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Chapter 9: Software Metering Page 1 of 16

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Chapter 9: Software Metering

This chapter discusses one of the new features of SMS 2.0: software metering. It gives an overviewof some of the concepts of metering and covers several aspects of planning a software meteringdeployment. This chapter also discusses the configur-ation rules of software metering as well as those

for the client agent. The chapter concludes with recommendations for a best-practice approach to asoftware metering infrastructure deployment.

Overview and Purpose

The purpose of software metering is to make sure that your current software usage falls within thelimits of your license agreements. When you are constrained by license agreements, you need to makesure that you are using only the allowed number of licenses, and at the same time, you need to makesure that you have enough licenses for everyone using applications. Monitoring can includeconcurrent usage of software for real-time enforcement of license limits.

Software metering also enables the administrator to monitor all (or selected) applications running onthe computers within the organization. Software metering can detect unregistered or unlicensedsoftware and prevent its execution, or limit its execution to within certain hours. The administratorcan configure the software metering agent on each computer in the organization, for example, toprohibit the execution of games before 5 p.m.

You can also use software metering to allocate software usage to computers according to the policiesyou specify and to maintain a record of usage and attempted usage. You can check out and check inlicenses for mobile users, and you can also keep a record of all licenses in use.

Software metering provides another benefit by enabling you to enforce company standards. If the

company standard is Outlook 98, for example, you can use software metering to prohibit the use ofother email clients, such as Netscape or Eudora. This will help enforce company standards bypreventing the use of nonstandard or nonapproved software in the enterprise. Alternatively, you canuse the same features to just track and report on the use of nonstandard software in the enterprise forsupport purposes. Software metering can play a valuable role in a locked-down desktop environment.

Reporting is perhaps the most valuable benefit of software metering. After data has been collected onsoftware usage, that data can be reported to management or to the procurement department to adjustthe number of licenses that the company purchases. This can potentially save money for the company.If the company purchases a 1,000-user license for Microsoft Word, for example, but reportsconsistently show only 400 concurrent users of the software, the company can use that data to make

future decisions regarding the number of licenses it needs (a 500-user license for Microsoft Word, forexample).

Likewise, the opposite can be true. If reports consistently show actual software usage to be higherthan the number of licenses owned, the company can purchase additional licenses to remain incompliance with its software vendor agreements.

You can also use software metering to address security concerns. Metering can be used to prevent theuse of software that is harmful to the corporate environment. You can prevent hacking tools or

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software known to contain viruses from running on software metering agents. If you want a moreindirect approach, you can set the reporting tools to issue a report to the administrator identifyingthose who are using the tools or software (without actually preventing their usage).

When tracking the use of software or preventing its use, you can add the element of time to theequation. You can prohibit the use of certain software to within a certain time period. Access totimekeeping software can be shut down after the reporting deadline, for example, to prevent usersfrom reporting time after the billing period has been closed.

Conceptual Overview

SMS software metering monitors programs being run by users on any Windows NT and Windows95/98 clients on your SMS site from any source. (These sources can be local hard drives, floppy diskdrives, network servers, or Internet connections.)

Note - You can also use the software metering feature to prevent the use of non-Y2K-

compliant software.

In general, software metering is accomplished through two methods:

Inclusion based. This method specifies which applications should be monitored for usage ordenial of service. This method is best when searching for a specific program, such as a game, torestrict application usage.

Exclusion based. This method monitors all applications on a machine by default. An exclusionlist can be built to specify certain applications to ignorefor example, operating systemprograms such as WINLOGON.EXE or EXPLORER.EXE. This method generates far morenetwork traffic and should be used sparingly.

Software metering in SMS acts in one of two modes:

Offline mode

Online mode

The following sections discuss each of these modes.

Offline Mode

In Offline mode, the SMS software metering client agent periodically sends usage data to a softwaremetering server. Both licensed and unlicensed products are passively monitored for application usage.No software is denied access unless it is specifically turned off for 24 hours a day. In Offline mode,license balancing between software metering servers does not occur. Executed applications arelogged locally and scheduled for later upload to a license server.

Some large organizations may prefer this mode because of the reduced volume of network traffic

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generated by software metering components. Another advantage of Offline mode is that it enablesyou to monitor applications on offline machines such as laptops. Offline mode also requires fewerservers and a smaller infrastructure to operate than Online mode. Server sizes are discussed in moredetail later in the chapter.

Online Mode

In Online mode, the SMS client agent communicates with a software metering server every time auser executes a metered application. Online mode is best suited for a more proactive monitoring ofapplication usage, including real-time license verification. Online mode requires a larger investmentin server hardware and can be expected to increase network bandwidth utilization. Online metering isimplemented when tighter control over application use is needed.

Notes - Because of the overhead associated with the exclusion-based method, you reallyshould use an inclusion-based approach. The administration effort required to maintainan inclusion-based system is far less than the effort required for an exclusion-based

system.

In Offline mode, license tracking is the main goal, not license control.

Online metering enables you to meter application use, to turn off applications, and to enable anddisable applications by user, group, computer, and time. Although this requires more overhead, onlinemetering provides a better tool to ensure compliance with concurrent licensing agreements. Licensebalancing between software metering servers is enabled. At application execution time, the agentcontacts the server to request a license for the product. Depending on the availability of licenses, theapplication may or may not be allowed to run. If a license is not available, a "callback" can be

configured.

Callback Queue

In Online mode, if a license is requested but not available, the user is placed in a callback queue. Thecallback queue is used to notify users that a license has become available for a client to borrow for thetime of the application usage. If a license is granted to a client in the callback queue, but that licenseis not used, it returns to the pool of available licenses after a configurable timeout period. Clients inthe callback queue can be assigned a priority: Higher-priority clients receive software licenses beforelower-priority clients.

License Check Out

After a license has been granted to a client for application usage, that client can use the license for aspecified period. During that time, that license is unavailable for use by other computers. It becomesavailable when it is released, or checked in, by the client who checked out the license, or when thecheck-out time period has expired. When the time expires, the license is forcibly checked back in tothe metering server, and the user must check out another license. A license can also be forciblychecked in after a period of application inactivity. This prevents licenses from being squanderedwhen the application is not actually in use.

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In a hierarchy where multiple licensing servers are deployed spanning multiple sites, licenses may bebalanced among the servers to ensure equal availability among all sites. (This is applicable in Onlinemode only.) The parent Site Server does this, checking for spare licenses on all servers and dispersingthem to metering servers that have little or no spare licenses. This is known as intersite licensebalancing and is enabled by default.

License enforcement on the client occurs by monitoring the process list of the client machine andcommunicating with the metering server on a periodic (schedul-able) basis. When the agentcommunicates with the server, it exchanges usage data and configuration data, such as whichprograms are allowed or prohibited.

If Online mode is used with clients that are rarely connected to the network, such as laptops, thesoftware metering agent will operate in an Offline mode when disconnected and in an Online modewhen connected.

Your requirements for metering functionality will determine whether you use Offline mode or Onlinemode. Offline mode is useful (and provides low overhead) when license enforcement is not necessary

and when tracking and reporting on application usage is the desired goal. Online mode proves usefulwhen you require real-time license verification. Although this requires a heavier overhead in serversand network bandwidth, it is the only method available for enforcing license agreements in real-time.

Planning and Design

To design the best architecture, you must understand the different options available: how you buildthe hierarchy, balance licenses, collate data, and summarize data. This section discusses someimportant details that affect the architectural design of a software metering infrastructure.

Hierarchy

When multiple layers of a software metering hierarchy exist, it is important to understand whatinformation traverses up and down the hierarchy. All configuration information is passed down thesite hierarchy. This includes new product licenses and changes to the exclusion lists. Usage data,callback requests, and other information pass up the hierarchy to the parent site.

Based on your available network bandwidth and the number of software metering clients in yourhierarchy, you can configure the frequency and timings of the communication among sites within thehierarchy. Intersite license balancing can occur among parent and child sites throughout the hierarchy.

Intersite License Balancing

Intersite license balancing allows available licenses to propagate around the site to serve the sites thatneed it most. When a software metering server notifies the Site Server that it has no available licenses(and has therefore denied a client a license when requested), the Site Server either grants that server alicense to grant to the client or it acquires a license from one of the other metering servers to grant tothe client. This is normally done within 15 minutes of the original client request.

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Notes - Only parent sites balance with child sites. Child sites do not balance with parentsitesthat is, they do not disseminate licenses up to the parent site. This should beconsidered when planning the hierarchy and intersite license balancing.

If the Site Server does not have a sufficient number of free licenses to give to softwaremetering servers, the server will have to wait until the next license-balancing cycle toobtain licenses, even if the Site Server finds free licenses among servers queried later inthe cycle. The next denial of a license will initiate the next balancing cycle.

Data Collation

The primary Site Server collects information about product use from each software metering serverand stores the information in the software metering database. The data that is sent is then deletedfrom the source. (Therefore, the data is actually moved.) The database acts as the source for softwaremetering reports and queries. No persistent data is maintained on the metering servers; it always

flows into the database at scheduled intervals.

Trend Calculation

After the data has been collected at the top tier, the primary Site Server calculates the demand andusage trends of the software licenses. It uses this data to determine how to best allocate the softwarelicenses among its metering servers. If software metering server A demands more Microsoft Wordlicenses than any other server, for example, the primary site allocates extra Word licenses for that siteand subtracts Word licenses from other sites that may not use Word as often. The initial collectionand analysis of data is based on the first 7 days, starting when metering is turned on. The secondcollection and analysis of data is based on the next 30-day period.

Data Summarization

Data summarization occurs when metering usage data is reported to the software metering database.The "raw" data is fed into the database and can be summarized into records over a period of time.SMS discards the original raw data after it has been summarized.

Roles

Although software metering is bundled with SMS, it requires its own hierarchy and its own database.For software metering to work, additional roles must be assigned to servers.

Software Metering Server

The software metering server is responsible for the server-side software metering tasks. This is theserver that software metering clients (that is, client computers running the software metering clientagent) communicate directly with to register application use, acquire licensed product details, andcheck for license availability. The software metering server must be installed on an Intel-basedWindows NT installation. (As of this writing, there is no support for Alpha machines.)

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Notes - SMS 2.0 software metering does not support OS/2, DOS, and Windows 3.xclients. Also, software metering servers cannot be installed on Alpha Site Servers.

The importance of data summarization should not be underestimated. This feature is

extremely important for performance and scalability considerations. Ensure that youmaintain only the level of data details that you require for your reports.

The server should have at least 64MB of RAM and at least 1GB of free disk space. Theserequirements may vary depending on the mode chosen (Online or Offline), the number of clientsaccessing the same server (more clients may necessitate more RAM), and the interval at which clientscommunicate with the server (daily or weekly).

Software Metering Database Server

The software metering database server is responsible for storing all the software metering informationin a database. Due to its complexity and heavy usage, the software metering data is maintained in itsown database and not the SMS database used for the rest of the system. This server must have aMicrosoft SQL Server database installed. It can be installed on the same computer as the softwaremetering server or on another server.

When software metering is installed on a primary site, both the metering database and SMS sitedatabase can be hosted on the same computer. When you install software metering on a secondarysite, the database must still be maintained at the parent site.

Administration Tool

Software metering requires its own separate administration tool for definition of policies and actions.This administration tool is built in to the SMS Administrator Console and can be installed during theSMS setup process. The software metering administration tool can also be installed on any server orworkstation that also contains the SMS Administrator Console.

Client Agents

A software metering agent must reside on every machine on which you want to monitor applicationusage. This agent is installed and configured as part of the SMS client installation procedure. Thesoftware metering agent can perform several tasks:

Monitor software usage on the client machines (either through inclusion-based rules orexclusion-based rules).

Allow or deny access to specific applications (Online mode).

Manage the usage of licenses for applications in use. This includes checking licenses in and outfrom the server.

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Notes - NetWare Bindery and NetWare NDS cannot be configured to act as the softwaremetering server or database.

The software metering database can also reside on the same server as the SMS database.If you plan to use software metering extensively, however, you should install themetering database and server on its own dedicated machine.

When you define the database location, remember that you should choose a partitionwith at least 1GB of free disk space for software metering to use.

The client agent can run on Windows 95/98 as well as on Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000operating systems. In Windows 95/98, the LICCLI95.EXE file is used as the client executable;Windows NT and Windows 2000 use LICCLINT.EXE. At the time of this writing, there is nosupport for Terminal Server in software metering. The recommended requirements for these clientagents include at least 5MB of free disk space and a minimum of 32MB of RAM running on the

machine.

The client is bandwidth aware and will check its own exclusion list before checking the server. Whenthe client checks out licenses, it does not poll, but rather times out stale licenses.

Assigning Roles

Depending on the configuration you choose, you can install several roles on a single server or youmay need several servers to install distributed roles. Before installing the software, you mustdetermine what type of hierarchy will be built. As described in the following sections, softwaremetering can be configured as one of two hierarchies:

Two tier

Three tier

Two Tier

A two-tier hierarchy consists of a client agent (or multiple client agents) and the server and databaseon a single machine. Such a setup is beneficial in a smaller environment where software meteringmight be used on a limited basis. By maintaining the server and database on the same server, youdecrease the amount of support required to maintain software metering services.

Three Tier

A three-tier software metering hierarchy consists of an agent (or multiple agents) and the server (orseveral servers) and the database on separate machines. The server and the database are separated ondifferent machines for performance and fault-tolerance reasons. For example, several license serverscan be set up to service the client agents and access the database. If one of the licensing serversshould fail, another server assumes its load and maintains operations. In addition, different licenseservers can be set up and distributed across a large LAN or WAN. This improves the performance by

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consolidating the metering information traffic. In the two-tier hierarchy, such a setup is not possiblebecause of the presence of only one server on the back end.

Setup and Configuration

Navigate to the Site Systems folder in the Site Settings and open the properties of the server that you

want to configure. Click on the Software Metering Server tab (see Figure 9.1). When configuring theserver side of software metering, you must configure it to use a valid domain account. The SoftwareMetering Service account (SWMAccount) is used by software metering servers to access the softwaremetering service. This account is local unless the software metering server is a domain controller orunless a domain prefix is specified. This account is part of the local admin group on the site systemassigned the software metering server role. The account must be configured with the permission, LogOn as a Service Right. SWMAccount is created automatically when you assign the software meteringserver role to a site system; you can modify it, however, and it is recommended that you change thedefault password for this account.

In the same configuration window, you must also define the number of connection retries (default is

100), the delay between connection retries (default is 150 milliseconds), and the number of operatingsystem threads allocated for connection attempts (default is 8).

When configuring the software metering server, you need to address the following issues:

Product version policy

Program name policy

Figure 9.1The Software Metering Server tab of the Site System Properties dialog box.

Note - Keep the default values for this window to start with. Change these values only ifperformance or connection problems with the software metering system arise.

Timings and intervals of the Site Server tasks, including license balancing, site management,and data collection

Balancing pool licenses

Data Summarization

Proceeding sections discuss these issues and our recommendations for configuring your softwaremetering server.

Navigate to the Component Configuration folder in the Site Settings and choose Software Metering.In the General tab, specify the Product version policy and Program name policy (see Figure 9.2). TheProduct version policy should be set to either Full or Partial. With Full, you can monitor softwarethrough its exact version number. With Partial, you can monitor software through a partial version

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number that matches what you enter.

Suppose, for example, that you have an application with the version number 5.0. Using the Fullmethod, only the application with the exact version number of 5.0 will register with the meteringserver. Other similar versions such as 5.02 or 5.1 will not be registered. Using the Partial method, anyapplication starting with version 5.0 is logged. Software registered as version 5.01 or 5.02 registers,and groups with the application logged as version 5.0. Applications at version 5.1, however, will notfall into this category because they do not include the numerals 5.0.

Figure 9.2The General tab of the Software Metering Properties dialog box.

Note - You should use the Partial policy setting unless you have several applications thatdiffer in version number and that need to be tracked separately. In most cases, trackingseparately isnt necessary. Therefore, use the Partial setting.

In the Program name policy window, you can choose either Standard or Original for the policy. AStandard name policy is used to identify an application by the name listed in the Windows Explorer.If a file is labeled EXCEL.EXE in Explorer, for example, that is how it is reported to SMS. Using theOriginal name policy, the application is identified by the information listed in the header of the file.This proves particularly useful if the user attempts to rename a file to deceive the metering services orto conceal the presence of an application. If this option is selected, the metering services identify anapplication by the information found in the program header. This option requires slightly more timeto detect and recognize an application, however, because it needs to read inside a file header and notjust the filename.

In the Local tab, you specify the timings and intervals of the tasks that the primary Site Server needsto perform. The tasks are as follows:

License balancing. This feature specifies when and how often to balance licenses up and downthe hierarchy and across software metering servers, if required. This balance is performed onlyif it is demanded by one of the license servers.

Site management. This feature specifies when and how often to transfer data among meteringservers within a site. This includes registered software lists, for example, or denial lists thatmust be replicated around the site.

Data collection. This feature specifies when and how often to collect and pass up softwaremetering data to the Site Server and up to the parent site. This setting can affect the freshnessand accuracy of the data summarization at the top tier. The more frequent the data is collected,the more up-to-date the reports will be.

Notes - Initially, maintain the default setting of Standard. You need to switch to Originalonly if users are frequently renaming files in an attempt to get around the meteringefforts of the firm. In most cases, however, Standard suffices. Also, the Standard policy

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results in better performance because in Standard mode, SMS needs to read the filenameonly. In Original mode, it needs to open the file and read the name inside the header,which takes more time than just reading the filename.

By choosing None in the schedule, balancing will not occur. When setting the interval,consider the available network bandwidth and the load on each metering server as well asthe license demands by the clients.

The time interval should be kept low (less than one hour) if you plan to use onlinemetering. An interval that is too high will cause excess network traffic among meteringservers. If you are using offline metering, you can raise the interval slightly.

After data has been sent up the hierarchy to the Site Server, it is deleted from the localmetering server.

When software metering is first enabled, maintain the default settings until you achieve a better

understanding of how metering works. If licensing is used extensively, consider expanding orcollapsing the time intervals to suit your needs.

In the Intersite tab, you balance the pool of licenses among metering servers in multiple sites (if theyexist). If you have only one site,you do not need to enable this feature. Intersite license managementis scheduled on a recurring basis. The receipt time period is the maximum number of days that canpass before licenses are considered "lost" during balancing.

In the Data Summarization tab, you specify whether data summarization is performed and on whatschedule and interval. Based on the schedule, software metering collects data from the child sites (ifthere are any) and stores it at the primary Site Server. The purpose of data summarization is acompression of detailed information about application use into a single record (that can span multipletime intervals) used for reporting. This proves useful because it reduces the overall amount of databeing reported to the top tiers and to the database. It also speeds up the report-generation feature ofsoftware metering.

Configuring Client Agents

You can use the software metering client agent to determine how the client receives configurationinformation from the software metering servers and how it monitors software usage on the clientbased on the configuration information.

When configuring the client agent, keep these suggestions in mind:

As shown in Figure 9.3, the Force real-time license verification setting forces the softwaremetering client agent to run in Online mode. (The default is Offline mode.) Real-time licenseverification forces a client to periodically contact a software metering server to transmit licenseusage data. Forcing real-time license verification ensures communication between the softwarelicense server and client agent whenever a user requests a license. This mode increases networktraffic and the demand load on each software metering server.

Figure 9.3

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The Software Metering Client Agent Properties dialog box.

In the Timings tab, configure the timing and intervals of the communications between thesoftware metering agent and the server. The Configuration polling interval refers to how oftenthe client agent requests updated configuration information from the License Server service,and how often usage data is sent from offline clients to software metering servers.

The Client time-out settings are used to specify when and how often the client communicateswith the metering servers before it switches to Offline mode. If network bandwidth is limitedand communication among clients and servers is not reliable, be liberal with this time intervalto give the clients extra time to communicate with the servers.

In the Checked-out, Denials, and Inactivity tabs, you can specify a custom message to displayto the user upon activation of the metering server. Use this space to provide a meaningfulmessage to the user and provide the user with a phone number or email address to use to gathermore information. Keep in mind that any user who is denied access to execute an applicationwhen a deadline is approaching may become irate.

Security

Access to licensed software is provisioned by user or group permissions or other attributes such ascomputer, time frame, or language. To run a software product on a client running in Online mode, theuser must have permission to do so in six different categories. The SMS Administrators Guidedescribes the six required categories under "Understanding Software Metering":

User and user group level. For this category, the user has permission to use the product orthegroup the user belongs to has permission orany user has permission orany group haspermission to use the object.

Computer level. The product can be used on any computer orthe product is used on thecomputer the user is accessing it from.

Notes - By enabling data summarization, you ensure that fewer records store in thesoftware metering database. If you do not summarize data, the software meteringdatabase can grow quite large, possibly resulting in reduced performance. Whencollecting data, it is important to remember that you cannot delete software meteringdata; you can only summarize it.

If your network has limited bandwidth, you can increase this value to lessen the networktraffic that polling generates.

Time level. The use of the product has to be within an allowable time period.

Availability. A license is available for use at the users site.

Time zone. The product is used in a specific time zone.

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Language. Products of different language versions are considered to be different products.Language-neutral versions of products can be used in any language environment.

If a user lacks permission in any of the areas listed above, the user cannot access the product when theclient is running in Online mode, and use of the software is denied.

If the client is running in Offline mode, the program is denied if it is configured to be inaccessible atany time of the day.

For more information on the required permissions to run software on a client in Online mode, see theSMS Administrators Guide.

Troubleshooting

You can troubleshoot the software metering activities of both the server and client in several ways.

Troubleshooting Server Problems

To troubleshoot software metering problems on the server side, you need to ensure that logging hasbeen enabled at the site.

In the SMS Service Manager, make sure that Logging Enabled is checked and note the name of thelog filename that is used (LICSRVC.LOG) and the log size that is configured (default of 1MB).

Troubleshooting Server Problems

To troubleshoot server problems, use the SMS Trace utility to view the LICSRVC.LOG file. This file

gives you a step-by-step look at what the license metering server is doing and where problems may beoccurring. The log file explicitly details what is causing errors that may be occurring. Some items tolook at on the server side include the following:

Client communications. These communications handle the request and return of licenses. Thedata that goes to and from the clients is cached on the license servers. If clients cannot send orreceive information, they cannot request and receive licenses, and possibly cant even run thesoftware that they need.

SQL queries. When information needs to be written to or retrieved from the database, thelicense metering server (not the clients) communicates the tasks. If the software metering log

files do not help with troubleshooting, try viewing the SQL log files to determine any problemswith communication. If communication between the servers and the SQL database fail, monitorand check the SQL Server itselfthat is, its services, processes, and so onto make sure thatthe database is functional. If the software metering servers cannot access the database, the SQLServer may not be able to report accurate data for the generation of reports. Because the reportsgenerate from the SQL data, it is important for the database to be updated from the meteringservers.

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Note - If you do not see the software metering components listed in the SMS ServiceManager, they have not been installed correctly.

Cache. Every license server maintains a locally cached FoxPro database used for

communication with its clients. All data is stored here until written to the server or delivered tothe client.

ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) ODBC is used for communication with the database. Ifserver-to-database communication is failing, check the ODBC properties and values to ensurethe correct settings.

Shares. If the clients cannot communicate with the servers, check that the shares are presentand that the clients have the adequate permissions to access those shares.

Troubleshooting Client Problems

To troubleshoot client problems, look in the Windows Directory\MS\SMS\Logs folder and review thefile LICCLI.LOG. This log file details all the activity of software metering from the clients point ofview, including the inability to connect to a server or the inability to read an exclusion list.

SMS Executive

The SMS Executive service contains two threads that you should monitor. The License ServiceManager thread is responsible for remote installations, reinstallations, and maintenance of the serviceaccount for the metering servers. The License Metering thread is responsible for data collection, tablereplication, and overall site management among metering servers and Site Servers. On license

metering servers, only the SMS License Server service is installed and it runs under theSWMAccount context by default.

For more information on troubleshooting log files, refer to Chapter 17, "Status and Logs."

Fault Tolerance

You can design software metering servers to provide fault tolerance to each other. When multipledistributed licensing servers are deployed, clients use multiple servers to "fail over" in the event of asystem failure. If a license server fails, the clients reporting to that server fail over to another licenseserver to perform its duties. If no other servers are available, the client switches to Offline mode.

Performance

The performance of the software metering solution depends entirely on the use of either online oroffline metering. Online metering, because of its extensive communication with the client, wontperform as well as offline metering, which has occasional communication with the client.

In large sites, consider installing the software metering server and the database on two separate

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machines (three-tier architecture) for performance reasons. If metering is used extensively and bothapplications are on the same server, performance may suffer because the amount and frequency oflicense data reported from the clients to the servers can generate network traffic for the license server(s).

In small sites, it might be adequate to run both the metering server and the metering database on thesame server, as long as its a powerful machine.

Scalability

Software metering within SMS 2.0 can be made scalable when deployed in the three-tier design. Withthe use of multiple and distributed license servers, software metering can service a large number ofclients spread across a large organization. You can configure metering to use little networkbandwidth and add little overhead to the systems on which it monitors application use.

Generally speaking, Online mode can handle about 400500 clients per server. Offline mode canhandle about 4,0005,000 clients per server. This 10-to-1 ratio between Online and Offline modes

can make a big difference in the mode of metering you choose to set up. These numbers may vary asyou increase or decrease the number of monitored applications.

Reporting

The results of software metering activity can be viewed in a number of reports. Because the softwaremetering data resides within a Microsoft SQL Server database, many options are available forwithdrawing that data for reporting purposes. Using either SQL's reporting wizards or custom ASPpages, it is easy to retrieve and display the data that software metering collects from its agents.Several Report and Graph wizards are available with the product to help create and view reports. Tostart either type of wizard, open the Software Metering tool, select the Tools menu, and then choose

the wizard that you want to run.

Support

After you have a better grip on the software being used in your enterprise, you can use thatinformation to enhance and improve the support that the help desk provides to its users. Using theapplication usage data that software metering collects, the help desk can determine whichapplications are being used the most and plan its training accordingly. Resulting information can becombined with the help desk records of problem calls to determine future staffing requirements forthe help desk.

Because of an increasing user population, for example, the manager of the Designer Denim (thesample company) help desk needs to hire two more engineers to help solve user problems. He can usethe data in the help desk tracking system to justify hiring additional people, and he can use the datawithin the software metering system to determine which skills the prospective employees shouldpossess. If software metering shows that 95% of all employees use Microsoft Outlook for emailexchange, the help desk manager might determine that he wants someone for the job with strongOutlook troubleshooting skills. The manager could also use the data to justify the cost of training hisemployees for Microsoft Outlook.

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A knowledge base of problems of the most commonly used applications can be built according to thesoftware metering application usage data. Overall, the data collected through software meteringprovides a valuable asset to the manager of the help desk or LAN support for future resource planningand training.

RecommendationsBased on software metering functioning, the following several recommendations for the design andconfiguration of your systems are offered. Although not all these recommendations might apply toyour environment, they will give you a good idea of how to best approach your software meteringdeployment.

If application usage monitoring is your goal, offline metering is the recommended approach. Ifreal-time software license enforcement is your goal, online metering is the recommendedapproach. Be prepared to handle the additional network traffic and possible application startupdelays when using online metering.

Consider the use of data summarization up to the top level of the hierarchy. This will ensuremore accurate results with less of a performance impact on the network and the system.

Use software metering to turn off known non-Y2K-compliant software.

Use the LICENSEREPORTS.MDB program that comes with the BackOffice Resource Kit 4.5.It provides access to the software metering database with Microsoft Access and can generatereports outside of the Reports Wizard within the product.

Consider the user of "suite" application licenses. A suite application license consists of

multiple software usages that take up only one license. One Microsoft Word license plus oneMicrosoft Excel license, for example, equals one Microsoft Office license. This scenario mightreduce the amount of administration work that needs to be done on the metering system and itmight reduce the costs that your company has to pay for software.

Online mode lets the executable run; in contrast, if the application is not allowed to run, it killsit by monitoring the process list. If you choose Online mode, make sure that you dont have toomany router hops to get to a metering server.

Sample Company Usage

At Designer Denim, software metering is primarily used to monitor, track, and report on applicationusage and to prohibit the use of games during business hours. Metering is also used to prohibit theuse of non-Y2K-compliant software at all times, 24 hours a day. All these tasks are achieved usingoffline metering.

Designer Denim chose offline metering because of the reduced amount of network traffic and systemprocessing that it takes to perform its tasks. It was a business requirement that the execution of noapplication be delayed because of software metering services. All metering services must occurbehind the scenes and must not interfere with any application usage during business hours.

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Note - In the future, software metering may integrate with Public Key Infrastructure(PKI), and thereby offer an additional way to verify the authenticity of the software beingused as well as to deny unauthenticated software. This may include an interaction withcertificates and digital signatures to ensure the authenticity of the software. Software

metering may play a role in denying or allowing the use of digitally signed software.

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