License Statistics retrieves license usage data from the license servers and writes the data to a MySQL database.
License Statistics lets you track and report software license usage in real time, or through log importation:
- Realtime usage reporting refers to gathering realtime data and usage statistics from the license server at specified intervals (see Query Interval in Adding and editing license servers) and storing this information in a MySQL database. Furthermore, this type of monitoring allows you to gather usage information available since the time of its configuration.
- Imported usage reporting is used for existing data gathered from the log files of a variety of Supported license servers.
License Statistics 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, License Statistics 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 License Statistics 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 License Statistics server may be out of sync, which affects statistics.
Before using License Statistics, you must configure it for your site, including specifying the http server port, as described in Running License Statistics. License Statistics runs as a service on Windows or as a daemon on Linux. Because License Statistics runs as a background process, it will run even when no user is logged into the License Statistics server machine.
Important: License Statistics 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.