Mastering System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager (2014)
Chapter 12. Asset Intelligence
System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager gives organizations better control over their information technology infrastructure and assets through Asset Intelligence technologies by enabling IT professionals to see what hardware and software assets they have, who is using them, and where they are. Asset Intelligence translates inventory data into information; this gives the IT professionals the ability to build reports to understand how these assets are being used in their environment.
ConfigMgr tracks nearly all the software assets on a network, providing comprehensive details about both physical and virtual applications installed across an enterprise. Asset Intelligence lets IT professionals define, track, and proactively manage conformity to configuration standards. Metering and reporting the deployment and the use of both physical and virtual applications help organizations make better business decisions about software licensing and maintenance of licensing agreements. In this chapter we will cover the aspects of Asset Intelligence in ConfigMgr 2012 and show you how to enable it to take full advantage of this information.
In this chapter, you will learn to
· Enable Asset Intelligence
· Configure the Asset Intelligence synchronization point
· Import the Microsoft Volume License Statement
Requirements for Asset Intelligence
The Asset Intelligence feature in ConfigMgr 2012 has both external and internal dependencies that you will need to consider when using this feature. Those requirements include the following:
· Client agent requirements
· Site maintenance task requirements
· Windows event log requirements
Client Agent Prerequisites
The Asset Intelligence reports are based on information gathered through hardware and software inventory. To get the necessary information from clients for all Asset Intelligence reports, you must enable these client agents:
· Hardware Inventory Client Agent
· Software Metering Client Agent
Hardware Inventory Client Agent Requirement
To be able to collect inventory data required for some Asset Intelligence reports, you must enable the Hardware Inventory Client Agent. In addition, some hardware inventory reporting classes that Asset Intelligence reports depend on must be enabled on primary site server computers. You saw how to do this in Chapter 11, “Inventory and Software Metering.”
Reports That Require Software Metering
Six reports require the Software Metering Client Agent to be enabled before they can provide any data:
1. Software 07A Recently Used Executable Programs By The Count Of Computers
2. Software 07B Computers That Recently Used A Specified Executable Program
3. Software 07C Recently Used Executable Programs On A Specified Computer
4. Software 08A Recently Used Executable Programs By The Count Of Users
5. Software 08B Users That Recently Used A Specified Executable Program
6. Software 08C Recently Used Executable Programs By A Specified User
Maintenance Tasks
The following maintenance tasks are associated with Asset Intelligence. By default, both maintenance tasks are enabled and configured by default.
1. Check Application Title With Inventory Information This maintenance task checks to see if the software title that is reported in software inventory is reconciled with the software title in the Asset Intelligence Catalog. Basically it compares software hash from inventory to software code in the catalog to ensure accuracy and completeness. By default, this maintenance task is scheduled to run on Saturday after 12:00 a.m. and before 5:00 a.m.
2. Summarize Installed Software Data This maintenance task provides the information that is displayed in the Inventoried Software node under the Asset Intelligence node in the Assets and Compliance workspace. When the task runs, Configuration Manager gathers a count of all inventoried software titles at the primary site. This task is available only on primary sites. By default, this maintenance task is scheduled to run on Saturday after 12:00 a.m. and before 5:00 a.m.
To configure these maintenance tasks, do the following:
1. In the ConfigMgr console, click Administration.
2. In the Administration workspace, expand Site Configuration, and then click Sites.
3. Select the site on which to configure the Asset Intelligence maintenance task.
4. On the Home tab of the ribbon, in the Settings group, click Site Maintenance.
A list of all available maintenance tasks will appear, as shown in Figure 12.1.
Figure 12.1 Site Maintenance dialog
5. Choose the desired maintenance task, and then click Edit to modify the settings.
6. Enable and configure the maintenance task.
7. Click Apply to save your settings.
The task will now run according to its schedule. If you want to know more about this maintenance task, check Chapter 19, “Troubleshooting.”
Windows Ekvent Log Settings
Four Asset Intelligence reports display data gathered from the Windows security event logs on client computers. If the security event log is not set up properly, these reports will be empty even if the appropriate hardware inventory class has been enabled. We will discuss configuring these settings later in the chapter. The following reports require these collected events:
1. Hardware 3A Primary Computer Users
2. Hardware 3B Computers For A Specific Primary Console User
3. Hardware 4A Computers With Multiple Users (Shared)
4. Hardware 5A Console Users On A Specific Computer
To enable auditing of success logon events, follow these steps:
1. On a domain controller computer, navigate to Administrative Tools ⇒ Group Policy Management.
2. Navigate to Default Domain Policy, right-click Default Domain Policy and choose Edit ⇒ Computer Configuration ⇒ Policies ⇒ Windows Settings ⇒ Security Settings ⇒ Local Policies ⇒ Audit Policy.
3. In the results pane, double-click Audit Logon Events, and ensure that Success is selected.
Elements of Asset Intelligence
Asset Intelligence enhances the inventory capabilities of ConfigMgr 2012 by extending hardware and software inventory. The Asset Intelligence category now contains more than 60 reports that present this information in an easy-to-use format. Most reports link to more detailed reports that allow the administrator to query for general information and drill down to more detailed information as needed.
Asset Intelligence Catalog
The ConfigMgr 2012 Asset Intelligence Catalog is a set of tables stored in the ConfigMgr database containing categorization and identification data for more than 300,000 software titles and versions that are divided into almost 100 families and almost 2,000 specific categories. These database tables are also used to manage hardware requirements for specific software titles.
With ConfigMgr 2012, the Asset Intelligence Catalog was enhanced to allow software titles in use (both Microsoft and general software) to be manually imported. In addition, it now includes a large collection of known hardware requirements for software titles stored in the Asset Intelligence Catalog. Also, it is now possible to edit the local Asset Intelligence Catalog and to upload software title information to System Center Online (SCO) for categorization.
What Is System Center Online?
Hosted by Microsoft, System Center Online is “software as a service,” an online management service aimed at the IT community. Some of the services that will be eventually hosted are antivirus, antispyware, system monitoring, backup/restore, policy management, and, in the case of ConfigMgr, asset inventory monitoring.
Asset Intelligence Catalog updates containing newly released software and hardware definitions will be available for download periodically for bulk catalog updates, or the catalog can be dynamically updated by Microsoft Software Assurance (SA) customers using the Asset Intelligence synchronization point site system role.
Software Categories
Administrators can view available software category information stored in the Asset Intelligence Catalog by using the Assets and Compliance ⇒ Overview ⇒ Asset Intelligence ⇒ Catalog view in the ConfigMgr console.
These software categories are used to give broad listings of inventoried software titles and are also used as high-level groupings of more detailed software families. The Asset Intelligence Catalog has many predefined software categories, and you can create user-defined categories to continue to define inventoried software as needed. For example, the predefined E-mail And Collaboration category includes applications such as Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. The validation state for software categories already defined is always validated, while custom category information added to the Asset Intelligence catalog is user-defined. Note that predefined software category information is read-only and can’t be changed. User-defined software categories can be added, modified, or deleted by administrators. We will cover managing software categories later in the chapter in the section “Asset Intelligence Validation States.”
Software Families
Administrators can view available software family information stored in the Asset Intelligence Catalog by using the Assets and Compliance ⇒ Overview ⇒ Asset Intelligence ⇒ Catalog view in the ConfigMgr console.
Software families in Asset Intelligence are used to define inventoried software even further within software categories. For example, the Security software family is defined by the Security and Security Threat labels. Like software categories, predefined software families always have a validation state of validated, while custom software family information has a state of user-defined. Also like software categories, predefined software family information can’t be modified.
Software Labels
You can create custom software labels to even further categorize inventoried software titles that are in the Asset Intelligence Catalog. Administrators can use custom labels to create user-defined groups of software titles that share a common attribute. For example, a custom label could be called bank software, and that label would be used to identify inventoried bank software titles, which in turn could be used in a report to show all software that has that label. Custom labels have no validation state since they are always created locally in your ConfigMgr hierarchy.
In the ConfigMgr console, you can view all the custom labels that you or another administrator has made in the Asset Intelligence Catalog by choosing Asset Intelligence ⇒ Catalog.
Inventoried Software
The Inventoried Software node is located under Asset Intelligence ⇒ Inventoried Software in the ConfigMgr console. Administrators can look at inventoried software title information collected from ConfigMgr clients in this node and can even create up to three custom labels per inventoried software item to further utilize user-defined categorization.
Each software title shows the following information:
· Name of the software title
· Name of the software vendor
· Product version
· Assigned software category
· Assigned software family
All of this information except for version can be changed, via a local edit. Anything that can be changed can be reverted to the original values later.
Hardware Requirements
With the Asset Intelligence ⇒ Hardware Requirements node, you can manage software title hardware requirements data that is stored in the Asset Intelligence Catalog. The hardware requirements that are preloaded into the Asset Intelligence Catalog are not based on inventoried software information but are included as part of the Asset Intelligence Catalog. In addition to the default hardware requirements listed in this node, administrators can add new software title hardware requirements as needed to meet custom report requirements. The information that is displayed in this node includes the following:
· Name of the software title that the hardware requirement is for
· Validation state for the hardware requirement (System Center Online requirements are always validated; custom hardware requirements are always user-defined.)
· Minimum processor speed, in MHz, that the software title requires
· Minimum RAM, in KB, that the software title requires
· Minimum free disk space, in KB, that the software title requires
· Minimum hard disk size, in KB, that the software title requires
As in other parts of the Asset Intelligence Catalog, custom hardware requirements for software titles that aren’t stored in the catalog can be modified, but the predefined information is read-only and can’t be changed or deleted.
Asset Intelligence Validation States
Asset Intelligence validation states show the source and current validation status of Asset Intelligence Catalog information. They are outlined in Table 12.1, which is reproduced from the ConfigMgr documentation.
Table 12.1: Asset Intelligence validation states
Asset Intelligence Synchronization Point
ConfigMgr has a site system role for Asset Intelligence called the Asset Intelligence synchronization point. This site system role is used to connect to System Center Online over TCP port 443 so dynamic Asset Intelligence Catalog updates can be managed.
This site role can be installed only on the ConfigMgr 2012 Central Administration Site (CAS)/stand-alone primary site, and all of your Asset Intelligence Catalog customization must be done on a ConfigMgr console that is connected to this site. You must configure all the updates at the central site, but all Asset Intelligence Catalog information is replicated to all child primary sites using ConfigMgr SQL replication. If a CAS doesn’t exist in the environment, you can configure this on the stand-alone primary site server.
Using the Asset Intelligence synchronization point, Software Assurance (SA) license customers can also request on-demand catalog synchronization with System Center Online or schedule automatic catalog synchronization, and they can upload uncategorized software titles to System Center Online for identification.
The Asset Intelligence Home Page
With ConfigMgr 2012, an Asset Intelligence home page was added to the ConfigMgr console; it’s similar to home pages in some of the other features, such as Software Updates.
To display the Asset Intelligence home page, do the following in the ConfigMgr console: Select Assets and Compliance ⇒ Overview ⇒ Asset Intelligence. Figure 12.2 shows an example of the Asset Intelligence home page.
Figure 12.2 Asset Intelligence home page
The Asset Intelligence home page is divided into the following sections:
· Catalog Synchronization
· Inventoried Software Status
Asset Intelligence Catalog Synchronization
This section displays the following information:
1. Asset Intelligence Component This item displays the status of the component as either Enabled or Disabled.
2. Asset Intelligence Synchronization Point Status This item displays the online status of the synchronization point or any failure that happened during this synchronization.
3. Synchronization Schedule This item matches the configured schedule of the catalog; by default, this is set for every 7 days, but you can change this on the Assets and Compliance ⇒ Asset Intelligence node. Right-click the node, choose Synchronize ⇒ Schedule Synchronization, and choose the desired schedule.
4. Software Licenses Imported This item shows whether the Microsoft volume license has been imported into the ConfigMgr database.
5. Last Successful Update This item shows the last time Configuration Manager was able to synchronize the catalog. If it was not able to synchronize, a warning icon will show and will display a Not Applicable status.
6. Next Scheduled Update This item displays the next date and time when the catalog will synchronize.
7. Changes To Categories Or Families This item displays the number of changes or updates in categories that occurred on the database during the last synchronization with System Center Online.
8. Changes To Software Titles This item displays the number of changes or updates in software titles that occurred during the last synchronization with System Center Online.
Inventoried Software Status
The following data enumerates assets detected in the ConfigMgr environment. The table describes the assets in absolute numbers, and the chart represents that information in percentages.
1. Inventoried Software Status Table This item displays the assets of the Asset Intelligence Catalog in summary table format with the following information:
· Inventoried Software
· Software Categories
· Software Families
2. Each of these is shown in one of the following states:
· Identified By Microsoft
· Identified By Administrator
· Pending Online Identification
· Unidentified And Not Pending
3. Identification By Percent Chart This item displays an Asset Catalog summary in bar chart format, including the following information as percentages:
· Inventoried Software
· Software Categories
· Software Families
4. These in turn are shown color coded for easier identification:
· Identified By Microsoft
· Identified By Administrator
· Pending Online Identification
· Unidentified And Not Pending
Asset Intelligence Reports
To see the real power behind the Asset Intelligence feature, you have to examine the various Asset Intelligence reports that are provided with ConfigMgr right out of the box.
You can find the Asset Intelligence reports in the ConfigMgr console by choosing Monitoring ⇒ Overview ⇒ Reporting. Expand Reports and click Asset Intelligence. The numbers in the installed software and license information shown in Asset Intelligence reports may vary from the true number of software products installed or licenses in use on your network because of complex dependencies and limitations in inventorying software license information for software titles installed in an enterprise environment. Therefore, you should not use Asset Intelligence reports as the sole source of deciding how many software licenses to purchase for compliance.
The following are example dependencies that are involved in inventorying installed software and licenses in an enterprise using Asset Intelligence that might affect the accuracy of the data:
1. Client Hardware Inventory Dependency Asset Intelligence–installed software reports are based on data collected from ConfigMgr clients by extending hardware inventory to enable Asset Intelligence reporting. Because of this, Asset Intelligence reports will report data only from ConfigMgr clients that have completed a hardware inventory scan successfully and have the required Asset Intelligence WMI reporting class enabled. Also, since hardware inventory runs on a schedule that is set by the administrator, there may be a delay in data being reported that might affect the accuracy of Asset Intelligence reports at any given time.
2. Software Packaging Dependencies Because Asset Intelligence reports are based on installed software title data using standard ConfigMgr client hardware inventory processes, some of that data might not be collected properly if the software executables don’t conform to standard installation processes or have been modified prior to installation.
3. Server Role Dependencies When you’re using CAL reporting, it is important to remember that these reports were designed to provide visibility into the specific usage of products in specific scenarios, such as a Windows server hosting only one server role. In cases where a Windows server is hosting more than one role, this might cause inaccurate Asset Intelligence reports.
4. Location And Usage Remember that Asset Intelligence reports were designed to report license usage, not how many licenses have been actually bought and for what purpose they are allowed to be used.
Hardware Reports
Asset Intelligence hardware reports provide information about hardware assets in your organization, such as a computer’s age and its ability to handle a software upgrade. Some reports are based on information collected from the System Security event log, so you should clear that log if a computer is assigned to another user. The following hardware Asset Intelligence reports are available:
1. Hardware 01A Summary Of Computers In A Specific Collection
2. Hardware 03A Primary Computer Users
3. Hardware 03B Computers For A Specific Primary Console User
4. Hardware 04A Computers With Multiple Users (Shared)
5. Hardware 05A Console Users On A Specific Computer
6. Hardware 06A Computers For Which Console Users Could Not Be Determined
7. Hardware 07A USB Devices By Manufacturer
8. Hardware 07B USB Devices By Manufacturer And Description
9. Hardware 07C Computers With A Specific USB Device
10.Hardware 07D USB Devices On A Specific Computer
11.Hardware 08A Hardware That Is Not Ready For A Software Upgrade
12.Hardware 09A Search For Computers
13.Hardware 10A Computers In A Specified Collection That Have Changed Within A Specified Timeframe
14.Hardware 10B Changes On A Specified Computer Within A Specified Timeframe
Planning for a Software Upgrade
You get word from your manager that the department responsible for all the company training manuals is working on updating many of the manuals because of some new federal regulations. They are making these updates with a new version of the Adobe Acrobat software, and there is a possibility that you might have to deploy Acrobat Reader X so that employees will be able to read the updated manuals properly.
The company is also in the middle of a hardware refresh, so your manager is concerned that there may be computers on the network that do not have the necessary hardware requirements to run Acrobat Reader X properly, so she wants to use ConfigMgr to generate a list of those computers if there are any.
Hearing this, you are glad that you have already enabled Asset Intelligence, because there is a specific report for just this scenario. To meet your manager’s request, just go to the report Hardware 08A: Hardware That Is Not Ready for a Software Upgrade. Since you are concerned with user computers in this instance, select the desired collection in the Collection field. The Asset Intelligence knowledge base, which is part of the ConfigMgr database, already has information about Acrobat Reader X, so select that for the Product field.
After you run the report, you can provide that link to your manager so she can either print it or export it into Excel for her own use.
Software Reports
Software Asset Intelligence reports provide information about software families, categories, and specific software titles installed on computers within your organization. The following software Asset Intelligence reports are available:
1. Software 01A Summary Of Installed Software In A Specific Collection
2. Software 02A Product Families For A Specific Collection
3. Software 02B Product Categories For A Specific Product Family
4. Software 02C Software In A Specific Product Family And Category
5. Software 02D Computers With Specific Software Installed
6. Software 02E Installed Software On A Specific Computer
7. Software 03A Uncategorized Software
8. Software 04A Software Configured To Automatically Run On Computers
9. Software 04B Computers With Specific Software Configured To Automatically Run
10.Software 04C Software Configured To Automatically Run On A Specific Computer
11.Software 05A Browser Helper Objects
12.Software 05B Computers With A Specific Browser Helper Object
13.Software 05C Browser Helper Objects On A Specific Computer
14.Software 06A Search For Installed Software
15.Software 07A Recently Used Executable Programs By The Count Of Computers
16.Software 07B Computers That Recently Used A Specified Executable Program
17.Software 07C Recently Used Executable Programs On A Specified Computer
18.Software 08A Recently Used Executable Programs By The Count Of Users
19.Software 08B Users That Recently Used A Specified Executable Program
20.Software 08C Recently Used Executable Programs By A Specified User
21.Software 09A Infrequently Used Software
22.Software 09B Computers With Infrequently Used Software Installed
23.Software 10A Software Titles With Specific, Multiple Custom Labels Defined
24.Software 10B Computers With A Specific Custom-Labeled Software Title Installed
25.Software 11A Software Titles With A Specific Custom Label Defined
26.Software 12A Software Titles Without A Custom Label
License Management Reports
The following license management Asset Intelligence reports are available:
1. License 01A Microsoft Volume License Ledger For Microsoft License Statements
2. License 01B Microsoft Volume License Ledger Item By Sales Channel
3. License 01C Computers With A Specific Microsoft Volume License Ledger Item And Sales Channel
4. License 01D Microsoft Volume License Ledger Products On A Specific Computer
5. License 02A Count Of Licenses Nearing Expiration By Time Ranges
6. License 02B Computers With Licenses Nearing Expiration
7. License 02C License Information On A Specific Computer
8. License 03A Count Of Licenses By License Status
9. License 03B Computers With A Specific License Status
10.License 04A Count Of Products Managed By Software Licensing
11.License 04B Computers With A Specific Product Managed By Software Licensing Service
12.License 05A Computers Providing Key Management Service
13.License 06A Processor Counts For Per-Processor Licensed Products
14.License 14A Microsoft Volume Licensing Reconciliation Report
15.License 14B List Of Microsoft Software Inventory Not Found In Mvls
16.License 15A General License Reconciliation Report
17.License 15B General License Reconciliation Report By Computer
Configuring Asset Intelligence
ConfigMgr Asset Intelligence is enabled by default. Depending on what data you want information on, you will have to do the following:
1. Choose the Assets And Compliance workspace in the ConfigMgr console.
2. Under Overview, right-click Asset Intelligence, and click Edit Inventory Classes.
3. Choose to enable only the desired Asset Intelligence reporting class.
4. Make sure that certain client agents are enabled, which we will go over in the following sections.
Enabling Asset Intelligence
To successfully collect data for the hardware and software reports in Asset Intelligence, you first need to enable the Hardware Inventory Client Agent.
The classes that are used for the hardware and software inventory reports include the following:
1. SMS_SystemConsoleUsage
2. SMS_SystemConsoleUser
3. SMS_InstalledSoftware
4. SMS_AutoStartSoftware
5. SMS_BrowserHelperObject
6. SoftwareLicensingService
7. SoftwareLicensingProduct
8. Win32_USBDevice
9. SMS_SoftwareTag
To enable one or all of these classes in ConfigMgr, you have to follow these steps:
1. Choose Assets and Compliance ⇒ Overview ⇒ Asset Intelligence.
2. Right-click, and choose Edit Inventory Classes. Figure 12.3 shows the dialog box that opens.
Figure 12.3 Asset Intelligence Edit Inventory Classes dialog box
3. Choose the inventory classes that need to be enabled, and click OK.
After you do that, it could take up to a few days for these changes to take full effect, depending on your ConfigMgr hierarchy and how often you have the Hardware Inventory Client Agent set to collect inventory.
Installing an Asset Intelligence Synchronization Point
As discussed earlier in the chapter, the Asset Intelligence synchronization point role is used to connect ConfigMgr sites to System Center Online to synchronize Asset Intelligence catalog information. You can install this role only on a site system located in the CAS of a ConfigMgr hierarchy, and you’ll require Internet access to synchronize with System Center Online on TCP port 443. The Asset Intelligence synchronization point can also upload custom software title information to System Center Online for categorization. All information uploaded to System Center Online will be treated as public information by Microsoft, so you should be sure that your custom information does not contain any sensitive information.
To install the Asset Intelligence synchronization point and have it be secure, you can acquire an optional System Center Online authentication certificate (*.pfx), which can be acquired only by SA license customers. (For more information on Software Assurance, check out the SA website at www.microsoft.com/licensing/sa/default.mspx.) Before you begin the installation of the Asset Intelligence synchronization point, make sure that all of the following are true:
· You have a valid SCO authentication certificate. If you don’t have one, do not put any certificate information in the field since this certificate is optional.
· The Asset Intelligence synchronization point will be available on a shared network folder accessible to the server where you will be running the New Site Role Wizard.
· The Asset Intelligence synchronization point will stay in that location until the Asset Intelligence synchronization point has done its first synchronization with System Center Online.
To install an Asset Intelligence synchronization point, follow these steps:
1. In the ConfigMgr console, select Administration ⇒ Overview ⇒ Site Configuration ⇒ Sites.
2. Select CAS Site Server Name. Choose the Home tab of the ribbon, and click Add Site System Roles to start the Add Site System Roles Wizard.
3. As you have done with other ConfigMgr wizards covered in this book, verify the site system settings on the General page, and click Next.
4. On the Proxy page, enter information as needed, and click Next.
5. On the System Role Selection page, select the Asset Intelligence Synchronization Point check box, and then click Next.
6. On the Asset Intelligence Synchronization Point Settings page, you can set up an optional certificate. If you choose to do so, then set the path to the SCO authentication certificate (*.pfx) file, as shown in Figure 12.4, and click Next.
Figure 12.4 Asset Intelligence Synchronization Point Settings page
7. On the Proxy Server Settings page, configure the settings for the proxy server if needed.
8. On the Synchronization Point Schedule page, you can choose whether to set up synchronization on a simple or custom schedule, as you’ve seen in other ConfigMgr options.
9. On the Summary page of the wizard, review the settings you have specified to make sure they are correct. If you need to make any changes, click the Previous button. Otherwise, click Next to finish the rest of the configuration.
Import Software License into Asset Intelligence
One of the most important pieces of Asset Intelligence is the availability to import the current Microsoft Volume License Summary into the database for better reporting of this license count. Also, you can import a non-Microsoft product license count into the database by selecting the option to upload a General License Statement file.
As shown in Figure 12.5, you can now import the Microsoft Volume License Statement or General License Statement in one easy wizard. First, select the type of file you are going to import. This will be either an .xml or .csv file for the Microsoft Volume License Statement or a .csv file for the General License Statement. Once you have chosen the file you are going to upload, this information will be imported into the ConfigMgr database. On the next hardware and software inventory, the data will be analyzed, and the new imported license count will be available for the IT administrator’s analysis. You can upload the license information as many times as needed to update the license or when the enterprise agreement of the Microsoft product gets updated. You’ll need to follow the same process for the non-Microsoft product when you want to review the license count.
Figure 12.5 Import Software Licenses Wizard
Importing Software License Information
The following sections describe the procedures necessary to import both Microsoft and general software licensing information into the ConfigMgr 2012 site database using the Import Software Licenses Wizard. When you import software licenses from license information files into the site database, the site server computer account requires Full Control NTFS permissions to the file share that will be used to import software license information. When this license information gets imported into the site, the existing software license information file used with the Import Software Licenses Wizard contains a complete list of all necessary software license information.
Follow these steps to import the software license:
1. In the Assets And Compliance workspace, click Asset Intelligence.
2. On the Home tab of the ribbon, in Create Group, click Import Software Licenses.
The Import Software Licenses Wizard opens, as shown in Figure 12.5.
3. On the Welcome page, click Next.
4. On the Import page, specify whether you are importing a Microsoft Volume License Statement (.xml or .csv) or a General License Statement (.csv).
5. Enter the UNC path to the license information file, or click Browse to select a network shared folder and file.
6. On the Summary page, review the information you have specified to ensure that it is correct before continuing.
If you need to make changes, click Previous to return to the Import page. Otherwise, click Next.
7. Once this is completed, click Close.
Perform the following steps for the General License Statement as well; just make sure to select this in step 4.
Creating the Microsoft Volume License Statement
Before you start the process of creating the Microsoft Volume License Statement, make sure you have access to http://licensing.microsoft.com/. If you don’t have access, please talk to your Microsoft Account Manager or Microsoft Technical Account Manager and ask them to send you your License Summary. Once you have the proper access, select the License Summary from the licensing site, and export it to Excel. When you have it in Excel, make sure the following fields and values are selected, with example data shown here.
Once you have imported the Microsoft Volume License Statement, you can run any of the reports with the title “License.”
Creating the General License Statement
Now let’s look at an example of the General License Statement. To create this you need to manually create a .csv file with the fields you need and list the software for which you want ConfigMgr to keep track of the license count. Once you finish creating the file, follow the same steps as you did to import the software license, but now use the example shown in Figure 12.6.
Figure 12.6 General License Statement import
As you can see in Figure 12.7, all you need to do is create the .csv file and list the third-party software for which it needs to keep track of the license count.
Figure 12.7 General License Statement
The following is a list of reports that you can run:
1. License 14A Microsoft Volume Licensing Reconciliation Report
2. License 14B List Of Microsoft Software Inventory Not Found In MVLS
3. License 15A General License Reconciliation Report
4. License 15B General License Reconciliation Report By Computer
The Bottom Line
1. Enable Asset Intelligence. If you installed ConfigMgr from scratch, you will find that Asset Intelligence is not enabled by default. Depending on the data that you want information on, you will have to select the ConfigMgr Asset Intelligence reporting classes and make sure that client agents are enabled.
1. Master It Which classes in the Asset Intelligence Edit Inventory Classes dialog do you have to enable to use Asset Intelligence?
2. Configure the Asset Intelligence synchronization point. The Asset Intelligence synchronization point is used to connect to System Center Online to synchronize Asset Intelligence Catalog information and get periodic updates.
1. Master It What do you need to do in order to configure the Asset Intelligence synchronization point?
3. Import the Microsoft Volume License Statement. In ConfigMgr you can import the Microsoft Volume License Statement and the General License Statement so that the software inventory and Asset Intelligence can count the number of licenses currently in use in the environment.
1. Master It What file types does ConfigMgr 2012 support for the license statements?