5punk

for some reason I can't seem to log onto it to edit at work

anyway here's the Q;

Is there a generic program to track software license usage over a company's network? Specifically we have 15 licenses for a piece of software and we think we probably don't need as many. Of course the developer is no help as it can only hurt their sales and we don't want to just slash the license numbers, as staff unable to log on would cost us more than having too many licenses pretty quickly. OTOH, I suppose that different packages deal with license maangement differently and so perhaps there's no way for a 3rd party programme to track it. Our inhouse IT are contract muppets and no help at all...

any ideas?

Can't help directly, but this might get a response thats more useful-

BERK! BERK! WHERE ARE YOU?! ANSWER THE MAN!





edit, stupid spack fingers, I think I'm too knurd.

Not stuff I know about, not my problem

Well, I tried!

Fear might know something, I'll not shout him, he doesn't respond well to loud noises.

We run a startup script that basically dumps a software list into a SQL database and runs daily reports on software installed etc...But alternatively look at http://www.alchemy-lab.com/products/atn/

cheers Trav,

That looks like it would do what we want, as well as a lot more actually.

np Bomber. We had a big problem with Microsoft a few years ago, when we found out we only had 1 official license for Windows XP/Office XP and about 250 "upgrade" licenses (oops), so after spending around £300,000 we monitor the licenses correctly!!

/me runs back to Eve forums

http://www.spiceworks.com/
Which I quite like and is uber simple to setup (just need one machine with admin access and the other machines allowing WMI access)
Free, supported by Google Ad's

http://www.open-audit.org/ too, but not looked at it.
Free and Open Source.

How do the apps get on the machines?

If you have people putting them on, it should be their job to keep track of licenses.

If you use an application-delivery platform like SMS or NAL, there should be options/plugins for that.

If the applications are available for all to install, with no tracking, you need a license for everyone in the company.

FJ, you're probably right that we (at least should) have a piece of software residing somewhere on our system that manages licenses. I had assumed that the sever side part of each software package itself would manage its own license use, at least where there is a server side component (which in this case, I'm pretty sure there is)

Anyway, The IT dudes claim to know nothing of such a thing, but there is the Mysterious "Yuri" who is apparently back from holidays next week. I'll see what he has to say for himself.

With client-server apps, there's often built-in management for concurrent licenses - which while anyone can install the client, only X number can connect at the same time.

This varies wildly between software producers though, depending on their pricing model.

The developers should be more help, you don't have to tell them you're thinking of reducing the number of licenses, only that you require clarification on the terms (ie: concurrent/not) and have a need to monitor the number of licenses in use, perhaps hinting you think you may be approaching the maximum and may preemptively buy more licenses.

Of course they may just try and sell you a reporting package on top of what you are paying, but be clear you don't need fancy graphs, just a number to look at at peak times.

cheeseandham wrote:http://www.spiceworks.com/
Which I quite like and is uber simple to setup (just need one machine with admin access and the other machines allowing WMI access)
Free, supported by Google Ad's

THIS I have been using it for several months as a means of "sanity checking" our other hardware/software tool, because I find that having two audit tools gives you better understanding of whether stuff is correct or not.

Basically set up your IP address range you wish to scan, and which user account for each range, and leave it running overnight (providing you ask everyone to leave the machines on) or just run a scan during the day, but it may take some time if you have a large range of subnets etc...

Woo Elephant Yeah wrote:Basically set up your IP address range you wish to scan, and which user account for each range, and leave it running overnight (providing you ask everyone to leave the machines on) or just run a scan during the day, but it may take some time if you have a large range of subnets etc...

Talk to your network manager before running stuff like this, or risk being unpopular/blacklisted.