Being able to meter the usage of applications is very helpful to understand where applications are deployed but not used, where applications may be able to be uninstalled to reclaim licenses, where applications are being used heavily, and more. Recently our team has spent some time reviewing and confirming a range of details about application usage metering using the FlexNet inventory agent. I thought I'd share some of the learnings and insights here.

With that in mind, this post covers the following questions:

1. What processes can the FlexNet inventory agent meter usage for?
2. What are key recommendations for deploying and configuring FlexNet Manager Suite to get best usage metering results?
3. What configuration settings are available to enable usage metering?
4. How can the values of configuration settings be changed?
5. What are "manual mapper" configuration settings?
6. Where can I see usage information in the FlexNet Manager Suite UI?
7. When will a recognized application installation be marked as "used" based on metering data?
8. Why are "Last used date" values on recognized installations always the start of the week?
9. Why are "Software name" & "Version" details on the "Raw Software Usage" page empty?
10. Why is the "Total active time" in raw software usage appearing as 0?
11. What diagnostic information is available to understand usage metering behavior?
12. What limitations are there related to usage metering?
13. Where can I find more information about usage metering?

If you have further questions that are not answered here, post a comment on this post or in the FlexNet Manager forum!

What processes can the FlexNet inventory agent meter usage for?

On Windows, usage can be metered for processes running executables that meet one or more the following conditions:

On Unix-like operating systems, usage can be metered for any process that is running an executable included in the list of files installed by the native packaging technology for the operating system (RPM for Linux, llp for AIX, etc.)

What are key recommendations for deploying and configuring FlexNet Manager Suite to get best usage metering results?

General recommendations are:

1. Use a recent FlexNet inventory agent version to benefit from the most recent improvements in usage metering capabilities, as changes are made from time to time. In particular, agent versions prior to 14.2 (from release 2019 R2.2) have a range of restrictions on what applications are metered by default that newer releases do not have.

2. For FlexNet Manager Suite On-premises deployments, use release 2020 R1 or later on your servers. This release contains an improvement to be able to import additional usage data based on file evidence compared to earlier releases (see item IOJ-2114072 under "What limitations are there related to usage metering?" below).

3. Set the following application usage component configuration settings (as described under "How can the value of configuration settings be changed?" below):
   • Disabled=FALSE
   • UseAddRemove=TRUE

What configuration settings are available to enable usage metering?

The following configuration settings can be set to control which processes are metered by the application usage component:

A typical set of configuration setting values used for tracking metering is as follows:

How can the values of configuration settings be changed?

For the FlexNet inventory agent running on Windows operating systems, configuration settings appear under the HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft\Usage Agent\CurrentVersion registry key. For example:

For the FlexNet inventory agent running on UNIX-like operating systems, configuration settings are stored in the file /var/opt/managesoft/etc/config.ini which can be modified by running the mgsconfig command as described on the following page: Agent third-party deployment: Updating config.ini on a UNIX Device.

You may have tools available in your organization that can be used to set registry entries on Windows computers, or run the mgsconfig command to configure settings on UNIX-like operating systems. If so, using those tools to set these values may be an effective approach for you.

Alternatively, FlexNet Manager Suite provides a few options for setting these registry entries:

1. Usage gathering can be enabled or disabled via policy settings managed in the FlexNet Manager Suite UI by creating a target under Discovery & Inventory > Discovery and Inventory Rules. Configure the target to cover the devices you want the setting to apply on, and select one of the following Application usage options according to your need:
   1. Allow application usage tracking on these targets: Sets Disabled to "FALSE" (so that usage is metered). With FlexNet Manager Suite 2020 R2 or later on your application server, this also sets UseAddRemove to "TRUE" on Windows computers. (The UseAddRemove setting cannot be set through this mechanism using a FlexNet Manager Suite release prior to 2020 R2.)
   2. Do not allow application usage tracking on these targets: Sets Disabled to "TRUE" (so that usage is not metered).

      Tip: A target that covers all devices can be configured by setting up the target to cover the IP address ranges ranges 0.0.0.0/1 and 128.0.0.0/1. For example:
      

2. On Windows, registry values can be set at the time the FlexNet inventory agent is installed by specifying values in the mgssetup.ini file used with the agent installer. Here is an example of settings specified in the mgssetup.ini file in this way:
   

   [Usage Agent]
   desc0 = Disabled
   val0 = False
   
   desc1 = UseAddRemove
   val1 = True
   

3. Configuration setting values can be managed centrally in the FlexNet Manager Suite database and deployed to computers through FlexNet inventory agent policy. If you are using FlexNet Manager Suite Cloud, you will need to log a case with Flexera Support to request the configuration be applied to your tenant (refer to this description in your case). If you are using FlexNet Manager Suite On-premises, this can be achieved by running SQL statements such as the following against your compliance database:
   

   -- The value of @TargetName should be set to one 'Target__windows',
   -- 'Target__osx' or 'Target__unix' to set policy settings for computers
   -- running the identified type of operating system.
   --
   -- To target multiple types of operating systems, change the value and
   -- re-run this script multiple times.
   
   DECLARE @TargetName NVARCHAR(100)
   SET @TargetName = 'Target__windows' -- or 'Target__osx' or 'Target__unix'
   
   EXEC dbo.BeaconTargetPutByNameInternal
       @Name = @TargetName,
       @Internal = 1,
       @Description = NULL,
       @Visible = 0
   
   -- Get the ID of the target to have settings applied
   DECLARE @btid INT
   
   SELECT @btid = BeaconTargetID
   FROM dbo.BeaconTarget
   WHERE Name = @TargetName
   
   -- Add Disabled=false setting to agent policy for computers
   -- covered by the above target 
   EXEC dbo.BeaconTargetPropertyValuePutByKeyNameBeaconTargetID
       @KeyName = 'CUsageAgentDisabled',
       @BeaconTargetID = @btid,
       @Value = 'false'
   
   -- Add UseAddRemove=true setting to agent policy for computers
   -- covered by the above target 
   EXEC dbo.BeaconTargetPropertyValuePutByKeyNameBeaconTargetID
       @KeyName = 'CUsageAgentUseAddRemove',
       @BeaconTargetID = @btid,
       @Value = 'true'
   
   -- Force beacons to update to get latest settings containing the above changes
   EXEC dbo.BeaconPolicyUpdateRevision

   The value of the @KeyName parameter used when calling the BeaconTargetPropertyValuePutByKeyNameBeaconTargetID stored procedure should be the name of the setting to be configured appended to "CUsageAgent" (for example, "CUsageAgentUseAddRemove", "CUsageUserProcessesOnly", etc).

What are "manual mapper" configuration settings?

"Manual mapper" configuration settings can be set for situations where use of an executable you are interested in is not otherwise being metered. This technique primarily applies to Windows computers.

To use manual mapper configuration settings, you must first arrange to set the UseManualMapper configuration setting to "TRUE" on each computer running the FlexNet inventory agent. (See the question "How can the values of configuration settings be changed?" for suggestions on how to do this.)

Executable files to meter usage for can then be configured by creating registry entries similar to the following (this example is to meter usage of javaw.exe processes):

For each executable to be metered, create a registry key with a name of your choice under HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft\Usage Agent\CurrentVersion\Manual Mapper. Then configure the following REG_SZ registry entries in the key you have created:

• ExecutablePath: Specify the path and filename of the executable to be metered. This is specified either as an exact value or a regular expression, depending on the value of the Regex entry.
• Regex: Set to "TRUE" if the ExecutablePath value is a regular expression, or "FALSE" if ExecutablePath is an exact value.
• Application: Specify an application name for the executable. This will be used as installer evidence when usage data is imported into FlexNet Manager Suite.
• Version: Specify a version number for the executable. This will also be used as installer evidence.

Registry settings are discussed here must be configured using tools and processes available within your organization to deploy the relevant setting values to your client computers. Agent policy or the FlexNet Manager Suite UI cannot be used to configure these settings.

Where can I see usage information in the FlexNet Manager Suite UI?

Low level details of metering data gathered by the FlexNet inventory agent can be found on the Discovery & Inventory > Raw Software Usage page. For example:

Recognized installations have "Used" and "Last used date" fields which are populated according to imported metering data. These fields are available in many parts of the UI where details of an installation are shown. For example, when viewing installation details on the Devices tab of an installation record:

When will a recognized application installation be marked as "used" based on metering data?

A recognized installation of an application on an inventory device in FlexNet Manager Suite is flagged as "used" when:

1. Usage metering data has been uploaded from the inventory device that meets minimum thresholds specified on the application; AND
2. Appropriate installer or file evidence is linked to the application to recognize application name/version/publisher (aka "installer evidence") or file details that match the usage metering data.

Minimum thresholds for identifying an installation of an application as used are shown on the Usage tab when viewing the application record in the FlexNet Manager Suite UI (the settings shown in this screenshot are the defaults for all applications unless changed):

Why are "Last used date" values on recognized installations always the start of the week?

Metered usage data from the FlexNet inventory agent is aggregated by week (starting on Mondays) to optimize storage and data processing resource consumption. Hence last used dates of usage should be interpreted to referring to the week when usage occurred, not a specific day.

Why are "Software name" & "Version" details on the "Raw Software Usage" page empty?

This indicates that the FlexNet inventory agent did meter some usage of the identified executable, but it was unable to definitively associate the executable with a specific installed software package. An example of why this may be the case is because the executable exists under a directory that is identified as the installation directory for multiple packages (which is not uncommon with some Microsoft Office and Adobe products).

In this situation, a file evidence recognition rule (rather than an installer evidence recognition rule) will be required on the appropriate application in the Application Recognition Library in order to identify installations of the software as used.

Why is the "Total active time" in raw software usage appearing as 0?

For UNIX-like platforms, is not possible or meaningful to effectively identify when an application is "active". For Windows platforms, security improvements after Windows XP removed the capability to identify when a window is active. Therefore the "Total active type" column on the "Raw Software Usage" page only displays a non-zero value when you are tracking usage for applications running on Windows XP or earlier versions of the operating system.

What diagnostic information is available to understand usage metering behavior?

Logging from the FlexNet inventory agent's application usage component can be found in the following files:

1. On Windows operating systems: %TEMP%\ManageSoft\usageagent.log (where "%TEMP%" is the system temporary directory, which is commonly C:\Windows\Temp)
2. On UNIX-like operating systems: /var/opt/managesoft/log/usageagent.log

These logs contain details of executables where usage will be metered, processes where usage has been metered. Here is an example of logging as it may appear:

[1/15/2020 1:01:26 PM (G, 0)] {8724} Adding product 'Self-service Plug-in' (priority 10) to product cache
[1/15/2020 1:01:26 PM (G, 0)] {8724} Adding file 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Online Plugin\SelfServicePlugin\SelfServicePlugin.exe' to product 'Self-service Plug-in' 
[...]
[1/17/2020 2:06:55 PM (G, 0)] {8724} Session logging: KNOWN PRODUCT Session start (Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Online Plugin\SelfServicePlugin\SelfService.exe, Product: Self-service Plug-in, Product version: 4.9.6000.5) Session will be added to cache on completion
[...]
[1/17/2020 2:08:56 PM (G, 0)] {8724} Session logging: KNOWN PRODUCT Session end (Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Online Plugin\SelfServicePlugin\SelfService.exe, Product: Self-service Plug-in, Product version: 4.9.6000.5, Run time: 120.341248400 seconds) Session was added to cache.

What limitations are there related to usage metering?

Here are some known limitations and issues related to usage metering to be aware of:

Where can I find more information about usage metering?

The following resources may be useful for more information:

• FlexNet Manager Suite product documentation: Gathering FlexNet inventory
• FlexNet Manager Suite online help topics:
  • Discovery and Inventory > Discovery > Raw Software Usage
  • Discovery and Inventory > Discovery > Discovery and Inventory Rules > Targets > Creating a Target
  • Applications > Application Properties > Usage Tab
• Helpful forum threads discussing topics related to usage:
  • Application usage metering with FlexNet agent on Windows for non-MSI applications
  • Application Usage - only reporting 30% usage on commerical applications