License Management

User Manual

 

 

Build 2.0


2015-03-09

 

 

 

 

This is a user manual to perform software license management in SAMLite. This manual outlines the step by step approach in managing software license purchases, authorizing license usage and how you can effective use this information to manage your software asset in your organization.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table of Contents

 

SAMLite License Management Overview.. 3

Introduction. 3

License Management Overview.. 3

Software Inventory. 5

Inventory List. 5

Create Inventory. 7

Auto-Create Software Inventory. 10

Purchase Order. 11

Purchase List. 12

New Purchase. 12

Purchase Full List. 17

New Vendor. 17

License Type. 18

Reconciliation. 18

Software Reconciliation. 18

Machine Reconciliation. 20

Software Authorization. 20

Authorization List. 21

Authorization History. 21

Add Authorization. 22

Remove Authorization. 22

Software Bind. 23

Software Monitor. 24

Patch Monitor. 26

 

 

SAMLite License Management Overview

Introduction

License Management is to manage purchase and inventory of software and machines. Users are able to manage purchase, software authority and generate reconciliation reports.

In order to access the pages, users must have following rights:

1)      Reporting User

Reporting Users are accessible to Purchase Order, Software Reconciliation and Machine Reconciliation pages. However, they may not add, modify or remove any records from Purchase Order or Authorization pages.

 

2)      License Purchase Moderator

License Purchase Moderators are accessible to Purchase Order, Bind Purchase to Installation, Vendor and License Type page. These users are able to add, modify or remove Purchase Orders, Vendors and License Types.

 

3)      License Authorization Moderator

License Authorization Moderators are users that able to access Authorization pages. These users are able to add or remove authorization of Software Installation.

 

Note: User rights can be changed at Administration page

 

 

 

License Management Overview

Name

Description

Software Inventory

Group software with common names into a single software

inventory. This is very useful in license compliancy management.

Purchase Order

Records Purchase Information. Users may add, modify or remove

purchase records in this page. Click Add Purchase Order to insert a purchase order.

Reconciliation

Display software licensing gaps and its compliancy level. Recorded purchases for machines can be seen here.

Software Authorization

Record authority of installed software inventory.

Software Bind

Bind purchased software to installed Software. This is to record the

installed Software with purchase information such as Cost and Support Expiry Date. In addition, it is also to identify the purchased software already installed on machines.

Software Monitor

Manage and monitor selected purchased software.

Patch Monitor

Manage and monitor patches and hotfixes installed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Software Inventory

The objective of having this function is to allow user to group software with common names into a single Software Inventory so to manage the license compliancy level easier. For example, SAMLite will capture Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 with a few different versions, where they are the same software. With Software Inventory, users can group them together. This feature will affect Software Authorization, Purchase Order, Software Reconciliation, Compliancy Level, Software Expiry details and Software Audit.

In this section there are parts to look at:

·         Inventory List

·         Create Inventory

·         Auto-Create Software Inventory

 

Inventory List

In the Inventory List page, user will see a list displayed as below:

 

Displayed is software that has already been put into group.

Item/Column

Description

 

 

Display Name

Name of the software group. Click on the Display Name

header will allow user to sort the record by alphabetical order

(A-Z) or (Z-A).

 

 

Publisher

Name of the software publisher. Click on the Publisher

hearder will allow user to sort the record by alphabetical order

(A-Z) or (Z-A).

AutoCreated

Whether the software inventory group was created using the Auto-create Software Inventory feature or not

Software

Displayed the total number of software grouped under this

software group. Click on the Software header will allow user to sort the number from largest to smallest or smallest to largest.

If the box is checked, user will be able to see what are the software and its version parked in the each of the software group.

Allows user to narrow down the list by typing in the search criteria/keyword in the search box and clink on the search button. Search will be done on the Display Name (Software Name), Version, Publisher and Software.

Click on this icon/link will lead user to page where they can create and group for the common software.

Click to go to the Auto-Create Software Inventory page where you can create multiple software inventory groups based on software and publish name patterns, license type and software categories.

Check on the checkbox next to the displayed software name and click on this button will allow user to delete the software group from the list.

 


 

Create Inventory

In the Create Inventory page, user can create a software inventory group from the list of software detected in users’ machines (Detected Software pane on the right) or create an empty group without any software.

 

Follow the steps below to create inventory (software group):

1.       Go to License Management from the top menu. Click on Create Inventory from Software Inventory section.

2.       From the Detected Software list, select software to be added to the Software Inventory group. E.g.: Microsoft Enterprise 2007.

3.       Please note that you will see that the Inventory Name is already auto-generated.

4.       Click on button to have the selected software populated in the Selected Software list (on the left pane).

5.       Should you have decided that there are some software you do not wants to include in the Selected Software list, you may remove by checking the checkbox and click on  button.

6.       When you have finished adding the software, click on. The Software Inventory will be created and saved.

Below is a screen shot of a Create Software Inventory page followed by a description of some items:

 

Item/Column

Description

Add selected software to software inventory group

Save and create the software inventory group

Inventory name will be auto-generated in first selection of Detected Software. However, the Inventory Name is edit-able in the box itself.

Where user can insert the name of the Publisher. This field can be left blank.

Name/Prefix

Software name or prefix (first word(s) of software name).

Count

Number of different versions with the name/prefix

Detected

Number of detected machines with the software with that name/prefix

Min Version

Minimum version for name/prefix

Max Version

Maximum version for name/prefix

Publisher

Publisher (blank if name/prefix covers software with different publishers)

License Type

License Type (blank if name/prefix covers software with different license types)

Categories

Software categories (blank if name/prefix covers software with different software categories)

Group software by name

Select to group software by name/words.

Show software categories

Select to show software categories

Exclude inventoried items

Select to exclude software that’s already added to a software inventory group.

Search by Name, Publisher and License Type.

Show details of selected software 

Show details of selected software

Show machines with selected software 

Show machines with selected software

Filter software by license

Filter software by software license type

Filter software by category

Filter software by software category

Filter software by machine's department

Filter software by department

Filter software by machine's location

Filter software by location

Filter software by machine status

Filter software by machine status

Filter machine by first discovered date

Filter software by first discovered date

Delete selected software

Delete selected software

http://10.243.1.171/SAMLite/Images/exportToExcel.gif

Export results to Excel readable format

Export to PDF

Export results to PDF

 


 

Auto-Create Software Inventory

The Auto-Create Software Inventory page helps with creating multiple Software Inventory groups based on the software and publisher names, license types and categories. 

A Software Inventory group will be created for each unique Software Name for software that matches the Software Name pattern and Publisher pattern, and belongs to the specified software categories and software license type.

Click on the License Type icon  Filter software by license to restrict the auto-creation to particular license types. The default restriction is to NonFree software only. Click on the Categories icon Filter software by category to restrict the auto-creation to software belonging to certain categories. By default no categories are selected.

Enter a software name pattern to restrict the creation to only software that matches the pattern.

Enter a publisher pattern to restrict to publisher names that match that pattern.

The pattern matches if it appears as a substring in any part of the name to match. Wildcards like % and _ can be specified in patterns. The % wildcard character matches any string of zero or more characters.  The _ wildcard character matches any single character.

After specifying the various constraints click on the Auto-Create Software Inventory button to get a confirmation screen showing a short-list of Software Inventories that would be created:

If the list is acceptable, click on Confirm to proceed. Otherwise you can cancel or change the constraints and try again.

If you click on Confirm and the system managed to create all of the software inventory groups in a short time you will see a success message:

If it takes a while to create all the groups you will get the following message “The auto-create software inventory process is still running, please wait...”

You can only have one pending auto-create software inventory task at a time. Trying to submit an auto-create software inventory task while there is already a running task AND a pending auto-create task will overwrite the pending task (the already running task will be unaffected).

Purchase Order

This is where user records their software and machine purchases. Information such as Software Purchased, License Type, Number of License purchased, Machine Model, Software and Machine Price and etc will be recorded.

In this section, there are 5 parts to look at:

*      Purchase List

*      Purchase Full List

*      New Purchase

*      Vendor

*      License Type

Purchase List

This page is to display a list of created purchase orders with vendor, products and total price of Software and Machine.

Column

Description

PO Number

Name of Purchase Order.

Purchase Date

Date where the purchase order is recorded.

Vendor

Display vendor name.

Software Product

Number of software products.

Software Price

Total Price for All unit of software.

Machine Product

Number of machine products.

Machine Price

Total Price for All units of Machines.

Total Product

Summation of Total Software Product and Total Machine Product.

Total Price

Total Price of Purchase Order

 

To see further details of the created purchased order, user should click on the PO Number.

New Purchase

This page is where user creates new purchase order.

Follow steps below to create a new purchase order:

1.       Click to add new purchase order.

Field Name

Description

PO Number

Number of the purchase order.

Vendor

Vendor Details of current PO.

 

You may click on the drop down list if you already have a list of vendor created. Else, user must click on  to add new vendor. Complete the fields and click Create to add the vendor.

Date of Issue

Issued date for current PO.

Payment due Date

Payment due date of current purchase order. If the PO has

already fully paid, you can set the value as never.

(Simply empty the field to have the value)

Person In charge

Person who handles current PO

Bill To

Location, person or company the being billed. This field

can be name, company name or address

 

2.       To record purchased product for:

a.       Software Product

-          Click Add Software button.

-          Select software from the  list.

-          User may narrow down the list by typing in the search criteria/keyword into search box.

-          Select software by checking the checkbox and click on  button.

-          You can choose a Parent PO for the software added by clicking on the –NONE—and select the PO available. Click close after selecting the parent PO.

-          Select the Category and License for the software added. Fill in the quantity and unit price for the software. Fill in the details for renewal if there is any.

-          You may remove a software product by selecting the checkboxes and click Remove Software button.

 

 

b.      Machine Products

-          Click Add Discovered Machines to add any detected machines into purchase list.

-          Select any machines in the list and click Add button at below of the list.

-          The machine details will be added into the columns under the list as shown in figure below.

-          Add the details of the machines (price and description).

-          Add the warranty details into warranty columns if there is any.

-          Fill in the identifiers (machine serial number and machine name).

-          Click the Add New Machines button if you wish to add any new machine that will be deployed in the future.

-          Fill in the details of the new machines and click Create button.

-          The figure below show a list of new machines created.

-          Note that the computer name is now temporary machine name created by SAMLite.

-          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 of a machine detected is the same as the one you have just 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.

-          From the list of machines, you can remove any of it by checking the checkboxes and click the Remove Machines button.

-          Click on the Hide Machine List button will hide the long listed machines and click again to show the full machine list.

-          Click on the Show Summary button will show you the summary of the list of machines you have just added. Click again to hide the summary of the machines.

 

Purchase Full List

This page displays comprehensive details about the purchase order created.

From this page, user can click on the PO Number which opens up another window with full details information of the click PO number. If user clicks on the Display Name it will show user of the details information of the software.

 

New Vendor

This is where user creates a list of vendor. This will be available for purchase order creation.

 

Field Name

Description

Vendor ID

Unique ID for vendor. This field is compulsory

Company

Vendor’s Company. Normally is same as Vendor Unique ID. If you change the ID, the company will be changed as well

Person

Person/Vendor’s Name

Phone Number

Vendors’ Contact Number

Email

Vendor’s Email Address

Address

Vendor’s Company Address/Personal Address

Description

Additional notes for current vendor

 

License Type

This is where user creates types of license. This will be available for purchase order creation.

 

 

Reconciliation

Software Reconciliation

 

 

 

Software Reconciliation is to identify the licensing gaps and compliancy level of software.

Column Name

Description

Display Name

Name of Software, together with Version.

Purchased

Total purchased unit of software

Detected

Number of machines that detected software installation

Balance

Purchase Balance. Value in red means Under Purchase while Value in Blue means over purchased.

Compliancy

Compliancy level. It is to determine the percentage between Purchases and detected installation. If the purchase has more than or equal to installation, the percentage will be displayed as 100.00%

 

Click a software name from the list to display details of selected software.

 

 

 

Figure below show the details when software name is clicked:

Machine Reconciliation

Machine reconciliation is to check Lease Expiry Date and Warranty date of machines. It is also to check the purchase information of the machines.

Column Name

Description

Computer Name

Display Computer Name

Username

Name of the user who owns the machine

Department

Department of machines

Location

Where machines is located

Serial Number

Machines’ serial number

Lease Expiry date

Lease Expiry date

Warranty Expiry Date

Warranty Date

Purchase Order

Purchase information that already bound to machine

Product ID

Recorded Product ID from PO

Software Authorization

·         Authorization List

·         Authorization History

·         Add Authorization

·         Remove Authorization

 

Authorization List

This page will show user of a list of purchased software detected, number of software authorized for use, number of software unauthorized for use, number of software pending installation, number of software pending removal because of unauthorized usage and number of software completed removing using unauthorized software.

When software name is clicked, user will be able to see machines list detected with this software, which are the machines has authorization and unauthorization.

 

 

Authorization History

This page is to store the records that you have done new authorization and remove authorization.

 

Item/Column

Description

Action Date

Date when authorization is given or removes.

Computer Name

Machine hostname.

User Id

Id of the user for the machine.

Username

The name of the user for the machine.

Department

Machine’s Department

Location

Where is this machine located

Display Name

Software Name

Version

Software version

Type

Show what type of authorization been conducted, Authorize or Removal

Action By

User that made this action to give authorization or to remove authorization

 

Add Authorization

  1. This page is to authorize to allow software installation of machines. There are 2 steps in this page:

a.       Select software

b.      Select machine

2.       Click “Authorize”. Now you have added authorization.

 

Remove Authorization

  1. This page is to remove authorization of the software installation. There are 2 steps in this page:

a.       Select a software

 

b.      Select a machine

2.       Click on “Remove”. Now authorization is already remove.

 

Software Bind

This page is to bind the purchased software to software installation. The purpose is to link a few details from purchase to the installed software on machines such as cost, support expiry date. It is to determine the exact amount of purchased software quantity that already being used.

When you bind the purchase to installation, all selected installation will be set to authorize to use the software.

 

 

Pre-requisite:

·         At least 1 purchased software

·         Users must have the following rights:

o   License Purchase Moderator

o   License Authorization Moderator

There are 2 steps in this page:

1)      Select a purchased software

2)      Select machines that detected installation

In Step 1, you need to select PO Number and select software you would like to bind them.

In Step 2, select machines to bind with selected software done in step 1

After you have done, click “Bind

 

Note: If selected machines have already bound to purchase, a confirmation page will be displayed. Click Confirm to change the Software Purchase of notified machines.

Software Monitor

Allows user to manage and monitor software that really interest them.

In this page, user will only see software they want to monitor; other unnecessary software will be excluded from the list.

In order to add more software to be monitored into the list, click on “Select Software”. Figure below show the list of software available, this software is software already purchased by user.

Here are the steps to add software:

1.       Click on  and it will lead you to a page where you can select software from a list.

2.       Select the software title from the left pane, and then click.

3.       The selected software will be added to the right pane.

Here are the steps to remove software:

1.       Select the software title from the right pane, and then click.

2.       The removed software will be moved back to the left pane.

Click “Ok” button to save your changes and exit the page.

 

 

Patch Monitor

Allows user to manage and monitor patch/hotfix that is important.

 Here are the steps to add hotfix:

1.       Select the hotfix name from the “Select a Hotfix” drop down list.

2.       The selected hotfix will be shown at the left pane.

3.       Select either operating system or software that is required to be installed with the selected software at the right pane.

4.       Click “Add” button to add the selected hotfix to the monitoring list.

Here are the steps to remove hotfix:

1.       Click “Remove” button of the selected hotfix.

2.       The monitoring list will be updated immediately.

Click “Save” button to save your changes and exit the page.