SAMLite Version 5 Build 2.2 Release Notes

New features and changes

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.2.0.51 (10 February 2021)

·         Software Metering: the Software Metering feature can help estimate software usage. Reports available: concurrency, uptime, start count and process name.

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.2.0.47 (17 September 2020)

·         Monitor information: added support for monitor information.

·         Import History: reports on machine scan imports can be generated.

·         Machine OS History: reports can be generated showing the OS memory status and other OS status information.

·         Machine Process History: reports can show past machine process details such as process size and CPU usage.

·         Machine Event History: reports can show selected information from Windows Event logs.

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.2.0.44 (30 June 2020)

·         CAPTCHA support: CAPTCHA challenges can be enabled on the SAMLite login page to make automated login attempts more difficult. Google reCAPTCHA v2 and hCaptcha are supported.

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.2.0.43 (22 June 2020)

·         Active Directory & LDAP Login: Users can now login in via Active Directory and/or LDAP.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.2.0.40 (4 May 2020)

·         Location Notifications: reports can now be generated or emailed for machines that have roamed out of their assigned locations based on geolocation data.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.2.0.38 (18 March 2020)

·         Asset Expiry: SAMLite can now help list expired and/or expiring assets and send email notifications of expiring assets. Estimation of total renewal costs is also supported if the assets have a renewal cost attribute.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.2.0.32 (7 January 2020)

·         Scan Agents: SAMLite Scan Agents are now available. Scan Agents can perform SNMP scans of devices such as network printers that support SNMP. Local scans of computers the agents are installed on are also supported. Note: the Scan Agent feature requires the SAMLite license and maintenance to not be expired.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.2.0.27 (27 February 2019)

·         Machine Details Page: Now lists Associated Assets if the machine is linked to Other Assets.

·         Warranty Updater: Use different Lenovo warranty query method, previous method used no longer worked.

·         Other Assets CI Import: When importing new assets, now uses default department and location if not specified.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.2.0.23 (3 January 2019)

·         GeoLocation: Add support for configurable Google API keys.

·         GeoLocation Address: Add Bing Maps support for getting addresses of locations.

·         GeoLocation Address Caching: Add support for address caching.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.2.0.17 (17 July 2018)

 

·         SAMLite Web Service: The SAMLite Scan Script can now submit results via HTTP/HTTPS to the SAMLite Web Service.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.2.0.15 (23 May 2018)

 

·         Bulk Import Other Assets: “Other Assets” can now be bulk imported using the CI Import Wizard.

·         CSV Support: CSV files now supported for importing machine details and locations.

·         Machine Expiry: Email notifications for Lease and Warranty Expiry.

·         Scan Script: SAMLite Scan Script now can scan for running processes (Software Publisher = ISA-Running-Processes).

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.2.0.5 (18 May 2017)

 

·         Active Scan: SAMLite Active Scan now has improved scanning for Windows updates.

·         Scan Script: SAMLite Scan Script now has improved scanning for Windows updates.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.2.0.1 (14 Apr 2017)

 

·         SSH Scan: SAMLite Active Scan now supports SSH scanning of Linux, macOS/OS X, FreeBSD, AIX and Solaris machines.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.1.0.5 (23 Nov 2016)

 

·         Bulk Import Locations: Locations and IP range mappings can now be imported.

·         Report Settings: Settings for Machine Software Summary reports can now be saved and restored.

·         Software Rules: Software categories can now be automatically created by bulk uploads.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.1.0.2 (6 Sep 2016)

 

·         GeoLocation: machines can now be located from their WiFi information (if available)

·         Warranty Updater: warranty details of (Lenovo, Dell, HP) machines can be automatically updated (Customers may need to apply for access keys from the relevant vendors).

·         Improved information gathering: Scan Time, System SKU, DNS Servers, Default Gateway, Network Connection Metric, OS Architecture, and more.

·         New System Requirements: .Net 3.5 is required (previously only .Net 2.0 was required). SQL Server 2008 or later required, SQL Server 2005 is no longer supported.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.0.0.7 (28 Sep 2015)

 

·         Bulk Import Machine Details: machine warranty dates, lease dates, custom fields and other machine details can be updated from tab-delimited text files.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.0.0.4 (7 Jul 2015)

 

·         SAMLite License Manager: SAMlite license files can now be uploaded and managed using the Web Dashboard.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 2.0 (18 Feb 2015)

 

·         Software Categorization: Software is now automatically categorized according to customizable rules.

·         Software Blacklist: Software can be blacklisted and email notifications sent.

·         Software Summary: filtering by categories and/or license types and grouping by software name is now possible. You will no longer see a huge list of all detected software by default. Only a smaller list of software known to require non-free licenses will be shown (unless other license types are selected).

·         Software Inventory: if a software is added to a Software Inventory, new or different versions with the same software name will be automatically added to that Software Inventory. There is no longer a need to manually add each version nor a risk of missing any version out.

·         Software Inventory Auto-Creation: Software Inventory groups can now be created by matching name and/or publisher patterns without having to add each software individually.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 1.8 (23 Sep 2014)

 

·         Purchase Order - Adding Software with Expiry Information: Users can add a parent purchase order (if any), choose a software category (License/Maintenance/Subscription) and also choose a license type (Lease/Permanent/Annual); fill in the renewal reminders section if renewal is applicable.

·         Purchase Order - Support Undeployed Machines: SAMLite supports adding new machines that will be deployed in the future in Purchase Order. Fill in the Match Serial No. /Match Machine Name/Match Asset Tag column under the Identifiers section. When there is a matched case, where the serial number or machine name or asset tag of a machine detected is the same as the one inserted, the temporary machine name will be replaced by the detected machine name. The status of the machines will be changed from Undeployed to Active.

·         Software Expiry Summary: Generate software summary expiry reports with purchase and renewal information. Clicking on the purchase order number open up the selected purchase order.

·         Software Expiry Notification: User gets notified on software expiry by software monitor alerts (at overview page) or email or both.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 1.7.3 (3 Apr 2014)

 

·         Enclosure Asset Tag: SAMLite supports detection of enclosure asset tag.

·         Combined Hardware and Software reports: SAMLite now can generate reports of machines and their installed software or number of installed software, amongst other possible reports.

·         Active Scan IP range Importing: SAMLite Active Scan now supports IP ranges when importing list of machines to be scanned from a text file.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 1.7.2 (25 Jul 2013)

 

New Features:

*      Laptop

*      Desktop

*      Server

*      Virtual Machine

*      Tower

*      Mini Tower

*      Hand-held

*      Lunch box

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 1.7 (16 Oct 2012)

New Features:

 

·         New Skin: We have made it more spaced out, clean and minimalist. This is the same skin that justSAMit (JSI) is using, our cloud-based IT Asset Management.

·         Updated Dashboard: The new dashboard now will have an immediate prompt to the users when there’s a new change to their environment for today, yesterday or for the past 60 days. Users will always get up-to-date information once he checks on the dashboard.

·         New roles: Machine Department moderator and Location Moderator is added to the Custom Roles

·         Added Computer Model column: Computer model column is added to Software Detail and Software Inventory Detail page.

·         Machine IP Address: Improve system for determining which IP Address to show in Machine Page

·         Login Script collection enhancement: The new script will be using VBS file type instead of KIX to determine the software installed in the machine more accurately.

·         Improved Import Service collection: Improve import service and collection to better handle multiple concurrent transactions and accuracy.

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 1.6

New Features:

 

·         User ID Management: This new feature enables you as the administrator to find out users whom are inactive in the network. The system tells you who are the users by login name, the last login date and its group membership. You may then disable the user account remotely from SAMLite console. This operation is performed by Active Probe to reach the target machine and disable or enable a user account.

·         Manual asset entry: This new feature enables you to manage network assets and non-windows devices that you have in your environment. SAMLite enables you to create asset category or type called configuration items and add asset that represents your real or physical item that you wish to manage. A configuration item can be associated to another asset type, creating a linkage or relationship between them. As well as maintaining history of changes on the details for each asset you have, giving you the ability to track changes that have occurred over time.

·         Upload credential mapping: This new feature enables you to upload a mapping file of credentials for the active scan. The file will contain the mapping of machine and its username and password which have administrative rights to access and collect inventory data from the target machine. This feature is useful for environment in which every machine has its own set of administrator username and password. You do not have a single user account that can access all machines in your network.

·         Import list of machine to scan: This new feature enables you to import a list of machine to be scanned by Active Probe. The machine can be identified by IP address or hostname.

·         Capture total CPU Cores: SAMLite now collects total processor cores. You can see this information under No of Processor Cores from Machine Summary.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 1.5

New Features:

 

·         Auto Delete Inactive Machine: This enables the system to automatically delete machine if the machine is not updated after a defined duration has past. This duration is configurable by administrator. This feature is disabled by default. Only applicable for active machines. Retired machines are not affected by this feature. This feature can be enabled or disabled from SAMLite dashboard. The system will run this check every 30 minutes by default. However it is configurable in Configuration page of SAMLite dashboard.

·         Auto Truncate Database Log: This enables the system to automatically truncate SAMLite’s database log file (.LDF) on a daily basis. There are occasions where the database log file grew bigger than the data file (.MDF) and deteriorate system performance. Truncating the log file will help to improve the system performance and reduce hard disk space usage.

·         Auto Re-Build Database Indexes: This enables the system to automatically re-build SAMLite’s database indexes on a daily basis. Rebuilding indexes helps to improve SAMLite page loading performance.

·         Software monitoring page: There is now a dedicated page to configure software monitoring due to the new software inventory system.

·         Patch monitoring page: There is now a dedicated page to configure patch monitoring.

·         Auto assign software to view by keyword: This enables the system to automatically assign software to a view by keywords. These keywords are configurable by authorized user at Administration page. By default, SAMLite created a few pre-defined views and pre-defined keywords. The software is automatically assigned when a machine or a view is updated.

·         Hidden software view: This enables the system to hide specific views from being displayed and used in software summary and pages that uses view filter. Hiding a view enables you focus on software that are of interest to you, by hiding the ones you are not interested in.  This setting is configurable by the authorized user at Administration page.

·         New role “License Reporting User”: This is a new role in the system. This role is a limited role that only allow user to view license management pages without being able to edit or delete any information.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 1.4 Special

 

A new authentication type is incorporated into SAMLite. User can now login using Active Directory user account into SAMLite. Login user will now authenticate himself/herself via LDAP to their organization’s Active Directory system before going into SAMLite report like usual. This feature however is not an integrated windows authentication whereby user’s AD role does not have an impact or rights inside SAMLite system. SAMLite still maintains its user role system and having the new AD authentication system in place, the user will still be abided by roles given by the SAMLite system administrator.

This feature can be turned on or off. One authentication mode can only be used at one time, which is either AD authentication or Form authentication. Form authentication is mode of authentication for user created using SAMLite administrator interface.  If you choose to use AD authentication, you can login using your AD account and cannot use your existing users created inside SAMLite, and vice versa.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 1.3 Special

 

This is a special patch to fix minor bugs found in build 1.3. User who has upgraded to build 1.3 is required to update to this special patch.

 

What’s New in SAMLite 5 Build 1.3

New Features:

 

 

Fixed Issues:

Version 5.1.8

Version 5.1.7.3

Version 5.1.7.2

Version 5.1.7

Version 5.1.6

Version 5.1.5

Version 5.1.3

·        Fixed where unable to change the path for Login Scripts, where this is caused by the Windows Regional Language options. Now users do not need to change the language to English before editing the login scripts (sam.kix and samv3.kix)

 

Version 5.1.2

Version 5.1.1

·        Import Service is now more stable than previous version

·        Fixed Scheduler Service where it was not run properly.

·         Fixed problems using many credentials when active collection

·        Central Database Configurator now read the installed components properly.

·         Fixed Scheduled Scan that would stop current schedule if other schedules start.

·         Fixed Machine Reconciliation where it may display error page

·        Fixed Software listing that now it can be filtered properly.

·        Fixed Purchase Order to company assignment where sometimes the PO disappears.

·        Fixed Software list that might capture “?” characters. (for latest scripts and next scan only)

·        Fixed a various typo errors

·        Fixed License Compliancy Level at Overview page that always display 1 row of records only

·        Total Memory under Machine Details is displayed properly

·        Fixed Purchase Order that will overlap with the lower panel

·        Fixed Export to Excel cannot export Unicode characters properly

·        Fixed displaying multiple IP addresses on a machine that uses many connections. Now it relies on Windows (.NET) to choose the active connection

·        Fixed Administration page when creating/editing users

 

Changes:

 

Version 5.1.3

·        For the next collection (Active or Passive), software with that classified as hot fixes will not be in the Software list, where the data is collected in the patch summary.

·        Operating System name has been standardized

 

Improvement:

 

Version 5.1.5

Version 5.1.3

 

Version 5.1.2

 

Version 5.1.1

 

System Requirements

 

Before installing, make sure your computer meets the system requirements and already have Version 5 installed and running

It is recommended to stop any other activities that running by SAMLite Server such as Anti-Virus scan or SAMLite is actively used by other users.

 

Downloading

 

To download the patch, please contact your reseller or ISA Technologies (samsupport@isatechnologies.com). Only customers with active maintenance will be able to receive the patch from us.

 

Installation

 

Things to be prepared before installation:

1)      SSUSetup.exe (kindly request the patch file via samsupport@isatechnologies.com)

a.       Place this file into SAMLite server

2)      SAMLite database settings (instance name, database name, credentials)

a.       If the SAMLite web dashboard is working fine you may not need to know the database settings

3)      Path of SAMLite Share folder (E.g.: \\SERVER\SAMShare$)

a.       You should be able to know the path from SAMLite Web Dashboard > Configuration > Configure Shared Folder > Path

4)      Path of SAMLite installation folder (E.g.: C:\Program Files\SAMLite\V5)

5)      Important: Please backup your database and all files in folder Program Files\SAMLite\V5 before you continue the installation

6)      Please make sure the installation directory exists in regedit as shown in figure below.

Please follow the steps below:

·        Installing patches for SAMLite Web dashboard, Import Service, Active Probe and scheduler

1)      Right click SSUSetup.exe and Run as Administrator

2)      Click Next

3)      Provide the path to store the patch files. Click Install

4)      Tick “Run SAMLite Software Update 1.0”. Click Finish

5)      Please wait until the updates finish. (Important: Please do not close the command prompt)

6)      You have finished the patch.

 

1)      Navigate SAMLite\V5\Webdash\LoginScripts\ LSPrepMgr.exe

2)      Run LSPrepMgr.exe as administrator.

3)      Type in the UNC path of samshare folder. Make sure the samshare folder has been shared out, and given read and write permission to user/everyone.

4)      Click next/ok till the end of the wizard.

5)      You will notice a folder is created with today’s date(eg: 2012222) as its name. Inside that folder, it lays all the files that you need to deploy to AD.

6)      You can copy that newly created folder, rename it to “sam”. Then deploy it to the AD.


Frequently Asked Questions

 

1)      Is this patch applicable for installation in many servers? (E.g.: Active Probe in one server, database in another server, web dashboard in third server)

Yes, you can. You need to run the SAMLite Updater from all the servers that installed SAMLite 5. (Excluding Database Server)

 

2)      Would data such as departments, user accounts or custom fields that I have recorded previously get affected during the patch?

No, updated SAMLite database will still keep the data that you have recorded.

 

We will inform you if the structure of database has changed, as it keeps your existing data

 

3)      How do I know which Build we are currently at?

The Build no is written on the web dash login page. You should be able to see SAMLite version 5.0 build <No>

 

4)      Do I have to install all the previous patches before installing the new patch?

No. You do not need to install the previous patch. SAMLite will detect your current patch and apply all the necessary patches.

 

5)      Who should I contact with if I have problem installing the patch?

You can do so by contacting your reseller or report the issues to samsupport@isatechnologies.com.

 

6)      How do I report any problem in the system?

You can do so by contacting your reseller or report the problem to samsupport@isatechnologies.com.

 

7)      I have some problems with the installation and functions in the system. Is there any documentation available?

Yes. You can visit our website at http://www.isainnovation.net/SAMLite/#FAQ . Most of your questions will be answered.

 

8)      Why is there an error “Font arialuni.ttf does not exist in C:/Windows/fonts” after I launch SAMLite?

This is to cater for special fonts e.g. Chinese/Japanese characters when exporting to excel or PDF format. We did not include this font in this patch because the size is too big. The font usually already exists in the system so you might not see this after all.

 

9)      Is there any user manual available e.g. Installation Guide and using SAMLite?

Yes. There are several documentations available for you. Please visit our website at http://www.isainnovation.net/samlite/index.html#Product5.

 

10)   Where are you located?

We have offices in Perth, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Feel free to contact us at the following http://www.isainnovation.net/SAMLite/#Contacts.