Overview of Licenses and Installations

The window Overview of licenses and installations, which can be opened in the Software – Overview of licenses and installations menu, contains the comparison between purchased licenses and the installed software.

Top Table

The upper part of the window contains a table with a list of products (software). The table columns have the following meaning:

Icon – the icon that is displayed for products with any problems related to licensing, software profile or product status.
Product – product name.
Operating system – the information whether the product is an "operating system".
Publisher – the product publisher.
Installations without assigned licenses – the number of product licenses not covered with a license.
Risk – a numeric value to assess the risks associated with using non-licensed software – this value displays a number = product price x number of missing licenses. If you want to show this value, you will first need to specify the prices for the monitored products. This price can be specified in the products overview, e.g. under the menu item Software – Products (software), by providing the value that equals to the product price.
Licenses assigned without reason – the number of licenses which are assigned, but cover no product.

Note:
"OEM" and "CAL" type licenses are not counted towards the number of licenses assigned without reason.
Difference – the difference between the number of purchased licenses and the number of installations. A negative number in this column means that the displayed number of licenses is missing. Purchased licenses must be saved in the License Registry.
Licenses on stock (per device) – the number of available (free) licenses on stock for per-device licenses. The value "999999" is displayed for volume licenses.
Licenses on stock (per user) – the number of available (free) licenses on stock for per-user licenses. The value "999999" is displayed for volume licenses.
Total licenses (per device) – the total number of purchased per-device licenses.
Total licenses (per user) – the total number of purchased per-user licenses.
Unlimited/Floating (unlimited number of licenses) – the "Yes" value means that you have unlimited number of licenses available.
Installations – total number of installations of the product on the computers connected to your network.
Special installation – this attribute specifies software installations that will not be covered by a license, e.g. software installation on a file server, trial installation of a product in acceptance process etc.
Shared license – number of licenses on laptop computers that are not covered by a license intended for desktop computers. Some products can be installed concurrently both on the desktop and the laptop machines of a single user. This column includes the number of installations for the laptop machines.
Type – software type. This item is for information only. Identical products may be sold under different licenses.
Audit – Should the product be displayed in this table? You can remove a product from evaluation by right-clicking on it and selecting the - Audit... command from the context menu, where you select No.
Hidden products will be displayed in this window as soon as you enable the display of products exempt from audit by selecting View – Products exempt from audit.
Parameter1 – user-defined parameter for the product.
Parameter2 – user-defined parameter for the product.
Note – a note/description for the product.
Run time for past 12 months (hours) – see usage of software licenses.
Run time for past month (hours) – see usage of software licenses.
Product status – provides information on the product status to which it has been set.
Approved version – if the product status is set to "Approved" or "Approved – planned exclusion from operation", this column contains the exact version of the approved product.
Product status updated by – name of the person who was the last to change the product status.
Product status updated – date of the previous product status change.
Will be discarded from operation – if the product status is set to "Approved – planned exclusion from operation", this column displays the date on which the product status will switch to "Retired".
Request – if the product status is set to "Approving", you can write here the Service Desk request number which deals with the approval process.

If you select a product in the top table, the list of computers where the product is installed or to which a license has been assigned will appear in the bottom part of the window.

Bottom Table

The bottom table contains the following information:

Installation of the selected product, covered by a license or not.
Licenses assigned without reason for the selected product.
Installation of a different product covered by a license for the selected product (in this case, the information in the "Installed product" column will be inconsistent).

The columns in the table in the bottom part of the window have the following meaning:

Error message – displays errors in license allocation, software profiles or product status. The icon is displayed only if this column contains an error message.
Record kind – displays the type of record:
- Installation – the product is installed on the computer. The license or software profile status is displayed in a respective column.
- License – a license for the selected product is assigned to computers. This can be:
- Required product – a product defined as "required" in the software profile is not installed on the computer.
- Executed software – applications which cannot be assigned to the product and products not installed (recognized in the HW/SW Usage Monitoring module, see Software license usage).
Object – the object name in the tree where the product is installed or where a license has been assigned.
Path in tree – shows the path in the tree to the viewed object.
Above object – the parent object in the tree (e.g. User) under which the asset is located.
Computer center – the center to which the computer is assigned.
License status – shows the license status for the selected product and on the selected computer. Possible values:
- Not applicable – no license is required for the product (freeware product).
- License assigned – a license has been assigned to the product.
- Missing – a license is required for this product, but no license has been assigned (the product uses a commercial/shareware license). This status represents an error.
- In excess – a license for this product has been assigned to a computer, but the product is not installed on that computer (the computer is using this license unnecessarily). This status represents an error.
- Special – the installation represents a special installation (shareware product, trial installation etc.). These licenses are managed by the system administrator.
- Shared – the computer shares the license with another computer (e.g. a license is shared between a laptop and a desktop machine).
You can assign the license to compute either in the license purchase record in the License Registry (see License Registry) on the License Items tab, or by clicking on this computer in the list and selecting - Assign license to computer... This command will open the Assign license window which contains free, unassigned licenses. You can also use the command - Assign license to computer automatically which will select the first license that is free. Use the - Remove license from computer command to remove the license.
License from a product – the name of the product whose license covers the product installation.
License – name of license covering the product installation.
License type – the respective license type.
CAL/Licensing – for device, for user, for connection, for processor.
Activation Key (license) – activation key of the assigned license item.
Asset number for license – the asset number of the assigned license item.
License center – the cost center to which the license has been assigned.
License created by – the person who created the license.
License created on – the date on which the license was created.
License assigned/removed by – the name of the person who assigned the license (if the license has been assigned), or the name of the person who last removed the license (if the license is currently not assigned).
License assigned/removed – the date on which the license was assigned/removed.
Note to license – displays the note for the license, shared license or special license, based on the license coverage for the given product in the computer.
Document – the indication of the document used for the license purchased (the document is registered at the license purchase).
Shares license with – displays the object name, i.e. a computer or a user, from which the license is shared.
Product – displays the selected product (might be suitable if there are multiple products selected at once in the upper list).
Installed product – the exact name of the installed product as it has been recognized by the SWLIB Software products library.
Special installation – the "Yes" value indicates that the license represents special product installation. If you want to change this value, right-click on the item and select - Special installation from the context menu.
Installed (date) – the date on which the product was installed.
Installed by – the name of the person who installed the product.
Detected product – the exact name of the installed product as it has been detected from the System Registry or from an executable file.
Detected version – the exact version value for the installed product as it has been detected from the System Registry or from an executable file.
Detected ProductID – the exact ProductID value for the installed product as it has been detected from the System Registry or from an executable file.
Activation key (detected) – shows the detected activation key for the product.
Software from (last software detection) – date on which the SW detection was last evaluated in the computer.
Software profile status – shows the information about the product installation status as against the software profile definition. Possible values:
- Optional – the product is defined in the profile as optional, or the option All software is enabled is active for the computer. In this case, the installations of products are not monitored or compared to the software profile.
- Required – the product is defined as required in the profile.
- Forbidden – the product is defined as forbidden in the profile. The product is installed, but it is forbidden, which means that the product was installed without the administrator's profile etc. All products that are not permitted are forbidden by default (except when the All software is enabled option is selected). This status represents an error.
- Missing – the product is defined as required in the profile, but it is not installed on the computer. This status represents an error.
The profile for the computer can be set in the Objects tree by selecting the - Edit... command. Then you can go to the Object – Software profile tab to set the profile (this tab is only visible for objects of the "computer" and "computer set" types). You can also set profiles as a mass operation if you use the Change Software profile... command from the context menu on the Objects – Computers tab.
Run time for past month (hours) – see usage of software licenses.
Run time for past 12 months (hours) – see usage of software licenses.

Columns for the ALVAO SAM Assistant module:

Sent notifications – total number of the notifications sent.
Last notification – date when the last notification has been sent.
Next scheduled notification – date when the next notification will be send.

The bottom table can also display any value of the computer property (even inherited properties) and licenses custom items.

You can print the content of the tables if you select Table – Print in the local menu, or you can edit the table further in MS Excel if you select Table – Analyze in MS Excel Sheet.

Usage Scenarios

The SAM Manager checks whether software is used legally in an organization. It scans for software installations that are not covered with licenses and resolves any issues.
The SAM Manager also checks for excessive software license purchases. It scans for licenses assigned without a reason and for licenses on stock.
Checks whether the detected product activation key corresponds to the activation key of the allocated license item.
Exporting overview of selected products (installations on computers) to MS Excel

Scanning for Missing Licenses

Go to the AM Console and use Software – Overview of licenses and installations.
Select the Missing Licenses view both in the top and in the bottom list.
The Installations without assigned licenses column in the top list displays the number of installations that are not covered with any license.
For every product:
1. Click on a product in the list. The bottom list will display a list of computers with missing licenses to the selected product.
2. Go to the bottom list, select the computers with missing licenses and assign the respective licenses with "Assign license" or "Assign license automatically".

Determining Priorities Based on Risk of Legal Action

First of all, resolve any issues with licenses to products which pose the greatest threat to your business in the case of legal action.

Recommended procedure:

Go to the AM Console and use Software – Products.
In the list, select important software products used in your organization and click Edit to specify the approximate price of a single license (Product – Price tab). Important products are those software products that are installed on a number of machines and/or have a high license price.
Go to the top list and display the Risk column. This column displays the total price of potentially missing licenses for the selected product.

Reference Check Without Assigning Licenses

If you don't want to assign licenses to specific computers, you can just check the licenses in the Difference column which must display the value "0" or any positive number.

Checking for Licenses Assigned Without Reason

Go to the AM Console and use Software – "Overview of licenses and installations".
Select the Licenses assigned without reason view both in the top and in the bottom list.
Select a single product in the list. The bottom list will display machines where the license is assigned but the product is not installed. You can remove such an excessive license by selecting "Remove license from computer" from the context menu.

Warning:

Items with shared licenses are displayed in the lower list without the icon which gives you a warning about an unassigned license. Also, special installations are assumed to be watched by the system administrator.

Checks whether the detected product activation key matches the activation key of the license.

Go to the main menu and select Software – Overview of licenses and installations.
The Overview of licenses and installations window opens.
Select a product and the bottom table will display the product installation.
Check whether the values in the Activation key (detected) column matches the values in the Activation key (license) values.

Exporting overview of selected products (installations on computers) to MS Excel

Select multiple products in the top list.
The bottom list will display computers where the selected products are installed (or which use excessive licenses). The Product column displays the product name.
Select Table – Analyze in MS Excel Sheet from the context menu in the bottom table.
An MS Excel sheet will open containing an overview of the selected products.
Note: MS Excel will use the current table view, i.e. all visible columns in the respective order.

Updating Installation Registry

If the computers, where the product has been uninstalled lately from, are shown in the lower list, you can perform the current software detection on those computers using the following steps:

Select the requested software from the upper list.
Select the computers where no software should be anymore in the lower list
Select the Detect... command from the context menu.
The window for creating the request for new detection opens, where you set the requested detection method and eventually enable the Detect and evaluate immediately option in order to changes in the Registry take effect as soon as possible.

Note:
If you select the "Autonomous Agent" detection method, the detection will be performed based on the current interval of contacting the agent by the web service.

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