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Who runs proper Software Asset licensing/management with information from SCCM?

Ingrid_GlatzIngrid_Glatz Customer Adept IT Monkey ✭✭
in Asset Management

I have big issues with our Software titles inventory coming from Microsoft. Being involved in a case with Microsoft since April now, we haven't found a proper solution.

It started with the finding that a lot of Software titles do not get deleted in Service Manager even if they're not present any more on any of the inventoried machines. SCCM doesn't have a single installation, but the Software title is still in the SCSM Software list and most of the times, even related with Hardware assets. This causes a huge confusion about installed Software and how many licenses we need. None of our important software seems to have a correct count.

Together with Microsoft, I started to work on this issue, but still have no solution. I created a new connector that recognized that certain software is not installed any more and deleted those titles out of the SCSM software list. Then, a couple of weeks later, I deleted the old disabled connector. This caused all software that seemed to have been added into SCSM via this disabled connector (or at least recognized) to lose their relation ship to all the assets where it's still installed and never was removed. The relationship Software/asset hasn't come back since then, the new SCCM-SCSM connector still runs once at night.

As an example, we have about 1600 installations of Office Plus 2010 according to SCCM inventory, but only about 1000 exist in the Cireson Software Asset so far. All other relations have been removed.

Who knows of these issues with the connectors and has found a proper solution? Microsoft told me in the beginning of the case that SCSM was never meant to be used as a proper licensing management tool which sounded quite ridiculous to me. This would spoil the whole purpose of Cireson Software Asset Management if Microsoft is not capable of delivering the right information and also keep track on it. Is there any kind of configuration I might be missing?

Thanks for your help.

Ingrid

Best Answer

Answers

  • damon_mulligandamon_mulligan Cireson Consultant Advanced IT Monkey ✭✭✭
    Sorry, you are having issues. Can you post a screen shot of the Software Items from Config Man in All Software after you filter for Office Plus 2010. Then post a screenshot of your SW Pattern for the SW Asset.
  • Ingrid_GlatzIngrid_Glatz Customer Adept IT Monkey ✭✭

    Hello Damon,

    Office Plus is only an example where the Software information is missing. Please see the attached information. As I've written, deleting the old  connectors deleted a lot of related items from machines in Service Manager.

    My main concern ist how others manage the Software titles coming from SCCM when they do not get deleted in SCSM. Microsoft cannot explain why SCSM lists Software titles, even if this software is not installed on a single machine any longer and cannot be found in SCCM.

    In first place, I had too many Software installations/licences listed because they were not deleted. Now by deleting old connectors, too many titles and relationships were deleted and my whole Software asset Management is still in a bad condition. Microsoft has confirmed that there's an issue with the connectors, that's why I would like to know how others deal with it. It's not wrong pattern in the Software assets, the relationships in SCSM are missing from the machines.

    Ingrid

  • damon_mulligandamon_mulligan Cireson Consultant Advanced IT Monkey ✭✭✭
    What you have should work, I suggested a few minor changes.

    Suggested Software Pattern: Microsoft Office Profession% Plus 2010

    Suggested Version Pattern: 14.%

    You don't want your version pattern to be to specific, because version 14.x is 2010, so just go 1 decimal place.
    Be careful about adding % to the end of the SW Name. In the future you could potentially include by accident Updates, Plug-ins, or Uninstallers by doing that. Those are obviously not licensed.

    I will see is we have an info on the grooming of SW Titles from Config Man to SCSM.
  • Ingrid_GlatzIngrid_Glatz Customer Adept IT Monkey ✭✭

    Hi Damon,

    after changing the pattern to "Microsoft Office Profess% Plus 2010" and the Version to 14.%, another 105 asset Relations have been removed, being listed in the history. I've no idea what's going on. As displayed in the picture I've added, the Related Software Items are fine, none of them have disappeared.

    I've checked a couple of machines in SCCM and they definitely still have Office Pro Plus 2010 installed and the title matches one of the titles in Related Software Items. So there's no reason for these machines to be deleted in the Software Asset. Inventory is current, no change of the SCCM-SCSM connector.

    Ingrid

  • Jon_RunheimJon_Runheim Customer Adept IT Monkey ✭✭
    To clarify - The new SCCM connector couldn't correctly update the Inventoried Software as well as the Primary Users. It only updated it for some of them.
    The ones that didn't work were the ones brought in by the old connector, which were locked in some way.

    The lock remained even after removal of the old and the new one had to be removed as well for the lock to go away.
  • Ingrid_GlatzIngrid_Glatz Customer Adept IT Monkey ✭✭

    Hi Jon,

    this is what Microsoft told me. But if I remove ALL connectors for SCCM, I'm losing all Information regarding Primary users, Hardware asset to hardware device mapping and others.

    Did you get back all Information after creating a new connector? Our Desktop Services Team relies on information like Primary user or Asset ID to physical machine. I should be able to guarantee that no information will be lost. I hope you've had a good experience.

  • Jon_RunheimJon_Runheim Customer Adept IT Monkey ✭✭
    All the primary user info, SW Asset and license info and HW Asset connections are fed from SCCM.
    So, as long as the data is correct in SCCM it will autopopulate again in SCSM with a new connector.
    If you have made any manual mappings between SCCM inventoried info and Cireson Assets, these would likely break.
    However, we had only used filters and the mapping settings in the Administration\Settings\CiresonAssetManagementSettings so all our data was automatically added to the right places right away.
    So, you could check if your staff have made any manual mappings so you know the impact of the recreation.

    I think it's a good practice to only do it this way and never do manual mappings of the SCCM inventoried info.
    That way, the connectors can be replaced without affecting the system other than that the data is reloaded. Everything would get corrected automatically by that.

    Hope it helps.
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