Inactive computers in the License Workbench results

ladrake
Mega Expert

Description: Inactive computers are being counted in the License Workbench results. As a result, the software license usage appears to be out of compliance. How do we prevent this from happening?

Steps to reproduce:
1. Go to the License Workbench and click on the TechSmith publisher widget

2. Click on SnagIt

- Notice that all of the versions of Snagit are compliant

- Notice that the Unlicensed Installs list is full of computers that have been retired, missing or in stock

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1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Daniel Slocum
ServiceNow Employee
ServiceNow Employee

Hello,

Sorry this caught you off guard.  The product doesn't take into account the install_status of the Configuration Item when computing a license position.  Many customers add or edit the status values, or they interpret them differently.  Hardcoding a status to exclude from reconciliation could cause issues with some customers.  Also, we have also seen where a device may be retired, however software is still being discovered.  Customers would want to be aware of devices where statuses are incorrect and still consuming software licenses.  Technically, if software is discoverable on a device, regardless of the status, we would want to make the customer aware that the software is present and potentially consuming licenses.

To help preclude issues, I believe starting in London, the product shipped with Business Rules on the Asset and CI Computer tables that trigger deletion of software installation records when the status or state/substate changes to Retired or Lost/Stolen.  This will preclude software from being counted during reconciliation.

There is also an On-Demand job that can be run “SAM – Remove Installations for retired or stolen configuration items” that will delete software installations from retired/stolen CI’s.  This can be used as a cleanup exercise or when activating SAM for the first time.

A final tactic you can employ is to utilize Software Install Conditions on the SW Model to preclude reconciliation from counting software installations linked to a CI which matches the condition set on the SW Model.  You can choose any value on cmdb_ci_computer or a table dot walkable from that table. 

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12 REPLIES 12

This is really helpful Daniel! Thanks! Is there a way to do this but with assets set as "In Stock" status? We have a Customer that has several machines set in this status, that they need to exclude from software counts as they are actually inactive. What would be the best way to achieve this?

 

Thanks again!

ladrake
Mega Expert

Hi Dan,

 

This was very helpful.  I do not recall seeing this option in our training book or discussing it during the class so I'm happy to hear it now.  I ran the job and it worked as expected.  I also verified that the Business Rule was active on the CI Computer table but didn't see it on the Asset Hardware table - I'll keep looking.  Thanks again.

Hi Again,

Sorry, I didn't mean to mislead you.  The business rule is on the CI.  The asset to CI synchronization will update the CI if you set the Asset to Retired or Lost/Stolen.  That synchronization and subsequent update of the CI will trigger the business rule from the CI record to delete the software installation records. 

Kim Adams
Kilo Explorer

Can you walk me through how to run the On-Demand job “SAM – Remove Installations for retired or stolen configuration items” that will delete software installations from retired/stolen CI’s.  Not sure I have the proper permission.

Hi Kim,

Navigate to System Definition -> Scheduled Jobs -> SAM - Remove Installations for retired or stolen configuration items.  Once in the record click the "Execute Now" UI action button in the top right corner.

Users with ServiceNow Admin rights can do this.  I don't think any other role has the correct rights to execute jobs on demand.

Daniel