Minimizing Software stores in Asset Manager

Transcription

1 HP Asset Manager Minimizing Software stores in Asset Manager Using Connect-It to Prevent Specific Software Detected by Enterprise Discovery from Being Stored in Asset Manager Legal Notices... 2 Business need... 3 Overview of solution... 3 Implementation... 4 Modifications in Connect-It scenario... 4 Extend the String table of Connect-It... 5 Scenario modification... 5 Modifications in Asset Manager... 6 Create the "Unmanaged Software installation" model... 6 Create the workflow to delete undesired software installations... 6 Example of use... 7 Performance... 7 Appendix... 8 Workflow NMSWMOD_DELETE... 8 For more information... 10

2 Legal Notices Copyright Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Confidential computer software. Valid license from HP required for possession, use or copying. Consistent with FAR and , Commercial Computer Software, Computer Software Documentation, and Technical Data for Commercial Items are licensed to the U.S. Government under vendor's standard commercial license. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. Adobe, Adobe logo, Acrobat and Acrobat Logo are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Corel and Corel logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation or Corel Corporation Limited. Java is a US trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, Windows XP, Windows Mobile and Windows Vista are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. 2

3 Business need During the inventory process Enterprise Discovery discovers software applications that are installed on end-node computers. Unlike other discovery tools, Enterprise Discovery has a built in Recognition Engine that discovers over 16,000 versions of software applications. Note: For more information about the Enterprise Discovery Recognition Engine refer to the Teaching Applications in Enterprise Discovery white paper. You may not want to use Asset Manager to manage all software installations that Enterprise Discovery recognizes. For instance, drivers or multiple applications tied to one database (RDBMS) client can represent millions of Asset Manager records for a large company. This document describes how to use Connect-It and Asset Manager to ignore software types that you do not want inserted into Asset Manager. Overview of solution The Asset Manager Software Asset Management (SAM) module provides the ability to reconcile software models. Using this capability, you can define a mapping in the Inventoried Models table (aminventmodel) between inventoried (discovered) software models and definitive models. Before it inserts software installations into Asset Manager, Connect-It checks the mapping in the aminventmodel table. If the definitive model is "Unmanaged Software Installation" model, Connect-It does not insert the software installation into Asset Manager. The first time an inventoried software model is inserted into Asset Manager, no definitive model is associated with it. The software is inserted and a new inventoried model is created. If you do not want this software to be inserted into Asset Manager, you associate the inventoried model with the definitive model named "Unmanaged Software Installation". A workflow in Asset Manager automatically deletes the software installations associated with a blocked inventoried model that you associate with the definitive "Unmanaged Software Installation model. Moreover, during subsequent imports Connect-It does not insert those software installations into Asset Manager. 3

4 The table below summarizes the different cases that can occur: Action Insertion of a new software installation Insertion of a new software installation Insertion of a new software installation Insertion of a new software installation Resolution of an inventoried model Resolution of an inventoried model New inventoried model? Resolved? Unmanaged Software Installation associated Behavior Yes The software installation is inserted into Asset Manager with the temporary model "Unknown software installation model." No Yes Yes The software installation is not inserted. No Yes No The software installation is inserted into Asset Manager with the definitive model of the inventoried model. No No The software installation is inserted into Asset Manager with the temporary model "Unknown software installation model." Yes All software installations associated with the inventoried model are deleted. No All software installations associated with the inventoried model shows the definitive model chosen as the model. This solution uses Asset Manager version 4.4 and Connect-It version 3.6. Higher versions of the software may be used, but have not been tested. Regarding differences between Connect-It 3.5 and 3.6, the 3.5 version can be used. Implementation This section describes in detail the different steps required to implement this solution. The out-of-thebox scenario, edac-swnorm.scn, is used as a basis for this implementation, though the principle can be applied to data coming from another connector. The out-of-the-box scenario has been modified, and the resulting scenario has been attached to this white paper in the file edac-swnorm-nmanaged.scn: Modifications in Connect-It scenario If you use the attached scenario, you need only extend the string table of Connect-It. The modifications made to the scenario are described here so that you can reproduce the implementation in any scenario. 4

5 Extend the String table of Connect-It Add the following line in the <CIT_Installation_Dir>\config\ac\string\errors.str file: SOFT_IGNORED, "The software $1 has been ignored, because the model is resolved in Asset Manager, but the definitive model is \"Unmanaged software model\"" Scenario modification In the edac-swnorm-nmanaged.scn scenario, in the DevicesSrc-amComputerDst mapping, at the AddOn collection level, a script allows you to check the definitive model of the inventoried model for the current software. You can copy it and add it to your scenario. Change references to Enterprise Discovery fields to references that correspond to your inventory tool if needed. 5

6 The script queries the aminventmodel table in Asset Manager (using the PifNewQueryFromFmtName function). The script tries to retrieve the record corresponding to the software model to be inserted. If no inventoried model is found, then this is the first time the software model will be inserted. After the software model has been inserted into Asset Manager, users can choose a definitive model (in Asset Manager) for the new inventoried model. If an inventoried model is found in Asset Manager, the script checks its resolution and definitive model. If the inventoried model is resolved and a definitive model with a bar code matching "NMSWMOD" has been associated to it, then the software is ignored (using the PifIgnoreNodeMapping function). If the software is ignored, a message is added in the logs. Modifications in Asset Manager Create the "Unmanaged Software installation" model Connect to Asset Manager, and create a Model with the following properties: - Name: Unmanaged Software Installation - Sub-model: Software installation - Bar code: NMSWMOD Create the workflow to delete undesired software installations To create the workflow, you import one of the workflows that are attached to this white paper. The workflow NMSWMOD_DELETE EN.zip file creates the workflow in English, and the workflow NMSWMOD_DELETE FR.zip file creates the workflow in French. workflow NMSWMOD_DELETE EN.zip workflow NMSWMOD_DELETE FR.zip The following steps describe how to create the workflow in English. 1. Extract the contents of workflow NMSWMOD_DELETE EN.zip into a temporary directory. This creates a directory called workflow NMSWMOD_DELETE EN. 2. In the list of workflow schemes in Asset Manager, right-click import a workflow scheme 3. Click to select the NMSWMOD_DELETE.lst file in the NMSWMOD_DELETE EN workflow directory. 4. Enter your Asset Manager account password and click Finish. The workflow scheme is imported and the workflow created. Refer to the Asset Manager User Guide for more information about importing workflow schemes into Asset Manager. For more information about the workflow, see the section Workflow NMSWMOD_DELETE in the Appendix. 6

7 Example of use An inventory insertion from Enterprise Discovery retrieves the following four software installations: - HP OpenView Service Desk - HP OpenView Asset Manager - Microsoft Outlook - JDK Because you want to use Asset Manager to manage only software applications that have license costs, you can designate the JDK installation in the inventoried model as an "Unmanaged Software Installation." The computer detail now displays only three software installations: - HP OpenView Service Desk - HP OpenView Asset Manager - Microsoft Outlook Because JDK is now designated an "Unmanaged Software Installation," future imports of inventory data will not insert the JDK installation into Asset Manager for any computers that it manages. Performance Because the modified Connect-It scenario (edac-swnorm-nmanaged.scn) is more complex than the out-of-the-box scenario, it can take longer to execute. Nevertheless, the modified scenario eventually improves performance as software models associated with the Unmanaged software installation are not inserted into Asset Manager. There is a minimum reduction of software insertions at which fewer software insertions begin to improve performance discernibly. With the modified scenario (edac-swnorm-nmanaged.scn) the minimum reduction is about 5%. At 5% the necessary time to execute the scenario is almost exactly the same as the time needed to run the out-ofthe-box scenario, edac-swnorm.scn. As the number of software insertions is reduced by more than 5%, performance begins to improve noticeably. The following table depicts scenario execution times as software installation insertions are reduced in Asset Manager: Reduction in software installations inserted 0,0% -0,7% -2,8% -5,0% -7,8% - 12,8% Change in scenario execution time 3,8% 3,3% 1,9% -1,8% -3,5% -8,8% 7

8 Appendix Workflow NMSWMOD_DELETE This workflow is triggered when a model is resolved or when the definitive model of a resolved model is changed in the aminventmodel table. The workflow then checks whether the definitive model is set to "Unmanaged Software Installation" by checking the bar code of the definitive model. It also determines whether the model is resolved by checking whether the value of the "bresolved" field is set to 1. The diagram below depicts the workflow: The "Start" activity is activated when a record in the aminventmodel is resolved: 8

9 The "Removal of Software Installations" activity then deletes all software installations attached to this inventoried model (where the model is recorded in amportfolio with the linventmodelid value equal to the ID of the Invent Model), if its definitive model bar code is "NMSWMOD": 9

10 For more information Please visit the HP Software support Web site at: This web site provides contact information and details about the products, services, and support that HP Software offers. HP Software online support provides customer self-solve capabilities. It provides a fast and efficient way to access interactive technical support tools needed to manage your business. As a valuable support customer, you can benefit by being able to: Search for knowledge documents of interest Submit and track progress on support cases Submit enhancement requests online Download software patches Manage a support contract Look up HP support contacts Review information about available services Enter discussions with other software customers Research and register for software training Note: Most of the support areas require that you register as an HP Passport user and sign in. Many also require an active support contract. To find more information about support access levels, go to the following URL: To register for an HP Passport ID, go to the following URL: Limited responsibility clause Asset Manager is integrated with several third-party applications. Examples: Database engines, Web servers, single sign-on software, load-balancing and clustering hardware and software solutions, reporting software such as Crystal Reports, etc. Support for these applications is limited to their interface with Asset Manager. Support does not cover installation problems, setup and customization problems nor malfunctioning of the third-party application. White papers contain examples of implementations that may work in your environment with or without customization. There is no guarantee that this will be the case. It could also be that some of the solutions covered by white papers appear as standard features in a future release of the software. When this is the case, there is no guarantee that you will be able to upgrade the solution you implemented based on the white paper to the equivalent standard feature Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. Itanium is a trademark or registered trademark of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries and is used under license. Minimizing Software Stored in AM.doc 10