Application Usage Tracking Target

[RWG2022]

I have created a target to enable usage tracking via the FlexNet inventory agent and have selected my own machine to test this with. Once I have created the target, is that all I need to do? How do I check if this has worked ok?

Thanks

[ChrisG]

Yes, creating the target and then waiting a bit is all you need to do.

After the target is created, the following things happen for the change to take effect:

1. The target information will flow out to beacons. This generally happens within 15 minutes or so.
2. The agent updates its policy. This generally happens once a day.
3. The usage agent restarts (e.g. after a reboot) and picks up the configuration change.

You can check it has worked by inspecting the C:\Windows\Temp\ManageSoft\usageagent.log file to see if there are signs of life (i.e. if it shows usage details being tracked). You can also check the HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft\Usage Agent\CurrentVersion\Disabled registry entry to see if it is "False" (i.e. indicating that usage metering is enabled).

[RWG2022]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the reply. I just checked the registry on my machine (I don't have access to the temp folder) and it is still showing disabled = true. Before I created the target, I checked all other targets, and they all have usage tracking as not specified. One thing I have just noticed when I've looked at the Beacon activity log, it is showing a lot of errors relating to policy download. Beacon policy downloader failed  to download policy with exception message, service returned 'Service Unavailable'. I assume this is connected, but I'm not sure why it failed. 

Thanks

[RWG2022]

Actually Chris scrap that. I've checked my machine again just now and it looks like it has updated since I first responded to you. I can now see Disabled = false and UseAddRemove = true, so it looks like it's worked. Not sure what the issues are with the failed policy downloader mind. What's the best way to apply the software usage tracking to all machines? Is it best to choose Site or Subnet and then select all so it will apply to all machines that have the agent installed? I also want to ensure any new machines also use this policy too.

Thanks

[ChrisG · Accepted solution]

To have a target that controls settings that will apply to all FlexNet inventory agent installations, you can a configure the target to cover the subnets/IP addresses "0.0.0.0/1" and "128.0.0.0/1":

[RWG2022]

That's fantastic. Thanks Chris 🙂