Discovery

[jjoaquin]

Hi,

Good day.

I noticed that most if not all machines have current discovery time and yet the software they are using is not being captured well by the agent. It's like the discovery time was set to today's date and yet if you look at the applications under the last used date, it doesn't reflect the last time the user used the software.

What do you think is the problem? Is it the agent's problem or something I need to do from the server side?

[mfranz]

Hi,

Could you share an example of what your are looking at? I am not too sure about "discovery time", do you mean "inventory date"?

Best regards,

Markward

[jjoaquin]

For example as I trace my machine it says last inventory date is 04/27/2020 but on the application side the last used date for let say for Office Pro last used date says 04/23/2020 but I just used the said software (excel) last 27th.

[mfranz]

Ok, this sounds still ok to me. You need to understand how the data is collected, uploaded, consumed into the inventory database, read from there and processed into the compliance level of data, so you can see it in the WebUI. This is quite a process and the expectation shouldn't be to see live or near-live data. Also this time offset can be even worse if the data originates from a 3rd party source, like SCCM.

When interpreting the usage data, this should be taken into consideration to not make too quick decissions on it.

[jjoaquin]

Ah ok..I thought it is being delivered as a live or near as such. What is the known acceptable time difference for this? A week or two perhaps? But what if let say difference is like a month?

[mfranz]

Like I mentioned, it depends on the setup. Especially:

• What is your data source (Agent vs. 3rd party tool)?
• How often are agents uploading data to you App Server?
• How often do you run "Inventor y import & license reconcile"?

I don't really have much experience in what you ask, because most of my customers do not run usage tracking for data privacy reasons.

I suggest you look at what usage data you get in your FNMS environment and establish kind of a baseline for yourself. Like what is the newest data you can see in your system? How is the data distributed, can you make out a threshold?

[JeffVoss]

Usage Data adds an additional level of complexity.

You still have the where is the data coming from, i.e. agent or SCCM..., and how is that configured to capture data.

SCCM would require someone to go in and tell the system on an application by application basis to gather data. (it will still pick up last used in Add/Remove programs but not a good source) 

FNMS Agent must be configured to gather data. I believe the default upload in once a day. Note only the applications in add/remove programs are monitored by default. Yes, there are options you can enable to change the behavior. 

Also note: if you are using virtualized applications and the application does not show in the installed applications, usage data will be ignored. 

Jeff 

[jjoaquin]

Thanks for this Jeff....

To give you an idea, though I have SCCM and FNMS agent available on all our machines still I have FNMS set as primary for inventory. In any case FNMS agent failed, only then it will get the info from SCCM and it will be stated as for the source.

FNMS Agent must be configured to gather data. I believe the default upload in once a day. - Is this something you can enlighten me more? So far the only thing I sent for the test is my machine having USAGEAGENT_DISABLE = TRUE from the registry. Any thing else I need to enable from the registry on the agent side? or on the server side? 

[jjoaquin]

Apparently it's not me who set it up and not an expert here neither so please bear with me on some parts.

All I know is that FNMS agent is the primary source of data inventory though I have SCCM connected as well together with AD, and some other business adapters. 

How often are agents uploading data to you App Server? - I would appreciate it very much sir if you can show me how to find this stuff so I know it myself.

How often do you run "Inventory import & license reconcile"? - by looking at system tasks, I would say this is every day.

The reason why I need to have enabled and working data for the last used date is for me to be able to see the people who are really using the software and who are not. Especially when you are managing O365 licenses, this will be a good data to look at to see if a person can be downgraded to a lower license or be pulled out instead.

[jjensen · Accepted solution]

Hi @jjoaquin,

'USAGEAGENT_DISABLE = False' is what you would include in the mgssetup.ini configuration file, if you wanted usage tracking to be enabled at agent install-time.

If the agent is already installed, then you would instead add/amend the following registry key at [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft\Usage Agent\CurrentVersion]:

Name: Disabled
Type: REG_SZ (String)
Value: False

(For Linux devices, the process is similar, but you are updating the config.ini file instead, located by default at /var/opt/managesoft/etc)

Regarding your other question 'How often are agents uploading data to you App Server?', you can find this information in the FNMS Web UI -> Discovery & Inventory tab -> Settings -> Inventory agent schedule.

I've attached an example from one of our test environments.

HTH,
Joseph