Microsoft Visio and Project recognition for on-premise and on-cloud subscription

[RamyaJagadeesh]

Microsoft Visio and Project products differentiation w.r.t on-premise version (Microsoft Installer aka MSI) versus cloud version (Click-to-run aka C2R) has been an issue since the same installation technology i.e. C2R can be used to install both on-prem volume based purchases and cloud subscriptions. Hence, the evidence pattern for both are same and no other properties of evidence could be utilized to differentiate the versions.

Solution – Content team has addressed ambiguous recognition scenarios, and considered to merge separate applications in ARL to a single application. Its respective Evidence, SKUs, PURL templates and Bundles have been handled and re linked accordingly. The new merged application is named “Office Visio <version> Professional” and application “Visio Pro for Office 365 2016” has been deleted. Our scope is version 2013, 2016 and 2019.

These updates have been published in the recent Content release, which was published on 29^th May 2020 for FNMS on-prem customers and FNMS cloud customer will have their new build on 01^st June 2020 i.e, ARL build # 2517 and SKU/PURL build # 454

Action required – Please check your license positions once the new build is applied. Licenses created through ARL may need some manual intervention to allocate licenses appropriately.

[qmhj_nnit]

Hi

I strongly disagree that you/Flexnet should put ANY of your own conclusions or logic to the installation data. A Project Pro for O365 (C2R) installations should never be changed to anything else. In this case you take away the possibility to know what is actually installed and if it's incompliant!

As per Microsoft Product Terms you may not always install MSI version instead of C2R. So how is it now possible to distinguish between the two installations?

As SAM specialist I need to know exactly what is installed without any Flexnet "filters".

Thank you.

Br. Michael Jespersen

[ChrisG]

@qmhj_nnit - I think you're actually agreeing with the effect of the change discussed here. Previously (before this change) the FlexNet ARL was making assumptions (guesses) about whether raw installer evidence was coming from a C2R or MSI installation, and often those assumptions were wrong. With these changes, no such assumptions are being made anymore.

What may be confusing is that you can't actually tell from installer evidence (and thus from the application that is recognized as installed) whether a C2R or MSI installer was used - the same evidence often comes from both types of installations. So with this in mind, the ARL now makes no assumption about which type of installation has been done.

[qmhj_nnit]

Hi Chris

I'm supprised to learn from you that no installer evidence can distinct the two different kind of software products. Mind that this is based on a Flexnet agent, not SCCM or other 3.party data. Does your recognition take SWID tags into account? I believe Microsoft support SWID.

I any case, if no possible evidence can separate the two installations I completely agree to your message that Flexnet should make no assumption.

Br. Michael

[ChrisG]

@qmhj_nnit - I've looked through some sample data I have for Visio, and can't find any indication that Visio installations come with a SWID tag. If you have a sample of a SWID tag from a Visio installation that you're working with then that would be very interesting to see, as FlexNet Manager Suite could potentially make use of that.

[qmhj_nnit]

No, the machine installation data is not available to me. In my case we're talking hundreds of desktops, and I just get the installations report from Flexnet. Your recognition people must know if you're using SWID, I just assumed that you did.

Just as an example, on my own machine I searched and found the SWID tag for Visio Standard 2013. It clearly states version and edition among other things. Look for *.swidtag and open with Notepad.

Br. Michael

[ChrisG]

@qmhj_nnit - if your system is using the FlexNet agent to gather inventory, and it is configured to gather file details from a directory where a valid *.swidtag file exists, then the agent will pick up those details. Any tag details which are not already recognized by the ARL will appear in the Installer evidence grid on the License Compliance > Unrecognized Evidence page: filter the grid to show records with Type = "Software ID Tag". If you have any such data, it may be valuable to submit it to the Flexera Content team so they can consider adding recognition rules in the ARL for it. (See here for information on how to submit data if you are unfamiliar with this process.)

[qmhj_nnit]

@ChrisG 

Ok thanks for your enlightenment Chris. It seems what things are more complicated than expected - as they often are... 🙂

From our Flexnet consultant I have learned that we don't collect file evidence due to other  reasons. So I must accept that even with the Flexnet agent installed and with SWID tags telling the installation, it is a challenges to get that info to Flexnet Manager Suite. 

Thank you Chris for your support in this matter.

Br. Michael