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The information on this page refers to License Statistics v6.10 13 and newer, which introduced remote session closing for features. License Harvesting Application Monitoring. Application Monitoring may be used only with the new licensing model (2019). 

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Adding applications for

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Application Monitoring

After you have connected License Statistics Agent to the License Statistics server and added one or more Agent groups, you can configure applications to use License Harvestingbe monitored, as described below.

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Complete the application configuration settings, as described in the table below.

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After the application is configured, click Save at the bottom of the page. You return to the Administration: License Harvesting page.

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Application configuration settings

The settings for configuring an application for License Harvesting include the following.

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When toggled on, the maximum amount of time (in seconds) that the application is allowed to be idle (the user is not actively using the application), after which the License Harvesting procedure will begin for that application.

You may either type the number of seconds, or use the increase/decrease arrows to adjust the number of seconds. 

This setting may be used alone or together with the Minimum CPU Activity setting.

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When toggled on, the minimum percentage of CPU usage allowed for the application, after which the License Harvesting procedure will begin for that application.

Use the slider to increase/decrease the percentage.

This setting may be used alone or together with the Inactive User Duration setting.

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Time range (24-hour clock) that the application is available for use. For example, if you want to limit the hours of usage from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., you would enter From: 07:00 To: 19:00.

You may either type the time or select it from the drop-down list.

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When toggled on, when License Harvesting detects that the application is in an idle state, a confirmation message will be sent to the end-user asking them to confirm closing the application.

When this option is not toggled on, the application will be closed immediately with no alert to the end-user.

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This option may be toggled on only when Confirmation Required has been toggled on.

When this option is toggled on, it sets the time (in seconds) to display the confirmation message to the user, after which License Harvesting will automatically close the application.

When this option is not toggled on, the user confirmation alert will remain on the end-user's machine until the end-user dismisses the alert.

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Toggle to either Graceful or Forced method of releasing the application license due to idle state.

The Graceful method asks the application to close, but allows the application to wait and remain open if there is user action required to resolve unsaved state questions or confirmations.

The Force method immediately closes the application and ignores any unsaved state questions or confirmations.

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Applies only when using Graceful release method.

When toggled on, the time (in seconds) to wait for unsaved state questions or confirmations to be resolved, after which the application will be forced to close.

When not toggled on, the application will remain open indefinitely if there are unsaved state questions or confirmations needed.

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Allows remote session closing for features of applications configured for License Harvesting. When a feature has been enabled for harvesting, after License Harvesting closes an application on the end-user host, License Statistics will automatically force the session to release on the corresponding license server and return the license to the available pool. 

This setting is applicable only for LM-X and FlexNet license manager types.

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One or more Agents groups that will be used to enable License Harvesting for the configured application. The group must already exist.

Configuration scenarios

The following table illustrates combinations of configuration settings that serve end-user experiences ranging from the least to most aggressive handling of license harvesting.

  • The most gentle end-user experience (intensity level 1) uses the Graceful release method combined with confirmations that have indefinite wait times.
  • The most abrupt end-user experience (intensity level 8) employs the Force release method, which does not allow for any user confirmation/timeout periods.

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Intensity

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User Confirmation

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User Confirmation Timeout

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Graceful Release Method

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Graceful Timeout 

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Force Release Method

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1

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(tick)

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(error)

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(tick)

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(error)

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2

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(tick)

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(tick)

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(tick)

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(error)

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-

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3

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(tick)

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(tick)

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(tick)

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(tick)

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-

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4

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(error)

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-

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(tick)

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(error)

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-

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5

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(error)

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-

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(tick)

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(tick)

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-

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(tick)

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(error)

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-

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-

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(tick)

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7

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(tick)

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(tick)

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-

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-

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(tick)

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8

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(error)

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-

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-

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-

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(tick)

You can add the application using the License Server page or by using the Application Monitoring page. The following sections describe each method.

Add License Server with Application to be monitored

  1. Go to Administration -> License Servers -> General tab -> Add button.

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  2. The license server is enabled by default. You can toggle this option on and off as needed.
  3. From the License Manager Type drop-down list, choose "Application."
  4. Click Next to proceed to the End User Monitoring tab. 
  5. Enable End User Monitoring is checked by default. You can toggle this option on and off as needed.
  6. From the Application drop-down list: 
    1. Select an existing application to monitor:

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      Or:
    2. Type the name of a new application to monitor:

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  7. Complete the basic configuration for the application, including the name that you want to use for the application in reports; the executable name, an optional description, and which Agent groups will be monitoring the application. 
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  8. Click Save to close the configuration dialog, and then click Save and Close to add the new License Server and return to the License Servers page.
  9. You will now see under the General tab that the new application has been added for monitoring. In our illustration, we've configured Application Monitoring to gather usage details about the "notepad app"application being monitored by Agents that belong to the groups "Test Group" and "Test Group 2."

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Add application directly

You can add an application to be monitored directly from the Administration options.

  1. Select Application Monitoring under the Administration section in the left pane.
  2. Click Add. The Add Application form opens.

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  3. Click Next to proceed to the Monitoring tab.
  4. Click Next to add the new License Server that will be used by the application. The License Manager Type is already set to "Application."

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  5. Click Next to proceed to the License Harvesting tab, and optionally, set up License Harvesting for the application.
  6. Click Save to save the configuration and return to the Applications page. You will see that the new application has been created and is included in the Applications grid.

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(tick) = enabled    (error) = disabled    - = not applicable

Considerations for using Graceful timeout

The Graceful release method is similar to closing the application using its Close button. For most applications, the Graceful release method results in an indefinite wait for the user to respond to a prompt to close the application. However, some applications may handle the request from License Harvester differently than the Close button, any may perform custom operations or fail to save the current state. Since License Harvester is set up for all applications instead of individual applications (and therefore License Statistics is not able to monitor how individual applications behave), be sure to test results for each application being monitored and apply the correct intensity level for your needs. 

If an application does not save the state automatically, consider using intensity level 1, which most closely simulates an infinite popup prompt from the application to save the state, including:

  • Prompting the user to close the application, but won't close the application without the user's confirmation
  • Keeping the confirmation prompt open with no timeout
  • Enabling the user to postpone closing the application or to save the state manually and then close the application 

Enabling remote closing for features

You can enable remote session closing for individual features of applications being monitored by License Harvesting.

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