Overview of Application Management
Components
Application management is composed of the following components:
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
Software Inventory | The software inventory collected by the CM agent is the basis for most of the application management operations. It provides the list from which the applications to be managed are chosen. |
Custom Applications | The Custom Applications view is a container for all applications which are to be managed on the devices of your infrastructure, that is to say they are to be either monitored for performance, restricted in their execution, defined for selfhealing or monitored for license surveillance. These applications can be listed directly under the node or be sorted in folders for easier classification. |
Software Catalog | The software catalog provides the list of all products and applications that can be managed in their licenses. |
Application List | An application list is a collection of one or more applications that are managed in a certain way. This is defined by the application list type, that is, if these applications are monitored, prohibited or protected. |
Application Type | The application list types are the three different types, identified and named after their function: monitored, prohibited and protected applications. |
Schedule Template | Applications can either be prohibited from use at all times in which situation the prohibited application can directly be assigned to the targets without further limitation. However, it is also possible to deny the use of application only at specific times and allow the users to launch these, for example for their private use at lunchtime or after regular working hours. The same is true for monitored applications, protected applications, however, are protected all the time and cannot be assigned to a schedule. Schedule templates are a sort of a timetable of time-slots in which the application usage can be denied or allowed or monitored. |
Application Management wizard | CM also provides a wizard which guides you through the different stages of creating and managing your applications or to monitor their licenses. |
Licensed Software | A licensed software collects all license units that are subject to a specific license. A licensed software can contain as many license unit as are included in the purchased license. After the licensed software is defined it can be assigned to individual devices or device groups for license evaluation. This evaluation verifies, if the assigned devices are in compliance with the license specifications, that is, if the application is only installed on those devices it is supposed to. |
License Unit | A license unit is the software that requires license management, the entity that is verified against the license data provided to the licensed software object. This can be either an individual application, such as Adobe Acrobat X , a group of applications, such as all versions of Camtasia , or the complete product, such as Microsoft Office 2010 or the different flavors of an operating system type. |
Product | A product is the most global entity that collects all license applications of a specific software. For example, Microsoft Office 2015 contains all different applications of this product, Microsoft Excel 2015, Microsoft Word 2015, and so on. For less voluminous products, this might just be the product name, such as Camtasia, which then would contain all versions of Camtasia supported by the purchased license. |
Application | An application is the smallest individual level for which a license can be purchased. For example, the Microsoft Office 2007 suite contains Microsoft Excel 2007 , Microsoft Excel 2007 sp1 , Microsoft Excel 2007 sp2 , Microsoft outlook 2007 , Microsoft Outlook 2007 sp1 , Microsoft Outlook 2007 sp2 , Microsoft Word 2007 , and so on. Adobe Acrobat , for example, could contain Adobe Acrobat 9.0 , Adobe Acrobat 9.3 and Adobe Acrobat 9.4 for a license for all flavors of Acrobat version 9. |
Application Management licenses
Application Management is part of the BMC Client Management - Inventory license and does not require a license of its own. However, Client Management provides two optional licenses that can enhance the Application Management functionality:
- Software Catalog
This license activates the software catalog. The software catalog collects all applications that are part of products. - Software Catalog Updates
This license provides regular updates for the software catalog to ensure that it contains always the most up-to-date information.
Application Management capabilities and access rights
To be able to work with applications and software licenses and their monitoring, an administrator needs specific capabilities and access rights for the different objects.
Application Management
- Application Management top node: Managed Application - View .
- The capability Managed Application - Manage is required to create and manage custom applications as well as to access and manage the contents of the software catalog.
Schedule Template
- To create, modify, delete and assign schedule templates: capability Schedule Template - Manage as well as Write access rights.
Application List
- To create, modify and delete application lists: capability Application List - Manage as well as Write access rights.
- To assign application lists: capability Application List - Assign as well as Assign access rights.
Licensed Software
- To create, modify and delete software license units: capability Licensed Software - Manage as well as Write access rights.
- To assign software license units: capability Licensed Software - Assign as well as Assign access rights.
- To configure the Software License Management : capability Licensed Software - Configure as well as Write access rights.
Devices
- To be able to view and assign the target devices for application and license monitoring the capabilities Device and Device Group - View and Read access rights are required.
- To view the inventories of the target devices the Inventory - View and Read access rights are required.