Public accounting software tools for SAM
Those who try themselves in the role of a software asset management manager or are simply trying to calculate the compliance of existing and actually used licenses in the organization may find this article useful.
It will be about the tools provided by the vendors themselves and designed to control the use of only their software. Such a restriction reduces the "usefulness" of these tools, and certainly is their minus, but they also have a definite plus - they are provided for free.
Let's look at what tools vendors provide us with and how they can be used.
IBM License Metrics Tool (ILMT) - a tool that allows you to control the consumption of licenses with metrics PVU (Processor Value Units), RVU (Resource Value Units) and some other types of licenses. A limitation of this tool is the inability to measure the consumption of user license types such as AU (Authorized User) and CC (Concurrent User). Perhaps this restriction will be removed in future versions of ILMT. The tool is available for download on the manufacturer’s website, but only by IBM customers.
Organizations with an IBM Passport Advantage agreement typically use the Subcapacity method to calculate the required number of licensing rights. This method allows you to optimize license costs for complex computing environments. Using the Incomplete Capacity method, using the ILMT tool becomes a prerequisite for a license agreement with IBM.
To work with ILMT, you must also install another software product - IBM BigFix. ILMT works with data collected by IBM BigFix. If you use IBM BigFix only to support ILMT, you do not need to acquire a license for IBM BigFix. BigFix agents are used to collect data on the IBM software installed in the organization, installed on each device from which information should be collected. Virtualization structure data is collected by IBM BigFix using the optional VM Manager Tool connector.
ILMT does not allow you to take into account the number of acquired rights to software products, but allows you to store a list of acquired licenses. Accordingly, in the program itself, it is impossible to compare existing and used license rights.
To account for licensing rights and calculate the compliance of existing and used rights, it is necessary to use additional software with software asset management (SAM) capabilities.
MAP (Microsoft) Toolkit - a set of tools for analyzing and evaluating the organization’s IT infrastructure, working without the use of agent programs. Software Usage Tracker is responsible for generating reports used to manage software licenses in the MAP Toolkit.
The utility generates reports on the following Microsoft software products: Windows Server, SharePoint Server, Exchange Server, SQL Server, and System Center Configuration Manager. These products control licenses with the following metrics: Per-server, Per-processor, User CAL, Device CAL. Accordingly, for these software products, you can calculate and evaluate your needs for server, processor and client (CAL) licenses.
MAP does not know how to take into account the organization’s license rights and compare them with the rights used, which also requires the use of additional software.
Usage Hub (HPE) is a special tool created by Hewlett Packard Enterprise for license control and positioned as a “free service”. Usage Hub is able to collect and view information about available licenses for HPE programs, their expiration date and the volume of use of these licenses.
The Usage Hub collects part of the information using agent programs, and part in an agentless way. For complete information about licenses and their validity period, you must additionally configure the interaction of the Usage HUB with the HPE AutoPass License Server. Both the Usage Hub and its agents can be installed in the Windows and Linux operating environments.
The undeniable advantage of this solution is the ability to receive reports on licensing compliance (compliance), generated both at the current moment and for a certain historical period of time, thanks to the automatic collection of information about established licenses and their validity period. However, it is worth making a reservation here: the Usage Hub is not intended to perform an audit of license compliance in an organization, as explicitly indicated in the product documentation.
And if you want to organize software asset management (SAM), you will need other means of automation of this activity.
Posted by Alexei Kolesnik, Leading Consultant, Witte Consulting (Ai-Teco Group of Companies)
It will be about the tools provided by the vendors themselves and designed to control the use of only their software. Such a restriction reduces the "usefulness" of these tools, and certainly is their minus, but they also have a definite plus - they are provided for free.
Let's look at what tools vendors provide us with and how they can be used.
IBM License Metrics Tool (ILMT)
IBM License Metrics Tool (ILMT) - a tool that allows you to control the consumption of licenses with metrics PVU (Processor Value Units), RVU (Resource Value Units) and some other types of licenses. A limitation of this tool is the inability to measure the consumption of user license types such as AU (Authorized User) and CC (Concurrent User). Perhaps this restriction will be removed in future versions of ILMT. The tool is available for download on the manufacturer’s website, but only by IBM customers.
Organizations with an IBM Passport Advantage agreement typically use the Subcapacity method to calculate the required number of licensing rights. This method allows you to optimize license costs for complex computing environments. Using the Incomplete Capacity method, using the ILMT tool becomes a prerequisite for a license agreement with IBM.
To work with ILMT, you must also install another software product - IBM BigFix. ILMT works with data collected by IBM BigFix. If you use IBM BigFix only to support ILMT, you do not need to acquire a license for IBM BigFix. BigFix agents are used to collect data on the IBM software installed in the organization, installed on each device from which information should be collected. Virtualization structure data is collected by IBM BigFix using the optional VM Manager Tool connector.
ILMT does not allow you to take into account the number of acquired rights to software products, but allows you to store a list of acquired licenses. Accordingly, in the program itself, it is impossible to compare existing and used license rights.
To account for licensing rights and calculate the compliance of existing and used rights, it is necessary to use additional software with software asset management (SAM) capabilities.
MAP (Microsoft) Toolkit
MAP (Microsoft) Toolkit - a set of tools for analyzing and evaluating the organization’s IT infrastructure, working without the use of agent programs. Software Usage Tracker is responsible for generating reports used to manage software licenses in the MAP Toolkit.
The utility generates reports on the following Microsoft software products: Windows Server, SharePoint Server, Exchange Server, SQL Server, and System Center Configuration Manager. These products control licenses with the following metrics: Per-server, Per-processor, User CAL, Device CAL. Accordingly, for these software products, you can calculate and evaluate your needs for server, processor and client (CAL) licenses.
MAP does not know how to take into account the organization’s license rights and compare them with the rights used, which also requires the use of additional software.
Usage Hub (HPE)
Usage Hub (HPE) is a special tool created by Hewlett Packard Enterprise for license control and positioned as a “free service”. Usage Hub is able to collect and view information about available licenses for HPE programs, their expiration date and the volume of use of these licenses.
The Usage Hub collects part of the information using agent programs, and part in an agentless way. For complete information about licenses and their validity period, you must additionally configure the interaction of the Usage HUB with the HPE AutoPass License Server. Both the Usage Hub and its agents can be installed in the Windows and Linux operating environments.
The undeniable advantage of this solution is the ability to receive reports on licensing compliance (compliance), generated both at the current moment and for a certain historical period of time, thanks to the automatic collection of information about established licenses and their validity period. However, it is worth making a reservation here: the Usage Hub is not intended to perform an audit of license compliance in an organization, as explicitly indicated in the product documentation.
And if you want to organize software asset management (SAM), you will need other means of automation of this activity.
Posted by Alexei Kolesnik, Leading Consultant, Witte Consulting (Ai-Teco Group of Companies)
Only registered users can participate in the survey. Please come in.
Have you tried to calculate the amount of software used inside your company?
- 50% Yes, tried (using ILMT, MAP toolkit or Usage Hub) 4
- 50% Yes, tried (by other means) 4
- 12.5% No, have not tried 1