KACE Systems Management Appliance 13.2 Common Documents

Managed devices that have any application in the suite installed, as determined by an Add/Remove programs entry, are counted as having the suite installed. Devices do not need to have every application in the suite installed to count as having the suite installed.

When metering is enabled for a suite, it is also enabled for the individual applications that are part of the suite. You cannot enable or disable metering for individual applications in suites.

About the scripts that collect metering information

About metering information

About the scripts that collect metering information

How suites are metered

When you enable metering for applications, information is collected for devices on which the applications are installed provided that metering is also enabled for the devices.

The following information is collected:

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Version information

•

Information about suites

•

Number of installations

•

Usage and launch information

See Viewing Software Catalog metering information.

About the scripts that collect metering information

The software metering service is bundled with the KACE Agent and installed on managed devices. When metering is enabled, scripts run to collect metering info.

These collection scripts vary, depending on the operating system:

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Windows: On Windows devices, metering is an event-driven process that monitors Windows assets using WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) events.

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Mac: On Mac devices, the metering script identifies process events asynchronously using NSWorkspace notification center.

Information, including the application filename, version, and file size are compared to the information in the Software Catalog to identify the application.

How suites are metered

When metering is enabled for a suite, it is also enabled for the individual applications that are part of the suite. You cannot enable or disable metering for individual applications in suites.

How suites are metered

About metering information

About the scripts that collect metering information

How suites are metered

When you enable metering for applications, information is collected for devices on which the applications are installed provided that metering is also enabled for the devices.

The following information is collected:

•

Version information

•

Information about suites

•

Number of installations

•

Usage and launch information

See Viewing Software Catalog metering information.

About the scripts that collect metering information

The software metering service is bundled with the KACE Agent and installed on managed devices. When metering is enabled, scripts run to collect metering info.

These collection scripts vary, depending on the operating system:

•

Windows: On Windows devices, metering is an event-driven process that monitors Windows assets using WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) events.

•

Mac: On Mac devices, the metering script identifies process events asynchronously using NSWorkspace notification center.

Information, including the application filename, version, and file size are compared to the information in the Software Catalog to identify the application.

•

Apply the built-in label, MeteredDevices, to your devices. This label has the metering option enabled. See Setting up and using labels to manage groups of items.

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Create a manual label for metering and apply it to devices. See Enable metering on devices using manual labels.

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Create a Smart Label for metering (applied to devices automatically). See Disable metering for devices using Smart Labels.

TIP: To enable metering on managed devices, you can use manual labels or Smart Labels, but you must use labels. Metering can be enabled at the label level only; metering cannot be enabled in the settings of individual devices.

Enable metering on devices using manual labels

To enable metering on devices, you can enable metering for a manual label, and then apply that label to devices.

Go to the Smart Labels list:

Log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin. Or, if the Show organization menu in admin header option is enabled in the appliance General Settings, select an organization in the drop-down list in the top-right corner of the page next to the login information.

On the left navigation bar, in the Home section, click Label Management.

On the Label Management panel, click Labels.

Select Choose Action > New Manual Label to display the Label Detail page.

TIP: Avoid using backslashes (\) in label names. If you need to use a backslash in a label name, add a second backslash (\\) to escape it.

Provide the following information:

Option

Description

Name

The name of the label.

Description

Any additional information you want to provide.

Alternate Location

(Optional) The alternate download location for Managed Installations, File Synchronizations, and other deployments that are performed on items assigned to this label. The location you specify replaces the string KACE_ALT_LOCATION.

CAUTION: You should not have a device in two labels that both specify a value in this field.

Path

If you specify an alternate download location, specify the path to the location.

Password

If you specify an alternate download location, specify the username and password for the location.

Restrict Label Usage To

The type of label. To create a label that enables metering, select the Device Inventory check box. You can select additional label types as needed, but Metering can be enabled only if the Devices label type is selected.

Meter Software Usage

Enable metering on devices that have the label assigned. This enables metering on the devices only. To meter software, you need to also enable metering for individual applications.

Allow Application Control

Enable Application Control on devices. Software marked as Not Allowed is prevented from running on devices to which the label is applied.

See Using Application Control.

Label Group

(Optional) The label group to which the label is assigned. To assign the label to a label group, click Edit next to the Label Group field, then select a label group. This is useful if you have a large number of labels and you want to organize them into sub-labels. For example, you could include the labels of your licensed applications in a group label named Licenses. In addition, labels inherit any restrictions of the groups to which they belong.

Click Save.

The Labels page appears, and the new label appears on the list. The metering icon appears in the metering column next to the label:

Manually apply the label to managed devices:

Click Inventory.

The Devices page appears.

Select the check box next to one or more devices.

Select Choose Action > Label > Apply Labels.

One of the following metering icons appears next to the device name on the Devices list:

Icon

Description

Metering is enabled on the device, and the KACE Agent is scheduled to report metering information for Software Catalog applications that also have metering enabled. See Enabling and configuring metering for devices and applications.

It might take as long as 24 hours for the appliance to display metering information in the Administrator Console, depending on the metering interval. To change the metering interval, see Enable metering for Software Catalog applications.

Metering is scheduled to begin. This icon appears when the metering label is applied to a device, but that device has not yet reported metering information to the appliance. If the metering label has been applied to devices running Linux or other operating systems that are not supported, metering icons are not displayed.

Enable metering on devices using Smart Labels

You can enable metering using Smart Labels provided that the Smart Label is a device label.

Smart Labels are applied to and removed from managed devices when the appliance processes device inventory. So if you create a Smart Label that enables metering on devices, it might take time for the Smart Label to be applied to devices and for devices to report metering information. Metering is enabled for devices that match the Smart Label criteria only after devices are inventoried and the Smart Label is applied.

Go to the Smart Labels list:

On the left navigation bar, in the Home section, click Label Management.

On the Label Management panel, click Smart Labels.

Select Choose Action > New > Device Smart Label to display the device Smart Label panel.

Specify the search criteria using the available fields.

◦

To add a row, click Add line.

◦

To add a subset of rules, select AND or OR from the operator drop-down list at the right of the Smart Label criteria, then click Add Group. The image displays the Smart Label panel with search criteria entered.

The image displays the Smart Label panel with search criteria entered.

Click Test to display items that match the specified criteria.

Adjust the criteria as needed until the results are what you expect.

Select the Metering Enabled check box below the Smart Label criteria.

In the Choose label drop-down list, do one of the following:

◦

Select an existing label to associate with the Smart Label. Type in the Choose label field to search for existing labels.

NOTE: If you select a label group instead of a label, you will not be able to apply the Smart Label to a patching schedule. Patching schedules can only use Smart Labels based on a single item.

◦

Enter a new name for the Smart Label in the Choose label field, then press Enter or Return.

NOTE: Press Enter or Return after you enter a new Smart Label name to move the text from the search field to the label field.

Click Create.

When managed devices are inventoried, the Smart Label is applied if the devices match the specified criteria. When the label is applied to a device, one of the following metering icons appears next to the device name on the Devices list:

Icon

Description

Metering is scheduled to begin. This icon appears when the metering label is applied to a device, but metering information is not yet available to the appliance. If the metering label has been applied to devices running Linux or other operating systems that are not supported, metering icons are not displayed.

Enable metering for Software Catalog applications

You can enable metering for applications that are listed as Discovered or Not Discovered in the Software Catalog, as well as for applications that are Locally Cataloged. When you enable metering for applications, those applications are identified as metered.

However, you also need to enable metering for the devices on which the applications are installed. In other words, you have to enable metering both on the device and on the application to obtain metering information.

When metering is enabled for an application, and for devices on which the application is installed, metering information is displayed on the Software Catalog Detail page for the application. Metering information is also displayed on the detail page of managed devices that have the application installed. See Viewing Software Catalog metering information.

CAUTION: Metering is not available for operating system software, applications installed on unsupported operating systems, such as Linux, or for applications that are listed as Uncataloged in the Software Catalog. However, you can enable metering for Uncataloged applications after you add the applications to the local version of the Software Catalog.

Go to the Software Catalog list:

On the left navigation bar, click Inventory, then click Software Catalog.

Select the check box next to an application that is Discovered, or Not Discovered.

Select Choose Action > Enable Metering.

A metering icon appears in the metering column next to the selected applications: . Provided that metering is enabled for devices with the application installed, metering information is reported according to the metering schedule. See:

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Enabling metering on devices

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Configure options for metering Software Catalog applications

You can configure metering options, such as the frequency at which metering information is gathered, and the length of time metering information is retained in the appliance database.

If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, you configure settings for each organization separately.

Do one of the following:

◦

If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, log in to the appliance System Administration Console, https://appliance_hostname/system, or select System in the drop-down list in the top-right corner of the page next to the login information. Then click Organizations. To display the organization’s information, click the organization’s name.

On the Organization Detail page that appears, locate the Communication and Agent Settings section.

◦

If the Organization component is not enabled on your appliance, log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin. Then select Settings > Provisioning., and click Communication Settings on the Provisioning panel.

The Communication Settings page appears.

In the Agent and Communication Settings section, specify the following settings:

Option	Suggested Setting	Notes
Agent Logging	Enabled	Whether the appliance stores scripting results provided by Agents installed on managed devices. Agent logs can consume as much as 1GB of disk space in the database. If disk space is not an issue, enable Agent Logging to keep all log information for Agent-managed devices. These logs can be useful during troubleshooting. To save disk space, and enable faster Agent communication, disable Agent Logging.
Agent Inventory	12 hours	The frequency at which Agents on managed devices report inventory. This information is displayed in the Inventory section.
Agentless Inventory	1 Day	The frequency at which Agentless devices report inventory. This information is displayed in the Inventory section.
Catalog Inventory	24 hours	The frequency at which managed devices report inventory to the Software Catalog page.
Metering	4 hours	The frequency at which managed devices report metering information to the appliance. Requires metering to be enabled on devices and applications.
Scripting Update	4 hours	The frequency at which Agents on managed devices request updated copies of scripts that are enabled on managed devices. This interval does not affect how often scripts run.

Click Save.

To configure data retention settings for metering, go to the Admin-level General Settings page:

On the left navigation bar, click Settings, then click General Settings.

In the Data Retention section, select the options for retaining data on the appliance.

Option	Description
Retain Metering Data	The number of months that metering data is retained in the appliance database. Metering data that is older than the selected number of months is deleted from the database on the first day of every month. See About metering information.

At the bottom of the page, click Save or Save and Restart Services, depending on whether the Organization component is enabled on your appliance.

If you have multiple organizations, repeat the preceding steps for each organization.

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KACE Systems Management Appliance 13.2 Common Documents - Administrator Guide

About metering information

About the scripts that collect metering information

How suites are metered

Enabling and configuring metering for devices and applications