The Usage Monitor retrieves license usage data from the license servers and writes it to a MySQL database.
The Usage Monitor runs an embedded http server, which handles requests for HTML pages that contain usage statistics tables and graphs, and makes them accessible from a web browser. Web pages are automatically generated, updated and refreshed, so no user interaction is required to generate and maintain the latest statistics. See Viewing and managing your usage statistics using the web-based UI for details on using the web application.
In addition to usage statistics, the Usage Monitor gathers data for denied user requests, as described in Denied Requests Log.
The statistics are time-sensitive; that is, they are updated based on your system clock time. It is recommended that both the license server and the Usage Monitor server use NTP (Network Time Protocol), so the time is updated regularly and accurately across the machines. Otherwise, the time between the license server and the Usage Monitor server may be out of sync, which affects statistics.
Before using the Usage Monitor, you must configure it for your site, including specifying the http server port, as described in Running the License Statistics Usage Monitor. The Usage Monitor runs as a service on Windows or as a daemon on Unix. Because the Usage Monitor runs as a background process, it will run even when no user is logged into the Usage Monitor server machine.
Important: The Usage Monitor does not have to be installed on the license server machine to generate consistent usage data, however, it should be installed on a machine that has a stable network connection to the license server. Similarly, if statistics are gathered from a network with heavy loads, you should ensure you do not have frequent network problems. While network problems are not critical to gathering statistics, they may make the usage statistics output less precise.