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 you have completed these steps, 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

A namespace must be chosen for the discovery source. A view in the local database must include the following columns:

• nameSpace _Integration_ID
• Last_Used_Date
• 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_Software_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 described in Creating the view for software usage information. Make sure that fields IDs are specified as listed in the following table.

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.

BMC Atrium Core Console displaying a federated class

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

Registering the plugin in plugin_config.xml

You must register the plugin 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 plugin 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 plugin to the name of your plugin.

<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 plugin in ar.cfg

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

Software Usage console (example screen from BMC Asset Management)

Click the following figure to expand it.