Overview

You can use software information collected from clients to determine which clients have specific software installed.

To manage information about items of software that are not managed by default by JP1/Software Distribution, such as user-specific programs, you must set those software items as management targets in the software inventory dictionary that is created when software information is collected.

Once a software item has been set as a management target, you can count the clients that have that software item installed by totaling the values in the collected software information.

The following figure shows the general procedure for checking which clients have specific software installed.

Figure 4-4 General procedure for checking which clients have specific software installed

Operating procedure

1. Create a software inventory dictionary.
   To create a software inventory dictionary, collect software information from a small number of clients (1 to several) on which the software to be managed has been installed.
   
   • For details on how to collect software information, see 3.2.1 Procedure for collecting software information in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 1.
   On the Options page that is displayed when a Get software information from client job is created, specify Search for a file in Software to be searched, and then execute the job. Execute the job for which Search for a file is specified on only a small number of clients (1 to several) in order to minimize the workload on the database.
   A software inventory dictionary is created on the basis of the collected software information.
   
2. Select the software to be managed in the software inventory dictionary.
   
   • For details on specifying the software to be managed, see 3.2.5(1) Setting the software inventory information to be displayed in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 1.
3. Collect software information from clients.
   
   • For details on how to collect software information, see 3.2.1 Procedure for collecting software information in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 1.
4. Count the software information and check the clients on which the software set as management targets is installed.
   
   • For details on how to start Inventory Viewer, see 4.1.1 Starting Inventory Viewer in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 1.
   • For details on how to count items of inventory information, see 4.2.1 Counting procedure in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 1.

Notes

• For notes about collecting software information, see 3.2.3 Notes on collecting software information in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 1.