Domain separation and lifecycle reports

There are certain domain separation aspects to consider when running software lifecycle reports.

Software Asset Management overview

In a domain-separated environment, the software lifecycle report is generated at the level at which the Service Provider (SP) is managing compliance for their customers’ environment. Typically, the level at which reconciliation is run indicates such compliance, and the software lifecycle report is generated at the same level.

The following table shows how the reconciliation should behave. In this example:

• The SP is managing Cisco's software asset management (SAM) program at the Cisco corporate level. That means the lifecycle report must run at the Cisco corporate level.
• The SP is managing Walmart's SAM program for each Walmart division (US and Mexico). That means the lifecycle report must run at the Walmart division level.

Here is the SP hierarchy:

• Cisco Corporate
  • Cisco USA
  • Cisco Mexico
• Walmart Corporate
  • Walmart USA
  • Walmart Mexico

Domain settings (reconciliation/ normalization)	Compliance reporting	Lifecycle report level
TOP/Cisco	True	Yes
TOP/Cisco/US	False
TOP/Cisco/Mexico	False
TOP/Cisco/Germany	False
TOP/Walmart	False
TOP/Walmart/US	True	Yes
TOP/Walmart/Mexico	True	Yes

If the SP sets up software models for Cisco corporate as well as Cisco Mexico, even though their intent is to manage compliance for Cisco at the Cisco Corporate level, the lifecycle report may show duplicate lifecycle records with the same install count.

Table 1. Lifecycle report

Model domain		Date		Software Model	Domain
Cisco	SQL Server 2012	2014	10	SQL Server 2012	Cisco
Cisco Mexico	SQL Server 2012	2014	10	SQL Server 2012	Cisco
Walmart USA	SQL Server 2012	2014	5
Walmart Mexico	SQL Server 2012	2014	20

To learn more about software lifecycles, see Create software models in Software Asset Management classic. To learn about domain separation path setup, see Domain separation setup and administration