discovery, inventory and application recognition
TRANSCRIPT
Discovery, Inventory and Application Recognition
December 2011
Webinar Series
• 1st webinar (Nov)
How to get started on
a SAM program
• 2nd webinar– (Today)
Discovery, Inventory
& Application
Recognition
Level 1
• 3rd webinar– (Jan)
License & Contract
Management
Levels 2-3
• 4th webinar– (Feb)
Strategies for
License Optimization
Level 4
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Level 4 Optimized
Automated entitlement based license
management and optimization;
Level 3 Continuously
Compliant
Automated purchased vs. installed
license reconciliation; SAM processes
to maintain license compliance
Level 2 Managed
Perform purchased versus installed
license reconciliation on an ad hoc
basis; point in time management
Level 1 Installed
Identify software and hardware installed
Enterprise License Optimization Maturity Model
Speaker & Agenda
• License Management overview
• Device Based inventory
• Network based inventory
• Application Recognition
• Additional inventory requirements
• Virtualization
• License examples
• Recommendations
• Questions and Answers
3 © 2011 Flexera Software LLC. All rights reserved. | Company Confidential
Vincent Brasseur
Director of Product
Management,
Flexera Software
License Management Goals
• Calculate your license position
– Reduce non-compliance costs and risks
– Eliminate over-spending on software; identify ‘shelfware’
• Manage Licenses and Contracts
– Know what the organization owns; understand licensing terms and conditions
– Pay for what you need and use
– Be audit ready
• Meet Organization Objectives
– Ensure each installation and use of a software product is licensed
– Provide financial forecasting
• Optimize the license position
– Minimize license consumption
– Deliver trend analysis and licensing forecasting
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Optimal $ $ Over-Licensed Out of
Compliance
HW & SW
Assets
Financial
License Management Data
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Inventory Users & Group
History
User
Cost Center
Business Unit
Location
Audit trail
Request
Purchases
Contracts
HW/SW data
Usage data
Software and Hardware Asset Management
• Completeness & Accuracy
– IT environment is dynamic
– Devices are not always connected
– Inventory is performed every few weeks
• Different OS’s & Environments
– Desktop and datacenter have their own challenges
– Inventorying the datacenter is usually more difficult
– Specific data is needed when virtualization is used
• Security and access rights
– Inventory requires administrator rights
– Difficult to obtain in large organizations
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Discovery & Inventory Challenges
Inventory
• Inventory can be:
– Agent based: an agent is physically installed on the device
– Agentless: an agent is executed remotely on the device
– Remote: no agent is executed on the device; e.g. Oracle db
• Device discovery methodologies:
– Network discovery
– Group Policy / Login script
– Manually
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Discovery & Inventory Types
Inventory
Available Data
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Agent & Agentless inventory
Packages Files
Registry ISO Tag
Device Based Inventory Data Sources
• Found in Programs and Features or Add/Remove
Programs (Windows), RPM packages (UNIX/Linux)…
• Collecting and identifying software products is easy
• Challenges:
– Cannot be used to track usage
– Data can be lost when the software product is repackaged
– Discrepancies between installation and package data store
– Not all publishers use packages
– Product can be running on a machine without installation
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Packages
Device Based Inventory Data Sources
• Found on the device hard disk
• The most accurate data source for identifying software
• Challenges:
– Requires full disk scan
– The volume of files to be collected is large
– The identification rules are complex and sometimes inaccurate
– Products can be running on a machine without installation
10 © 2011 Flexera Software LLC. All rights reserved. | Company Confidential
Files
Device Based Inventory Data Sources
• Can be remotely inventoried
• Very accurate data source for identifying software
• Challenges:
– Need to know what to collect
– Many times registry entries are left behind after software removal
– Applies to Windows platform only
– Products can be running on a machine without installation
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Registry
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• The ISO 19770-2 provides a standard for software identification tags
that contain authoritative identifying information for installed software.
• The ISO 19770-2 is a XML file with a .swidtag extension …
<swid:product_title id="e8_3_2">Adobe Photoshop CS3</swid:product_title>
<swid:product_version id="e8_3_3">
<swid:name id="e8_3_3sub1">10.2</swid:name>
…
<swid:name>Adobe Systems Incorporated</swid:name>
<swid:regid>regid.1986-12.com.adobe</swid:regid>
</swid:software_creator>
…
• Challenges:
– The adoption of the ISO tag is slow; it does not apply to legacy products
– It requires hard disk scan
– Few inventory tools capture this data
– Product can be running on a machine without installation
Device Based Inventory Data Sources ISO 19770-2 Tag
• Uses port sweep and network protocols (TCP, UDP…)
• No agent required
• Remote API calls can be performed
• Challenges
– Need to target the devices to be interrogated
– Security issue
– Applies to a limited number of software products
• Examples:
– DNS Server port 53
– Oracle TNS Listener ports 1521/1526
– SQL Server port 1434
– VMware ports 902/443
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Network Based Inventory Network Discovery and Inventory
Application Recognition
• Software Identification challenges:
– What software product is used or installed?
– What components are used or installed?
– What products need a license?
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Desktop & Datacenter
Inventory List of Applications Recognition Process
File Name = Excel.exe
Version = 12.0.6214.1000
Publisher = Microsoft
Rule If the file name equals Excel.exe and the version
starts by 12.* and the publisher contains *Microsoft*
then the application is Microsoft Excel 2007
Application Name = Excel
Version = 2007
Publisher = Microsoft
•Files
•Add/Remove Programs
•Registry
•ISO tag Application Recognition
License Management Data Requirements
Most license metrics can be classified in five main
categories:
• Device based
Per Device, per server, per virtual machine…
• User based
Per user, named user, accounts, authorized user, external
users, UVU (User Value Unit), concurrent users,
infrequent users, …
• Hardware property based
Per core, processor, processor or core points, socket,
PVU (Processor Value Unit), RVU (Resource Value
Unit), tiered device, virtual memory, processor speed…
• Usage based
Per amount of time, number of accesses, feature used…
• Miscellaneous
Enterprise, Site, Per purchase order over 100K, per
premium income…
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License Metrics
License Management & Hardware Asset Management
• Processor type
• Number of Processors
• Processor Speed
• Number of cores
• Memory
• Number of sockets
• Computer Model & Manufacturer
Related Data:
• Unique Identifier for each device: inventory ID, Network Name
• Operating System
• Last Logon User
• Serial number, MAC Address
• Casing
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Hardware Inventory Requirements
Virtualization
• Multiple technologies: Microsoft App-V, Citrix XenApp…
• Device inventory will not capture virtualized applications
• Two inventory possibilities:
– Access rights
– Usage
• Used in VDI environments
• Publishers licensing rules
– Microsoft
– Adobe
– Access rights versus usage
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Application Virtualization
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Soft Partitioning
Virtualization Example – MS Server Processor
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• Hardware:
– 1 physical OSE (no SQL)
• 1 physical proc w/ 2 cores
– 1 virtual OSE (w/ SQL)
• 2 virtual procs
• Correct calculation:
– 2 virtual procs / 2 cores per
physical proc = 1 license
Soft Partitioning
Virtualization Example – MS Server Processor
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Inventory
Tool
SQL Queries
SNMP or Port Scanning
Oracle
Listener
Oracle
Database
Discovery and Inventory Process
Oracle Database License • Databases support options and management packs
• Options/Management Packs can be inventoried only by database queries
• Oracle Processor license is based on the number of processor cores
• Oracle Processor License does not support soft partitioning
Soft & Hard Partitioning
Virtualization Example – Oracle Processor
Discovery and Inventory Best Practices
• Deploying an inventory solution is challenging
• Use existing tools:
– Configuration management
– Usage monitoring
– Environment specific tools
– Publisher specific tools
• Use all data sources and methodologies
– One data source or methodology will not provide all the
information
• Only use new tools when needed
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Application Recognition Best Practices
• Quantity is nothing
• Quality and accuracy are essential
• The application recognition solution must:
– Be up to date
– Support different type of evidence
– Allow complex rules; or
– Contain the software product name from publishers
– Be modifiable on site
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• Use Inventory & App Recognition tools
that:
– Consolidate data from the multiple sources
– Translate raw software inventory into
meaningful product titles, versions, editions
– Are updated frequently and have broad
coverage
Recommendations
• No tool on the market will provide all the
answers
• Use what you have today; buy additional
tools only when necessary
– Assess what data is already available today
– Locate areas where additional tools are
needed: virtualization, Unix/Linux
environments, Oracle, etc.
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Thank you
For more information: www.flexerasoftware.com/ELO
Contacts:
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Please submit your questions via the Live Meeting Q&A form.