Software Metering
It is important to efficiently manage the software products, services, and applications that are deployed in your organization. SMS 2003 does this with its software inventory and software metering features. The focus of software metering in SMS 2003 is collecting and reporting software program usage data. You can use SMS 2003 software metering data to identify:
Which software applications are being used and which users are running them.
The number of concurrent software application usages.
Actual software license requirements.
Redundant software application installations.
Unused software applications that can be reallocated.
Software metering has been completely redesigned in SMS 2003. It is now fully integrated with all other SMS components, and has a new user interface accessed through the SMS Administrator console. In addition, SMS 2003 software metering data is now stored in the SMS site database with other SMS data.
SMS 2003 software metering includes software usage history, and enables trend analysis and audit reporting. You can use this information to track software license usage and produce license compliance reports. As an SMS site administrator, you can fully configure this process.
You can also configure SMS 2003 to track software usage on managed SMS client computers on and off the network. SMS clients record software usage even when they are disconnected from the network, by uploading usage reports either on a schedule or the next time a connection is available to the SMS site.
The following table summarizes the core SMS 2003 software metering features.
Table 1.6 SMS 2003 Software Metering Features
Feature |
Description |
|---|---|
Scalable |
SMS 2003 software metering is more scalable than in SMS 2.0 and can scale to large client deployments. |
Site-specific rules |
Different rules can be set for each SMS 2003 site. A rule can also be set that flows to the entire SMS hierarchy. |
Offline metering |
Software usage can be tracked on Legacy Clients and Advanced Clients (even while disconnected from the network). The usage report is collected when the computer reconnects with the network. |
Usage monitoring |
Summary and detail reports can be generated describing which applications were used by which users, for how long, and on which computers. Usage can be tracked by user or computer. Reports can be created comparing concurrent usage data to current license ownership (compliance reports). This is useful for reconciling purchased software with used software to support future purchasing decisions. |
Terminal Server monitoring |
SMS 2003 monitors application usage across Windows Terminal Services sessions. Administrators can easily determine who is running Terminal Server applications, when, and for how long. |
For more information, see Chapter 8, "Software Metering," in the Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Operations Guide.
For More Information
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