Automated Bundling and Other New Features in IBM License Metric Tool 7.5 Questions & Answers

Transcription

1 ILMT Central Team Automated Bundling and Other New Features in IBM License Metric Tool 7.5 Questions & Answers

2 Information These slides were just the deck of the ILMT Central Team Questions&Answers session. Please consider watching the whole presentation as it contains much more information than is presented on the slides. Available do download from here: 2 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

3 Table of Contents Agenda: 7.5 Release Driver Wizard installer for installing the server on base WebSphere Application Server Updated look&feel of the Web UI Software scan history Agent troubleshooting information New panel - Manage Software Inventory Automated bundling 3 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

4 7.5 Release Driver Provide time to value (TTV) and usability improvements in anticipation of high adoption rates of the IBM License Metric Tool Goals create new Web User interface based on Tivoli Integrated Portal expand wizard installer functionality to cover installation the ILMT server on base WebSphere Application Server provide software scan history enchance agent statuses introduce new panel for software inventory management implement automated bundling engine 4 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

5 Wizard installer for installing the server on base WebSphere Application Server It is now possible to install the server on base WebSphere Application Server using the installation wizard only. In the previous releases of License Metric Tool, administrators had to use either sample scripts or deploy the application manually using wsadmin tool (advanced administrative skills were required). 5 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

6 Updated look&feel of the Web UI The new user interface based on Tivoli Integrated Portal (TIP) was introduced in version 7.5. The framework is officially supported starting with WebSphere Application Server version 7. This improvement causes that: the work is easier and more pleasant overall the layout is more intuitive tasks and corresponding actions are better alligned Additionally, the access to the Web UI is always secured, so there is no need to turn on the security manually as it used to be in previous versions 6 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

7 Updated look&feel of the Web UI general characteristics Chosen general characteristics of Tivoli Integrated Portal: Predefined views with different available menu elements may be used All menu elements may be collapsed/expanded any time All the configuration actions may be found in the menu (User and Groups/Settings) The navigation menu may be hidden/resized any time Previously visited panels are left as well visible and easily accessible tabs Help for TIP as well as TIP community is reachable at any time (links at the top) 7 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

8 Software scan history IBM License Metric Tool now records the history of software scans. The history contains information about the scheduled date of the software scan, the name of the scan group as well as the host name, scan date and error status of the failed agent. Thanks to this information software asset managers can determine the accuracy and completeness of the data. They can also diagnose potential problems with agents. The data can be easily viewed: by using the database views AGENT_SCAN_HISTORY_V and SW_SCAN_HISTORY_V In a CSV file (see next slides) 8 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

9 Agent troubleshooting information for every agent Possible problems reported by each agent are now listed in the Agent Problems tab in the Agent Details panel. Administrators can now learn about problems that have occurred on agent computers in the infrastructure (for example failed software inventory scan) without logging on to the target computer. 9 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

10 Agent troubleshooting information whole infrastructure Additionally, the problems are listed in a CSV file that contains information about the software scan history (the CSV file is available when signing reports). You no longer have to keep such information separately as ILMT provides it to you for free. 10 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

11 New panel - Manage Software Inventory A new panel was designed for ILMT Manage Software Inventory (MSI). This panel can be accessed from: Navigaton menu: Software > Manage Software Inventory Home page: Software Product Status > Manage Software Inventory 11 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

12 New panel - Manage Software Inventory 5 in 1 MSI panel replaces the following wizards/panels from version 7.2.2: Manage Software Bundles wizard Classify Product Instances wizard Software Products panel Systems Current Capacity panel PVU Current Capacity panel 12 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

13 New panel - Manage Software Inventory hierarchical view Now you can get a hierarchical view of the products, their releases, and components instead of the flat structure provided in the previous versions of ILMT, e.g.: IBM Tivoli License Compliance Manager IBM Tivoli License Compliance Manager 2.3 (3) Tivoli License Manager - Administration Server ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

14 New panel - Manage Software Inventory new columns You can easily choose which columns should be displayed. It is enough to click Configure Options button from table menu and select which columns should be visible. Some column such as Confidence or Part Numbers are new and will be described further on. 14 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

15 New panel - Manage Software Inventory - new elements in the view Improvements introduced to the view itself include: Informative icons showing (e.g. an icon which indicates that a particular instance is free of charge) Number of instances can be found in parenthesis next to the release number without necessity of expanding the release level 15 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

16 New panel - Manage Software Inventory 3 perspectives Now you can choose any of the three perspectives aviable for Manage Software Inventory panel: All products all discovered products (unchargable, PVU and Systems) PVU products discovered products limited to PVU products Systems products discovered products limited to Systems products 16 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

17 New panel - Manage Software Inventory discovery time frame You can also define a time frame to which the presented software inventory can be narrowed down. Theoretically small, the feature allows to track changes in your inventory without directly querying the ILMT database. It is a quite anticipated functionality. 17 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

18 New panel - Manage Software Inventory sorting You can sort ascending or descending the content of the view by one of the following columns: Product/Release/Component Confidence It is enough to click the column header. 18 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

19 New panel - Manage Software Inventory Confidence scope filtering Two different filtering options were implemented to the view. One of them is Confidence scope filtering, that allows to e.g. filter out just unconfirmed instances or instances with given level of confidence. Note, the Confidence scope filtering works on the instances, not on the products. 19 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

20 New panel - Manage Software Inventory Full text filtering The second available filtering is full text filtering (Quick Filter) that is accessible directly from the view and can work on any of the following column: Product/Release/Component Host Name Current Server ID Operating System (AIX, Windows, etc.) Scan Group Part Numbers 20 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

21 New panel - Manage Software Inventory context actions Software management has never been so easy. Manage Software Inventory panel centralizes all software management functions in a context menu. Starting from ILMT version 7.5 only one click is required to trigger any of the following tasks (on condition that the particular action is available for the specific element): Reassign instances to product Reassign instances to another product Confirm the assignment of instances Include instances in pricing calculation Exclude instances from pricing calculation Share instance In the previous versions most of the tasks had separate wizards so that the user had to navigate from one place to another to perform all the actions. 21 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

22 New panel - Manage Software Inventory CSV Finally if you find that GUI size is not enough or you would like to have textual format of data you can download all data presented on UI in CSV format. CSV format will have all data that would be presented on WEB UI if user would expand all products and all releases. Each row will contain one instance Sorting and filters will be preserved 22 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

23 New panel - Manage Software Inventory product without instances If user imports part number for product that is not discovered yet, it appears on Web UI with no instances. Confidence will be equal to 0%. 23 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

24 New panel - Manage Software Inventory Import Part Numbers One of the automated bundling engine scoring bases on purchased part numbers that may be imported to ILMT server. A file with the list of all Part Numbers can be downloaded from Passport Advantage page. 24 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

25 Automated bundling Overview. Automated bundling engine Better helps user with proper bundling than in previous releases Provides clues how to resolve assignments component product correctly Allows to remove old wizards and panels and replace them with just one MSI Allows to gathers much functionality in one place Will NEVER replace customer's action full knowledge about monitored software is not available for ILMT 25 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

26 Automated bundling 5 Rules Five automated bundling methods have been implemented in ILMT 7.5. According to those methods the ILMT Web UI provides hints for the Software Asset Managers regarding the possible relation between discovered component instances and particular products. Software bundling can be carried out on the basis of: Part numbers Software network connections Partition co-location Infrastructure co-location Stand-alone product discovery 26 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

27 Automated bundling Part Number rule The number of possible target products for the discovered component instances is limited based on the purchased part number list. You can import the list from Passport Advantage. The part numbers that you imported are displayed in the Part Numbers column in the Manage Software Inventory window. The Database component (for example, DB2 Enterprise Edition) is assigned to Product 1 (WebSphere Network Deployment) and potentially can be assigned to Product 2 (IBM Tivoli Monitoring). Based on the imported part numbers list, the database component is reassigned to Product 2 (IBM Tivoli Monitoring). 27 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

28 Automated Bundling - Software network connections rule Identifies the component instances that communicated. If the possibility that the instances belong to the same product is above the threshold, they are automatically assigned to the product, based on Common Inventory Technology scan reports. Each discovered component instance is scanned. Either the Database component (for example, IBM Tivoli Monitoring Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server) or the Client component (IBM Tivoli Monitoring Linux OS Agent) is assigned to Product 1 (IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for SOA Platform). The Common Inventory Technology scan discovers that the database component and the client component communicated. Based on the software catalog data, the components are assigned to Product ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

29 Automated Bundling - Partition co-location rule Discovers the component instances that are located on the same partition and are related to a product in the software catalog. If any of the discovered component instances has a confirmed, one-to-one, or auto-bundled relation to the product, the other instances are automatically bundled with the same product. The Server 2 component (for example, IBM Tivoli Directory Server) assignment to Product 4 (WebSphere Network Deployment) is simple, auto-bundled, or confirmed by the user. The Database component (DB2 Enterprise Edition) is assigned to Product 1 (IBM Tivoli Monitoring). The components are on the same partition. Based on the software catalog data, the Database component (DB2 Enterprise Edition) is reassigned automatically to Product 4 (WebSphere Network Deployment). 29 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

30 Automated Bundling Infrastructure co-location rule Discovers the component instances that are installed in the same infrastructure and that are related to a given product in the software catalog. The search does not include the agent on which the product is installed. If any of the discovered component instances has a confirmed, one-to-one, or autobundled relationship with the product, the other instances are automatically bundled with the same product. The Server 2 component (for example, IBM Tivoli Directory Server) assignment to Product 4 (WebSphere Network Deployment) is simple, auto-bundled, or confirmed by the user. The Database component (DB2 Enterprise Edition) is assigned to Product 1 (IBM Tivoli Monitoring). The components are in the same infrastructure. Based on the software catalog data, the Database component (DB2 Enterprise Edition) is reassigned automatically to Product 4 (WebSphere Network Deployment). 30 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

31 Automated Bundling Stand-alone product discovery rule Identifies the component instances of particular products, and indicates the product that contains the lowest number of components. If the possibility that the instances belong to a product is above the threshold, they are bundled automatically. The agent discovers the Database component (for example, DB2 Enterprise Edition) and the server checks which products contain this particular Database component in the software catalog. The Database component is assigned to the product with the lowest number of components, in this case, Product 2 (WebSphere Network Deployment). 31 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

32 Automated Bundling - Conclusion Automated bundling process helps tremendously the user with dealing with managing software inventory Automated bunding will never do all the work for the user and additional effort is required To be sure that bundling is correct, user must verify and confirm results of the Rule Engine To achieve 100% confidence level for all products, user must either confirm or assign all instances in the infrastructure 32 ICT Mailbox ILMT Wiki

33 ILMT Central Team Thank You Automated Bundling and Other New Features in IBM License Metric Tool 7.5 Questions & Answers