history of inventoried application data

Snow000 asked a question.

November 14, 2018 at 8:00 AM

Our devices will be scanned by a snow agent once a day. Snow then shows all kind of software on each client with different additional information as first discovered, last used, last scanned.

Our question now is: When an application (especially a portable app) will be deleted, when will this information be cleaned up by default? Is this by the next scan or how long will this finding be found in the system?

The challenge is, of course we need these information for licensing purpose sometimes up to 90 days. The other thing is to pull reports and see if the devices were cleaned up and the software has been removed. I know there is also a default report for installation history but also there we need a better understanding how the data will be scanned. Is there somewhere a detailed description how the data will be discovered, stored and cleaned up?

Data Services & Inventory

Detlev Eufinger (Flexera Software)
8 years ago
Hi Roger, this depends on the setting in the SMACC the METERING_HISTORY_MONTHS and METERING_HISTORY_CLEANUP setting set in the SMACC Tool. When an application is uninstalled it will no longer be counted as installed when, for example, the metric is “based on installations”. However, the application is still shown on the computer as used during the metering period. In a scenario, where "Your Application" has been used (but is uninstalled), it is highlighted with a yellow background on the Computer Details page. The yellow highlighting indicates that the application is not installed on the computer, but that the application was used during the metering period. This occurs either when the software is removed, or when the software is run from a network share or from removable media (USB memory stick). The “metering history cleanup” setting ensures that any metering data which falls outside of the defined metering period is removed. If this setting is not enabled, no metering data is removed and so all historical data is available if required. Please note, however, that the volume of metering data stored will increase over time. To access the “metering history cleanup” setting, go to Snow Management and Configuration Center > Configuration > Basic Settings.
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- Snow000
  8 years ago
  Hi Detlev Thank you very much for that. At least this yellow (or orange relating the user guide) gives a hint that it was removed. These settings are set in our environment. I've just tested and on the first look it works, but there's also a problem with these colors . For example when an application was removed it is true it is highlighted "orange". But if the application is set to blacklist it is highlighted "red". How can we now divide weather it's removed or not? Would it be possible to use these color parameters in some reports? Our goal is it to make some kind of clean up process. Therefor we set several applications onto the blacklist, so they can be reported and they'll show up in red color. The advantage is, we can't see if those applications have been removed, because of the "missing" orange color. Also it would be easier having a full report instead of colors on each clients.
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  - SamuelBaughan
    8 years ago
    Hi ‌, I agree, that would be great if we could extract those colours in a report. I posted an idea on the Board some time ago just about that Vote it up
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