License Dashboard Integration

About License Manager Integration

The License Manager (License Dashboard) integration enables the customers to utilize the complete functionality of the Advanced Software Asset Management (SAM) feature. Advanced SAM takes care of the Normalization of Software assets.

What is Normalization of IT Assets?

Normalization of IT assets is the process through which a tool can analyze the received IT Asset data of an organization and convert it into actionable information for License Management. In other words, Asset data normalization is a software asset management process that methodically cleans and identifies data, filters out unnecessary information, and standardizes the data in a usable format. An effective normalization process would segregate the software asset details into categories such as Publisher, Title, Version and Edition. The following are some of the most important advantages of asset data normalization:

Main Benefits of Normalization:

1. Enhanced Visibility of Software Assets
   Normalization provides you with a definite list of software assets as per their Manufacturer, Vendor, or Edition and hence the data you have will be audit-ready. During an audit, you don't want to get surprised about software items which you own, but you are not aware of, or vice versa. Normalization also collates multiple names such as Microsoft, Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Corporation Inc. of the same Publisher into a single group name thereby reducing the challenges of an Admin/Analyst.
   
   
2. Streamlined Classification and Categorization of Assets
   After an effective normalization, Software assets can be classified and categorized in a certain way such that addition and deletion of Software entities become trouble free. New software can be automatically assigned appropriate properties based on the group it belongs to.
   
   Example 1:
   Your company might have licenses for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, and Adobe Illustrator software products. With normalization, each of these stand-alone apps can be bundled together to form an Adobe Creative Cloud package. The mapping function allows users to bundle any Adobe Creative Cloud software into one, essentially "normalizing" the data and allowing users to view software as a group rather than discrete components.
   
   Example 2:
   Microsoft products generally have versions, editions and suites associated with them – such as Office 2019 Standard, Office 2019 Professional Plus, Office 365 E3, 365 E3 and so on. Your company might have components of the suite(s) such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, OneNote, Publisher, Teams, OneDrive and Outlook. Normalization can group each of these discrete components efficiently and effectively under versions and editions with corresponding parent Publisher name. Thus, it becomes easy to manage asset data.
   
   
3. Improves License Management
   Asset data normalization gives you a detailed picture of the Licensing details of software assets that are installed in your organization. It gives you the exact count and corresponding details of the vendors, application versions, or license-required applications on your premise. The licensing details would also list out the suites and applications with their warranty start & end dates, whether they have reached their end-of-life (EOL), and so on.
   
   
4. Control over Software Environment
   Knowing what you already have and what you actually need will give a definite advantage in the next software negotiation with your vendor. Software vendors usually profit from your ambiguity about the number of licenses you require. Buying licenses more than the actual requirement is a wastage of money, whereas buying too few might get you into compliance threats. Asset data normalization helps you to level the playing field. The normalized data gives you clarity regarding the count of licensed versions, freeware, etc. to have a better overall understanding and control of your existing Software environment.
   
   

SummitAI – License Manager: Normalization Process

SummitAI – License Manager integration enables the customer with normalized asset data mostly focusing on the cleansing hardware details and licensing details of the software assets.

Overview

At a high level, the entire process can be summarized as follows:

SummitAI sends the details of hardware and software assets to License Manager. License Manager normalizes the asset data and returns the normalized data back to SummitAI. The Admin/Analyst and user can also view corresponding detailed reports with respect to normalized data.

In a stepper approach, the normalization process can be further explained as follows:

1. SummitAI Application initiates discovery of hardware configurations and installed software assets. The discovered asset data is posted to SummitAI Database (DB).
2. SummitAI discovers the asset data from Active Directory. This data is collected by the proxy server and pushed to Data Collector (DC) of SummitAI server and is finally reflected in SummitAI DB.
3. Likewise, SummitAI discovers the VMware data captured using corresponding binary connectors.
4. SummitAI job pushes the hardware and software asset data (discovered asset data, AD data, and/or VMware data) to License manager Dashboard (LD) for Normalization.
   The data to be sent for normalization can be filtered based on Asset Category, location, IP range, etc. using Filters of SummitAI application.
5. A custom scheduler job namely Advanced SAM Data Extract is configured in SummitAI application. Once the job is run, a zip folder is created with filtered asset data.
6. The data in zip folder is sent to LD server via web services with encryption.
7. LD extractor tool extracts the filtered data and imports the data to LD server.
8. LD server normalizes the received asset information.
9. LD posts the normalization status back to SummitAI.

SummitAI-License Manager (LM) Integration Architecture Diagram

Figure: Architecture Design of SummitAI-LM Integration

Automated Data Posting from SummitAI Proxy to SummitAI DC (LD Extractor)

SummitAI uses the existing mechanism for Proxy to DC connectivity to enable data posting from SummitAI proxy to SummitAI DC. The AD extractor of License Dashboard will run from the Proxy server and will use custom schedulers for scheduling the jobs.

• Steps involved in Data Extraction from Proxy to DC:'

o Custom scheduler Proxy job runs at scheduled intervals to post the data from Proxy to DC .

o LD Data extractor will be placed in SummitAI Proxy hosted in customer location.

o LD-AD Data extractor will run from Proxy based on the frequency set in custom scheduler.

o The data from Proxy to DC will be transferred in compressed and encrypted format.  

• Steps involved in Data Posting from DC to LD Server

o In the Web.config file, the physical path of LD server will be configured to enable DC to post the AD extractor data to specified location. The Web.config path can be configured using configuration editor.

o From DC the data will be posted to a physical path for LD Manager.  

o Prior posting, the data is decrypted and then posted to LD for consumption.

Specific Case for Consideration

If the customer has multiple tenants configured, then data from each tenant should be saved in separate folder for LD consumption.

A high-level representation of the data flow is given below:

Figure: Data-Flow Diagram

Custom Schedulers for LD Data Extraction

Custom jobs are scheduled for data extraction.

• Existing Custom Schedulers from Admin console manages the jobs and its frequency. (Admin > Infrastructure > Custom schedulers)
• The job will run from the Proxy server.
• The new job created for this is Advanced SAM AD Data Posting.
• The schedule and frequency of the job will be as per the settings in the Custom Scheduler for the corresponding job.

Filter Functionality

Filters are introduced in SummitAI application to filter out the assets that can be sent for Normalization. Thus, Filters enable an asset Admin/Manager to choose the list of assets that needs to be posted to License Manager. By default, only IT assets can be filtered from this screen.

This functionality is available in the newly introduced Normalization Mapping page.

Figure: Normalization Mapping page

Total Procured License Count tab displays the total number of licenses procured by the selected tenant.

Total Available Licenses tab displays the count of total available licenses for the selected tenant.

Total Assets Normalized tab displays the total count of assets that are normalized.

Total Assets Normalized in Current Month displays the count of total assets that are sent for normalization in the current month.

Total assets Processed with Errors displays the total count of assets that were sent for normalization but encountered some errors during the process.

To filter Assets for Normalization:

1. Navigate to Asset > User > Advanced SAM > Normalization Mapping.
   
   
2. Click Filter icon on the right top corner.
   
   
3. Enter or select the values for Filter fields as described in the following table.
   
   
4. Select Tenant from Field drop-down.
   
   
5. Select the required Tenant in Values drop-down.
   
   
6. Click the icon to get another set of filter criteria.
   You may select any asset attribute in Field drop-down. Select Operator drop-down and Values drop-down as per the requirement. The fields under Search By heading in the Field drop-down are the custom attributes of the selected Tenant.
   
   
7. Select Status, Normalization Status, Category, and so on as per your requirement as each filter criteria.
   
   
8. Once all search criteria are selected, click Apply.
   
   
   Figure: Filter
   
   
9. The asset list to be sent for Normalization as per the filter criteria is displayed.
   
   
   Figure: Asset List to be Sent for Normalization

ACTIONS

You can perform the following actions from the ACTIONS panel of the Normalization Mapping page.

Data Posting to LD Server from SummitAI

Data Posting from SummitAI to LD Server can be summarized as follows:

• SummitAI Custom Schedulers will post the data to LD Manager.
• From SummitAI the data will be posted to LD Manager. For normalization, this communication happens over web service with the help of SummitAI Proxy component which is required to be installed on LD server.
• Prior to posting, the data is encrypted and then posted to LD for consumption.

Windows Task Schedulers on LD Server

Windows Task Manager plays a significant role of data import in LD Manager. Batch files are configured in LM instance to take care of the data import posted by SummitAI server. They would run as per the tasks scheduled in LM server.

Normalization and Normalized Data

The SummitAI asset data is Normalized by License Manager. The cleansed and normalized data is available in LM Dashboard. Admin can access the data from LM Admin console using client to site VPN.

Integration of Reports with License Dashboard

Steps involved in report integration are as follows:

• SummitAI is integrated with License Manager to import the reports data.
• License dashboard provides necessary table and query details to fetch the normalized data.
• Once data is fetched, the same will be stored in De-Normalized data tables in SummitAI Database.
• These DN table views will be made available for report creation in Izenda and Exago for Advanced Normalization Reports.
• The data will be refreshed based on custom scheduler’s job frequency.

A Bi-Directional integration is set up between SummitAI and License Dashboard to enable better access to data for end users. This integration enables us to collect all the normalized/enriched data available for each asset from the License Dashboard to create and access the reports in the SummitAI reporting portal.

Why is Report Integration required?

LD integration enables the import of specific attributes and normalized data into the SummitAI database from License Dashboard for building a better reporting capability. This functionality allows the users to access reports directly on the SummitAI reporting portal instead of logging in to the License Dashboard.

The LD Integration framework is summarized in the following infographic.

Figure: LD Integration Framework

The description of the highlighted step numbers is listed below:

1. Data posting from Summit to LD
   The SummitAI acts as the source of discovery by gathering all the asset details. This data is then posted/captured by License Dashboard. 
   
   

2. Data Normalization by LD
   License Dashboard enriches/normalizes the data captured by SummitAI to reduce data redundancy and improve data integrity.
   
   
3. Normalized data capture from LD into DB table
   The enriched/normalized data from License Dashboard is captured and arranged into DB tables.
   Data posting and retrieval by Schedulers- The data posting and retrieval will be handled by Schedulers which can be configured in the Custom Scheduler option. The Scheduler can be configured to set the frequency of data retrieval.
   Data insertion into specific pages- The captured data points can be made visible on appropriate pages within the SummitAI application for better visibility and usability.
   
   
4. DN views creation for normalized LD attributes
   The De-normalized views are created for the normalized LD attributes captured from LD into SUMMIT Database.
   
   
5. Creation of reports using BI engine
   The reports will be created in SUMMIT BI engine using the DN table view created in the SUMMIT DB.
   
   

Feature Capabilities

• Enables the visibility of data points on appropriate pages in the Summit application, making the data easily accessible to users.
• Provides better analytical capability with access to necessary standard reports.
• Allows the users to access reports directly on the SUMMIT reporting portal instead of logging in to the License Dashboard.

Prerequisites

• The user should have an Advanced SAM License.
• The user must have a SUMMIT ITAM License.
• The Summit Application must have access to the License Dashboard Database for DB-level integration.

Steps to configure Report Integration:

1. Initiate the Retrieval of the Normalized Data for the assets selected for normalization.
2. Configure a scheduler to set the frequency of the data retrieval (Frequency- 1 action in 24 Hours)
3. Retrieve the Data Attributes from LD into SUMMIT
4. Custom table creation for data posting
5. Data retrieval mechanism
6. Publishing the normalized data
7. Access advanced reports on SUMMIT reporting portal (Reports> Advanced Reports)
   
   

Process Flow 

The following diagram represents the process/data flow between SUMMIT Application and License Dashboard (LD)

Figure: Data flow between SUMMIT Application and License Dashboard

Configuration Steps

To configure a Scheduler to set the frequency of the data retrieval, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to Admin > Basic > Infrastructure > Custom Scheduler.
   
   

2. Click ADD NEW from the right ACTIONS panel.
   The Custom Scheduler DETAILS page is displayed. 
   
   

   Note

    Summit recommends custom job to be scheduled once a day.

3. Enter/Select the desired values from the drop-down as shown below.
   
   
   
   
   Figure: Custom Scheduler Details page
   
   

4. Click SUBMIT. The Custom Scheduler configuration is saved.
   
   

5. Click Show List from the right ACTIONS panel. The new configuration is displayed in the Custom Scheduler LIST page.
   
   
   Figure: Custom Scheduler LIST page

To add Integration Details, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to Asset > Others > Asset Integration.
   The Asset Integration Configuration LIST page is displayed.
   
    
   Figure: Asset Integration Configuration LIST page
   
   

   
   

2. Click ADD NEW from the right ACTIONS panel. 
   The Asset Integration DETAILS page is displayed.

   
   

3. Enter/Select the desired values from the drop-down as shown below.
   
   
   Figure: Asset Integration DETAILS page
   
   

4. Click SUBMIT. The Asset Integration configuration is saved.
   

   Note

   The Advanced SAM Integration connects and captures the data from LD Database and then, dumps the data to SUMMIT reporting Database.
   Job Name- Advanced SAM Reports Data Sync to SUMMIT.

To view the Normalized Software Details  of each asset, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to Asset > User > Manage Assets > Asset Inventory.
2. Select FIXED Asset Type on the Asset Inventory page.
   The Fixed Asset LIST page is displayed.
   
   
3. Click the desired Asset Category and Status count hyperlink.
   The LIST page is displayed for the selected criteria.
   
   
4. Click the desired Asset ID count hyperlink.
   The Asset Details tab is displayed.
   
   
5. Navigate to Asset Information > Normalized Software Details tab.
   
   Figure: Asset Details- Normalized Software Details

To view the Reports through the BI engine on SUMMIT Application, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to Reports > Advanced Reports.
   The SUMMIT Reporting tab is displayed.
   
   

2. Select the desired report. The report details can be viewed.
   
   
   Figure: SUMMIT Report portal 
   
   

   Note

   1. Below list of reports have FILTERS at each attribute level.
   2. All reports can be filtered by Country and Environment field criteria.
   3. The reports are created in SUMMIT BI engine using the DN table view created in the SUMMIT DB.
   4. These reports contain the column attributes expected for each report.
   5. The reports are accessible basis the role templates.
   6. The data refresh for each of these reports is based on the data retrieval scheduler.

The following table contains the list of reports available on the reporting portal: