Management Console
, when you click
Manage > Software > Software Catalog > Managed Products
.
To view the software components of the predefined software products in the
Symantec Management Console
, click
Manage > Software > All Software > All Software Products
, click the relevant software product in the content pane, and then, in the right pane, in the software details flipbook, click
Product Summary > Inventory
.
Step 6
Enable tracking usage of the managed software products for managed computers.
You need to enable the software usage tracking option for the managed software that you want to track at the product level.
For Windows computers, you also need to manually add at least one usage tracking rule for each software product that you want to track.
Step 7
View usage tracking results.
In the Symantec Management Console
Software
view, you can track the following usage events for the managed software products:
  • License deployment
  • The usage of the software application at the product level
  • Last usage time
    Note: If an application is in use at the moment when the data is gathered, the current time is reported as the last usage time.
  • Installation date
You can also view application summary data for the managed software product in the following application metering reports:
  • (Windows only)
    Executable Usage
  • Underutilized Software