Application Properties / Evidence Tab: Installer Evidence
The evidence available on this tab is of the following types, selectable with the sub-tabs at the top of the page:
Type |
Information |
Installer evidence |
Described in this topic. |
File evidence |
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WMI evidence |
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Access evidence |
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Suite and member evidence |
Installer Evidence
Installer evidence is collected from a local (device-based) list of installed applications, such as Add/Remove Programs or MSI. While installer evidence is typically used as the primary method of application recognition for Windows, it is less commonly available on UNIX (although some UNX installer packages allow corresponding functionality).
Application usage may also be reported as installer evidence (strictly, the Inventory Agent monitors processes to identify running executable files, looks up these files in the local installer records, and then reports usage against the installer evidence).
For automatic recognition of applications from the Application Recognition Library, the following properties of installer evidence are used. Keep in mind that the first three of these properties may use wild-cards to generalize the recognition:
• | Name |
• | Version |
• | Publisher |
• | Type |
Available Actions
For Installer evidence, the following actions are available on this page:
Action |
Description |
Examine details of the linked evidence |
Select an item from the list of linked evidence, and click Open. Alternatively, use Ctrl-click (or your browser's alternative) on the hyperlinked evidence name to open the evidence properties in a new browser tab. |
Add more evidence |
Optionally type some of the evidence name in the search field, and click Search. A list of matching evidence is displayed. Select the appropriate item from the search results (check that it is not already Assigned to a different application), and click Add evidence. |
Remove added evidence |
You can only remove evidence that was previously linked within your enterprise (either the application source is shown as Local , or it is Flexera (Extended) and the Added evidence column displays Yes). Select this item, and click Remove to remove the link between the evidence and the application record (the evidence still exists within your computing estate). |
Evidence Tab: Installer Evidence Properties
The following list shows all the columns (listed alphabetically) available in the Installer evidence list. Some are displayed by default, and others are available in the column chooser (see Managing Columns in a Table).
Property |
Description |
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Added evidence |
This column displays Yes if an operator manually linked the evidence with the application. No displays if the evidence is unchanged, as provided through Application Recognition Library. |
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Assigned |
Displays Yes when the evidence is matched to at least one application, and otherwise displays No. This assignment may have been done automatically through the Application Recognition Library rules, or manually by the operator. This data is read-only. |
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Ignored |
You can set this flag so that the evidence is ignored for application recognition. It remains attached to the application, so that it does not clutter up the list of Unrecognized Evidence. Editable in the General tab of the installer evidence properties. |
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Matches |
Specifies the number of times that evidence matching the inventory rule is found in software inventory. Multiple matches of the same inventory rule on a single device are counted separately, so that the Matches count is often higher than the number of devices actually hosting the software (this latter number is available on the Devices tab of the application properties). For example, if the version in a rule is generalized as "1.%", and on a given inventory device, upgrades have left behind the evidence for releases 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2, the three matches count as three on the one inventory device. This data is read-only. |
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Name |
The installer evidence name is derived from native packaging tools on each device. For example, on Windows® devices, the sources include MSI information and Add/Remove Programs data. Clicking on the hyperlinked Name value opens the property sheet for this installer evidence, and in those properties the Devices tab identifies all the inventory devices where this installer evidence has been located. |
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Overlapping evidence |
The Overlapping evidence column indicates whether the evidence assigned to an application has also been added to another application (if so, Yes is displayed). It can be due to an identical piece of evidence linked to both applications, or the use of wildcard characters (%) that results in the overlap. If so, the application recognition process produces confusing and unpredictable results. For example, 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:
Tip:You cannot remove an evidence record if No is displayed in its Added evidence column and Flexera in its Source column. 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. Tip:If there is a special reason a local application record to overlaps with the ARL one, you might consider sharing this information with Flexera. The overlapping record in Application Recognition Library might be updated to meet your requirements, and thus eliminate overlaps in the future. |
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Publisher |
The name of the publisher, as reported by the evidence. |
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Source |
The source of this evidence rule:
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Type |
The kind of software installer that generated this evidence, or where the installer evidence is found. Examples include MSI, Add/Remove Programs, and so on. When creating your own installer evidence record, you can select any of the following:
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Type (Continued) |
For manually-created records, editable in the General tab of the installer evidence properties. |
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Version |
The version of the installed application, as reported by the evidence. For the manually-created records, this field is editable in the General tab of the evidence properties. An evidence version retrieved from Application Recognition Library is not editable. Note:Incorrectly editing a version may stop the inventory agent from recognizing the applications linked to the evidence. If you edit the version number, be sure to check the association with the application and ensure that the rule (or wildcards) still applies to the modified evidence. Tip:While each piece of evidence should have a distinct version, you can link them to an application using the percent wildcard character (%). This represents zero or more characters. For example, the evidence 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). On the linked application, you can merge this evidence to a single rule for version 10.1.%. Then license calculations will link all three pieces of evidence to the same application. Note:The period and a comma characters are counted as matching each other. There is no single wildcard character. |