Adding Unrecognized Applications to Application Resource Library

AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization 2015 SP1

There are some applications that are not recognized by Application Recognition Service, perhaps because the application's properties do not match properties in the database, or because it is a custom application written for your company. In these instances, the application will be listed as “unrecognized” in Rationalization Manager, which means that the application was discovered by System Center Configuration Manager but does not have a corresponding entry in the Application Recognition Service. For these applications, you can open Application Recognition Service and manually add evidence to the local Application Recognition Library so that ARS can recognize the application.

To add unrecognized applications, perform the following steps:

To add an unrecognized application:

1. Open the Analyze Applications page in Rationalization Manager.
2. Locate an unrecognized application, which are identified by the words Unrecognized App in the Product column:

3. Click the Unrecognized App link. The Unrecognized Evidence page opens in Application Recognition Service, which lists evidence discovered in your enterprise regarding the product you clicked on. The list is already filtered by Name, Version, and Publisher.

Note • You can also open this page directly by selecting Unrecognized Evidence on the Applications menu of the AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization / Application Recognition Service. All evidence discovered in your enterprise but not yet linked to applications will be listed.

4. Select the matching application and click Assign. The Assign evidence to an application area opens.

At this point you can choose to either search for an existing application to assign this evidence to, or create a new application. It is best practice to search for an existing application before creating a new one.

5. Enter the product name in the box and click Search. Application Recognition Service will perform a search to attempt to find a matching application with that product name.
• If a matching application is found, it is listed below the Search box and an Add button appears. Proceed with Step 7.

• If a matching application is not found, the words No results are displayed. Skip to Step 9.
6. Because Application Recognition has found the matching application, you do not have to create a new application. Click Add.

The name of the selected application is now listed in the Assign the selected evidence to: box.

7. Click Assign to assign the unrecognized evidence from your enterprise to an existing application. You have successfully assigned your application to an existing application, and after Rationalization Manager’s data has been synced, that product will no longer be listed as an Unrecognized App.
8. If Application Recognition Service did not find a matching application (for example it found an earlier version of an application, but not the correct version), click Create an application. The Application Properties dialog box opens, with the found evidence pre-populated.

9. The General tab consists of two sections:
• Identification—Use to fully identify the application.
• Details—Use to track both your management of the application, and its projected support life from the publisher.

Note that the Source: Local indicator at the top right indicates that you are editing an application record that has been created in your enterprise and can therefore edit any of the properties on this tab.

10. On the General tab, specify the following properties:

Property

Description

Product

The basic name of the application, excluding references to versions or editions, and without mentioning the publisher.

Product names supplied by the Application Recognition Library are not editable. Where you create your own application record:

• You should reuse existing product names where these are already defined (this helps define upgrade and downgrade rights). To do this, use the Search control to identify existing product names.
• You can also update any product names previously created by operators in your enterprise.

To create a new product for this application:

1. Enter a new name in the Product field, and click Search.
2. If no existing products are displayed, click Create product.

The new product is added both to the application's properties and AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization.

Publisher

The name of the publisher of this software, responsible for its development and distribution. You can define a new publisher as you edit the application properties.

To create a new publisher for this application:

1. Enter a new name in the Publisher field, and click Search.
2. If no existing publishers are displayed in the search panel, click Create publisher. The new publisher is added to the application properties.

Version

The release number (or release identifier) of an application. Enter the version, or release number, of an application.

Important • You cannot edit the value of a version. If a version is already displayed, and you modify its value, you are effectively adding a new version. If you are modifying existing application entries, you might need to adjust version priorities because they control automatic upgrades and downgrades for licenses that convey the product use rights. To associate a different version with the application, click the Browse (...) button and select the upgrade or downgrade version you need.

When creating a new application record, any entry in the Version field is automatically copied into the Name field. However, if you are editing an existing application record, this does not happen: remember to synchronize version changes with the application's name when necessary.

Tip • While you can enter any text you want in the Version field, it is best practice to restrict its use to release numbers. The reason is that a version number is used to manage automatic upgrades and downgrades that may be applicable under purchasing agreements or maintenance contracts.

Edition

Enter the edition of this application. If you type in a value that did not previously exist for this product, a new edition entry is created, and is given the highest priority among the editions of this product. You might need to adjust editions' priorities because they control automatic upgrades and downgrades for the licenses that convey the corresponding product use rights. To do that, click displayed next to the Edition field and choose an edition you need.

Note • Any application must have a unique combination of a publisher, product, edition, and version.

If you are creating a new application record, any entry in the Edition field is automatically appended to the Name field (however, if you are editing the existing application’s properties, automatic update no longer occurs). The Edition field is used less often to manage automatic upgrades and downgrades that may be applicable under purchasing agreements or maintenance contracts, and therefore it is best practice to add any necessary remaining attributes of the application to this field. For example, if your licensing requires you to separately track the language of the interface, the platform (application's operating system), or a system type (such as 64-bit), you can include a brief description in this field.

Important • An edition has to be assigned to an application: any unused editions are deleted from AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization.

Name

Enter the name of an application.

Source

The source for this application will be Local.

Classification

To indicate how this application is classified, select an option from the list, for example:

• Beta—A pre-release application (covers such items as beta releases, alpha releases, or release candidates) that you have under some special arrangement.
• Component—The item is used or installed as a component of another application or suite, and is not licensed as a standalone item.
• Commercial—The application requires a license to be purchased for use in a commercial setting.
• Freeware—Licensed for use in a commercial environment free-of-charge.
• Malware—A potentially harmful application (a virus, Trojan, and the like), and should be treated as malware — if installations of this application are identified, you need to address the corresponding incidents or security issues.
• Shareware—The application is available for downloading from web sites, and typically uses a “try-before-you-buy” licensing model that might include reminder messages, functional limitations, or other restrictions until a full license is purchased.
• X Rated—The application contains potentially objectionable or sexually explicit material. You might want to consider whether corporate policies require any action.
• Update—The application represents an update, for example, a service pack, to another application, and is issued for free to all customers regardless of purchasing agreements or support contracts (a “minor” update). If the original application is still recognized as installed after the update installation is completed, you can ignore the evidence for this application, and hide this Update. However, if the update modifies the inventory data, you may need to ensure that this Update application is recognized separately, but is linked to the same license as its predecessor. Then the presence of either the original application or its update will trigger consumption of a license entitlement.

Note • Do not use the Update classification type for major releases of a Commercial-type application (an “upgrade”). Upgrades and downgrades are significant licensing practices, whereas an Update classification is considered to have little licensing impact.

Application category

The default list of software categories is taken from the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code standard (http://www.unspsc.org/).

To assign an application category, click Search, select a category you need, and click Add category.

Tip • To add new categories, navigate to Enterprise > Categories.

Status

From the Status list, select one of the following:

• Authorized—The application that you have marked as authorized for your enterprise. The application can be associated with a license. This status indicates that the installation of this application on computers in your enterprise is allowed. If the application is also associated with a license, then those installations can be reviewed to determine if they comply with the license terms and conditions.
• Deferred—The application that you intend to manage in due course, but not now. This status is intended to be a temporary state that you will change later.
• Ignored—The application that has been flagged as irrelevant for software asset management. While you can recover an application from this state at any time, this status, unlike Deferred, is generally applied only to those applications that you do not intend to manage at all.
• Inactive—The application that is defined in AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization, but not installed. These are normally applications loaded from the Application Recognition Library.
• Unauthorized—Unauthorized applications should not be installed on computers in your enterprise. It is best practice to uninstall such applications.
• Unmanaged—A new application discovered in your enterprise, but not yet assigned any of the above status values.

Tip • If you do not have the time to process the new records, you can assign the Deferred status to an application, and review it later.

Release date

Select the date when the application's support agreement expires.

Supported until

Select the date when the application's extended support agreement expires.

Extended support until

Select a release date that is used to calculate whether you are entitled to upgrade to this release under an existing agreement with an end date.

For example, if you purchase a license that states “free update until December 15, 2019”, you could record this time limit in a contract. AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization would continue to provide automatic processing of upgrades of all releases until a date after “Dec 15, 2019” (after that date the automatic upgrade rights would be terminated). If you do not specify a release date, a series of updates cannot be terminated.

Tip • You might need to check the terms of your release agreement. Some agreements require that an application should be both released and purchased prior to the end date, while others grant only perpetual use of applications that were released, purchased, and installed before the end date. AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization only compares the end date of the agreement with the release date of the application. Other factors, for example, the linked purchase date, or the first use date, are not considered automatically.

Information

Type in additional details about an application, if any.
11. Open the Usage tab, which is used to configure settings that determine whether an application was in use during a period leading up to the last software inventory.

The settings on the Usage tab can help in identifying the licenses that can be recovered. License recovery means removing installations of an application that are not being used, and re-deploying them as required (as an alternative to purchasing additional licenses).

12. On the Usage tab, specify the following properties:

Property

Description

Usage period

Enter the number of months of usage data to be included when calculating the number of user sessions or hours of active time.

Important • A number in the Usage period field defines the most recent time interval (in months) the calculations will encompass. If you type in, for example, 5 months and enter the corresponding values in the following two fields, then the application is flagged as used if any condition is met during the 5 months before the last inventory import. A date the compliance import is activated to calculate application usage is always considered to be the end date for a usage period.

The number of times an application was started exceeds

Select this check box and enter the number of times a user can launch an application on their device before that application is considered installed and reported in the inventory.

Tip • To trigger a usage record as soon as the user starts an application for the first time, enter 0.

The number of hours an application was active exceeds nn hours

Select this check box and enter the number of hours to be exceeded for an application to be considered installed and used. An active application implies the application whose window was on top of a user's screen (running in the foreground).

Note • This number of hours of active time must be reported by at least one file: all active time across multiple evidence records is not summed up.

Important • If you specify neither the times an application was started check box nor the number of usage hours check box, that application is considered unused across all installations.

Important • If you select both of these check boxes, the application will have to meet both of these requirements to be considered installed and used.

13. Open the Evidence tab, which lists the installer evidence of this application in your enterprise.

14. Review the following properties on the Evidence tab:

Property

Description

Name

The installer evidence name is derived from native packaging tools on each device. For example, on Windows devices, this includes MSI information and Add/Remove Programs data.

Version

The version assigned to the installed application.

The evidence version that you created manually is editable on the General tab of the file. The evidence version retrieved from Application Recognition Library is not editable.

Note • Editing a version stops the inventory agent from recognizing the applications assigned to that evidence.

Tip • You can edit different installer or file versions, and link them to a single application by using the wild card character (%). The wild card symbol (%) represents one or more characters. For example, the versions reported for a single application on 3 different computers might be 10.1.123.0045, 10.1.126.0000, and 10.1.123.0048 (they might represent different service packs and hot-fixes). You can merge this evidence so that they are all recognized, including any other variations, as version 10.1.%. Then all of these three pieces of evidence will be linked to the same application.

Publisher

The name of the publishing organization, as reported by the installer evidence. This property can be edited on the General tab.

Type

The source of the installation evidence. For unrecognized applications detected by AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization, the source type is Add/Remove Programs, a Microsoft Windows utility.

Added evidence

One of the following is listed:

• Yes—Indicates that an operator manually linked any installer evidence with the application.
• No—Indicates that the evidence is unchanged, as provided through Application Recognition Library.

Ignored

Yes is displayed if this evidence is ignored either through the Application Recognition Library setting or ignored manually by an operator.

If ignored, the evidence no longer plays any part in identifying whether the associated application is installed on an inventory device. Ignored evidence records are displayed on the Ignored Evidence page.

Note • An ignored evidence record means that the application linked to it is no longer recognized.

Assigned

Yes is displayed if the evidence is assigned to at least one application. This value is updated automatically when you assign the evidence to an application.

Overlapping evidence

If Yes is displayed, it indicated that the installer evidence assigned to an application has also been added to another application. This can be due to an identical piece of evidence linked to both applications, or the use of wild card characters (%) that results in the overlap. If so, the application recognition process produces confusing and unpredictable results: all applications linked to the overlapping evidence are reported as installed on each computer where the evidence is found.

If Yes is displayed in the Overlapping evidence column, you can manage this status in several ways:

• Remove evidence record—If the evidence was incorrectly associated with this application, select the overlapping evidence record, and click Remove. However, you cannot remove an evidence record if No is displayed in its Added evidence column and Flexera in its Source column.
• Delete one of the applications—Delete one of the applications (for example, if you identified a locally created application that duplicates an Application Recognition Library entry).
• Edit wildcard fields—Open the installer evidence, and edit the fields that contain wildcard characters (%) which might cause the overlap (for example, the Publisher, Version, or Name field).

Important • Before deleting an application, it is best practice to check for any links to licenses, suite membership, or locally added evidence of different kinds. You must transfer all links from the application you are deleting to the one you will continue to track and manage. Links to the licenses are critically important for compliance calculations: open each license linked to the discarded application, and add that license to the correct one.
15. Open the Devices tab, where you can view all devices the application is installed on.

Note • Note that the full list of all devices on your network is not displayed on this tab: this data is retrieved from inventory workflows.

16. Review the following properties on the Devices tab:

Property

Description

Name

Specifies the name of the device.

Calculated user

Displays the name of the end-user that was discovered to be the most frequent user of this device, over the previous 10 inventory collections. If multiple end-users are associated with an inventory device, the value of this field is calculated as follows:

• If there is only one primary end-user linked with the inventory device in System Center Configuration Manager, that end-user is recorded as the calculated user
• If there are multiple primary end-users linked with the inventory device in System Center Configuration Manager, the one who has most frequently logged on is recorded here
• If there is no primary end-user associated with the device, the last logged on end user is recorded here.

AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization generates the value of this field.

This field is not available when you create an inventory device manually.

Last date used

If reported by an inventory tool, this column contains the last date when this application was used.
17. Click Create. A message will appear stating that Your application has been created successfully. After Rationalization Manager’s data has been synced, that product will no longer be listed as an Unrecognized App.

AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization 2015 SP1 Help Library

26 January 2016

 Copyright Information | Flexera Software LLC

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