Configuring software usage

Software usage functionally in BMC Asset Management is intended for Asset Managers to get visibility into usage information for harvesting. You can query the usage data for products that are possibly tied to a certificate or multiple certificates that might be coming out of compliance or approaching breach of compliance. The usage information can also be generically checked based on any given product in the product catalog that requires a contract (for example, Product Name = Adobe Acrobat). This produces a results list of CIs with any usage information. The purpose is to get the usage information so that the IT asset managers understand what software instances are barely used or not used at all, so that harvesting decisions can be made.

Configuring your system to work with any third-party software usage provider

To access third-party-provided usage information from the SAM console, configure the system as follows:

1. Create a view in the local discovery database with the appropriate columns, as described in Creating the view for software usage information.
2. Create the federated class with the correct field ID, as described in Creating the federated class with the correct field IDs.
3. Add the nameSpace_Integration_ID attribute to BMC_BaseElement and data sync it.
4. Update pluginsvr_config.xml under the BMC Atrium CMDB path and ar.conf to include the federated plugin for the discovery source, as described in Registering the plugin in plugin_config.xml and Registering the plugin in ar.cfg.
5. In BMC Asset Management, configure the AST:ConfigUsageProvider form properly, as described in Configuring the AST:ConfigUsageProvider form.
6. Restart the BMC Remedy AR System server.

After these steps have been completed, you can access the software usage feature from BMC Asset Management. The software usage feature works with any discovery source, provided all the setup is performed as described.

Creating the view for software usage information

Create the following view for software usage information:

• nameSpace_Integration_ID
• nameSpace_Integration_ID
• Num_Times_Used_in_180_Days
• Num_Times_Used_in_30_Days
• Num_Times_Used_in_90_Days
• Product_Name

Creating the federated class with the correct field IDs

The discovery source, such as BMC BladeLogic Configuration Automation, must federate the software usage information into BMC Atrium CMDB. The federated class that is federating the usage information must be installed. BMC BladeLogic Configuration Automation discovery installs the BCAC:BCAC_Softwware_Usage federated class as part of the CDI 8.0 or later install.

For any other third-party discovery source, you must make sure that the federated class for the discovery source exists. The federated class brings in the fields from the view listed in Creating the view for software usage information. Make sure that fields IDs are specified as listed in following table below:

Field IDs for federating software usage information

You must register the federated class in BMC Atrium Core. You can verify the registration in the Class Manager Console.

For more information about creating federated classes, see Creating or editing a federated data class.

Registering the plug-in in plugin_config.xml

You must register the plug-in in plugin_config.xml, which is located under path\AtriumCore\cmdb\plugins\shared. You can see example entries in the XML file.

In the following example, BMC Atrium Core is installed in C:\Program Files\BMC Software\AtriumCore and the plug-in being registered is BCAC_DISCOVERY_PLUGIN. You might need to change the path, depending on where you installed BMC Atrium Core. You must change the plug-in to the name of your plug-in.

<plugin>
<name> BCAC_DISCOVERY_PLUGIN</name>
<type>ARDBC</type>
<code>JAVA</code>
filename>C:\Program Files\BMC Software\AtriumCore\cmdb\plugins\federation\federation-jdbc.jar</filename>
<classname>com.bmc.atrium.federation.jdbc.JdbcAdapter</classname>
<pathelement type="path">C:\Program Files\BMC Software\AtriumCore\cmdb\plugins\db2jcc-3.3.54.jar</pathelement>
<pathelement type="path">C:\Program Files\BMC Software\AtriumCore\cmdb\plugins\db2jcc_license_cu-3.3.54.jar</pathelement>
<pathelement type="path">C:\Program Files\BMC Software\AtriumCore\cmdb\plugins\jconn2-5.5.jar</pathelement>
<pathelement type="path">C:\Program Files\BMC Software\AtriumCore\cmdb\plugins\jconn3-6.0.5.ESD7.jar</pathelement>
<pathelement type="path">C:\Program Files\BMC Software\AtriumCore\cmdb\plugins\ojdbc5_g-11.1.0.6.0.jar</pathelement>
<pathelement type="path">C:\Program Files\BMC Software\AtriumCore\cmdb\plugins\sqljdbc-1.2.jar</pathelement>
<pathelement type="path">C:\Program Files\BMC Software\AtriumCore\cmdb\plugins\sybase_client-5.jar</pathelement>
<pathelement type="path">C:\Program Files\BMC Software\AtriumCore\cmdb\plugins\federation/federation-common.jar
</pathelement>
</plugin>

Registering the plug-in in ar.cfg

You must register the plug-in in ar.cfg, which is located in .\ARSystem\Conf. In the following example, the plug-in is named BCAC_DISCOVERY_PLUGIN and the server is named myServer. You must change the plug-in to the name of your plug-in and myServer to the name of your server.

Server-Plugin-Alias: BCAC_DISCOVERY_PLUGIN BCAC_DISCOVERY_PLUGIN myServer:9556

Configuring the AST ConfigUsageProvider form

You must specify the discovery source for usage information in the AST:ConfigUsageProvider form. Provide the namespace and the class name of the federated class that is being used to provide the data. After you make these changes, you must restart BMC Remedy AR server for the change to take effect.

Accessing usage information

When the usage federated class and other related configuration is done, IT Asset Managers can access the usage information about the SAM Console.