You can view basic usage data for a product, such as number of active installations and hours used, through various ZENworks Control Center pages (see Section 23.0, Monitoring Usage).
NOTE:Occasionally, we have noticed a few irregularities in the software usage report. When two events were merged, the start time of the first event and the end time of the second event was considered as one event, which resulted in an incorrect total run time and the number of counts the application was run was reduced to 1. However, the merged events contained the correct active time.
For example, when you launch an application at 1 PM and close it at 1:10 PM, we recorded it as 1 start up with 10 minutes of runtime and 10 minutes of active time. When the same application is launched again at 2.30 PM and closed at 2:45 PM, we recorded this as another start up with 15 minutes of runtime and 15 minutes of active time. These two usage events are merged to produce 1 start up with 105 minutes of runtime (start at 1 PM and end at 2.45 PM) and 25 minutes of active time.
Now, the merging of software usage data for the same product path is disabled by default. This default behavior is configurable. You can enable it by setting the MergeProductsPath registry key value to 1
in the following paths:
32-bit Agent: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Novell\ZCM\Usage\MergeProductsPath
64-bit Agent: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Novell\ZCM\Usage\MergeProductsPath
If the MergeProductsPath registry key does not exist, perform the following steps:
If the subkey does not exist, you should create a subkey. Right-click ZCM, select New > Key, and enter the name Usage
.
Now create a DWORD. Select the newly created Usage
subkey, right-click ZCM, select New > Key, and enter the name MergeProductsPath
.
For detailed information, however, you must generate usage reports. Usage reports let you analyze usage data from multiple perspectives, such as the following:
Usage by product type (local application, network server application, and Web application).
Usage by product, user, or device.
Usage over a specific time period.
For information about generating reports, see Section 25.0, Generating Usage Reports.