About Povilas

Povilas · ‎Mar 01, 2023

Hi, With version 11.5 IBM introduced new DB2 editions with old editions being grouped into them: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/db2/11.5?topic=editions-db2-database-product-offerings This ARL update seems to address old editions which are quite unlikely to appear in version 11.5 or later. However, "Standard" and "Advanced" is not part of DB2 product and remains listed as a separate edition. Is there a reason why they were not included in this rearrangement?

Povilas · ‎Dec 23, 2022

Thanks for reply and for opening the case. Content related cases might take up a few months until they are resolved, so by posting here I was also aiming to raise awareness of an issue to other users who might not yet have noticed this change. Also, there was some hope that someone will share how to deal with updates that impact sub-capacity calculations.

Povilas · ‎Dec 22, 2022

We have updated to ARL 2720 last weekend and update messed up consumption calculations for IBM WebSphere MQ license. The reason - IBM WebSphere MQ Server 8.0 installations were discovered on hundreds of end user computers and full capacity consumption was calculated for them. After a brief investigation the problem seems to be caused by file evidence "IBM_WebSphere_MQ-8.0.%.swtag" being mapped to an application "IBM WebSphere MQ Server 8.0" with a recognition rule "At least one". First of all, this particular file evidence does not indicate server edition - there is another tag for that. Second - after ARL update recognition rules for "IBM WebSphere MQ Server 8.0" contradict each other. Same name is marked for both "Not for recognition" and "At least one". It's not the first time that such kind of contradiction happens after ARL update, so a general question would be - how this is even possible? Shouldn't there be any quality or integrity checks before making ARL updates? More important questions are - when we can expect this to be fixed and how can peak consumption be restored to the level that it should be? Installations on end user devices are appearing and dissapearing and while it's possible to make exemptions for those that are still there, some uninstallations already happened meaning that peak consumption is affected by them without a visible possibility to make reductions. A good explanation of what has happened is needed just in case questions araise why consumption is 100 times higher than it should be.

Povilas · ‎Oct 18, 2022

It's a mix of data from FNMS Agent and SCCM. Applications are discovered via installer evidences. I can see that they were in ARL since Februray, but all installations were detected on 2022-10-16, so I assume it has something to do with the latest ARL update.

Povilas · ‎Oct 18, 2022

After latest ARL update a couple of SQL Server applications appeared on installed applications list. In most cases they are detected on the same devices with "normal" SQL Server applications, where edition is specified. However, significant amount of installations is detected on end user devices where SQL Server is not expected. These applications are classified as commercial, but since edition is not present, it's impossible to assign them to proper licenses. Is this an expected behaviour or a an error in ARL?

Povilas · ‎Sep 26, 2022

Hi, is the list of deleted/updated SKUs available for download? Would be good to crosscheck if the update really didn't have any effect on license configuration. Thanks.

Povilas · ‎Aug 18, 2022

There is one thing that could help to reduce workload both for customers and content team and it's maintaining consistency. Applications that have been in ARL for quite some time usually have correct file evidence mappings, but somehow this information is not fully utilized when new applications are added to ARL. For example, file evidences are crucial for recognition of IBM applications and naming patterns do not change much throughout the years. However, often new versions/editions are added to ARL only with installer evidences mapped to them, even though old versions/editions were mainly recognized via file evidences. A lot of analysis and processing time could be saved if updated file evidence mappings were linked to new applications by default. Another quite common issue - reported unrecognized file evidences are linked with applications "as is", without using wildcards, which means that the whole analysis and reporting exercise has to be repeated quite soon, especially if publisher is releasing minor version updates on a frequent basis.

Povilas · ‎Jan 12, 2022

After more than a year I decided that the case that originated from this topic should be closed. To be honest, there hasn't been much progress throughout this time. In my opinion, recognition of IBM Business Automation Workflow editions is still incorrect, but it seems that additional information from IIM can't be used to improve accuracy. In addition to this, content team states that it's impossible to unlink installer evidences from applications and leave only file evidences, because that would impact recognition to other customers and suggests to do that manually. That wouldn't be a problem, but since installer evidences are causing inaccuracy in the first place, it's quite unclear what benefit other customers have from those installer evidences. A more general question - is anyone else having issues with how IBM applications are recognized in Flexera? To this day IBM relies a lot on file evidences, which define application, version and edition, but for some reason it's very hard to convince content team that file evidences are important. Generally, when the new version/edition is added to ARL, it only comes with installer evidences mapped to it, even though previous version/edition had only file evidences or both installer and file evidences. This results in either manual evidence management or raising a case to content team which might take up to a few months to resolve.

Povilas · ‎Jun 10, 2021

There is a xml file located here /ibm/InstallationManager/installed.xml, which holds information about installed IBM software. You should also be able to see the same info, only in much nicer format, when you open IBM Installation Manager itself. I am not sure if this is the only place where IIM information is kept on device and how exactly FNMS Agent is collecting it. Regarding my original question - I am still in communication with FNMS content team. Trying to convince them that for IBM applications recognition priority should be given to file evidences, because as this case shows, the way BAW applications are now recognized via installer evidences omits crucial edition part, which is important to licensing.

Povilas · ‎Jan 04, 2021

The article says "No commercial applications or applications linked to SKU, PURL, or bundle content will be deleted as part of this alignment and refocus.", however, there are 178 commercial applications in the sample file. At least some of them (i.e. RAD Studio XE8, RAD Studio 10.1 Berlin, Tableau Desktop 2019.4) and probably more than that are licensable applications. Versions are also important in cases where maintenance has been stopped at some point in the past. If they are deleted, will some other applications replace them instead?

Povilas · ‎Dec 15, 2020

Hi, One of installer evidence types in Flexera is IBM Installation Manager. In our environment we have a lot of different IBM applications, but only a few of them are recognized based on IIM evidences. Can someone explain how IIM evidences are collected? Is IBM Installation Manager software mandatory to be installed on device or does the agent collect information from some IBM configuration files as well? We have a big issue with recognition of Prod and non-Prod Business Automation Workflow editions. It looks like that correct edition is defined in /ibm/InstallationManager/installed.xml, file containes one of these lines, based on installed edition: <package kind='feature' id='WorkflowEnterprise.Production'> Or <package kind='feature' id='WorkflowEnterprise.NonProduction'> IBM Installation Manager is also installed on these servers. What else might be needed so that IIM evidences were picked up? Thanks.

Povilas · ‎Nov 11, 2020

Would it be possible to update these notes to include a summary of applications where Publisher changes to a new one? For example, after last ARL update Fair Isaac Blaze Advisor 7.3 changed to FICO Blaze Advisor 7.3. It took some time to understand what happened.

Povilas · ‎Mar 20, 2020

Content Requests tab is completely empty, even though I definitely have at least 5 content related cases still open. They are not visible under All Cases as well. Is it a temporary bug while the upgrade is in progress?

Povilas · ‎Feb 06, 2020

Default locations for tracker.log are: Windows path: C:\Windows\Temp\ManageSoft\ Unix path: /var/opt/managesoft/log/ So, depending on what type of server you have, you should look for tracker.log in one of those locations. Then, in tracker.log find all lines having 'has been detected as a possible package registry'. You will find xml file name and the path where it's located on the same line. Note, that there might be multiple lines pointing to different xml files.

Povilas · ‎Feb 06, 2020

Hi Abhilash, I think the best option would be to check those paths and see if anything is there or not. False positive OUI evidences might originate from leftover xml files, but it's not an universal answer. I am not sure what exactly is an issue in your case - is it only the install location missing for some OUI evidences, or is it that you don't expect to see those evidences in NDI file at all. In any case, tracker.log might provide additional insights and I would look for lines listing possible package registries.

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