Application Transparency Report

The Application Transparency report allows you to review the detailed file evidence and installer evidence that has been collected from applications for which the Import detailed evidence check box (on the General tab of the application properties) has been selected (checked). There are two independent reasons why you might set that check box on an application:

• To inspect imported inventory information in more detail

Tip:For this purpose, use the setting sparingly, and consider clearing the check box again when your analysis of the application is complete. Importing detailed evidence for many applications significantly increases the load on the database, and extends processing times.

• To create, for some particular file evidence, a file path exemption that prevents the recognized application consuming entitlements from its linked license (where the file path exemption is declared).

A file path exemption is a special exemption from license consumption for an application that is supplied 'embedded' within a larger 'parent' product (for example, Oracle Java SE is supplied embedded in Oracle SQL Developer). Creating the exemption based on the installation path of a selected piece of file evidence prevents the embedded product (in this example, Java) consuming from its own license, because its installation is authorized by the separate license for the parent product (in this example, Oracle SQL Developer).

Notice that you may run this report after turning on the Import detailed evidence check box in the application, but before setting the exempted path and version in the license, so that you can determine the appropriate detailed path and version to record in the license, taking into account any differences that occur on various inventory devices where the application is installed.

The report allows you to:

• Identify the license (for the embedded application) in which the Exemption by file path has been configured
• Use the Raw file path from the imported file evidence to set the Path value in the license, and the Raw evidence version to set the Version in the license, when configuring the file path exemption.

An exact match (taking any wildcard into account) is required to authorize the exemption from license consumption.

Generating the Report

To generate the report, perform the following steps.

To generate an Application Transparency Report:

1. Navigate to the Application Transparency Report page (Reporting > License Reports > Application Transparency Report).
2. In the top left corner is a search field titled Product. You can skip this search to include all products in the report. If you want to include only a certain product in the report, click on the Product field, type in the product keyword in the Product search field and click the Search button, and then select the product. Click any blank area in the page to close the search box. For help with the search, see To Use a Fly-Down.
3. Click Run report to display the results for all assets which have been removed from inventory.

Reading the Report

There are four sections to the report:

• Evidence Properties 
• Installation Properties 
• Computer Properties 
• License Properties 

Evidence Properties

The following columns (listed alphabetically) are available in this list. By default, some are available through the column chooser. The columns are grouped by the database object of which they are properties.

Property

Description

Connection name

The inventory connection through which the evidence and other inventory details were returned.

Evidence type

Displays either Installer or File as the kind of evidence detailed within this row of the listing.

Inventory date

The date of the inventory import that provided the information in this report.

Matched evidence

The evidence attached to the application (which may include the % wildcard to generalize the evidence matching) that was matched by the incoming detailed evidence.

Path exemption reason

The value (if any) entered in the Exemption Reason column when creating the Exemption by file path for this application. Always blank for rows where the Evidence type displays Installer; and may also be blank for File evidence if the detailed file evidence that was imported did not match any settings for exemptions by file path.

Raw description

The description found in the file evidence and saved in the detailed imported information.

Raw evidence name

For file evidence, this is the file name saved in the detailed imported information. For installer evidence, it is the Name attribute of that evidence.

Raw evidence publisher

The software publisher identified in the evidence saved in the detailed information.

Raw evidence version

For rows where Evidence type displays File, this is the version of the file saved in the detailed information (and you must create a matching string in the Version column of the file path exemption in the license). Where the Evidence type displays Installer, it may display the version recorded in the detailed installer evidence (but keep in mind that this value is not required for your file path exemption).

Raw file path

The file path on the installation disk saved in the detailed information.

Raw file size

The file size for incoming file evidence that is saved with the inventory details.

Raw installer evidence 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.

For a long list of possible values, see the Type column on the All Installer Evidence help page. (Of course, this value remains blank if this row displays an Evidence type of File.)

Installation Properties

The following columns (listed alphabetically) are available in this list. By default, some are available through the column chooser. The columns are grouped by the database object of which they are properties.

Property

Description

Classification

The type of software, especially as it relates to licensing (freeware, commercial, component, and so on).

Edition

The edition of an application, as specified by the publisher of this application.

Note:Many applications do not specify an edition.

Exempt

A Boolean that displays Yes when the application installation in this row has all linked file evidence matching a defined 'file path exemption' in the license linked to the application. This is the second stage of creating an overall license exemption, for which the three steps are:

1. The file evidence linked to the application record is considered 'exempt' if it correctly matches the path and version details declared in the file path exemption – in this case, the Path exemption reason is displayed in this row.
2. This installed application is considered 'exempt' when all linked file evidence is exempt – in this case, this Exempt column displays Yes.
3. The inventory device (for an Oracle Processor license) or the user (for a User license) is exempt from license consumption if all installations of linked applications (on the device, or on all the user's devices) are exempt – in this case, check the Consumption tab of the license properties, where the Exemption reason column now displays Exempted by file path – and this is the final stage that actually reduces license consumption.

Therefore if this column displays No, look for evidence linked to the application record that is not displaying a Path exemption reason.

Installed application

The application that has been recognized by the evidence returned in inventory.

Product

Displays the application name, excluding references to the publisher, version or edition.

Suite member application

Blank when the application in this row is not a suite or a member of a suite. If a suite has been recognized, this shows the name of the application that was recognized (and has now been replaced by the suite details).

Version

The release number (or release identifier) of an application.

Computer Properties

The following columns (listed alphabetically) are available in this list. By default, some are available through the column chooser. The columns are grouped by the database object of which they are properties.

Property

Description

Corporate unit

The corporate unit responsible for the inventory device.

Cost center

The cost center responsible for all costs incurred for this inventory device.

Inventory device status

Indicates the current state of a device. It can have any of the following values:

• Active—A device for which the inventory information is received from an inventory source.
• Archived—This device is in transition pending deletion, but is currently held because of its historical impacts on IBM PVU sub-capacity retrospective calculations.
• Awaiting Inventory—This device is a place-holder that has not yet appeared in imported inventory from any source.
• Ignored—The device that is not managed. An ignored device is not considered in license consumption calculations.

Tip:If an inventory device is linked to an asset record, and that asset is given a status of either Retired or Disposed, this Ignored value is automatically set for the linked inventory device.

Inventory device type

Specifies the type of the inventory device, which may be any of the following values:

• Cluster—A cluster of several computers, typically managed by Kubernetes and with consumption reported by the IBM License Service (which does not allow for further breakdown, for example to individual hosts or VMs within the cluster).
• Computer—A computing device like a desktop, laptop, workstation, or a non-virtualized server.
• Mobile device—A mobile device like a tablet or smart phone.
• Product—Not a device type, but a pseudo-value used only in IBM VPC licenses to identify rows showing the licensed IBM product. This value may appear only if the Bundle consumption rules (in the license properties Use Rights & Rules tab, under License consumption rules) have the option Consume for each product on a device selected.
• Remote Device—The device is a remote device (not appearing in inventory) known to have accessed virtualized applications. This value is created automatically.
• VDI Template—The VDI template used to create the virtual desktop instance that was accessed from an inventory device (see Virtual Desktop Templates). This value is created automatically.
• Virtual Machine—A virtual machine running on a physical host machine. A physical host can run multiple virtual machines using virtualization technologies from VMWare, Oracle, Microsoft, and so on. Note that this value is also used for a record fabricated to represent an Oracle Database running on Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS).
• VM Host—A physical virtual host running one or more virtual machines using any virtualization technology, such as VMWare.

Inventory source

If you have multiple overlapping inventory sources that report on the same device, it is possible for some inventory details to come from one source and other details from another source. This column identifies the most recent source of inventory for this device, so that the value may change as uploads from different sources are imported.

Location

The location within your enterprise that is responsible for the device.

MAC address

The Media Access Control (MAC) address of the accessing device. If the accessing device has multiple network interface cards, this field displays a comma-separated list of MAC addresses.

Name

The name of the inventory device returned in inventory.

Operating system

The operating system software reported in inventory collected from this device.

Owner - Calculated User

Copied from the inventory item linked to this asset record, this is the user most often logged on to the device in the last ten inventory collections.

Not editable: a read-only copy from the inventory device.

Serial no.

The unique identifier for the inventory device linked to this asset record.

The manufacturer's serial number (where it exists) of the linked inventory device is automatically copied here whenever the linked inventory device is updated. Editable in the Serial number field in the General tab of the asset properties.

User name

The user assigned to, or calculated for, this device.

License Properties

The following columns (listed alphabetically) are available in this list. By default, some are available through the column chooser. The columns are grouped by the database object of which they are properties.

Property

Description

Name

The license attached to this application, and on which an exemption by file path may have been created (see Exemptions for Embedded Products).