Create and manage software suites using the legacy Software Asset Management plugin

  • Release version: Washingtondc
  • Updated February 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Create and manage software suites using the legacy Software Asset Management plugin

    The legacy Software Asset Management plugin allows you to create and manage software suites, which are collections of related software sold as a single unit. This is essential for accurately tracking software licenses within your organization. An example of a software suite is Microsoft Office Professional, which includes various productivity tools.

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    Key Features

    • Suite and Component Definition: You can designate software models as either suites (parent) or components (child). A single software model can belong to multiple suites, allowing for flexible management.
    • Inference Controls: The plugin provides options like Inference percent, which determines the required percentage of installed components for a suite to be recognized, and Inference mandatory, which specifies components that must be installed for the suite to be considered installed.
    • Suite Management: Easily add or modify suite components and parent-child relationships within software model records.

    Key Outcomes

    By using the legacy Software Asset Management plugin, you can ensure accurate license tracking and management for software suites. The ability to set inference criteria allows for precise identification of installed software, which is crucial for compliance and optimizing software usage within your organization. Additionally, the system automatically manages calculations related to suite changes, enhancing operational efficiency.

    Software uses the concept of suites instead of bundles.

    A software suite is a group of related software offered as one unit. An example is the Microsoft Office Professional suite of office productivity software tools that includes Powerpoint, Word, Excel, Outlook, and Access. You can use the legacy Software Asset Management (com.snc.software_asset_management) plugin to create suites and add components to the suite so that the licenses your organization own are counted accurately.

    For any software model, you have the option to specify whether the model is a suite (parent) or a component (child). A software model can be a component in multiple suites. For example, Microsoft Word is a component in Microsoft Office Standard and Microsoft Office Professional. Although you can set a single software model as both a suite and a component, software is not typically sold as nested suites.

    Use the Inference percent and Inference mandatory options for even greater control of suites.
    • Inference percent: specifies what percentage of the components in the suite must be installed for the software to be identified as a suite.
    • Inference mandatory: enforces that a specific component in a suite must be installed to infer that the suite is installed.
    For example, specify the Inference percent as 80% and set the Inference mandatory option to true on Microsoft Access. These settings specify that Microsoft Access must be installed, along with 3 out of 4 other products (Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Outlook) to infer that Microsoft Office Professional is installed.
    Figure 1. The interference percent and interference mandatory fields
    The interference percent and Interference mandatory fields
    To make the new software model record a parent record in a suite:
    1. Open a software model record.
    2. In the Suite Components section, double-click an empty row under Suite child.
      Figure 2. Suite child
      The suite child
    3. Add the software to include in the suite.
    4. [Optional] Set the Inference mandatory option to true if the software must be installed to count the model as a suite.
    5. Repeat as necessary.
    To make the new software record a child item:
    1. Open a software model record.
    2. In the Suite Parents section, double-click an empty row under Suite parent.
      Figure 3. Suite parent
      The Suite parent
    3. Add the suite to which this software model should belong.
    4. Repeat as necessary.
      Note:
      When a change is made to a suite, a scheduled job called Calculate suites [Software Suite Model] is created. The job runs instantly, calculates any suites, and then deletes itself. The calculations are stored in the cmdb_sam_sw_install table under inferred suite.