Evidence Tab: Installer Evidence

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

When any of the Evidence listed on the Evidence tab is found on an inventory device, IT Asset Management determines that the application is installed on that device, and calculates license consumption appropriately. Therefore, it is important to link the evidence to the appropriate application record (and in turn that the application is linked to a license).

The evidence available on this tab is of the following types, selectable with the sub-tabs at the top of the page:

• Installer evidence (the details are listed on this page)
• File evidence (see Evidence Tab: File Evidence)
• WMI evidence (see Evidence Tab: WMI Evidence)
• Access evidence (see Evidence Tab: Access Evidence)
• Suite and member evidence (see Evidence Tab: 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 FlexNet 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.

For Installer evidence, the following actions are available:

• 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).

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 theDevices tab identifies all the inventory devices where this installer evidence has been located.

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:

• If the evidence was incorrectly associated with this application, select the overlapping evidence record, and click Remove.
  Tip: 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 (for example, if you identified a locally created application that duplicates an Application Recognition Library entry).
  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.
• Open the evidence record, and edit the fields that contain wildcard characters (%) which might cause the overlap (for example, the Publisher, Version, or Name field).

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.

Publisher

The name of the publisher, as reported by the evidence.

Source

The source of this evidence rule:

• Flexera — The evidence is identified in the Application Recognition Library, and is linked only to the identified application.
• Flexera (Extended) — Shown when an operator added an additional application to the original record from the Application Recognition Library, or ignored it, or when an ARL evidence comes over the same existing local one. Nevertheless, this status is not refreshed.
• Local — Shown when an operator in your enterprise created the record for this application, or when the raw evidence doesn't match any existing evidence in the Application Recognition Library.

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:

• Add/Remove Programs — the information collected from this Windows® feature.
• ADDM — application details imported from BMC Atrium Discovery and Dependency Mapping.
• Adobe — evidence for Adobe applications.
• Any — widely used by Application Recognition Library, allowing the recognition process to match the evidence from any installer.
• App-V — evidence collected from the Management Server database for the Microsoft Application Virtualization platform (see the App-V Server Adapter section in IT Asset Management Inventory Adapters and Connectors Reference).
• BEA — the custom installer developed by BEA Systems (acquired by Oracle in early 2008).
• Data Platform — the evidence was imported from Data Platform v5 (previously from BDNA, now from Flexera). Typically this represents an application that Data Platform (which includes BDNA Normalize) has identified as installed on inventory device(s) within your enterprise; but since the application is not [yet] recognized by the Application Recognition Library (ARL), it cannot be recognized as an application by IT Asset Management. Except for local application records that you created within Normalize v5, these unrecognized evidence records may be automatically converted to recognized applications after the appropriate future updates to the ARL.
• DPKG — the package management program on Debian-based systems.
• DSPMQ — evidence related to IBM WebSphere MQ, for checking whether an installation is of the server product, or the (free) client product.
• FlexeraID — a unique ID generated for any application, and used consistently across multiple Flexera products for application packaging, software license optimization, and so on. This value is automatically applied to unrecognized installed evidence that:
  • Is imported from the Data Platform v5 product
  • Represents items that Data Platform v5 recognizes as applications installed within your enterprise
  • Is an item that Data Platform v5 records as present in the downloadable Application Recognition Library (ARL), such that it has a known Flexera ID
  • Is not currently an application record known within your local downloaded copy of the ARL (this means that your ARL is out of date, so that you can await the next automatic update, which typically occurs weekly).
• HPUD — evidence retrieved from HP Universal Discovery (see the section HPE Universal Discovery Adapter in IT Asset Management Inventory Adapters and Connectors Reference).
• IA — evidence from InstallAnywhere (from Flexera).
• IBMLS — evidence created from imports from the IBM License Service.
• IIM — evidence from IBM Installation Manager.
• ILMT — evidence imported from the database in IBM License Metric Tool.
• IPS — evidence from Oracle Solaris 11 Image Packaging System.
• ISMP — evidence from InstallShield MultiPlatform (from Flexera).
• Java — evidence for Oracle Java applications.
• JBoss — evidence from installations of JBoss applications. The following Red Hat JBoss and middleware applications are detected:
  • JBoss Enterprise Application Platform
  • Web Server
  • Decision Manager
  • Fuse.
• LPP — evidence from the installer for 'licensed program products' on AIX (from IBM).
• MSI — evidence left in the registry by Microsoft Installer on Windows.
• Oracle EBS Module – evidence for Oracle E-Business Suite discovered through Oracle introspection with IT Asset Management.
• Oracle FMW — evidence collected from installed applications in the Oracle Fusion Middleware collection, including (for example) edition-specific evidence for Oracle WebLogic Server.
• OS X App — an application group (hierarchy of folders and files) for Macintosh OS X.
• OUI — evidence from Oracle Universal Installer.
• RPM — package evidence from this widely-used installation technology available on many GNU/Linux distributions, AIX, and Novell Netware.
• SaaS — A general SaaS evidence type that is used for any software as a service (SaaS) licensed on a subscription basis and centrally hosted that comes into IT Asset Management. For example, Salesforce, Microsoft 365, and evidence imported from the Flexera SaaS Manager.
• SDUX — evidence from the Software Distributor for HP-UX (from Hewlett-Packard).
• Software ID Tag — evidence read from an ISO 19770-2 software identification tag file (also known as SWID tags).
• StreamedApplication — Citrix Cloud streamed application local evidence that is not recognized by the Application Recognition Library (ARL). The evidence needs to be manually assigned to an application.
• SUNPKG — evidence from an installer on Solaris (for the SVR4 package format). Legacy SVR4 packages installed by the Solaris 11 IPS tool are also recognized and identified with this source type.
• Toad — evidence collected for Toad for Oracle on a Windows-based Oracle Server, mainly by inspecting the SettingsLocations.ini file. Currently this is the evidence most often used to recognize Toad for Oracle.
• Toad License — evidence also collected from a Windows-based Oracle server where Toad for Oracle is installed. Currently this evidence type is not used for application recognition in the Application Recognition Library, but the evidence type remains available for use in your own recognition rules if required.
• Universal Application — evidence of an application built on the Microsoft universal app platform, which allows applications to run on multiple Windows 10 devices, such as mobile, desktop, console, holographic, and IoT devices (in contrast with legacy Windows applications installed from MSIs, which can run only on devices built using the Wintel architecture).
• Unknown — used for evidence that does not match any recognized installer type.
• VMware — application information imported from VMware VCenter.

For manually-created records, editable in the General tab of the installer evidence properties.

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.