Software Profiles

ALVAO Asset Management supports the monitoring of software installed on the workstations connected to your computer network. You can use Software Profiles to compare and monitor effectively which software is correctly installed on a machine, which software is not allowed or which software is missing. The administrator creates a set of profiles where he/she specifies which software is allowed, which software is forbidden and which software is required. The profiles can be freely combined using the hierarchy of sub-profiles to obtain most effective settings. You can also define exceptions for each computer.

Once defined, you can assign the profiles to individual machines and the system starts monitoring and comparing the software installed on the individual machines against the software defined in the profiles. If the system finds that some software is missing or forbidden, it will notify you with the icon on the Software tab. The software defined in the profile as required but not installed on a machine is marked with the icon. (Required software that is not installed does in fact not exist on a machine. It is only displayed as a virtual record).

Software profiles are created and configured in ALVAO Admin (please refer to Configuring Software Profiles for more information on this topic). You can assign profiles to individual computers with the Edit... command in the Objects tree on the Object – SW profile tab (this tab is only visible for object types "Computer" and "Computer Assembly"). You can also use mass configuration of profiles for multiple machines on the Objects – Computers tab in the main window with the - Change SW profile... command in the context menu. A window will open again with the Object – SW profile tab, but this time the settings will apply to all selected computers.

You can select one profile on the Object – SW profile tab and configure exceptions for each machine as necessary. Exceptions have always higher priority than the settings in the selected profile. In this way, you can "tune up" differences between the profiles used for different computers. Exceptions cannot be configured if mass profile settings for multiple computers are used. If you select All software is enabled, the system will not compare the status of the installed software to the software profile. The profile status on the Software tab in the main window will then say Optional for all products.

Note:

Newly created computers keep the profile settings specified in the computer template. The original software profile settings are also kept when computers are copied.

Settings Priority in SW Profile

The products included in a SW profile can be assigned three different statuses: Optional, Required, and Forbidden. You can use these statuses to set up the profiles to enable easy monitoring of the software installed in your computers and to notify the system administrator about undesired statuses (e.g. missing or forbidden software).

A product that is not defined in the SW profile is automatically considered forbidden. The status Forbidden always has the highest priority. You can define the Forbidden status for products that are not allowed in your company (e.g. ICQ, Skype etc.). The system will notify you if any of these software products is installed on a machine. The system will also notify you if any new software is installed (if this software is not set as Optional in the SW profile).

You can also specify that some software is required on a computer and receive notifications if that software is missing. The Required option can be used e.g. for Microsoft Office and similar products.

The Optional option is used to define other software products that we do not want to monitor or receive notifications about.

Compare Installation Status to SW Profile

The software status as against the SW profile can be viewed in several parts of the system. The columns related to the SW profile are displayed on a blue background. You can view the statuses in the following parts of the system:

Objects – Computers tab: this table contains the following columns:
- SW profile: displays the profile that is currently selected for a computer
- All SW is enabled: displays, whether the option All software is enabled is active in a computer. The status as against the SW profile is thus not monitored (the SW profile feature is inactive).
- SW exceptions: the number of exceptions defined for a certain computer
Software tab (a computer or a computer assembly is selected in the tree): this is where you can monitor the status of installed software as against the SW profile using the following columns:
- Profile status: displays the product status as against the SW profile – Optional, Required, Forbidden, and Missing – this status is a "virtual" record (this software is in fact not installed on the machine) and it only indicates that some software required by the SW profile is not installed (the product is set to Required in the SW profile).
- Error message: displays error messages that are shared between the SW profile status and the license status and provides detailed information about the problems found in a particular machine.
Software tab (a different object containing computers in its subtree is selected in the tree): this is where you can monitor the status of software installed on the machines in the subtree as against the SW profile using the following columns:
- Upper part of the window: displays a comprehensive summary of products installed on all machines in the selected subtree. The summary can include records marked with the icon. This icon notifies you that some software is missing in some computers that is set to Required. If any product is marked with the icon, this means that licensing problems and/or SW profile problems may exist in some of the machines in the subtree. To find out more, click on the software product and watch the lower part of the window.
- Lower part of the window: displays an overview of computers on which the product selected in the upper part of the window is installed. You can again see the columns Profile status and Error message here like on the Software tab (for one computer). The again means a licensing problem and/or a SW profile problem. You can see more information in the Error message column.
Overview of licenses and installations (lower part of the window): displays an overview of computers on which the product selected in the upper part of the window is installed. This part of the window is identical to the lower part of the window on the Software tab (a different object is selected in the tree, containing computers in its subtree).