KACE Systems Management Appliance 14.0 Common Documents

Add License assets for Software page inventory

You can create License assets to track information for applications that require licenses.

Before you create License assets, you should have information such as the number of installations, or seats, allowed by the license, the product key, the purchase order number, and any other information you want to manage in the License asset.

NOTE: To create License assets for applications in the Software page inventory, you first must create Software assets for those applications. You do not need to create Software assets for applications in the Software Catalog page inventory.

If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, you can create License assets for each organization separately.

TIP: You can customize License Asset Types to meet your needs. See Customize the License Asset Type.

Go to the License Asset Detail page:

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.

Do one of the following:

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On the left navigation bar, click Licenses. Select Choose Action > New.

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On the left navigation bar, click Inventory, then click Software Catalog. Click the name of an application. On the Software Catalog Detail page, click Add New License.

On the License Detail page, on the General tab, provide the following information:

Option

Description

Name

The name of the license, such as Office Professional PO #1234. This is the name that you use to find the asset. If you plan to have multiple licenses associated with an application, provide the purchase order number or purchase date in the fields below to differentiate the licenses.

License Subtype

The Asset Subtype to associate with the license. See About Asset Subtypes, custom fields, and device detail preferences.

Asset Status

The license status, if applicable. You can select a default asset status, or a custom one (if they exist). A default installation of the appliance includes the following asset statuses:

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Active: Any asset that is deployed, active, or in use.

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Disposed: An asset that is no longer available for use.

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Expired: A software license or contract asset that has expired.

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In Stock: A recently received asset.

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Missing: Any asset that cannot be located.

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Repair: An asset that is being repaired.

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Reserved: An asset that is set aside for a specific person or use.

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Retired: Any asset that reached its end-of-life state, or is no longer in use.

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Stolen: An asset that has been reported as stolen.

For more information, see View and configure asset lifecycle settings.

Location

The name of the location where the asset is located. See Managing locations.

License Count

The number of installations or seats the license allows. For example, 50.

Applies to Cataloged Software

Applications in the Software Catalog inventory to which the license applies. You can associate License assets with multiple applications in the Software Catalog if necessary. However, it is not necessary to associate a License asset with multiple versions of the same application because the appliance does this automatically to support upgrades and downgrades. You can simply associate the current version with the License asset when you add the license information.

In addition, if you assign applications from different publishers, such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat, to the same License asset, the total number of seats specified in the License asset is assigned to each application. For example, if the License asset has 100 seats, both Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat are assigned 100 seats.

Applies to Software

Leave this field blank. A software license cannot be associated with applications from the Software Catalog inventory and the Software page inventory at the same time. For more information on how to create license assets for cataloged software, see Add License assets for Software page inventory.

License Mode

The mode of the License asset. For applications that require licenses, and to display license usage information on the License Compliance page, select either Enterprise or Unit License.

NOTE: Most modes, including Not Specified, Client License, Subscription, Shareware, Freeware, OpenSource, No Licensing, and Site License, are not used for License Compliance.

The license mode is used in these sections of the Administrator Console:

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The License Compliance list. See View License Compliance information for Software Catalog applications.

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The License Compliance chart that is displayed on the Dashboard. Values that are marked as ignored on the Asset Detail page are shown with a usage level of 100 percent. See About Dashboard widgets.

On the License Detail page, on the Purchase tab, provide the following information:

Option

Description

Contract

The contract asset associated with the license.

Product Key

The product key associated with the license. You can modify and edit the default information, which can be captured for a License Asset Type.

Unit Cost

The unit cost associated with the license. You can modify and edit the default information, which can be captured for a License Asset Type.

Vendor

The name of the Vendor asset you want to associate with the application. the Vendor drop-down list is empty unless you have added a Vendor asset. To search for a vendor, begin typing in the list.

NOTE: Assigning multiple vendors to a single software License asset is not recommended because it can result in inaccurate License Compliance information.

Purchase Order Number

The purchase order number associated with the license.

Purchase Date

The date the purchase was made. Click in the field, then select a date on the calendar.

Purchase

Select one or more purchase records associated with this license. See Managing purchase records.

On the License Detail page, on the Maintenance tab, provide the following information:

Option

Description

Includes Upgrade Rights

Indicates if the license includes upgrade rights. Upgrade rights refer to the ability to upgrade to a newer version of the licensed software, when such versions become available. For more information, see About license upgrades. Select one of the following options:

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Yes: Upgrade rights are calculated by comparing the number of existing licenses for the selected software with the counts of available licenses for newer versions of the same software.

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Yes - Select from list: Choose one or more software versions for which you want to grant upgrade rights. Under Upgrade Software list, click Select cataloged software to add. The list that appears is populated with higher versions of the selected software to which the license can be upgraded. When you click an entry in the list, your selection appears in the Upgrade Software list box. You can add one or more versions, as needed. To delete an item from the list, select it in the Upgrade Software list box, and click Remove.

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No: If you do not want to grant upgrade rights to the selected software, select this option.

Includes Maintenance

Whether the license entitles users to upgrade the installed version of the application. See About License Compliance for Software Catalog applications.

Expiration Date

If the license includes maintenance, the expiration date of the maintenance period.

The appliance License Compliance feature leverages Software Catalog information, such as application release dates. If new application versions are released during the maintenance period, they are automatically covered by this License asset.

Includes Downgrade Rights

Indicates if the license includes downgrade rights. Downgrade rights refer to the ability to apply licenses for newer software versions to older versions of the same software. For more information, see About license downgrades. Select one of the following options:

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Yes: Downgrade rights are calculated by comparing the number of existing licenses for the selected software with the counts of available licenses for older versions of the same software.

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Yes - Select from list: Choose one or more software versions for which you want to grant downgrade rights. Under Downgrade Software list, click Select cataloged software to add. The list that appears is populated with lower versions of the selected software to which the license can be downgraded. When you click an entry in the list, your selection appears in the Downgrade Software list box. You can add one or more versions, as needed. To delete an item from the list, select it in the Downgrade Software list box, and click Remove.

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No: If you do not want to grant downgrade rights to the selected software, select this option.

Click Next.

On the License Detail page, on the Related tab, provide the following information:

Option	Description
Department	The business group or department that owns the application.
Cost Center	The cost center associated with the department that owns the application.
Approved for Device	The devices that are approved to use the license. This information is used in License Compliance reporting. For example, if devices have the application installed, but are not on the list of approved devices, the devices are listed in the report titled, Unapproved Software Installation. However, the appliance does not enforce license compliance. For example, the appliance does not prevent applications from being installed on managed devices if a license is expired or otherwise out of compliance.
Barcodes	Add or edit barcodes associated with this license, as required. For more information, see Add barcodes to assets.

Click Next.

On the License Detail page, on the Custom tab, provide additional custom data. You can modify the License Asset Type to include as many additional fields as necessary to meet your business objectives. For more information, see Add or customize Asset Types.

Click Next.

10.

On the License Detail page, on the Notes tab, provide the following information:

Option	Description
Notes	Any additional information you want to provide.
License Text	Any supplemental information about the license, such as a license number.

11.

Click Save.

The new license asset appears on the Licenses page. The License Count number does not change until you update the asset. However, the number in the Installed column changes when managed devices that have the software installed check in to the appliance. This enables you to track the number of licenses that have been purchased and installed.

Importing license data in CSV files

How asset information is handled during import

Importing asset data using CSV files

If your license data is in a spreadsheet, you can export it to CSV (comma-separated value) format, then import it into the appliance. Or, you can use a text editor to create a CSV file that contains the data, then import that file.

If the CSV file contains new assets for Asset Types that you have defined, the new assets are added.

How asset information is handled during import

When asset information is imported, the appliance compares the new information to existing information to determine how the new information should be handled.

Depending on whether the information is new, existing, or duplicated, the appliance performs the following actions:

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Creates the asset: If the Primary Key value does not match an existing value, the asset is created.

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Updates the asset: If the Primary Key value matches an existing value, the asset information is updated.

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Flags the asset as a duplicate: If multiple records for the Asset Type match the value of the CSV field chosen as the Primary Key, OR if multiple records match the associated asset, the asset is flagged as a duplicate. Duplicate records are not imported.

Importing asset data using CSV files

Prepare asset data before importing

Example: Import license data from prepared spreadsheets

You can import asset data, such as software license data, using CSV (comma separated value) files.

Prepare asset data before importing

Verify that asset data is appropriate and formatted properly before importing it.

Define the basic fields for your assets. If you use product names, make sure they are useful and help to identify the asset. See Adding Software assets.

Add header rows to your data. In the Asset Management component, columns without headers are referred to by their column number, so using column header rows can make it easier to identify data.

Verify that all columns map to equivalent Asset Fields in the Asset Type.

Asset Types include default fields, such as Asset Name, Purchase Order Number, and Vendor, but you can add custom asset fields if necessary. See About adding and deleting asset fields.

TIP: To view default fields go to the Asset Detail page. See Customizing Asset Types.

Decide what field or fields to use for the primary key (PK) for the imported assets.

Primary Keys are the fields, or combinations of fields, used as unique identifiers for assets being imported. When assets are imported, the appliance uses Primary Keys to determine whether to update an existing record or create a record. You can select one field, or a combination of fields, as the PK.

Save the spreadsheet as a CSV file, in a location you can access from the Administrator Console.

Example: Import license data from prepared spreadsheets

You can import license data from prepared CSV files.

This example describes how to import License assets for Software Catalog inventory, either as a one-time import, or a scheduled import using a file from a network share. The example shows only the fields that are required for License asset import. You can add additional files, such as unit cost, publisher, product keys, and so on to meet your information management needs.

If you want to assign the imported assets to an Asset Subtype, add the subtype before you import the assets. See Add Asset Subtypes and select Device Detail page preferences.

Create a file in a spreadsheet program such as Excel.

Add the following columns and rows. The first row is a header column:

Save the file in CSV format.

The values in each column are separated by commas. For example: Software Title 1,100,Enterprise,Yes,Software Title 1

Go to the Upload File page in the Import Assets section:

On the left navigation bar, click Asset Management, then click Import Assets.

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If one or more asset import operations are scheduled, the Import Assets list page appears, listing the import operations. To import assets from an CSV file, click Choose Action > New to start the Import Assets wizard.

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If there are no scheduled asset imports on the appliance, the Import Assets wizard appears.

In the Import Assets wizard, select one of the following options:

Option

Description

Upload an Asset Import CSV file

Select this option to complete a one-time asset import from a CSV file. Then, click Browse or Choose File, then select the CSV file.

Schedule an Asset Import

Select this option to perform multiple asset import from a CSV file located on a network drive, at selected time intervals. Then, provide the following information:

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Select Asset Import File Transfer Protocol:

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Samba: Select this option to access the file using the Samba protocol, and provide the following information:

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Enter the UNC path to the Samba share: Type the directory path to the CSV file.

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FTP: Select this option to access the file on an FTP server, and provide the following information:

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Enter the FTP Server hostname or IP address: Type the host name or IP address of the FTP server.

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Enter the FTP sub-directory if one exists: Type the directory path to the CSV file on the FTP server.

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Secure FTP: Select this option to access the file on a secure FTP server, and provide the following information:

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Enter the Secure FTP Server hostname or IP address: Type the host name or IP address of the secure FTP server.

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Enter the SFTP full path: Type the directory path to the CSV file on the secure FTP server.

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Asset Import CSV file name: Type the name of the CSV file that you want to import.

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Credentials: Select the credential that you want to use to access the specified network resource. Any credentials that are defined in the appliance appear in the list. For more information, see Managing credentials.

If the CSV file contains a header row, as it does in this example, select the File Header Row check box, then click Next.

Scheduled asset imports only. On the Asset Import Selection Schedule page that appears, create a schedule for importing the CSV file.

In the Asset Import Schedule Name field, type the name that you want to assign to this schedule.

Select Enable Asset Schedule.

In the Schedule section, specify the import schedule, as required.

Option

Description

None

Run in combination with an event rather than on a specific date or at a specific time.

Every n hours

Run at a specified interval.

Every day/specific day at HH:MM

Run daily at a specified time, or run on a designated day of the week at a specified time.

Run on the nth of every month/specific month at HH:MM

Run on the same day every month, or a specific month, at the specified time.

Run on the nth weekday of every month/specific month at HH:MM

Run on the specific weekday of every month, or a specific month, at the specified time.

Custom

Run according to a custom schedule.

Use standard 5-field cron format (extended cron format is not supported):

Use the following when specifying values:

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Spaces ( ): Separate each field with a space.

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Asterisks (*): Include the entire range of values in a field with an asterisk. For example, an asterisk in the hour field indicates every hour.

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Commas (,): Separate multiple values in a field with a comma. For example, 0,6 in the day of the week field indicates Sunday and Saturday.

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Hyphens (-): Indicate a range of values in a field with a hyphen. For example, 1-5 in the day of the week field is equivalent to 1,2,3,4,5, which indicates Monday through Friday.

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Slashes (/): Specify the intervals at which to repeat an action with a slash. For example, */3 in the hour field is equivalent to 0,3,6,9,12,15,18,21. The asterisk (*) specifies every hour, but /3 restricts this to hours divisible by 3.

Examples:

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15 * * * * Run 15 minutes after every hour every day

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0 22 * * * Run at 22:00 every day

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0 0 1 1,6 * Run at 00:00 on January 1 and June 1

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30 8,12 * * 1-5 Run weekdays at 08:30 and 12:30

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0 2 */2 * * Run every other day at 02:00

On theAsset Type Selection page that appears, complete the following steps:

In the Asset Type drop-down list, select License.

In the Asset Subtype drop-down list, select Productivity.

NOTE: In this example, the Asset Subtype, Productivity, has been added to the License Asset Type. The Subtype drop-down list is empty if you have not added subtypes for the License Asset Type. During import, all assets are assigned to the selected subtype.

Click Next.

The Mapping page appears.

In the CSV Fields drop-down list, select the fields that correspond to the appliance Required Standard Fields and Required Asset Fields. The mapping of these fields depends on the contents of your CSV file and the Asset Type. For the example in this section, use the following values:

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Asset Name=Name

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Location=Location

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Asset Status=Asset Status

NOTE: If you do not specify this mapping, the default status that is associated with the selected Asset Type is assigned to each imported asset entry.

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License Count=License Count

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Applies to Cataloged Software=Software Catalog

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License Mode=Mode

NOTE: You cannot import Asset Assignee values unless the imported Asset is a Device.

10.

Select the PK check box next to the Asset Name field.

NOTE: Primary Keys are the fields, or combinations of fields, used as unique identifiers for assets being imported. When assets are imported, the appliance uses Primary Keys to determine whether to update an existing record or create a record. You can select one field, or a combination of fields, as the PK.

11.

If the assets you are importing use barcodes, in the Barcode Fields area, indicate how you want to import the barcodes.

Option	Description
Update asset barcodes with selected	Check if the barcodes supplied in this area already exist, and if they do, update them. If they do not exist, they are created for the specified assets.
Replace all asset barcodes with selected	Replace the existing barcodes with the specified barcodes.
Barcode Data	The field in the CSV file that contains the barcode. There can be only one barcode of the same type per asset.
Barcode Name	The field in the CSV file that contains the barcode tag. Barcode numbers are always unique, they cannot be shared between multiple assets. However, it is possible for an active asset to share a barcode with an archived asset.
Barcode Format	The field in the CSV file that contains the barcode format. For example, UPC-A, Code 11, or UPC-E.

12.

Click Preview to verify the data on the Confirmation page.

13.

One-time imports only. Complete the following steps.

Click Import to complete the import process.

The Result for Asset Import page appears.

Click Done to return to the Assets page.

14.

Scheduled imports only. Complete one of the following steps:

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Click Save to save your newly created scheduled import. The Import Assets list page appears, showing the scheduled import entry in the list.

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Click Run Now to import assets from the CSV file, and to save your scheduled import settings.

The Import Assets list page appears.

When the import is complete, the assets appear in the Assets list. If the titles of the software matched titles in the Software Catalog inventory, the assets are associated with the inventory items and you can view them on the Software Catalog Detail page for the items. The progress bar on the top of the page shows the completion of the task.

Asset Name	License Count	License Mode	Includes Maintenance	Applies to Software Catalog
Software Title 1	100	Enterprise	Yes	Software Title 1
Software Title 2	150	Enterprise	Yes	Software Title 2
Software Title 3	200	Enterprise	Yes	Software Title 3
Software Title 4	500	Enterprise	Yes	Software Title 4

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KACE Systems Management Appliance 14.0 Common Documents - Administration Guide

Add License assets for Software page inventory

Add License assets for Software page inventory

Importing license data in CSV files

Importing license data in CSV files

How asset information is handled during import

How asset information is handled during import

Importing asset data using CSV files

Importing asset data using CSV files

Prepare asset data before importing

Example: Import license data from prepared spreadsheets