Vista User's Guide 3.7 - IBMpublib.boulder.ibm.com/tividd/td/ITCCMan/SC32-1526-01/en...Vendor Usage Over Time .....133 Product Usage Over Time .....135 Usage by Location.....138

User’s Guide Version 3 Release 7 Modification 2

Notice Isogon Galaxy, SoftAudit, Vista, and Spotlight are trademarks or registered trademarks of Isogon Corporation. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Copyright © 2000–2005 Isogon Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Licensed materials. The SoftAudit Knowledge Base is the proprietary information of Isogon Corporation and is provided for the exclusive use by organizations authorized by Isogon Corporation, and solely for use in conjunction with the SoftAudit product. It has been encoded, and contains information that will allow the detection of misappropriation. The SoftAudit family of products contains patented technology protected by U.S. Patents 5,499,340 and 5,590,056.

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About this Manual This manual describes how to use Vista. For information on installing Vista, see the Vista Administrator’s Guide. That guide also provides information on importing data, database maintenance, and user security. This manual is organized as follows: Introduction describes the overall architecture and business benefits of Vista. Quick Start walks you through some of Vista's main features. Key Terminology defines some key terms that are used throughout this manual. The Vista Console introduces you to Vista's main screen elements, such as the toolbar and menu bar. It also describes how to log on and how to get help. Viewing Data shows you how to view and edit detailed information on contractual data using Vista's tree view, list view, and Property Viewer. Entering a New Agreement illustrates how to enter data in Vista by walking you through the process of creating, from scratch, a new agreement (specifically, a hardware lease). Custom Views explains how to create customized tree views and list views, and how to edit Vista's predefined tree views and list views. Reporting describes how to create custom and packaged reports on your contractual data. Charting describes how to create custom charts on your software inventory and usage data. Alerts and Notifications describes how you can create and manage reminders of key events related to your company or enterprise's agreements. Associating Inventory and Usage with Contractual Information shows you what you can do when you have inventory, usage, and contractual information in Vista. Appendix A: Template Properties lists all of Vista's predefined templates and template properties. Appendix B: Manually Importing Inventory Data describes how to manually import SoftAudit Distiller files into the Vista Database. Appendix C: Setting the Display Currency describes how to set the currency display. This edition of the Vista User's Guide documents Isogon Vista 3.7.2. Trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, The Open Group, and other vendors acknowledged.

Contacting Isogon (An IBM Company) Isogon welcomes any comments, questions, and suggestions you have about Isogon products and manuals. You can contact Isogon at:

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mailto:[email protected]



i

Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................................................1

How SoftAudit Works with Vista............................................................................................1 Vista: A Summary....................................................................................................................2

Short Term/Long Term View ..........................................................................................3 Quick Start: Viewing and Editing Terms and Conditions ..................................................5 Key Terminology ........................................................................................................................11

What is an Entity? .................................................................................................................11 What are Properties? ............................................................................................................17 What is a Template? .............................................................................................................18

The Vista Console ......................................................................................................................19 Logging On .............................................................................................................................19

Changing Your Password .............................................................................................20 The Menu Bar ........................................................................................................................21 The Toolbar ............................................................................................................................23 The Vista Bar .........................................................................................................................24

Vista Bar Popup Menu...................................................................................................25 Vista Bar Shortcut Groups ............................................................................................26

Getting Help ...........................................................................................................................27 Viewing Data................................................................................................................................29

Using Views............................................................................................................................30 Toolbar Options ..............................................................................................................31 Renaming an Existing Enterprise ................................................................................34 View Selector ..................................................................................................................35 Tree View ........................................................................................................................36 List View ..........................................................................................................................37 Property Viewer ..............................................................................................................44 Tabs .................................................................................................................................44 Status Bar........................................................................................................................48

Filtering ...................................................................................................................................52 Filter Dialog Tool Buttons..............................................................................................53 Filter Conditions by Group ............................................................................................54

Setting a Global Filter ...........................................................................................................55 Setting and Displaying a Range of Usage Dates .............................................................56 Predefined Views ..................................................................................................................57

Management by Exception ...........................................................................................57 Mainframe Inventory ......................................................................................................58 UNIX Inventory ...............................................................................................................60 Cross-Platform Inventory ..............................................................................................61 Agreements and Financials ..........................................................................................62 Miscellaneous .................................................................................................................64

Custom Views .............................................................................................................................67 Creating a Variation of a Predefined View.........................................................................68 Creating a New View ............................................................................................................73 Deleting a View......................................................................................................................74

Entering a New Agreement ......................................................................................................75 Entering Contractual Data....................................................................................................76 Specifying Entity Links..........................................................................................................79 Entering Terms and Conditions...........................................................................................83

Vista User’s Guide

ii

Entering Cost Information ....................................................................................................86 Direct Currency Input.....................................................................................................86

Miscellaneous Properties .....................................................................................................87 Saving and Viewing the Agreement ...................................................................................91 How an Agreement Relates to Other Entities ...................................................................92

Agreements, Asset Groups, and Assets.....................................................................92 Agreements, Asset Groups, and Invoices ..................................................................94 Agreements, Asset Groups, and Purchase Orders...................................................95 Agreements and Companies ........................................................................................96

Reporting......................................................................................................................................97 Creating Packaged Crystal Reports ...................................................................................97 Packaged Crystal Reports ...................................................................................................99

Consolidated Inventory – All Platforms .......................................................................99 Mainframe Inventory and Usage................................................................................100 UNIX and Windows Inventory ....................................................................................103 UNIX and Windows Usage Reports ..........................................................................105 Agreements and Financials ........................................................................................106 Compliance ...................................................................................................................109

Creating Standard Vista Reports ......................................................................................112 Printing and Previewing the Report ..................................................................................113 Customizing Reports...........................................................................................................113

Choosing Between Summary and Detail Reports ...................................................113 Specifying the Entities and Properties to Include ...........................................................115 Saving a Custom Report ....................................................................................................117 Deleting Reports..................................................................................................................118

Filtering ..........................................................................................................................118 Sorting............................................................................................................................119 Including a Summary Line ..........................................................................................120 Setting the Aggregation Method ................................................................................120 Creating and Editing a Description of the Report ....................................................121 Setting the Indent Width and Width Unit...................................................................122 Truncating and Wrapping Columns ...........................................................................123 Specifying Headers and Footers................................................................................123

Creating Reports in CSV Format ......................................................................................125 Charting ......................................................................................................................................127

Enterprise Usage Over Time .............................................................................................128 Location Usage Over Time ................................................................................................129 CPU Usage Over Time.......................................................................................................131 Vendor Usage Over Time ..................................................................................................133 Product Usage Over Time .................................................................................................135 Usage by Location...............................................................................................................138 Usage by CPU .....................................................................................................................140 Usage by Product................................................................................................................142 Usage by Vendor.................................................................................................................144

Alerts and Notifications ..........................................................................................................147 Defining Alerts......................................................................................................................147

Defining Alerts from the Property Viewer .................................................................147 Defining Alerts from the Tree View............................................................................149

Managing Alerts...................................................................................................................150 Activating and Deactivating Alerts .............................................................................150 Editing Alerts .................................................................................................................151 Activate/Deactivate Alerts ...........................................................................................153 Deleting Alerts ..............................................................................................................153


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Managing Notifications .......................................................................................................153 Reading New Notifications..........................................................................................153 Deferring Notifications .................................................................................................154 Deleting Notifications ...................................................................................................154

Associating Inventory and Usage with Contractual Information.................................155 Linking Contractual Data with Inventory and Usage Data.............................................155 Viewing Links between Contractual Data and Inventory and Usage Data .................157 Viewing Mainframe Usage Data........................................................................................160

Appendix A: Template Properties ........................................................................................169 Agreement Templates .................................................................................................169 Asset Templates...........................................................................................................185 Asset Group Templates...............................................................................................187 Cluster Template ..........................................................................................................191 Event Templates ..........................................................................................................191 Company Template......................................................................................................192 Configuration Template ...............................................................................................193 Contact Template .........................................................................................................193 Employee Template .....................................................................................................194 Enterprise Template.....................................................................................................194 Cataloged Hardware Product Template ...................................................................195 Installed Hardware Product Template.......................................................................196 Installed Software Product Template ........................................................................199 Invoice Templates ........................................................................................................201 Location Templates......................................................................................................202 Installed Product Location Template .........................................................................204 Organization Template ................................................................................................205 Partition Templates ......................................................................................................206 Purchase Order Template...........................................................................................208 Cataloged Software Product Templates ...................................................................208 Installed User Group Template ..................................................................................211

Appendix B: Manually Importing Inventory Data .............................................................213 Appendix C: Setting the Display Currency........................................................................217 Index ............................................................................................................................................219

1

Introduction Isogon Vista is the integrated asset management solution that uses best-of-breed technology to integrate software inventory and usage data with contractual and financial information, such as invoices and purchase orders. Vista provides: • Enterprise-wide display and reporting of your software inventory and usage. It provides

an integrated view of installed software from SoftAudit data originating from different systems. In addition to z/OS and UNIX data from SoftAudit, Windows data can also be imported and viewed.

• The power and flexibility you need to manage contracts, ensure software license compliance, prepare and maintain accurate budgets, track invoice payments, control password allocation and deliver timely reminders for important dates.

By viewing your software inventory and usage alongside your contractual data, you can quickly identify and eliminate unfavorable scenarios, such as high-cost contracts with little or no product usage and product usage without a valid contract. You’ll see the relationships between your software inventory and usage and the contracts and financial obligations that govern them, and be able to achieve true cost control over the largest component of your IT expenditures.

How SoftAudit Works with Vista SoftAudit is an auto-discovery tool for z/OS and UNIX that gives you a centralized, accurate, audited inventory of the software products on your systems, as well as an accurate picture of their usage patterns. SoftAudit is designed to locate, inventory, and monitor the licensed products installed on your system. SoftAudit makes use of its comprehensive Knowledge Base that relates load modules to a product, as well as sophisticated heuristics to resolve ambiguous cases.


2 Introduction

Vista works with SoftAudit for z/OS and SoftAudit for UNIX to provide a consolidated view of your hardware and software assets. Vista users on your network can access the server and view this information via a Windows interface. For more information on the Knowledge Base and other SoftAudit components, see the SoftAudit documentation appropriate to your platform.

Vista: A Summary Smart contract management. Vista gives you a clear view of all the contractual and financial details of your software, hardware, and maintenance agreements–from the big picture to the most granular detail. Discover the hidden savings in your software contracts. Vista helps you identify vendor invoice errors, unnecessary maintenance and service contracts, and other needless money drains that could be costing you millions of dollars. Empower your finance, technical, and purchasing departments to contain IT costs. Easily supply them with accurate, timely information on crucial contractual, inventory, licensing, and legal details for your IT assets. You’ll have quick access to financial data including lease, maintenance and depreciation schedules, hardware and software budgets, upgrade fees, and recurring invoice payments. Be better equipped for contract negotiations. Vista shows you the information you need to cancel or reduce unnecessary license fees and negotiate better contracts. Strengthen your bargaining position and gain more leverage by eliminating compliance violations and highlighting vendor errors. Stay proactive. Vista automatically reminds you of important dates, such as vendor fiscal year end, and cancellation, renewal, and delivery dates. Avoid unnecessary penalties or higher rates by keeping track of important dates. Plan, budget and forecast. Accurately forecast expected payments, manage data center change such as CPU consolidation and upgrades, plan for organizational change such as mergers and acquisitions, and optimize licenses. Easily see the relationships between financial and contractual aspects of your IT assets. Quickly access the addendums that are attached to each contract as well as the purchase orders and invoices that are connected to an agreement. You can even scan in contracts and then use Vista for online viewing. Vista provides unlimited user-defined fields. You can define and create the values you need to store–and view, edit, validate, and format the data that’s important to you according to your current and future business requirements. Organize your data in a way that reflects your business–by enterprise, company, location, configuration, user, or type of contract. You can edit fields as your business changes. Get up to speed quickly. Vista’s built-in views and templates get you started immediately and help you identify your needs as you use it. As you’re ready, you can customize Vista without having to rely on outside services. Centralizes your control. Create your own views and reports, without having to wait to get on someone else’s priority list. Easy data entry. Easily import data from in-house and third party repositories, including Excel spreadsheets. Vista also makes use of SoftAudit’s software inventory and usage information to obtain benefits such as: • Avoidance of unnecessary license, maintenance and upgrade fees • License compliance • License optimization • Reconciliation of invoices to inventory


Introduction 3

• Elimination of redundant products • Version control and compliance monitoring • In-house application management • System migration • Data center consolidation • Configuration management • Acquisition/Divestiture • Outsourcing • Chargeback • EDP and financial audits

Short Term/Long Term View Some of the benefits your organization can expect from using Vista can be obtained quickly—as soon as your product inventory is refined and understood in the light of actual usage. You may be able to take immediate advantage of the information provided to deal with an upcoming business situation, such as a license renegotiation. Obtaining maximum benefit from Vista, however, requires a long-term view and a long-term strategy. Software asset management is not a one-time event; it’s an ongoing practice that yields continuing benefits. For example, your company may have two offices, one in Denver and one in Albany, each serviced by its own individual data center. Each data center maintains its own software and hardware, negotiating its own contracts based on purchases and usage at its own site. By gathering the usage and purchase information and viewing it through Vista, you can plan and negotiate software contracts based on company-wide purchases and usage, rather than on location-specific purchases and usage.

5

Quick Start: Viewing and Editing Terms and Conditions

Using Vista you will often want to view terms and conditions of agreements you have with vendors. You’ll also want to know the assets associated with those agreements. In Vista, an asset is defined as an instance of hardware or software with a valid contract or agreement. Installed hardware or software without a valid agreement is not considered an asset in Vista. Start Vista by double-clicking the Isogon Vista shortcut icon on your Windows desktop. If no shortcut icon was placed on your desktop during installation, click your Windows Start button, select Programs, select the folder Isogon Vista, and click the Isogon Vista shortcut. Vista's logon dialog appears:

Enter your user name and default password supplied by your Vista administrator. Also, enter your server and database name. Your Vista administrator should provide this to you. After entering your user name and password, click OK to start Vista. The following screen appears:

Note: If the Notification Viewer appears, select Close. For more information about the Notification Viewer, see Managing Notifications on page 153. Start in Vista’s Agreements with Vendors view. This view lists all your agreements, sorted by company, and all the terms and conditions for those agreements.


6 Quick Start: Viewing and Editing Terms and Conditions

From Vista’s main screen, click the View Selector, click the Agreements and Financials category, and select Agreements with Vendors.

You see the view:

The screens in this manual display sample data for a fictitious company called Acme World Enterprises. Note: Your screens may appear slightly different from those in this manual depending on your product version.


Quick Start: Viewing and Editing Terms and Conditions 7

In the tree portion of the Agreements with Vendors view, expand Acme World Enterprises, expand BMC, and select BMC Master SLA 713-01. The list now shows all of the assets associated with the agreement BMC SLA 713-01:

The Property Viewer on the right side of the screen shows the terms and conditions for the agreement selected in the list, such as cancellation notice, late payment penalty, and maintenance cap.

Suppose you want to compare these terms and conditions with the terms and conditions of another agreement. Click Compare on the toolbar.



The Property Viewer, which lists all the terms and conditions for BMC SLA 713-01, now appears in front of the main Vista screen. It’s a freestanding window that you can move around and resize with your mouse pointer.

Using your mouse, move the Compare window to the side and select another agreement from the list: CA ELA 2784. The “docked” Property Viewer now shows the details for CA ELA 2784.


Quick Start: Viewing and Editing Terms and Conditions 9

You now have a side-by-side view of the agreements’ terms and conditions. You can compare key stipulations in each agreement, and evaluate notable differences between the two.

Now, suppose some terms and conditions for the BMC Master SLA 713-01 agreement have changed recently. The warranty period has been extended to 24 months, the maintenance cap has been reduced to 6%, and the late payment penalty has been raised to 10%. You need to update these records in Vista. Start by closing the Compare window. Select BMC Master SLA 713-01 and click in the Warranty cell of the Property Viewer.

Enter the new warranty period (24) in the cell. The word “months” is added automatically when you press ENTER or click in a different cell.

Now, click in the Maintenance cap cell. Enter the new maintenance cap percentage (6) in the cell. The percent symbol (%) is added automatically when you press ENTER or click in a different cell.



Now, click in the Late payment penalty cell. Enter the new late payment penalty percentage (10) in the cell. The percent symbol (%) is added automatically when you press ENTER or click in a different cell.

Now that you’re done making changes to the agreement, click the Save button on the toolbar. To print out the details of this agreement, as well as the tree and list views, click the Print button on the toolbar.

These are just some of the ways that Vista can manage your software and hardware contracts. The chapters that follow offer more detailed information on Vista’s various features.

11

Key Terminology Entity, property, and template are key terms that are used frequently in this manual. Definitions for these terms are provided below.

What is an Entity? An entity is a particular component of your organization’s software assets that you will record and retrieve information about. The following are the entities defined in Vista: Agreement Represents a legal document relating to one or more assets. An Agreement is a contract between an Enterprise or Organization and a Company. A contract describes an agreed-upon relationship between two parties. There are two levels of contracts: Master and Addendum. Addendum must refer to a master contract and may take precedence over a master contract.

For more information on how agreements relate to other Vista entities, see How an Agreement Relates to Other Entities on page 92. Asset An Asset is an instance of hardware or software that has a valid contract, or agreement.

If you have a physical piece of installed software, for example, but no valid agreement for it (that is, proof of purchase), it is not an asset. Asset Group One or more assets grouped together by the financial terms of an agreement such as the one-time and recurring costs or license metrics.


12 Key Terminology

Cataloged Hardware Product An item of hardware sold by a vendor that can be used to create an asset.

Cataloged Software Product A piece of software manufactured by a software vendor.

Cluster Mainframe only. A cluster is a collection of MVS images (partitions) on one or more CPUs.

Company A business entity that an enterprise does business with, or a manufacturer of a product.


Key Terminology 13

Configuration A group of Installed Hardware Products.

Contact Represents an individual who works for a Company.

Employee An individual who works for your enterprise. Employee details can be linked to invoices or agreements to identify the actual person who handled the transaction.

Enterprise The highest-level grouping of related entities. Most often this is the company or institution. An enterprise is the root of any tree or grouping.


14 Key Terminology

Event Individual accounts of communications with an associated contact.

Installed Hardware Product A hardware product installed in the enterprise, such as a CPU, control unit, or server.

Installed Software Product A software product that is installed in the enterprise.

Installed User Group Mainframe only. Represents usage for a User Group on a specific partition. (User Group is defined later in this section.)


Key Terminology 15

Installed Product Location A logical representation of where a software product is stored as reported by SoftAudit, such as a library or directory. Library data can contain usage information and is only valid for mainframe software.

Invoice An Invoice is a bill from a vendor for one or more Assets. An Invoice must refer to a master contract through an asset group.

Location A physical location within an enterprise. Location levels can be nested.

Organization An enterprise's internal structure. An organization describes the business structure of an enterprise. Generally, a department or business unit.

As shown above, organization levels can be nested. For example, you can have multiple departments under a single corporation. Partition A segment of the operating system that contains a logical grouping of software products.


16 Key Terminology

Purchase Order A request for one or more assets from an enterprise to a vendor. A purchase order must refer to a master contract through an asset group.

User Group Mainframe only. Represents aggregate usage for a single user across all partitions.


Key Terminology 17

What are Properties? Properties are attributes that describe an entity. The properties of an agreement, for example, include the commencement date and termination date. The properties of an installed software product, for example, are the product name and total activity. Properties can also be links to other entities. These links form relationships between two or more entities. For example, a property of Agreement is Asset Group, which represents the group of assets defined within the agreement. The Property Viewer displays the properties for a selected entity.

For a complete list of properties for each template, see Appendix A on page 169.


18 Key Terminology

What is a Template? A template is a unique collection of properties for an entity. Each entity has at least one template, but some entities have several templates that pertain to various subcategories of the entity. For example, there are templates that represent various types of Agreements such as Software Site License, Hardware Lease, and Software CPU License. The Software CPU Agreement template shown below contains a set of properties typically associated with software CPU licenses. Whenever you create, edit, or view a software CPU license, you see this template.

When an arrow appears in a property cell (such as Agreement status and Agreement number in the screen above), it indicates that these are required fields. You cannot save the agreement without filling in a value for such properties. For a complete list of templates, and the properties for each template, see Appendix A on page 169.1 In most cases, your Vista administrator manages templates. For complete information on template management, see the Vista Administrator’s Guide.

1 If you plan to import text or Excel data into Vista, see Preparing Vista Databases for Import in the Importing Data from Text and Excel Files chapter of the Vista Administrator’s Guide before you begin to enter data into the Vista database.

19

The Vista Console This chapter describes Vista's basic screen elements and is made up of the following sections: • Logging On describes how to log on to Vista. • The Menu Bar outlines the options available via Vista's menu bar. • The Toolbar outlines the options available via Vista's toolbar. • Notification Viewer outlines the options available in Vista’s Notification Viewer. • The Vista Bar outlines the options available via the Vista Bar. • Getting Help explains how to access Vista's on-line help.

Logging On Start Vista by double-clicking the Isogon Vista shortcut icon on your Windows desktop. If no shortcut icon was placed on your desktop during installation, click your Windows Start button, select Programs, select the folder Isogon Vista, and click the Isogon Vista shortcut. Vista's logon dialog appears:

Enter your user name and the default password supplied by your Vista administrator. Also, enter your server and database name.


20 The Vista Console

After entering your user name and password, click OK to start Vista. A screen resembling the following appears:

Changing Your Password Once you enter Vista, you can change your default password. Click Tools on the menu bar and select Options.

The Option dialog opens:


The Vista Console 21

Click the Password Options button. The Change Vista Password dialog opens.

Enter your old password, enter your new password, and confirm your new password by re-entering it. Click OK when you're done. The new password will be in effect the next time you start Vista.

The Menu Bar To perform a Vista function, select an item from the menu bar:

The options available from the menu bar change depending on the Vista facility you are currently using (View Window, Reporting, etc.). When you first open Vista, the following default options are available: • File displays a menu with the following options:

New Allow you to create a new entity. See page 31.

Save Saves the record you are editing.

Save As Allows you to save the record under a different name.

Import Enables Vista’s text and Excel file import facility.

Print Setup Performs standard Windows print setup functions.

Print Prints a report on the view currently selected.

Login as Another User

Closes Vista and opens the logon dialog (see page 19), allowing you to log on as a different user.

Exit Closes Vista.

• Edit displays a menu with the following options:

Delete Deletes the selected record.

• View displays a menu with the following options:

Current View Allows you to change views by displaying a menu of all predefined and user-defined views. See page 35.

Go to Allows you to jump to different Vista components, such as Reporting or View Management.

Previous/Next Scrolls through items in the tree and list view.

Refresh Refreshes your screen.

Compare Opens a Compare Property Viewer, allowing you to compare the properties of two different entities. See page 47.

Hide Properties Hides the Property Viewer.



Undock Properties Undocks the Property Viewer. See page 46.

Expand/Collapse Allows you to expand or collapse any or all levels of the tree view. See page 36.

Vista Bar Hides or displays the Vista Bar. See page 24 for more information on the Vista Bar.

• Tools displays a menu with the following options:

Filter Opens the Filter dialog, allowing you focus on specific data. See page 52.

Options Opens the following dialog:

You can change the display language, select a display currency, choose whether to display unrecognized products, and change your password. See page 20 for instructions on changing your password.

Alert Management Opens the Alert Management dialog allowing you to activate, deactivate, edit and delete Alerts.

Notification Viewer Opens the Notification Viewer dialog that allows you to view and manage notifications.

Usage Range Opens the Usage Range Selection dialog, allowing you to filter by usage dates.

Global Filter Opens the Global Filter Selection dialog, allowing you to filter data based on platform.

• Favorites displays a menu with the following options:

Add to Vista Bar: Adds a shortcut to the currently selected view or report on the Vista Bar.

• Window displays a menu with shortcuts to all currently open windows, and an option that lets you close all currently open windows.

• Help displays a menu with the following options:

Contents Opens Vista's online help. You can also view context-sensitive help by pressing F1.

Search for Help On Open the search facility of Vista’s online help.

How to Use Help Displays instructions for using online help.

Isogon on the Web Opens Isogon's website in your default browser.

About Isogon Vista Displays Vista’s About screen.



The Toolbar To perform a Vista function, click a button on the toolbar:

The buttons available on the toolbar change depending on what Vista facility you are currently using (Views, Reporting, etc.). The following buttons appear when you first open Vista:

Opens the New dialog, allowing an authorized user to create a new entity. See page 31 for more information.

Saves the selected record.

Prints a selected record.

Deletes a selected record.

Allows you to limit the display of data by specifying filtering criteria. See page 52 for more information.

Filters your data by a range of usage dates.

The Previous and Next buttons allow you to scroll through records in list views and tree views.

Refreshes your screen.

Opens a compare window, allowing you to view two different records side-by-side. See page 47 for more information.

Undocks the Property Viewer from the view window. The tree and list portions of the view window are enlarged and you can move the Property Viewer as desired. See page 46 for more information.

Hides the Property Viewer. See Viewing Data for more information on the Property Viewer.

Displays the Property Viewer. See Viewing Data for more information on the Property Viewer.

Displays the Notification Viewer. See Alerts and Notifications for more information.



The Vista Bar You can use the Vista Bar, located on the left of the main screen, to navigate through Vista's various features. The following are the shortcuts on the Vista Bar. Note that the shortcuts available differ based on what Vista components facilities you are authorized to use. You can rearrange the order of the shortcuts by dragging and dropping them.

Opens the View window, which consists of the tree view, the list view, and the Property Viewer. See page 29.

Opens the View Management dialog, which allows you to create and edit custom views.

Opens the text and Excel file import wizard, which allows an authorized user to import text and Excel data into Vista. See the Vista Administrator’s Guide for more information. (If you are not authorized to import text and Excel files into Vista, you will not see this shortcut.)

Opens the Import Review window, which shows the results of text and Excel file imports. See the Vista Administrator’s Guide for more information. (If you are not authorized to import text and Excel files into Vista, you will not see this shortcut.)

Opens the Report Definition dialog, which allows you to generate custom reports on the contractual data, based on your selected view, relating to your software and hardware assets. See Reporting.

Allows you to create graphical charts displayed through Microsoft Excel. See Charting on page 127.

Allows you to import inventory and usage data created by SoftAudit for z/OS and SoftAudit for UNIX. Data from Windows-based inventory tools can also be imported. (If you’re not authorized to import inventory data, you won’t see this shortcut.)



Vista Bar Popup Menu The following is displayed on the Vista Bar popup menu:

Select from one of the following options: • Large Icons displays items with a large (32x32) pixel icon. • Small Icons displays items with a small (16x16) pixel icon. • Add New Group creates a new group of shortcuts in the Vista Bar.

See page 26 for more information on Vista Bar shortcut groups. • Remove Group deletes the currently selected group of shortcuts from the Vista Bar. • Rename Group allows you to enter a new name for the currently selected group of

shortcuts. • Add to Vista Bar allows you to add shortcuts to the Vista Bar. These shortcuts can point

to commonly accessed Views and Charts. Selecting this option displays the following:

Select a shortcut type from the drop-down list, an item from the list, and click OK. The shortcut is added to the Vista Bar.

• Vista Bar causes the Vista Bar to disappear. To make the Vista Bar reappear, select Vista Bar from the View menu.



Vista Bar Shortcut Groups To provide quick and easy access to frequently used views, reports, and graphs, you can create your own shortcuts on the Vista Bar and arrange them into groups.

To open a shortcut group, click on its name (in this case, “Accounting”). Adding and Removing Shortcuts To add a shortcut to a shortcut group, open the group you want to add a shortcut to and select Vista Bar Shortcut from the popup menu. The Add to Vista Bar dialog appears:

From the drop-down list at the top, select the type of shortcut you want to add to the group (either Views, Reports, or Graphs). Select the item in the list that you want to add a shortcut to (in this case, the Agreements with Invoices view), and click OK. The shortcut is added to the group:

To remove the shortcut, select the shortcut and Remove from Vista Bar from the popup menu.



Adding and Removing Shortcut Groups Adding Groups To add a new shortcut group, select Add New Group from the popup menu.. The new group appears at the bottom of the Vista Bar. Type a name for the new group and press ENTER. To remove a group, select the group you want to remove, select Remove Group from the popup menu. Renaming Groups To rename a group, select the group you want to rename, select Rename Group from the popup menu. Type a name for the group and press ENTER. Removing Groups To remove a group, select the group you want to remove, select Remove Group from the popup menu.

Getting Help You can view on-line help in the following ways: • Click Help on the menu bar and select Contents from the drop-down list. Vista’s on-line

help is displayed. • From anywhere within Vista, press the F1 key. This enables Vista’s context-sensitive

help. The help topic for the currently active feature or screen element is displayed. For information on using on-line help, click Help on the menu bar and select How to Use Help from the drop-down list.

29

Viewing Data Vista offers a variety of ways of viewing data that you can customize to meet your needs. The way data is arranged, or formatted, is called a view. Views allow you to examine the relationships between different elements of your software and hardware contracts. They’re displayed in the view window (shown below), where you can view relationships between entities, and add, change, copy or delete the properties of entities.

Vista comes with a set of predefined views. This chapter explains these views and describes how you can use them to better manage your data. For information on creating your own views, see Custom Views on page 67. You likely have a large amount of contractual data to examine. Determining which data to analyze and how to present it is the key to making Vista work for you. The predefined views included with Vista serve as starting points (see page 54). They address relationships such as the assets associated with your individual software agreements and the vendors that you do business with. Some predefined views, such as the Hardware Inventory view, enable you to analyze simple relationships, such as enterprise-wide hardware products and their manufacturers, while other predefined views, such as the Agreements with Vendors view, enable you to analyze not only the assets in the enterprise, but the contract agreements that accompany those assets. Two other aspects of Vista provide additional information and flexibility: • Property Viewer • Filters Each entity is associated with certain attributes, or data, called properties. When an entity is selected in the tree or list view windows, its properties are displayed in a resizable window called the Property Viewer. While the Property Viewer does provide additional information, too much information can be overwhelming. To help you tailor your data analysis, Vista provides a filtering capability (described on page 52). You can group or sort your data at the entity or property level, or at a combination of both levels, based on specific conditions or values. For example, you can set filters to display only agreements with a particular vendor, such as Compuware Corp. You can apply multiple filters at once to further categorize your data.


30 Viewing Data

The components of the view window, using views, using the Property Viewer, and applying filters are all described in the following sections.

Using Views Click Views on the Vista Bar. The View Window is displayed:

Tree View

List View

Property Viewer


Viewing Data 31

Toolbar Options The View window toolbar is the starting point for many functions performed in the View window. This section describes those functions. New

You can create a new entity in one of three ways:

Option 1 Click the New drop-down arrow and select an entity from the list. The drop-down menu displays a list of entities to which you have access.

Entities have multiple templates associated with them. (A template is a unique collection of properties for an entity.) For example, there are many different asset group templates. Note: To close any drop-down menu or dialog box, click the Escape key on your keyboard.

Option 2 Click the New button to create a new item. The New button creates a new item based on the properties and values defined in the template for the currently selected item. For example, if you select an invoice in the tree view and click the New button, the New dialog prompts you to create a new invoice:


32 Viewing Data

Option 3 Right-click a selected entity to open the short-cut menu. For example, if you right-click a country in the tree view and select New from the short-cut menu, you are prompted to choose your entities through a series of menus:

For example, U.S.A is highlighted in the tree view. Create a new entity for New York by selecting City from the short-cut menu, which opens the New dialog.


Viewing Data 33

Using this method, creating a new entity from the Tree View automatically links the new entity with the entity that was highlighted in the Tree View. The New dialog opens with U.S.A. already identified as the country because it is highlighted in the tree.

Enter New York as the name of the new entity and click the Save and Close button. New York is created as a new entity automatically linked with U.S.A. in the tree.

A Vista user cannot create a new Enterprise item. While you cannot create a new Enterprise, you can rename an existing Enterprise. See Renaming an Existing Enterprise on page 34 for more information.

To save changes you've made to the currently selected entity, such as changes to the entity’s properties, click the Save button.

To print a summary report for an entity or entities, select the entity or entities in the tree view window or list view window and click the Print button. To print a summary report for a property or properties, select the property or properties in the Property Viewer and click the Print button.

To delete an entity, select the item and click the Delete button. Deleting an item removes it from the view.2

You can filter the data you view based on criteria you specify. See Filtering on page 52 for detailed information on using filters.

2 If the entity you want to delete has relationships to other entities below it, you are given the option to delete those entities as well. An entity cannot be deleted if it is linked as a property of another entity.


34 Viewing Data

You can filter data based on usage date range.

Click the Previous button to select the previous item (entity or property) in the view, or the Next button to select the next item in the view.

Click the Refresh button to refresh the screen.

Click the Compare button to open a Compare Property Viewer. The Compare Property Viewer uses a duplicate Property Viewer to display all properties for the item selected in either the tree view window or the list view window when the Compare option was selected. See page 47.

Click the Undock Properties button to undock the Property Viewer from the main Vista screen. It now becomes a freestanding window. See page 46.

Click the Hide Properties button to hide the Property Viewer. Click the Show Properties button to display the Property Viewer.

Click Notification Viewer to display the Notification Viewer.

Renaming an Existing Enterprise Rename the existing Enterprise to Acme World Enterprises. Access the production database and select the existing Enterprise from any view.

In the Property Viewer, type the new name of the Enterprise.

Click the Save button on the Toolbar.


Viewing Data 35

View Selector Vista comes with a set of predefined views that you can access by clicking the drop-down arrow in the View Selector. Views are grouped into the following categories:

Management by Exception

Installed Software with No Agreements by Hardware Installed Software with No Agreements by Vendor Installed Software with No Usage Software Agreements with No Installed Software Software Agreements with No Usage

Mainframe Inventory Hardware Capacity of Installed Software Software Inventory and Usage by Vendor (Sysplex and Library) Software Usage by Sysplex User Usage by Company and Hardware User Usage by Sysplex

UNIX Inventory Software by Location Product Location by Company and Hardware

Cross-Platform Inventory

Hardware by Software Installed Hardware by Company Software Usage by Hardware Software Usage by Product Location

Agreements and Financials

Agreements with Invoices Agreements with Purchase Orders Agreements with Vendors Hardware Agreements by Vendor Hardware Inventory by Location with Agreements Software Agreements by Vendor with Usage Software Inventory by Hardware and Licensing Software Inventory by Location with Agreements

Miscellaneous Companies with Contacts and Events Software Assets with Passwords

My Views This category appears only after you’ve created a custom view. See page 67 for information on creating a custom view.


36 Viewing Data

The name of the current view is denoted by a checkmark. See page 55 for information about each predefined view. Note: Some views may not be available to you if access has been denied by your administrator.

Tree View The tree view window presents your contractual information in a hierarchical, structured format, with each level in the view representing a different entity.

Expanding and Collapsing As shown above, you can collapse the structure by clicking the minus (-) sign. This enables you to see more of the high-level information on one screen. Similarly, you can expand the structure by clicking the plus (+) sign.

{Unspecified} The level in the tree labeled {Unspecified} represents a “holding tank” for newly created or imported data that is not linked to other items in the tree. This might include, for example, an agreement not associated with a vendor. However, in certain views, when you expand {Unspecified}, you may see a list of vendors with no additional information. Vendor products are grouped by Version Group and Version Groups are not considered installed (only the actual products are considered installed). Because of this, the Vendors associated with these Versions Groups may appear under {Unspecified} even though the Vendors’ product data are properly linked and displayed as such in the higher levels of the Tree. By default, {Unspecified} is displayed as collapsed when a View is first selected. To avoid confusion, it is recommended that {Unspecified} remain collapsed during normal use. Be sure to collapse {Unspecified} before exiting a view so that it remains collapsed the next time you access that view.

Lower-level entities

Expanded

Highest-level entity

Collapsed


Viewing Data 37

List View While the tree view window presents your data in a hierarchical format, with each level representing a different entity, the list view window displays specific information about the entity selected in the tree view window.

Depending on the view you've selected, different entities are displayed in the list view window. For example, if you select the Agreements with Vendors view, Assets are displayed in the list view window (as shown above).


38 Viewing Data

You can view more information in the list view window by clicking the Hide Properties button on the toolbar. The Property Viewer will be hidden, leaving more room to add and view additional fields in the list view.

Bring the Property Viewer back into view by clicking the Show Properties button on the toolbar. You can also set the view to display the Property Viewer as an undocked window floating on top of the main Vista screen by clicking the Undock Properties button on the toolbar. See Undocking the Property Viewer on page 46.


Viewing Data 39

Information displayed in the list view window also depends on the entity selected in the tree view. For example, if you're using the Agreements with Vendors view and select the asset group CA ELA Payment Stream in the tree, the list of assets associated with CA Software is displayed. However, if you select the agreement CA ELA 2784 in the tree, all assets associated with that license agreement are displayed in the list and the terms of that license agreement are displayed in the Property Viewer (as shown below).

Adding Columns in the List View Window You can add columns in the list view window by selecting a property to be displayed as a column heading using the Field Chooser. For example, if you want to see the financial owner of an asset tag, select Asset tag and Financial owner, the properties are added as column headings in the list view window. To add a column in the list view window, right-click the column heading and select Field Chooser from the popup menu.


40 Viewing Data

The Field Chooser appears:

Select a property from the list and click Select. The property (in this case Asset tag) is added as a column heading in the list view window. Select the next property (Financial owner) and click Select to add it as a column heading.

Reordering Columns in the List View Window Using your mouse, you can drag column headers around to reorder them. Placement arrows indicate the new position of the column heading.


Viewing Data 41

Removing Columns in the List View Window To remove a column in the list view window, right-click the column heading you wish to remove. Select Remove ColumnName from the popup menu. The property is removed as a column heading in the list view window. Note: You can only remove columns that you added in the list view via the Field Chooser. Only the properties of the selected entity are removed from view, not the entity itself. Note that you cannot remove the entity name column.

Sorting The contents of a column in the list view window can be sorted by clicking on the column header. The sort order alternates between ascending order (indicated by an up arrow) and descending order (indicated by a down arrow). Only one column can be sorted at a time.

You can also sort by right-clicking the header and selecting Ascending or Descending from the popup menu shown below.


42 Viewing Data

Grouping You can group records in the list view window by a selected column. For example, if you group by Financial owner, all assets owned by Jan Beamish are shown together. To group records in the list view window, right-click the column heading and select Group By Box from the popup menu.

The Group By box appears above the column heading.

Using your mouse pointer, drag the column heading that you want to group by (in this case Financial owner) into the Group By box, as shown below. Red placement arrows indicate where you’re dropping the heading.


Viewing Data 43

The assets in the list are now grouped by Financial owner. Assets for which no owner is specified are listed first. Assets owned by Brian Miller, of which there are 11, are listed next. You can collapse the group of assets by clicking the minus (-) sign next to the group.

By collapsing other groups and scrolling down you can see more groups. To expand a group, click the plus (+) sign.

To return the list to its normal, ungrouped appearance, simply drag Financial owner back to where it was, right-click a column heading, and select Group By Box again. The Group By box goes away.


44 Viewing Data

Property Viewer The Property Viewer is a resizable and undockable window that enables you to view the detailed information about particular entities in the Tree or List windows. It is designed to allow fast, easy access to a potentially large amount of information relating to one of those entities or to a group of entities.

Tabs The Property Viewer contains two tabs. The Categorized tab displays the properties grouped by categories. Each category can be expanded or collapsed (see Expanding and Collapsing on page 36). The List tab displays the properties in the order they appear in the template. In either case, the display order of properties is determined via the Template Management facility, which is described in the Vista Administrator’s Guide.

For a complete list of templates and template properties, see page 155.

Viewing Properties You can select a single entity in either the tree view window or the list view window to display information about that entity. To select more than one entity, hold down the CTRL key and click each entity. To select adjacent entities, hold down the SHIFT key and click the first and last entity of the range you’d like to select.


Viewing Data 45

When you select multiple entities, the Property Viewer displays a list of all the properties that are common to the selected entities. If the value of a property is the same for all the selected entities, then that value is displayed in the Property Viewer, otherwise no value is displayed. For example, when you select multiple assets that are all covered by the same agreement, the Property Viewer shows the agreement to which they all belong, in this case DASD Manager HDS 325.


46 Viewing Data

If the property allows aggregation, the aggregated value is displayed in the Property Viewer. (The aggregation method for the property is specified in the Master Property List Dialog, which is explained in the Vista Administrator’s Guide.) For example, when you select two asset groups in the tree, the Property Viewer shows the combined amount of the two recurring charges.

Undocking the Property Viewer The Property Viewer can be displayed, or docked, as a window within the View window, or it can be free-floating over the View window. When it is docked, the Property Viewer is attached to the right-hand side of the View window:


Viewing Data 47

The Property Viewer is undocked from the View window when you click the Undock properties button:

To re-dock the Property Viewer, click the Dock Properties button. Undocked Toolbar Options When the Property Viewer is undocked, the following toolbar is added:

Saves any changes you may have made to the entity’s properties.

Prints one copy of the property list to the default printer.

The Previous and Next buttons allow you to select the previous or next record in the tree or list.

Uses a duplicate Property Viewer to display all properties for the entity selected in either the tree view window or the list view window. See the following section for information about comparing properties.

Comparing Properties As discussed earlier in the Quick Start chapter, the Compare feature enables you to view the properties of two or more entities by displaying each set of properties in its own distinct Property Viewer. Each Compare Property Viewer displays all properties for the item selected in either the tree view window or the list view window when the Compare button was clicked. Suppose, for example, you want to compare the terms and conditions of one agreement with the terms and conditions of another agreement. Click Compare on the toolbar.

The Property Viewer, which lists all the terms and conditions for BMC SLA 713-01, is undocked. It’s now a freestanding window that you can move around and resize with your mouse pointer.


48 Viewing Data

Using your mouse, move the Compare window to the side and select another agreement from the list: CA ELA 2784. The docked Property Viewer now shows the details for CA ELA 2784.

You now have a side-by-side view of the agreements’ terms and conditions. You can compare key stipulations in each agreement, and evaluate notable differences between the two.

Status Bar The status bar appears at the bottom of the view window:


Viewing Data 49

The status bar above shows the hierarchy of the current tree view. It displays the name and number of whatever appears in the list view, in this case Assets. Using the Popup Menu To access the popup menu, right-click an entity in the tree view window, or highlight an item in the list view and right-click anywhere in the list view window. The popup menu appears:

The following are the choices available from the popup menu in the tree view window: New Creates a new entity. See page 31 for more information. Print Prints a summary report of the entity you’ve selected. Copy Creates a duplicate of the selected entity. All of the property values

are the same except name, which becomes “Copy of entity name.” Subsequent copies are numbered where “(x)” is incremented for each copy created, as shown below.

If you need to enter several agreements, for example, that are largely the same, but you don’t want to have to enter the property values several times, this is a useful feature.

Delete Deletes the selected entity or entities from the database and removes it from the tree view window.

Filter Opens the Filter dialog, allowing you to specify conditions for viewing your data. See page 52.

Alert Definition Allows you to set an Alert for an individual Entity, Entity type, or Template. See Alerts and Notifications on page 147 for more information.

Expand/Collapse Displays more data using Expand to expand the selected entity, or Expand All to expand all entities. Display less data using Collapse to collapse the selected entity, or Collapse All to collapse all entities. See Expanding and Collapsing on page 36 for more information.

Using the Column Heading Popup Menu (List View only) To access the Column Heading Popup Menu, right-click a column heading in the list view window.


50 Viewing Data

The following are the choices available from the Popup Menu from a column heading in the list view window: Sort Ascending Sorts the column in ascending order. See page 39 for more

information. Sort Descending Sorts the column in descending order. See page 39 for more

information. Group By This Field Creates a group, sorted in ascending order, based on the

selected column heading. See page 42 for more information. Group By Box Opens the Group By area, where you can group fields. See

page 42 for more information. Remove This Column Deletes the selected column from the list. See page 41 for

more information. Field Chooser Displays the Field Chooser:

The Field Chooser adds the selected property as a column heading in the list view window. See page 39 for more information


Viewing Data 51

Using the Property Viewer Popup Menu The following are the choices available from the Popup Menu in the Property view window:

The following list describes the options available on this menu.

Alert Definition on: Allows you to set an Alert Definition on the chosen property, if applicable. See Alerts and Notifications on page 147 for more information.

Undo Undoes the last change to the selected property. Undo All Undoes all changes made to the selected property since the last save. Save Saves the changes made to the properties. Save As Creates a copy of the currently selected entity under a new name. Print Prints a summary report for the currently selected item. Always On Top Keeps the Property Viewer displayed on top of other Vista windows.

This is enabled only when the Property Viewer is undocked. Description Displays the description of the property in the description area of the

Property Viewer (if the description is currently hidden). If the description is currently displayed, select Description to hide the description of the property.

Close Closes the Property Viewer. If you have any unsaved changes, you are prompted to save them before closing.


52 Viewing Data

Filtering Filters enable you to view only the data that meets certain criteria. You can, for example, narrow your view of installed hardware to display only those from a particular vendor, such as Hitachi, enabling you to analyze activity across multiple sites or multiple CPUs. Suppose you want to refine your tree view to show only agreements with Compuware Corporation. Click the Filter button on the toolbar.

Vista’s Filter dialog opens:

From the drop-down lists in the lower half of the screen, select the entity Company, select the property (Name), and select the condition Is (exactly). For value, enter the text “Compuware”. Click Add to List.


Viewing Data 53

Your filter statement is added to the list:

Click OK in the Filter dialog. You return to the view window. When you expand Acme World Enterprises in the Agreements with Vendors view, only Compuware is shown.

Note: You can include a filter to a view that you create. The filter will be saved and applied every time you select the view. See Custom Views on page 67.

Filter Dialog Tool Buttons The following are the tool buttons available in the Filter dialog.

Remove Removes the selected filter criteria from the list. Add to List Adds the new filter criteria to the list. OK Applies the specified filter criteria to the current view. Cancel Closes the Filter dialog without saving the specified filter criteria or

applying it to the current view. Clear All Removes all entries from the list of defined filter criteria.


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Filter Conditions by Group You can create a wide range of filters. The following tables list the available filters according to property selection. Text Conditions The following are the content-related filters available in the Condition drop-down list.

Contains The property contains all or part of the value entered in the value text box. Example: The area code of a phone number.

Is (exactly) The property contains all of the value entered in the value text box. Example: Any property that contains the exact phone number.

Does not contain The property does not contain any part of the value entered in the value text box. Example: Any phone number that does not contain the area code of a phone number.

Is not (exactly) The property contains none of the value entered in the value text box. Example: Any property that does not contain the exact phone number.

Is empty Only if the property does not contains a value. It can be any value, and therefore, the value criteria are made inactive.

Is not empty Only if the property contains a value. It can be any value, and therefore, the value criteria are made inactive.

Date Conditions The following are the date-related filters available in the Condition drop-down list.

Between Between the value of the first date entered and the value of the second date entered.

On Only on the selected day.

On or after On the selected day and any day after it. You can enter a date directly or click the Value field down arrow to display a calendar.

On or before On the selected day and any day before it. You can enter a date directly or click the Value field down arrow to display a calendar.

Is empty Only if the property does not contain a date. The value criteria are made inactive.

Is not empty Only if the property contains a date. It can be any date, and therefore, the value criteria are made inactive.

Within the past N days

A sliding scale that looks at the current date and uses N to determine the number of days previous from the current date. If the current date is, for example, 11/20/2000 and N is set at 60 days, then it would select any date in the past 60 days, or approximately 01/20/2001.

Within the next N days

A sliding scale that looks at the current date and uses N to determine the number of days in the future from the current date. If the current date is, for example, 11/20/2000 and N is set at 60 days, then it would select any date in the past 60 days, or approximately 01/20/2001.


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Before the previous N days

A sliding scale that looks at the current date and uses N to determine the number of days previous from the current date, then selects any date prior to that date. If the current date is, for example, 11/20/2000 and N is set at 60 days, then it would select any date prior to the 60-day period.

After the next N days

A sliding scale that looks at the current date and uses N to determine the number of days in the future from the current date, then selects any date after that date. If the current date is, for example, 11/20/2000 and N is set at 60 days, then it would select any date after the 60-day period.

Quantity Conditions The following are the quantity-related filters available in the Condition drop-down list.

Equals (exact) The property is the same as the value entered in the value text box. (Example: 457.45)

Less than The property contains is less than the value entered in the value text box. (Example: 457.44 is less than 457.45)

Greater than The property is greater than the value entered in the value text box. (Example: any value that is greater than 457.45. (Expected results would be 457.46 and 457.47)

Less than or equal to

The property is the same or less than the value entered in the value text box. (Example: any value that is equal to or less than 457.45. Expected results would be 457.45 and 457.44)

Greater than or equal to

The property is the same or greater than the value entered in the value text box. (Example: any value that is equal to or greater than 457.45. Expected results would be 457.45 and 457.46)

Is empty Only if the property does not contain a value. The value criteria are made inactive.

Is not empty Only if the property contains a value. It can be any value, and therefore, the value criteria are made inactive.

Setting a Global Filter A global filter allows you to see all the data of a particular platform. For example, you can view only the data from your UNIX platform, or only the data from your mainframe platform. To set a global filter, click Tools on the menu bar and select Global Filter.


56 Viewing Data

The Global Filter Selection dialog appears. Select the types of data you would like to see. For this example, choose Show Mainframe data. Click OK.

You now have a filter set that will include only data from your mainframe platform.

Setting and Displaying a Range of Usage Dates Note: This section applies to mainframe platforms only. You may want to view your data filtered by a range of usage dates. To do this, click Usage on the tool bar.

The Usage Range Selection dialog appears. To set a range of usage dates, select Include usage between. Choose your range by entering dates into each date field, or by clicking the ellipses button and choosing your date from the calendar that appears. For this example, we want to view usage information between November 1, 2002 and February 2, 2003.

Click OK and your usage data (Total Activity, Batch Jobs, Started Tasks, and TSO Uses) will be filtered by the range of dates chosen. To view or edit the chosen usage range later, click Tools on the menu bar and select Usage Range. Make your changes and click OK or click Cancel. To remove this date filter, click Tools on the menu bar, select Usage Range, select Include all usage data, and click OK.


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Predefined Views To access a predefined view, or a view you or your Vista administrator have created, click the View Selector (see page 35) and select from the list of views. Several of these views have pre-defined filters that allow Asset Managers to easily focus in on key data. The following are Vista’s predefined views listed by category.

Management by Exception Installed Software with No Agreements by Hardware Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view displays all hardware, sorted by location and configuration, along with any software products that do not have an asset specified. This view allows you to easily see which installed software products are not associated with an agreement. Installed Software with No Agreements by Vendor Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view displays all software products, sorted by vendor, that do not have an asset specified. This view allows you to easily see which installed software products are not associated with an agreement. Installed Software with No Usage Here’s an example of what this view looks like: *Mainframe only

This view displays all hardware, sorted by location and configuration, with any software products that do not have usage.


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Software Agreements with No Installed Software Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view displays all software agreements, sorted by vendor, with the assets of the products covered by the agreements. This view allows you to easily see which software agreements are not associated with any installed software. Software Agreements with No Usage Here’s an example of what this view looks like: *Mainframe only

This view displays all software agreements, sorted by vendor, with the software usage of the products covered by the agreements.

Mainframe Inventory The following views are included in the Mainframe Inventory category. Hardware Capacity of Installed Software Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view displays the hardware capacity of your installed software. This is useful when planning upgrades of both your hardware and software.


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Software Inventory and Usage by Vendor (Sysplex and Library) Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view provides software usage information based on the vendor, as well as the Sysplex and library. Software Usage by Sysplex Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view shows software usage sorted by Sysplex. (A Sysplex, or cluster, is a collection of CPUs that share processing.) Using this view, you can locate products with little or no usage, redundant products, or products for which you have no valid contract. User Usage by Company and Hardware Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view allows you to see where software from particular vendors is installed across your enterprise and who is using them. This type of information helps you identify software products that are not being used at all and those products whose usage levels are below what might be expected. In either case, further investigation is needed to determine if unused and seldom-used software products can be eliminated, or if another course of action, such as more product training, is required.


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User Usage by Sysplex Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view provides software inventory and usage information based on the vendor, as well as the Sysplex and users. This type of information helps you identify software products that are not being used at all and those products whose usage levels are below what might be expected. In either case, further investigation is needed to determine if unused and seldom-used software products can be eliminated, or if another course of action, such as more product training, is required.

UNIX Inventory The following views are included in the UNIX Inventory category. Product Location by Company and Hardware Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view displays the product locations of your software sorted by vendor and installed hardware. Software by Location Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view displays the location of software across partitions sorted by location.


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Cross-Platform Inventory The following views are included in the Cross-Platform Inventory category. Hardware by Software Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view displays your software products, sorted by vendor, along with the installed hardware products associated with each. This helps you identify what hardware your software is installed on. Installed Hardware by Company Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view lists the vendors you buy hardware from, along with the specific pieces of hardware that you own. It allows you to view details and comes in handy when performing audits of your hardware inventory. Software Usage by Hardware Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view lets you see software usage from a variety of perspectives. You can view products across locations, and drill down as far as the LPAR level. Using this view, you can locate products with little or no usage, redundant products, or products for which you have no valid contract.


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Software Usage by Product Location Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view allows you to see where software from particular vendors is installed across your enterprise, and what the usage levels are in each product location.

Agreements and Financials Agreements with Invoices Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view displays all your software and hardware agreements, along with the invoices associated with each. This helps you manage your invoices by staying on top of software and hardware costs. You can view and compare the terms of payment for each invoice. Agreements with Purchase Orders Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view displays all your software and hardware agreements, along with the purchase orders associated with each. This helps you manage your purchase orders by staying on top of software and hardware costs. You can view and compare the terms of payment for each purchase order.


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Agreements with Vendors Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view displays all your software and hardware agreements and associated costs, sorted by vendor, along with the assets associated with each. This helps you manage your assets by staying on top of licensing fees and recurring charges. You can view and compare the terms and conditions of your agreements, such as MIPS capacity and the number of concurrent users. Hardware Agreements by Vendor Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view displays all of your hardware agreements, sorted by vendor, along with the installed hardware products associated with each. This helps you manage your hardware assets by staying on top of recurring maintenance fees. You can view and compare the terms and conditions of your hardware agreements, such as cancellation notice, assignability, and early termination fees. Hardware Inventory by Location with Agreements Here’s an example of what this view looks like:


64 Viewing Data

This view lists your hardware assets, sorted by location and configuration, along with agreements for the specific pieces of hardware that you own. It allows you to view details, such as the capacity of your CPUs, and the terms and conditions of your hardware agreements. This comes in handy when performing audits of your hardware inventory. Software Agreements by Vendor with Usage Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view displays all software agreements, sorted by vendor, along with the software usage of the products covered by the agreements. Software Inventory by Hardware with Licensing Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view displays your software inventory, sorted by hardware, along with their asset groups and various licensing information. This includes license type, the licensed unit capacity, licensed unit, and the licensed unit cost. This is useful when you are planning upgrades, planning purchases, and scheduling maintenance. Software Inventory by Location with Agreements Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view shows your software products, sorted by location and configuration, along with any agreements that are associated with each.

Miscellaneous Companies with Contacts and Events Here’s an example of what this view looks like:


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This view displays all the hardware and software vendors that you do business with and all records of communications with each. This view assists your vendor management efforts by helping you keep track of your transactions. Software Assets with Passwords Here’s an example of what this view looks like:

This view displays your software assets, sorted by hardware, along with the passwords for each. This serves as a useful reference for the person in your organization who administers passwords for the software products you license.

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Custom Views Vista comes with a set of predefined views (see Setting a Global Filter on page 55) that you can edit and save under different names. Several of these views have predefined filters that allow asset managers to easily focus in one key data. In addition to these predefined views, you can create your own custom views to meet your specific asset management needs. Click the View Management shortcut on the Vista Bar. The View Management dialog appears:

The View Management dialog displays a detailed list of all views you've defined, as well as predefined views. In addition, this dialog allows you to edit views, create new views, and delete views.


68 Custom Views

Creating a Variation of a Predefined View To edit a view, select the view you want in the View Management dialog and click the Open button. The View Details dialog appears:

For example, let’s say you want to create a variation on the view Software Inventory by Location with Agreements. Choose Save As… from the File menu. The Save as dialog appears:

Enter the name of your new view and click OK. For this example, we will call our new view “Agreements with Upcoming Termination Dates.”


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The new view now appears in the View Details dialog. Suppose, you want to add some entities to the tree, delete some others that appear by default, rearrange the order slightly, add properties to the list view and add a filter that will be saved with the view.

Click in the Description text box and edit the description of the view as shown in the example below. (A view must have a description.)

Use the Tree tab to add or remove entities and set the hierarchy for the tree portion of the view. You want to add the entity Cataloged Software Product from the tree portion of the view, and you want it to appear below Configuration in the tree. On the Tree tab, scroll through the Available entities list until you find Cataloged Software Product Select Cataloged Software Product and click the right arrow button to add it to the view.


70 Custom Views

Cataloged Software Product now appears in the Selected entities box, at the bottom of the list. To arrange it such that Cataloged Software Product appears under Company (Software Vendor), select Cataloged Software Product and click the up arrow until it appears where you want. Note: The following entities have predefined filters: Company (Hardware Vendor) and Company (Software Vendor). In the Selected entities box, Cataloged Software Product now appears below Company (Software Vendor), meaning that the names of Cataloged Software Products will be displayed directly under the related Company in the tree portion of the view.

You can add up to ten entities to the tree. You also want to remove the Installed Software Product entity. In the Selected entities box, select Installed Software Product and click the left arrow button to remove it to the view. Now you want to specify the properties to be displayed in the view. Click the List tab in the View Details dialog.

You want to add the property Termination date to the list portion of this view. Scroll through the Available Properties list, select Termination date, and click the right arrow button.


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Do the same for Type (it is always the first property listed). These properties now appear in the Selected properties box.

Adding a Filter to a View You now want to add a filter so that this view will always show any agreements with termination dates that will occur within the next 90 days. Click the Filter button on the View Details dialog. The Filter dialog appears.

To apply the filter, click Add to List, OK. Your view now has a filter that will be applied whenever you access the view. When you’re satisfied with the entities, properties and filters of the view, click one of the following: Save and Close The view is saved and you return to the View Management dialog. Save and New The view is saved and you remain in the View Details dialog.


72 Custom Views

After you’ve saved it, your new view appears in the View Management dialog.

In the Views window, your new view will appear under My Views.

When you open your new view in the View window, it shows you the Name, Type and Termination date of any agreement that will terminate within the next 90 days.


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Creating a New View To create a new view, click the New button in the View Management dialog. The View Details dialog appears. To add a new view, you need to enter a name and description and add and arrange the order of the entities that should be in the tree, and add an entity and properties to the list. In this example, Company and Agreement are added to the tree.

Next, select the List tab to select the Entity that will go in the List.


74 Custom Views

Click on the List entity drop- down arrow and select the Entity you want. In this example, you want to see recurring cost information; so you would select an Asset Group.

You can then add the properties (such as Recurring charge) you want to see and any filters that should be saved with the view You can also add any filters that you may want to display with the View. When you are finished, click either Save and Close or Save and New. The view is saved and when you return to the View Management dialog, which now lists the view you’ve just created

Deleting a View To delete a view, select the view you want to delete from the View Management dialog and click the Delete button. Optionally, you can delete a view you are editing by clicking the Delete button from within the View Details dialog.

Note: Predefined views cannot be deleted.

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Entering a New Agreement To illustrate how to enter data in Vista, this chapter walks you through the process of creating, from scratch, a new agreement (specifically, a software CPU license). Start by clicking the New drop-down list from the toolbar, move your cursor down to Agreement, and select Software - CPU from the drop-down menu.

The New dialog appears, containing all the properties of the Software CPU template.

Note that property cells containing arrows, such as Agreement status and Agreement number above, indicate required fields.


76 Entering a New Agreement

Name Click in the (Name) cell and enter BMC SLA 713-04. This is the name of the agreement.

Entering Contractual Data This section describes how to enter values for the contractual properties of the agreement. Commencement Date To enter the commencement date of the agreement, click in the Commencement date cell and click the down arrow button.

A calendar appears:

Scroll through the calendar by clicking the right and left arrow buttons. For this example, we will scroll to September 2003. Double-click on September 1. The calendar dialog closes and the date 9/1/2003 now appears in the cell.

Termination Date To enter the agreement’s termination date, click in the Termination date cell and click the down arrow button.


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A calendar dialog appears:

Scroll through the calendar by clicking the right and left arrow buttons. For this example, we will scroll to August 2004. Double-click on August 31. The calendar dialog closes and the date 8/31/04 now appears in the cell.

Negotiator To specify the person in your organization who negotiated this agreement, click in the Negotiator cell and click the dialog button.

The Employee template appears:

Expand the Employee list, select Brian Miller, and click OK.



Note: If you want to view details about Brian Miller before selecting, click the Properties button. You can also create a new employee from within this dialog by clicking the New button. After you click OK, the dialog closes and Brian Miller now appears in the cell.

Contractual Hardware To specify the CPUs where the software can be installed according to the agreement, click in the Contractual Hardware cell and click the dialog button.

Click the Available tab of the selection box. The mainframe template appears:

Expand the mainframe list and select IBM 9672-R96. Click the Select button.

The mainframe you chose now appears under the Selected tab.

When you are done, click OK to close the selection list.

Note: If you want to view details about IBM 9672-R96 before you select it, click the Properties button. You can also create a new CPU from within this dialog by clicking the New button. After you click OK, the dialog closes. The cell shows that there is one item of contractual hardware.



Agreement Status To specify the current status of the agreement, click in the Agreement status cell and select Executed from the drop-down list.

Note: This is a required field. You cannot save the agreement without selecting a value for Agreement status. Agreement Location To record the physical location of the actual agreement file, click in the Agreement location cell and enter text describing where the agreement is located.

Agreement Number To enter the number of the agreement, click in the Agreement number cell and type in a number, which can be any combination of numbers and letters. This is a required field. Each agreement number must be a unique number.

Specifying Entity Links This section describes how to specify what other entities are related to this agreement. For more information on how agreements relate to other entities in Vista, see page 92. Company To select the company that is licensing the software to your organization, click in the Company cell and click the dialog button.

The Company template appears:



Expand the list of companies and select BMC Software, Inc. Click OK.

Note: If you want to view details about BMC, click the Properties button. You can also create a new company from within this dialog by clicking the New button. After you click OK, BMC Software appears in the Company cell.

Organization The Organization can either be the name of your company, or a department or division within the company. To select the Organization, click in the Organization cell and click the dialog button.

The Organization template appears:

Expand the list and select Acme International. Click OK.

Note: If you want to view details about Acme International, click the Properties button. You can also create a new division from within this dialog by clicking the New button. After you click OK, Acme International appears in the Organization cell.

Addenda To specify any addenda associated with an agreement, click in the Addenda cell and click the dialog button.



Click the Available tab of the selection box. A selection list containing other agreements appears.

To specify addenda associated with the agreement, select one from the dialog, click the Select button, and click OK. As this is a new agreement, there are no associated addenda. Note: You would specify addenda only when editing an existing agreement. Asset Groups To specify which asset groups are related to this agreement, click in the Asset groups cell and click the dialog button.

Click the Available tab of the selection box. The Asset Group templates appear:

You see the multiple types of asset groups listed. Expand One-time Cost and select BMC Purchase.

Now, expand Recurring cost and scroll down. Holding down the CTRL key (such that you can select multiple items in the list) select BMC Maintenance Cost.



Now, expand Software License Metrics and scroll down. Holding down the CTRL key again, select BMC Software License.

With all three asset groups selected, click the Select button. They now appear on the Selected tab.

Click OK to close the dialog. The Asset groups cell now shows that three asset groups are associated with the agreement.



Entering Terms and Conditions Acceptance? To indicate that this software agreement has been deemed acceptable after a trial period, click in the Acceptance cell and select Yes.

Additional Product Discounts To indicate and describe whether you’ll receive discounts on any additional products purchased, click in the Additional product discounts cell and enter the information.

Additional Training Discounts? To indicate whether training discounts are available on additional products purchased, click in the Additional training discounts cell and select Yes or No from the drop-down list.

Audit Due Date To indicate the date on which the software audit is due, click in the Audit due date cell and click the down arrow button.

A calendar dialog appears attached to the cell.

Scroll through the calendar by clicking the right and left arrow buttons. For this example, we will scroll to December 2003. Double-click on December 1. The calendar dialog closes and the date 12/1/2003 now appears in the cell.



Audit Provision To record any notes for periodic reports on product usage, click in the Audit provision cell and enter the information.

Cancellation Notice To enter the amount of notice required to cancel this agreement, click in the Cancellation notice cell and enter a number. For this example, enter the number 30. When you press ENTER, the word “Days” appears automatically.

Early Termination To enter any costs and terms required to terminate the agreement prior to its end date, click in the Early termination cell and click the dialog button.

A text box appears. Enter the information you want to record and close the window.

The text box closes and the Early termination cell now reads “(Memo),” indicating that text has been recorded. To view or edit the information you entered, click the dialog button to open the text box.

Late Payment Penalty To enter the percent charged for late payment, click in the Late payment penalty cell and enter a number. For this example, enter the number 8. When you press ENTER, the percent sign (%) is added automatically.



License Assignability Notice To enter the amount of notice you must give before assigning any part of this agreement, click in the License assignability notice cell and enter a number. For this example, enter the number 60. When you press ENTER, the word “Days” is automatically added.

License Assignability? To indicate whether you have the right to sell this agreement to a third party, click in the License Assignability cell and select Yes or No from the drop-down list.

License Perpetuity To indicate whether this is a term or perpetual license, click in the License perpetuity cell and select either Term or Perpetual from the drop-down list.

License Portability To indicate if the license allows the software to be moved, click in the License portability cell and enter “Yes with notice.”

Maintenance Cancellation Notice To enter the amount of notice required to cancel maintenance on a product covered by this agreement, click in the Maintenance cancellation notice cell and enter a number. For this example, enter the number 60. When you press ENTER, the word “Days” appears automatically.

Maintenance Cap To enter the percentage that maintenance costs are permitted to increase per year, click in the Maintenance cap cell and enter a number. For this example, enter the number 8. When you press ENTER, the percentage sign (%) is added automatically.



Warranty Period To enter the period of time that the software product is covered by the warranty, click in the Warranty period cell and enter a number. For this example, enter the number 12. When you press ENTER, the word “Months” is added automatically.

Entering Cost Information This section describes how to enter the cost amounts of the agreement. For detailed information on currency management, see Currency Management in the Vista Administrator’s Guide.

Direct Currency Input When you select a property that requires a currency input, such as Purchase Amount, the input cell will be displayed with the currency prefix for your selected display currency (see AppendixC).

Place your cursor in the input cell and enter the amount. Then, either press the ENTER key or click your cursor in another field. Do not over-write or erase the default display currency prefix. The amount is formatted to conform to the default display currency, including decimals and commas.

If you enter any other currency listed in Currency Management, the amount you enter will be converted to the default display currency. For example, you enter JPY as the currency prefix with an amount.

The amount is converted and displayed in your default display currency, US dollars.

To display the currency in the property cell in the transaction amount denomination, click your cursor in the property cell. The amount displayed will switch from the display amount to the transaction amount. To return to the display amount, either press the ENTER key or click into another field.



Miscellaneous Properties This section describes how to enter values for the miscellaneous properties of the agreement. Related Agreements To specify what other agreements are related to this agreement, click in the Related agreements cell and click the dialog button.

Click the Available tab of the selection box that appears. A list appears in the cell.

Expand the list of Software Enterprise agreements, select IBM ESA 6321003, and click the Select button.



The agreement now appears on the Selected tab. Click OK when you’re done.

Note: If you want to view details about IBM ESA 6321003 before you select it, click the Properties button. You can also create a new agreement from within this dialog by clicking the New button. When you click OK, the dialog closes and the cell now reflects that there is one agreement related to this agreement.

File Attachments To specify any file attachments associated with the agreement, click in the File attachments cell and click the dialog button.

A selection dialog appears attached to the cell. Click the Add button.



A file dialog appears. Select a file and click the Open button.

The file you selected now appears in the selection dialog.

To view the files contents, click the Show button. The contents of the file appear in a window that appears behind the selection dialog.

When you are done, click the Close button in the selection dialog. The File attachments cell now reflects that one attached file is associated with this agreement.



Comments If you want to enter any comments about this agreement, click in the Comments cell and click the dialog button.

The Comments window opens. Click in the window, enter your comments, and close the window by clicking the X.

After you close the window, the Comments cell contains the word “Memo,” indicating that a comment has been recorded. To view the comment, click the dialog button.

Audit The Audit cell contains a record of changes made to the agreement and is not editable. As this is a new agreement, there are no audit records.



Saving and Viewing the Agreement When you are done creating your agreement, click one of the following buttons: Save and Close The agreement is saved and the New dialog is closed. Save and New The view is saved and you remain in the New dialog, which is cleared,

allowing you to create a new agreement.

The agreement you’ve just created is now viewable via the Agreements with Vendors view. Since you specified BMC as the Company, you know to look under BMC to find the agreement. Also, notice that the three asset groups you specified on page 81 appear beneath the agreement in this view.



How an Agreement Relates to Other Entities In this chapter, you’ve created a new agreement from scratch, specifically a new software CPU license. In the process, you linked the agreement to asset groups that the agreement covers (see page 81) and to the company that licensed the software. But how does an agreement like this relate to other Vista entities, such as assets, software products, and purchase orders? This section explains these relationships.

Agreements, Asset Groups, and Assets As explained in Key Terminology on page 11, an agreement represents a legal document relating to one or more assets. An asset is an instance of installed hardware or software for which you have a valid contract, or agreement. An asset group is a collection of assets. In the Agreements with Vendors view, the asset groups are listed under the agreement in the tree. When you select one of those asset groups, the actual assets that make up that asset group are shown in the list.

But how do you link agreements to asset groups, and asset groups to assets? As shown on page 81, you can specify the asset groups covered by the agreement within the New dialog when you first create the agreement. (You can also specify the link within the Property Viewer after you create the entity.)



Similarly, when you create a new asset group, you can specify its linked agreement or agreements in the same way. Click in the Agreement cell and click the dialog button.

And just as you specify this link, you can specify what asset group an asset belongs to in the same way.



Agreements, Asset Groups, and Invoices The previous section explained the relationship between agreements, asset groups, and assets. But how do invoices fit into the picture? As explained in Key Terminology on page 11, an invoice is a bill from a vendor for one or more assets. In the Agreements with Invoices view, the asset groups are listed under the agreement in the tree. When you select one of those asset groups, the invoices tied to the assets contained in that asset group are shown in the list.

You link an invoice to an asset group the same way you link an asset to an asset group (or any other link).



Agreements, Asset Groups, and Purchase Orders The previous sections explained the relationships between agreements, asset groups, assets, and invoices. But how do purchase orders fit into the picture? As explained in Key Terminology, beginning on page 11, a purchase order is a request for one or more assets from an enterprise to a vendor. In the Agreements with Purchase Orders view, the asset groups are listed under the agreement in the tree. When you select one of those asset groups, the purchase orders tied to the assets contained in that asset group are shown in the list.

You link a purchase order to an asset group the same way you link an invoice to an asset group, or an asset to an asset group (or any other link).



Agreements and Companies As explained in Key Terminology on page 11, a company is a business entity that an enterprise does business with, or a manufacturer of a product. In the Agreement with Vendors view, the company (or vendor) that you’ve made the agreement with is listed above the agreement in the tree view.

But how do you link companies to agreements? You can link agreements to vendors within the New dialog, when you first create the agreement. (You can also specify the link within the Property Viewer, after you create the entity.) Similarly, when you create a new company, you can specify the agreements that you have with that company.

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Reporting You can create two different styles of reports in Vista: • Packaged Crystal Reports (see below) • Standard Vista Reports (see page 112)

Creating Packaged Crystal Reports To run Vista reports in Crystal Report3 format, click the Packaged Reports icon in the Custom Processes group of the Vista Bar.

The Select Report Category screen appears:

The reports are divided into the groups you see in the screen above. Select the group that contains the report you would like to run and click OK. For a list of groups and associated reports, see Packaged Crystal Reports on page 99. For this example, select Agreements and Financials. Click OK.

3 Data export options are available through the Crystal Reports product.


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The Select Report screen appears:

Choose your report from the report selection list. For this example, choose Expected Payment and click OK. The Enter Report Parameters screen appears. This screen will only display options that are valid for the specific report selected.

In this screen, you can see the title of the report, your enterprise name, and the parameters of the report. Choose the Start Date and End Date. When you are ready to run your report, click the Run button. Your Expected Payment report appears:

The following is a complete list of Crystal reports available in Vista.


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Packaged Crystal Reports This section includes examples of the reports you can create using the packaged reporting facility.

Consolidated Inventory – All Platforms Non-Usage Reports All Products by Platform and Vendor This report shows all vendors and products for each platform in your enterprise. There are no parameters to set for this report. The following is an example of the All Products by Platform and Vendor report:

All Products by Vendor with Platform This report shows all platforms and products for each vendor. There are no parameters to set for this report. The following is an example of the All Products by Vendor with Platform report:


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Mainframe Inventory and Usage Non-Usage Reports All Products by Vendor This report shows all mainframe vendors and their associated products. The product count for each vendor is given. There are no parameters to set for this report. The following is an example of the All Products by Vendor report:

Product Inventory This report shows all mainframe products, product IDs, and vendor ID for each product. You can set the following parameters for this report: Location, System, Vendor The following is an example of the Product Inventory report:

Products by Library This report shows mainframe products and vendors for each library. You can set the following parameters for this report: Location, System, Vendor, Product


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The following is an example of the Product by Library report:

Products by Vendor by Location This report shows mainframe vendors and products for each location in your enterprise. You can set the following parameters for this report: Location, System, Vendor The following is an example of the Products by Vendor and Location report:

Vendor List This report shows all the mainframe vendors in your enterprise, the vendor IDs, and the number of products for each vendor. You can set the following parameters for this report: Location, System The following is an example of the Vendor List report:


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Usage Reports Library Usage Summary by System This report shows libraries and associated usage information for each system. You can set the following parameters for this report: Location, System, Usage From/To, Usage=0/Usage>X The following is an example of the Library Usage Summary by System report:

Product Usage Summary by Library and Product This report shows mainframe products for each library with vendor ID and usage information. You can set the following parameters for this report: Location, System, Vendor, Product, Usage From/To, Usage=0/Usage>X The following is an example of the Product Usage Summary by Library and Product report:

Product Usage Summary by Product This report shows all mainframe products with vendor ID and usage information. You can set the following parameters for this report: Location, System, Vendor, Usage From/To, Usage=0/Usage>X


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The following is an example of the Product Usage Summary by Product report:

Product Usage Summary by Product and Library This report shows the library for each mainframe product with usage. You can set the following parameters for this report: Location, System, Vendor, Product, Usage From/To, Usage=0/Usage>X The following is an example of the Product Usage Summary by Product and Library report:

UNIX and Windows Inventory Non-Usage Reports Product Count by Machines for UNIX and Windows This report shows UNIX and Windows products for each vendor under a specific location. For each product, target names are given along with the total number of associated targets. You can set the following parameters for this report: Location, Target/Machine, Vendor


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The following is an example of the Product Counts with Machines for UNIX and Windows report:

Product Count for UNIX and Windows This report shows UNIX and Windows products for each vendor under a specific location. For each product, the total number of associated targets is given. You can set the following parameters for this report: Location, Target/Machine, Vendor The following is an example of the Product Counts for UNIX and Windows report:

Product Inventory for UNIX and Windows This report shows all UNIX and Windows products, product IDs, and vendor ID for each product. You can set the following parameters for this report: Location, Target/Machine, Vendor


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The following is an example of the Product Inventory for UNIX and Windows report:

Products by Vendors for UNIX and Windows This report shows UNIX and Windows vendors and products for each location in your enterprise. You can set the following parameters for this report: Location, Target/Machine, Vendor The following is an example of the Products by Vendors for UNIX and Windows report:

UNIX and Windows Usage Reports Product Usage Summary by Product for UNIX and Windows This report shows all UNIX and Windows products with vendor ID and usage information. You can set the following parameters for this report: Location, Target/Machine, Vendor, Usage From/To, Usage=0/Usage>X


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The following is an example of the Products Usage Summary by Product for UNIX and Windows report:

Product Usage Summary by Target and Product for UNIX and Windows This report shows UNIX and Windows products and their usage on each target computer. You can set the following parameters for this report: Location, Target/Machine, Vendor, Product, Usage From/To, Usage=0/Usage>X The following is an example of the Products Usage Summary by Target and Product for UNIX and Windows report:


Expected Payment This report provides a listing of the expected payments within a defined date range. It includes a record for every payment due during that date range and only includes the Recurring Cost asset groups. Calculations are as follows:


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Charge Recurring charge x number of payments (pay period) in the date range

Tax Tax x number of payments (pay period) in the date range The following parameters can be set for this report: Start Date, End Date The following is an example of the Expected Payment report:

Hardware and Software Variance This report provides a comparison of budgeted hardware and software expenses to actual hardware and software expenses within a defined date range. It includes both One-time Cost and Recurring Cost asset groups. Calculations are as follows: Budget Expense Sum of One-time Cost and/or Recurring Cost in the date range Actual Expense Sum of Invoice Amounts in the date range Variance Budget Expense – Actual Expense The following parameters can be set for this report: Start Date, End Date The following is an example of the Hardware and Software Variance report:

Hardware Variance This report provides a comparison of budgeted hardware expenses to actual hardware expenses within a defined date range. It includes both One-time Cost and Recurring Cost asset groups. Calculations are as follows:


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Budget Expense Sum of One-time Cost and/or Recurring Cost in the date range Actual Expense Sum of Invoice Amounts in the date range Variance Budget Expense – Actual Expense The following parameters can be set for this report: Start Date, End Date The following is an example of the Hardware Variance report:

Software Assets by Vendor and Agreement This report provides a list of vendors with whom there are agreements and the assets that are governed by those agreements. It includes only those software assets that have linked agreements. If an agreement is not linked to a company, the company will appear as “Unspecified” in the report. The following parameter can be set for this report: Company The following is an example of the Software Assets by Vendor and Agreement report:

Software Variance This report provides a comparison of budgeted software expenses to actual software expenses within a defined date range. It includes both One-time Cost and Recurring Cost asset groups. Calculations are as follows:


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Budget Expense Sum of One-time Cost and/or Recurring Cost in the date range Actual Expense Sum of Invoice Amounts in the date range Variance Budget Expense – Actual Expense The following parameters can be set for this report: Start Date, End Date The following is an example of the Software Variance report:

Compliance

Mainframe Compliance (Installed) This report monitors the available capacity for mainframe MIPS-based agreements, providing software audit reports that satisfy contractual reporting requirements. It includes information for all installed software products regardless of the usage of those products. This report only includes the Software License Metrics asset group. Asset Groups appear in this report even when there is no Installed Software linked to it. This is the case when a license was acquired but software was not installed. An Asset Group that is not linked to an Asset will not appear in the report. Note: The Serial Number column represents the Installed Hardware serial number. The following parameters can be set for this report: Company, Agreement, Asset Group, Location, CPU


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The following is an example of the Mainframe Compliance (Installed) report:


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Mainframe Compliance (Used) This report monitors the available capacity for mainframe MIPS-based agreements, providing software audit reports that satisfy contractual reporting requirements. It includes information for only the installed software products that have usage within a defined date range. This report only includes the Software License Metrics asset group. Asset Groups appear in this report even when there is no Installed Software linked to it. This is the case when a license was acquired but software was not installed. An Asset Group that is not linked to an Asset will not appear in the report. Installed Software appears in the report only when the Total Activity is greater than zero in the date range. Asset Groups appear in the report even when linked Installed Software has no activity over the date range. Note: The Serial Number column represents the Installed Hardware serial number. The following parameters can be set for this report: Company, Agreement, Asset Group, Location, CPU, Usage Dates The following is an example of the Mainframe Compliance (Used) report:


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Creating Standard Vista Reports Suppose you’d like a printed report based on your current Vista view, in this case the Agreements with Vendors view. Click the Reports shortcut on the Vista Bar.

The Report Selection and Definition dialog appears:

This is where you select the entities and properties to include in the report, as well as specify Vista’s various reporting options, which will be discussed later. By default, the report contains all the entities of the currently selected view (in this case, Agreements with Vendors). For each entity, you can select which properties to include in the report. To take a look at the report before printing it, click the Print Preview button on the toolbar.

The report displays in the Print Preview dialog.


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Printing and Previewing the Report The Print Preview dialog includes the following tool buttons. Print Prints the report to your default printer Zoom Allows you to zoom in on specific report information, increasing or

decreasing the size of the display area. Select a percentage from the drop-down list.

Go to page Allows you to jump to a specific page in the report. Click in the box, enter a number, and press Enter.

Next/Previous Allow you to click through the document page by page. Print Setup Opens the standard Windows Print dialog, allowing you to set printing

options. Close Closes the Print Preview dialog. You return to the Report Selection and

Definition dialog.

Customizing Reports The Report Selection and Definition dialog provides several customization options. These are explained in the following sections.

Choosing Between Summary and Detail Reports To choose between a summary report and a detail report, click either the Summary or Detail radio button in the Report Selection and Definition dialog.

A Summary report consists of groups of lines that represent the hierarchy of entities in a view. Below is a detail from the Software Usage by Hardware report using the Summary option.


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A Detail report displays all of the selected properties and property values for each instance of the last entity selected. Below is a detail from the Software Usage by Hardware report using the Detail option.


Reporting 115

Specifying the Entities and Properties to Include The report on the Agreements with Vendors view appears. By default, the report contains each entity of the view. But what if you want to exclude Company? Uncheck Company in the Report Selection and Definition dialog:

Now, suppose you want to include some Invoice properties in the report. Select Invoice in the list of entities:


116 Reporting

Suppose you’re only interested in the payment due date of each invoice. Scroll down, and check Payment due date. Name, which is required, is checked by default.

Now that you are satisfied with the entities and properties that are to be included, click the Print Preview button to view the report.


Reporting 117

Saving a Custom Report In the previous section, you created a variation on the current view’s report. You removed the entity Company and included the Invoice payment due date.

Let’s say you want to save this report specification so you can use it again in the future without having to re-specify options. Click the Save As button on the toolbar:


118 Reporting

The Save Report Definition dialog appears:

Previously saved reports that you are authorized to edit are listed at the top. Enter a name and description for the report and click OK. You return to the Report Selection and Definition dialog.

Deleting Reports To delete a previously saved report definition, select the report you want to delete from the Report Name drop-down list and click the Delete button.

Note: The Delete button is only activated when you’ve selected a report definition that you are authorized to delete.

Filtering Filtering allows you to view only those entities that meet criteria you specify. For example, you can run reports on only CA agreements at Acme World Enterprises. To set filtering criteria, click the Edit Filters button in the Report Selection and Definition dialog.


Reporting 119

The Filter dialog opens.

You specify filters for reports in the same way you specify filters for views. See page 52 for complete information. Applying the Same Filters Used in the View When you’re creating a report on the current view and want to ignore the filters you applied to that view, or if you don’t want to use the same filtering options that you’ve already specified for the report, select the Ignore filters check box.

If you select Use current selections, only the items selected in the current tree view (and anything below them) are included in the report. Note: Unless filters are applied to limit the amount of data returned, all data available under the View for this report will print. This could result in considerable compiling time and large amounts of printed material.

Sorting You can specify a property to sort your reports on, and the order in which to sort by. For example, you can choose to sort a report by recurring charge, from most expensive to cheapest. Select a property from the Sort on drop-down list, in this case Recurring Charge.

To determine the sort order, select either the Ascending or Descending radio button.


120 Reporting

Including a Summary Line When creating a summary report, you can include aggregated totals of properties on a summary line. Select the Include summary line check box.

Setting the Aggregation Method When you create a summary report, as explained in the previous section, you can include a summary line that displays the aggregated values of properties. To determine the aggregation method for these values (sum, count, average, etc.), click in the Aggregation cell of the property list and select an aggregation method from the drop-down list.

The aggregation methods available depend on the data type of the property (date, alphanumeric, etc.). If you select None, which is the default, no aggregated value for that property will be displayed in the report.


Reporting 121

Creating and Editing a Description of the Report To create a description of a report, or to edit an existing description, click the Options button in the Report Selection and Definition dialog.

The Report Options dialog opens. In the Description text box, enter your description and click OK.


122 Reporting

Setting the Indent Width and Width Unit To set the indent width for entities that appear below other entities in your report (see report layout below), and the unit of measurement used in setting the width, click the Options button in the Report Selection and Definition dialog.

The Report Options dialog opens. Select a width unit from the drop-down list (inches or centimeters) and enter a column width in the text box.

If you select the Start selected entities on a new line check box, the entities in the report form group headings that are printed on a new line, like the following:

Indent Width


Reporting 123

If you deselected this check box, the report is formatted as a single-line, multi-column report:

This type of layout is useful if you are using the reporting capabilities to create a comma-separated value (CSV) file (see Creating Reports in CSV Format on page 125).

Truncating and Wrapping Columns If column values in your report exceed the width specified in the Report Selection and Definition dialog, you can choose to truncate these values or wrap these values. (The previous section describes how to set the column width.) Click the Options button in the Report Selection and Definition dialog.

The Report Options dialog opens. Select either the Truncate column values or Wrap column values radio button.

Specifying Headers and Footers To specify headers and footers for your report, click the Options button in the Report Selection and Definition dialog.


124 Reporting

The Report Options dialog opens. Click Header/Footer.

Click in the Header text box and enter the text of your header. Click in the Footer text box and enter the text of your footer.


Reporting 125

You can format the header and footer using the following tool buttons:

Includes page numbers.

Includes the number of report pages.

Includes the print date (not the current date).

Includes the print time (not the current time).

The Alignment buttons allow you to left-align, right-align, or center the header and footer text.

The Font and Font Size buttons allow you to change the font and font size of the header and footer text.

The Bold, Underline, and Italic buttons allow you make header and footer text bold, underlined, or italicized.

Creating Reports in CSV Format You can create your reports in comma-separated value (CSV) format. These files can be imported into spreadsheets. Click the Create CSV button on the toolbar.

The Save dialog appears.

Choose a folder, enter a name for the file, and click OK. You return to the Report Selection and Definition dialog.

127

Charting Vista allows you to create custom charts on your software inventory and usage data. There are two main types of usage charts: • Usage over time, where you can see the usage counts of a particular software product

over a specified time period. These are bar charts. • Percentage usage, where you can compare usage percentages of software products in the

enterprise. These are pie charts and are limited to 24 segments. Charting is supported by Microsoft Excel. Select a type of chart to create, filter by platform, and define the required parameters. An Excel worksheet and chart is generated. Click the Charting shortcut on the Vista Bar.

The Usage Charts dialog appears.

The following sections describe the various charts you can generate and how to set chart parameters for them.


128 Charting

Enterprise Usage Over Time Enterprise Usage Over Time is a bar chart that plots the sum product usage on all LPARs, within the enterprise, over a specified time span. From the Filtering Type drop-down list, choose your platform.

Enterprise Usage Over Time is the defaulted selection from the Chart type drop-down list.

Select the time span of product usage that you want to chart by selecting dates from the Usage end date and Usage start date drop-down dialogs. You can chart usage on all dates by clicking the All Usage Dates button.

Note that the default usage dates are either the last dates you entered, or the earliest/latest dates for which usage data is available. Product usage in the chart can be shown in intervals of days, months, or years. Select one from the Usage interval drop-down list.


Charting 129

Select the unit of product usage you want the chart to plot by selecting one from the Activity type drop-down list. Note that Total Activity represents the sum total of Jobs, Started Tasks, and TSO Uses.

When you are done setting all of your chart parameters, click the Create Chart button to generate the chart. The chart displays in Microsoft Excel. You can print it or save it as an Excel file.

Location Usage Over Time Location Usage Over Time is a bar chart that plots the sum product usage on all LPARs, within the selected location, over a specified time span. From the Filtering Type drop-down list, choose your platform.


130 Charting

Select Location Usage Over Time from the Chart type drop-down list.

From the Location drop-down list, select the location of the products you want to chart usage of. Select a location and click the Select button.





Charting 131

When you are done setting all of your chart parameters, click the Create Chart button to generate the chart. The chart displays in Microsoft Excel. You can print it or save it as an Excel file.

CPU Usage Over Time CPU Usage Over Time is a bar chart that plots the sum product usage on all LPARs, within the selected CPU, over a specified time span. From the Filtering Type drop-down list, choose your platform.

Select CPU Usage Over Time from the Chart type drop-down list.


132 Charting

From the CPU drop-down list, select the CPU of the products you want to chart usage of. Select a CPU and click the Select button.





Charting 133

When you are done setting all of your chart parameters, click the Create Chart button to generate the report. The chart displays in Microsoft Excel. You can print it or save it as an Excel file.

Vendor Usage Over Time Vendor Usage Over Time is a bar chart that plots the sum product usage of a selected vendor, on all LPARs within a selected CPU, over a specified time span. From the Filtering Type drop-down list, choose your platform.

Select Vendor Usage Over Time from the Chart type drop-down list.


134 Charting

From the CPU drop-down list, select the CPU of the products you want to chart usage of. Select a CPU and click the Select button.

Select the vendor whose products you want to chart usage of by selecting one from the Vendor drop-down list and clicking the Select button.





Charting 135


Product Usage Over Time Product Usage Over Time is a bar chart that plots the sum usage of a selected product, on all LPARs within a selected CPU, over a specified time span. From the Filtering Type drop-down list, choose your platform.

Select Product Usage Over Time from the Chart type drop-down list.


136 Charting

From the CPU drop-down list, select the CPU of the product you want to chart usage of. Select a CPU and click the Select button.

Select the product you want to chart usage of by selecting one from the Product drop-down list and clicking the Select button.




Charting 137




138 Charting

Usage by Location Usage by Location is a pie chart that shows the percentage of usage for all products, on all LPARs, at locations directly below the selected enterprise or location, over a specified time span. From the Filtering Type drop-down list, choose your platform.

Select Usage by Location from the Chart type drop-down list.

Select the enterprise or location whose products you want to chart usage of by selecting one from the Enterprise/Location drop-down list and clicking the Select button.


Note that the default usage dates are either the last dates you entered, or the earliest/latest dates for which usage data is available.


Charting 139



140 Charting

Usage by CPU Usage by CPU is a pie chart that shows the percentage of usage for all products, on all LPARs, on selected CPUs, over a specified time span. From the Filtering Type drop-down list, choose your platform. Select Usage by CPU from the Chart type drop-down list.

Select the enterprise or location whose products you want to chart usage of by selecting one from the Enterprise/Location drop-down list and clicking the Select button.




Charting 141



142 Charting

Usage by Product Usage by Product is a pie chart that shows the percentage of usage for all products of a selected vendor, on all LPARs, over a specified time span. From the Filtering Type drop-down list, choose your platform.

Select Usage by Product from the Chart type drop-down list.

Select the CPU whose products you want to chart usage of by selecting one from the CPU drop-down list and clicking the Select button.

Select the vendor whose products you want to chart usage of by selecting one from the Vendor drop-down list and clicking the Select button.


Charting 143


Note that the default usage dates are either the last dates you entered, or the earliest/latest dates for which usage data is available. When you are done setting all of your chart parameters, click the Create Chart button to generate the report. The chart displays in Microsoft Excel. You can print it or save it as an Excel file.


144 Charting

Usage by Vendor Usage by Vendor is a pie chart that shows the percentage of usage for all products, on all LPARs, on selected CPUs, over a specified time span. From the Filtering Type drop-down list, choose your platform.

Select Usage by Vendor from the Chart type drop-down list.

Select the CPU whose products you want to chart usage of by selecting one from the CPU drop-down list and clicking the Select button.




Charting 145


147

Alerts and Notifications Alerts help manage key events related to your enterprise’s IT assets, such as contract renewals and password expirations. An Alert generates a reminder a certain number of days prior to the occurrence of the important date. A Notification is the actual reminder that you receive once the Alert has occurred. You can set Alerts to send reminders to the Notification Viewer in Vista and to the user’s email address.

Defining Alerts There are two ways to define Alerts: • Using the Property Viewer, you can set an Alert for an individual Entity. Use this option

to quickly add one Alert. You are the sole recipient of this Alert. You may change this later by editing the Alert.

• Using the Tree View, you can set an Alert for an individual Entity, an Entity type, or a Template. Use this option when you need to define more complex Alerts and Notifications.

Defining Alerts from the Property Viewer For this example, we’ll select the Agreements with Vendors view, shown below. Select the CA ELA 2784 Agreement from the Tree View.


148 Alerts and Notifications

In the Property Viewer, right click on a property with a date type. This has a Termination date of 1/20/05. Select Alert Definition On: Termination date from the pop-up menu.

The Alert Definition dialog appears. Enter the number of days in advance (30) to be notified into the Notify me field. Click OK to save the Alert or Cancel.

For this example, you will receive a Notification of the event 30 days prior to the Termination date of the Agreement. You will be the sole recipient, but you can notify multiple recipients by editing the Alert.

The Notification message field displays the criteria for your Notification.


Alerts and Notifications 149

Defining Alerts from the Tree View For more complex situations, define Alerts from the Vista Tree View. Here, you can set up Alerts for multiple recipients based on: Entity type Receive Notifications prior to a specified date for entity type, such as all

Agreements. Template Receive Notifications prior to a specified date for a specific template

associated with an entity type, for example, all Enterprise Agreements. Single Entity Receive a Notification prior to a specified date of one selected entity, such

as one Agreement. In the Tree View, right-click the Entity. Using our example from the previous section, choose CA ELA 2784 Agreement. Select Alert Definition from the pop-up menu. Choose one of the options. For this example, we’ll choose On Entity: CA ELA 2784.

The Alert Definition dialog appears. Enter your criteria in the Property and Value fields. For this example, you would receive a Notification 30 days in advance of the Termination date of the Agreement.



The Notification message field displays the criteria for your Notification. Enter any comments or additional information you may have into the Additional message field (this field holds a maximum of 2,600 characters). In the Recipients table, choose who will receive the Notification and whether they receive it by email, in the Notification Viewer, or both. To receive a Notification, a recipient must be defined in User Management (see Managing Individual Users in the Vista Administrator’s Guide). Click the Save to save the Alert or Close. For a detailed explanation of the Alert Definition dialog, see Editing Alerts.

Managing Alerts You can activate, deactivate, edit and delete Alerts from the Alert Management dialog. To access the Alert Management dialog, click Tools on the menu bar and select Alert Management.

The Alert Management dialog appears:

Activating and Deactivating Alerts By default, all new Alerts are active. Occasionally you may want to deactivate an Alert (for example, during renegotiation of an agreement, you may want to halt Notifications and wait for revisions to be finalized). An Alert must be active to generate Notifications. If an Alert is inactive, Notifications will not be sent out.

To modify an Alert, you must be listed as the Owner.



The Status column of the Alert Management dialog shows if an Alert is active or not. To change the status of an Alert, highlight it and press the Activate or Deactivate button on the toolbar.

Editing Alerts Edit an Alert by highlighting it and clicking the Edit button or by double-clicking the Alert.



The Alert Definition dialog appears:

Target Displays the name of the associated Entity, Entity type, or

Template as defined by Vista. Property To select a new date property (such as Start date or Termination

date), click the drop-down arrow in the Property field. Condition Displays a Vista-defined date condition (such as Days in advance). Value To change the amount of days, enter a new number in the Value

field. Notification message Displays the criteria for your Notification as defined by Vista. Additional message Enter any comments or additional information you may have into

the Additional message field (this field holds a maximum of 2,600 characters).

Recipients To send Notifications, you must edit the Recipients table. Vista users can receive Notifications via the Notification Viewer, email, or both. People not using Vista can receive Notifications via email but the email client must be installed and configured for the Notification Service and the user’s email address must be defined in the Notification Service (see Set the Notification Service and Managing Individual Users in the Vista Administrator’s Guide). To send Notifications to a recipient, locate the person’s name in the Recipient table of the Alert and choose the method of delivery by selecting one or both check boxes. If your recipient is not an Enabled Vista user, the Vista check box will be disabled. If your recipient does not have an email address defined in Vista (see Managing Individual Users in the Vista Administrator’s Guide), the Email check box will be disabled.



Activate/Deactivate Alerts To change the active or inactive status of the Alert, click the Activate or Deactivate button on the toolbar. If the Alert is currently active, only the Deactivate button will be accessible. If the Alert is currently inactive, only the Activate button will be accessible. An Alert must be active to generate Notifications. If an Alert is inactive, Notifications will not be sent out.

Deleting Alerts To delete the Alert, click the Delete button on the toolbar.

Managing Notifications You can view and manage the Notifications you receive through Vista in the Notification Viewer. The Notification Viewer appears in front of your Vista screen every time you log on to Vista and have unread Notifications. You can read your Notifications at this time or close the Notification Viewer and access it later. To do this, click the Notification Viewer button on the toolbar or select Tools>Notification Viewer.

The Notification Viewer appears:

Reading New Notifications Notifications are listed in the Notifications list. Highlight the name in the list, and the Notification appears in the Notification message field.



To receive Notifications posted since your Notification Viewer was last opened or refreshed, click the Refresh button.

Deferring Notifications If you receive a Notification, but want to be notified again at a later time you can Defer the Notification. To do this, highlight the Notification and click the Defer button.

The Defer Notification dialog appears:

Enter the amount of days for the Notification to be deferred. Click OK to save or Cancel. For this example, you’ll receive the same Notification 10 days from now.

Deleting Notifications When a Notification is no longer needed, highlight it and click the Delete button.

When you remove a Notification, only your own copy is removed. Any other person who received this Notification will still see it listed in their Notification Viewer until they choose to remove it.

155

Associating Inventory and Usage with Contractual Information

By being able to reconcile your contracts with your inventory and usage, you can quickly identify and eliminate unfavorable scenarios, such as high-cost contracts with little or no product usage and product usage without a valid contract. This integration of information can help you prepare your contract negotiation strategies, ensure compliance, and successfully manage data center change such as CPU consolidation, upgrades, mergers, or acquisitions. The following table lists views that will provide information to assist you in the following software asset management activities.

SAM Activity View Category View

Compliance Management by Exception

Installed Software with No Agreements by Hardware Installed Software with No Agreements by Vendor


Installed Software with No Usage Software Agreements with No Installed Software Software Agreements with No Usage

Contract Negotiation


Software Agreements by Vendor with Usage


Installed Software with No Usage Manage Software Costs


Software Inventory by Hardware with Licensing Software Inventory by Location with Agreements

Linking Contractual Data with Inventory and Usage Data Before you can gain an integrated view of your contractual data and your inventory and usage data, you must first create links between the entities. For example, each of the software assets that you’ve recorded in Vista must be linked, or associated, with the actual installed software products that they refer to. (Installed software data comes from SoftAudit.) This allows you to see which assets are covered under a contract and verify that they are installed. You create and view these links using the Property Viewer. Remember that in Vista, an asset is defined as an instance of hardware or software for which you have a valid contract, or agreement. If you have a physical piece of installed software, for example, but no valid agreement for it (proof of purchase), it is not an asset.


156 Associating Inventory and Usage with Contractual Information

In the following example, the asset CA Fast Unload has no installed software products associated with it. How do you know this? Because when you select CA Fast Unload in the list, and then look at the Installed Software Products cell in the Property Viewer, you see that it says “None.”

To associate CA Fast Unload with instances of installed software, click in the Installed Software Products cell and click the dialog button.

A selection window appears attached to the cell. Click the Available tab and expand the Mainframe software list.


Associating Inventory and Usage with Contractual Information 157

Scroll down until you see the three instances of Utility Fast Unload. Using your mouse pointer and the CTRL key, select all three instances and click the Select button.

Click the Selected tab to see the three instances of the product now appear.

To unlink any of the three instances, select the instance and click the Remove button. To undo your selections and close the dialog, click Cancel. When you are satisfied with your selections, click OK. Note: If you want to view details about a particular instance of a product before linking it to an asset, select the product in the list and click the Properties button. This is useful if you see two or more products of the same name and need to distinguish between them.

Viewing Links between Contractual Data and Inventory and Usage Data The following screen shot shows the Agreements with Vendors view. The list view contains all of the assets covered by the selected agreement (CA ELA 2784). In addition, the list view contains the column Installed Software Products. This column shows you if the agreement includes assets that are not installed anywhere.



Remember that in Vista, an asset is defined as an instance of hardware or software for which you have a valid contract, or agreement. If you have a physical piece of installed software, for example, but no valid agreement for it (proof of purchase), it is not an asset.

When an asset is linked to three installed software products, the Installed Software Products cell reads “3 Items.” To view the software that is linked to the asset, or to link additional installed software products to the asset, click the dialog button.

A list displaying the installed software products associated with the asset appears:



You see three different instances of Utility Fast Load. To view details about each (so that you can distinguish them from each other), select one of the three instances and click the Properties button. A Property Viewer opens, displaying details about the particular instance you selected.

Now, to see if the installed software is being used, you can go to the Software Agreements by Vendor with Usage view. The usage for the installed software will appear in the list view.

With the information found in this view, you can determine if your software should be renewed, cancelled, or renegotiated based on its usage.



Viewing Mainframe Usage Data You will frequently want to find out how often your software products are used. You may want to focus on usage at a particular site, usage during a particular time frame, or usage of products from a specific vendor. Whatever the specific focus, a good place to start is the Software Usage by Hardware view, which lists all installed software and the total activity for each. First, we will set the view. From the main window, click the View Selector and select Software Usage by Hardware in the Cross-Platform Inventory category.

You see the following view:



Now, set a global filter. A global filter allows you to see all data from a particular platform. Click Tools on the menu bar and select Global Filter.

The Global Filter Selection dialog appears. Select Show Mainframe data.

You now have a filter set that will include only data from your mainframe platform. In the tree portion of the Software Usage by Hardware view, expand Acme World Enterprises, expand U.S.A., and select Denver. You now a see a list of all the software running at the Denver location in the list view:

You want to sort the list by usage. Click the Total Activity heading in the list view until you see an arrow pointing upward like this:



The list is now sorted by Total Activity, in ascending order:

The screen now displays usage information for your software products at the Denver location. The Property Viewer on the right side of the screen provides additional details for the selected product, such as usage dates and the date the product was last encountered:

Among the details that the Property Viewer shows, you can see that the product CA-7 v.3r.2 has not been used since 5/28/2000. Now, suppose you want to refine this list to show only usage of DB2-related products at the Denver location. Click Filter on the toolbar.



The Filter dialog appears:

The view, Software Usage by Hardware, contains predefined filters (see Predefined Views on page 57). You see the filter criteria in the top window of the Filter dialog. These predefined filters are part of the view and cannot be edited.

From the drop-down lists in the lower half of the screen, select the entity Installed Software Product, select the property (Name), and select the condition Contains. For value, enter the text “DB2.” Click Add to list. Your filter statement is added to the list, as shown below:

Note: Key Terminology on page 11, provides more information on entities and properties.



Click OK in the Filter dialog. You return to the view window. Navigate back to Denver. You now see a list of DB2 products only:

To remove the Filter, click Filter on the toolbar, highlight your filter statement, and click Remove. Click OK.



Now, let’s compare the details of a particular product at one location, with an instance of the same product at a different location. Click on Denver and select DB2 Server for OS/390 from the list:

Click Compare on the toolbar.

The Property Viewer, which lists DB2 Server for OS/390 details, is now a floating window that you can move with your mouse pointer.



To see the tree and list view, use your mouse to move the compare window to the upper right of the screen. Select a new location: Albany.

The list now shows the installed software at the Albany location. Select DB2 Server for OS/390 from the list.



To do a side-by-side comparison of these two copies of DB2 Server for OS/390, move the compare window back to the middle of the screen so that you can see the docked Property Viewer (which shows data for the Albany copy).

You now have a side-by-side view of the Denver copy of DB2 Server for OS/390 and the Albany copy. You can compare usage between the two, and evaluate other data relating to the two installations. For example, the total activity for the Denver copy is 28,939, while the Albany copy shows a total activity of only 3,057. You’ll want to investigate why there’s such a discrepancy. It may represent an opportunity to cancel a license, or it could mean that additional product training is required at your Albany location. To print out the details of the Denver copy of DB2 Server for OS/390, click Print in the Compare window. To print out the details of the Albany copy, as well as the tree and list views, click Print on the toolbar.

169

Appendix A: Template Properties Each Vista entity consists of at least one predefined template. This section lists the templates for each entity, and the properties contained in those templates.

Agreement Templates Hardware Lease

Contractual

Commencement date The commencement date of the agreement

Termination date The termination date of the agreement

Negotiator The person who negotiated the agreement

Agreement status The current status of the agreement

Agreement number The number of the agreement

Agreement location The physical location of the agreement

Entity Links

Organization The Organization that the item is part of

Company An external organization that is related to the assets in the iAddenda The addenda related to the Agreement

Asset groups The Asset groups related to the item

Profile

Asset status The current activity status of the asset

Terms and Conditions

Terms and pricing confidential

Indicates if the terms and pricing are confidential

Technology refresh Describes the cost and terms for a trade-in credit

Assignability notice The notice period required to assign any part of the agreement

Cancellation notice The time required to cancel the agreement

Certificate of acceptance

Certification of hardware acceptance

Early termination Describes the costs and terms required to terminate the agreement i h d dEnd of lease purchase The terms to purchase equipment at the end of the lease period.

Late payment penalty The percent charged for late payment

Vendor discount A discount offered by the vendor for signing a maintenance

Warranty period The period of time that the product is covered by warranty.

Windows SW

Contract asset tag Link between discovered hardware asset tags and discovered software asset tags

Miscellaneous


170 Appendix A: Template Properties

Related agreements Other agreements related to this agreement

File attachments A list of files or scanned images

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Hardware Maintenance

Contractual







Entity Links

Company An external organization that is related to the assets in the enterprise

Asset Groups The Asset groups related to the item

Addenda The addenda related to the Agreement



Early termination Describes the costs and terms required to terminate the agreement prior to the end date


Additional product discounts

Discounts granted for additional products purchased





Vendor discount A discount offered by the vendor for signing a maintenance agreement.

Service coverage The availability of maintenance support

Maintenance cancellation notice

The minimum amount of notice required to cancel maintenance on a product governed under the agreement

Maintenance response time

The maximum amount of time allotted for the Maintenance provider to respond to a problem

Windows SW


Appendix A: Template Properties 171


Miscellaneous



Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Hardware Purchase

Contractual







Entity Links












Vendor discount A discount offered by the vendor for signing a maintenance agreement.


Windows SW


Miscellaneous





Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Hardware Schedule

Contractual


Commencement Date The commencement date of the agreement

Termination Date The termination date of the agreement


Agreement Status The current status of the agreement

Entity Links





Miscellaneous

Related Agreements Other agreements related to this agreement

File Attachments A list of files or scanned images

Comments Comments

Audit Audit






Warranty Period The period of time that the product is covered by warranty.

Windows SW


ITLM Contract

Cost

Cost The cost of the contract

Maintenance cost The cost of the maintenance contract

Upgrade cost The cost of the upgrade of the procured license




Entitlement proof The proof of the entitlement that defines the rules for the use of the product licenses



Warranty period The period of time that the product is covered by a warranty

Terms of Agreement The terms of the contract

Initial fee The initial fee of the contract

Annual fee The annual contract fee

Maintenance initial fee The initial fee of the maintenance contract

Maintenance annual fee

The annual fee of the maintenance contract

Maintenance monthly fee

The monthly fee of the maintenance contract

Monthly fee Contract monthly fee

Fee end date The end date of the annual contract fee

Maintenance fee end date

The end date of the maintenance contract fee

Contractual







Agreement Location type

The location type for the contract

Agreement type The type of contract

Contract owner The owner of the contract

Purchase vendor The name of the vendor from which the software was purchased (normally, the software retailer)

Supply vendor The name of the vendor that supplied the product to which the contract relates (normally, the software producer)

Secondary vendor The name of the secondary vendor that supplied the product to which the contract relates

Support vendor The name of the support vendor from which the software is supported

Warranty vendor The name of the warranty vendor from which the software is warranted



Contract

External contact phone The phone number of the external contact

External contact name The name of the external contact

External contact email The email address of the external contact

External contact notes Comments on the external contact

Internal contact name The name of the internal contact

Internal contact phone The phone number of the internal contact

Internal contact email The email address of the internal contact

Entity Links

Organization The organization that the item is part of


Addenda The addenda related to the agreement

Asset groups The asset groups related to the item

Miscellaneous



Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Order Form

Contractual







Costs

Cost to transfer to other territory

Cost to transfer an application to another territory.

Cost to transfer to other platform

Cost to transfer an application to another platform.

Cost to transfer to other DB

Cost to transfer an application to another DB.

Entity Links







Miscellaneous



Comments Comments

Audit Audit


Divestiture rights Ability to sell off a subsidiary or affiliate and have that entity use the software under a new owner.

Divestiture time period

Indicates how long the new owner of a subsidiary or affiliate can use the software.

Right to use tied to maintenance

Indicates if maintenance is required in order for license to remain in effect

Disaster recovery Indicates if copies of the software can be used in the event of a disaster.

Audit notification Indicates the number of days that a user has to satisfy the compliant violation.

Audit notification Type

Indicates the type of notification required from the vendor for an audit.

Designates Licensees customers, suppliers, vendors and other external parties that Licensee may provide with a right to use the licensed vendor's software modules pursuant to the Agreement.

Source code Indicates if Licensee has rights to source code

Transfer to other territory

Type of notice required to transfer an application to another territory.

Use rights Indicates internal business vs. external processing rights

Affiliate use Describes subsidiaries and/or affiliates who may use the software

Transfer to other platform

Type of notice required to transfer an application to another platform, for example, hardware or operating system.


Indicates if the terms and pricing are confidential.

Territory The territory in which Licensee may use the software.

Transfer to other DB Type of notice required to transfer an application to another DB.

Audit provision Periodic audit report required on product usage.

Acceptance? Software license agreement is deemed accepted after trial period






Cancellation notice The time required to cancel the agreement.

Early Termination Describes the costs and terms required to terminate the agreement prior to the end date.

Late payment penalty The percent charged for late payment.

Additional training discounts?

Indicates if training discounts are available for additional products purchased

License perpetuity Indicates whether this is a perpetual or term license.

Maintenance Cancellation Notice

The minimum amount of notice required to cancel maintenance on a product governed under the agreement.

Audit Complaint Timeframe

Indicates the number of days that a user has to satisfy the compliant violation.

License assignability notice?

Indicates the number of days that a user has to satisfy the compliant violation.

License portability Indicates if the license allows the software to be moved.

Maintenance cap Indicates if the license allows the software to be moved.

License assignability? Indicates if you have the right to sell the license to a third party.

Software CPU

Contractual




Contractual hardware The CPUs where the software can be installed according to the agreement.




Entity Links















Audit due date The date that the software audit is due.



Early termination Describes the costs and terms required to terminate the agreement prior to the end date.


License assignability notice

The amount of notice required to assign any part of the license.

License assignability? Indicates if you have the right to sell the license to a third party

License perpetuity Indicates whether this is a perpetual or term license

License portability Indicates if the license allows the software to be moved



Maintenance cap The percentage that maintenance costs are permitted to increase per annum

Warranty period The period of time that the product is covered by a warranty

Windows SW


Miscellaneous



Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Software Enterprise

Contractual




Contractual enterprise The enterprise where the software can be installed according to the agreement.






Entity Links


Organization The organization that the item is part of


Asset groups The asset groups related to the item










Audit provision Periodic audit report required on product usage





License assignability? The amount of notice required to assign any part of the license.


Maintenance cap The percentage that maintenance costs are permitted to increase per annum.





Windows SW


Miscellaneous



Comments Comments

Audit Audit



Software Named User

Contractual




Contractual hardware




Entity Links






Terms and Pricing Confidential?







Audit due date The date that the software audit is due




Late payment penalty Late payment penalty












Miscellaneous



Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Windows S/W

Contract Asset Tag Link between discovered hardware asset tags and discovered software asset tags.

Software Site

Contractual





Contractual locations The locations where the software can be installed according to the agreement.



Entity Links






Terms and Pricing Confidential?






















Windows S/W


Miscellaneous



Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Software Maintenance

Contractual






Costs

Additional site cost The cost to support an additional site.

Additional server cost The cost to support an additional server.

Entity Links





Miscellaneous





Comments Comments

Audit Audit


Specific organization support team

The name of the support team must be specified.

Support server The number of servers support.

Support site The number of sites supported.

New versions Indicates if maintenance includes new versions. For example 3.2 is version 3.

Service level response times

Defines the severity levels for support calls and their associated response time.

Service levels Describes the different service levels offered

Technical support Notes on technical support.

Updates Indicates if maintenance includes updates.

Version support Indicates the terms for supporting back versions. That is, how many back versions for how long.

Web support Indicates if the user can request support over the Web.

Telephone coverage (time)

Indicates the type of service coverage by phone, for example, Gold, Basic, etc.

Telephone service type coverage

Indicates the type of service coverage by phone, for example, Gold, Basic, etc.





Credits and conversions

Describes the terms for credits and conversions. For example, a discount may be offered for existing licensed users when upgrading to a new version versus licensing new users.

Designated support team

Indicates if the organization has a dedicated support team.




Enhancements Indicates if maintenance includes enhancements

Maintenance re-instatement

Describes the maintenance fees involved for re-instating software.

Maintenance renewal Indicates the terms for when maintenance can be renewed.



New releases Indicates if maintenance includes new releases. For example, 3.2 is release 2.

Fixes Indicates if maintenance includes fixes.

In-production telephone coverage (time)

Indicates the type of service coverage by phone when the application is in production.

Maintenance fee terms Describes the maintenance fee schedule.

Software Schedule

Contractual






Entity Links






Maintenance fee Describes how the maintenance fee is calculated






Miscellaneous



Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Windows S/W




Software Server

Contractual




Concurrent users The number of concurrent users that can run the software according to the agreement




Entity Links






Total connected servers

The number of licensed connected servers.

Terms and pricing confidential?











License assignability? Indicates if you have the right to sell the license to a third party.











Windows S/W


Miscellaneous



Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Asset Templates Hardware Asset

Entity Links

Catalogued Software Product

Generic description of a software product

Installed Hardware Products

Hardware products that are installed in the Enterprise

Catalogued Hardware Product

Generic description of a hardware product

Asset groups The Asset groups related to the item.

Installation

Serial number The unique identifier assigned by the vendor of the product.

Profile

Financial owner The employee who is responsible for the financial management of the asset.

Date acquired The date the purchase was made.

Purchased for The name of the person or department the item was purchased for.

Asset status The current activity status of the asset.

Quantity The number of copies of the asset.

Asset tag A tag allocated by your enterprise that identifies the asset.

Requisition number The asset requisition number.

Windows HW

HW Parent Tag The HW Asset Tag of the equipment that this asset is associated with

HW Asset Tag Uniquely identifies the HW asset that the software is discovered on

Password



Password The password allocated by the software manufacturer or supplier

Miscellaneous

Audit Audit

Comments Comments

Software Asset

Entity Links

Catalogued Hardware Product


Catalogued Software Product


Asset groups The Asset groups related to the item.

Installed Software Products

Software products that are installed on a designated partition

Installation

Serial number The unique identifier assigned by the vendor of the product.

Password

Password The password allocated by the software manufacturer or supplier

Password expiration date

The expiration date of the password

Password type The type of password

Password administrator

The Employee who manages the password

Password installer The Employee who will install the password

Password vendor contact

The person to contact to obtain the password.

Profile

Trial start date The start date of a trial period

Trial period The number of days for the trial period

Trial end date The end date of a trial period

Financial owner The employee who is responsible for the financial management of the asset.

Date acquired The date the purchase was made.

Purchased for The name of the person or department the item was purchased for.

Asset status The current activity status of the asset.

Quantity The number of copies of the asset.

Asset tag A tag allocated by your enterprise that identifies the asset.

Requisition number The asset requisition number.



Licensing

License key License key (if appropriate)

Windows SW

SW Asset Tag Uniquely identifies the SW asset

Miscellaneous

Audit Audit

Comments Comments

Asset Group Templates Implementation Cost

Cost

Tax The tax due on the amount

Amount The net amount

Implementation cost type

Indicated the type of implementation cost.

Accounting code The general ledger classification of the cost

Cost center The department responsible for the cost

Payee Identifies the Company that is owed the money

Entity Links

Purchase orders The purchase orders related to the item

Agreement A legal document between an enterprise and a company relating to one or more assets

Assets Software or hardware products for which you have an agreement

Invoices A bill from a vendor from one or more assets

Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

ITLM License Metrics

Cost


Cost center owner The cost center owner of the procured license

Maintenance cost The cost of the maintenance contract

Upgrade cost The upgrade cost of the procured license

Contractual

Product number The product number of the procured license



Product type The type of license procured

Purchase vendor The name of the vendor from which the software was purchased (normally, the software retailer)

Supply vendor The name of the vendor that supplied the product to which the contract relates (normally, the software producer)

Licensing

License start date The start validity date for the procured license

License end date The maximum date for the procured license

License agreement The complete text of the license agreement

License key The license key (if appropriate)

License reference code The unique license reference code (automatically generated when the license is created)

ITLM License type The type of agreement

Threshold The usage threshold for warnings

Hard stop If YES, quantity is an absolute maximum that cannot be exceeded

Delivery date Procured license delivery date

Licensed unit The licensed unit

Licensed unit capacity The licensed unit capacity

Licensed unit cost The licensed unit cost

License owner The owner of the license

Usage

Recent average water mark

The most recent procured license average use in the high water mark time frame

Highest average water mark

The procured license average use in the high water mark time frame

Recent high water mark

The most recent procured license high water mark in the time frame

Recent high water mark date

The most recent procured license date of the high water mark

Highest high water mark

The procured license highest high water mark in the time frame

Highest high water mark date

The procured license date of the highest high water mark

License usage start date

The date to which the aggregation refers

License usage end date The date to which the aggregation refers

Technical

CPU MIPS The CPU MIPS of the procured license

CPU Model The CPU Model of the procured license



CPU MSUs The CPU MSUs of the procured license

LPAR MIPS The MIPS of the LPAR of the procured license

LPAR MSUs The MSUs of the LPAR of the procured license

Installation

Serial number The unique identifier assigned by the vendor of the product

CPU serial number The unique identifier assigned by the vendor of the CPU

Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

LPAR name The name of the LPAR of the procured license

Multiple instance Indicates how multiple instances of the same product should be treated

Verified The distribution of the license must be verified

Entity Links

Purchase orders The purchase orders related to the item

Agreement A legal document between an enterprise and a company relating to one or more assets



One-Time Cost

Cost

Divestiture Fee Specifies the fee for executing the divestiture rights.

Purchase Amount The amount of the purchase.




One-time cost type Describes the reason for the one-time cost


Depreciation end date The date to end monthly depreciation of a one-time cost

Monthly depreciation The monthly depreciation charge on a one-time cost

Fixed asset number Identifier from the fixed asset accounting system

Depreciation start date The date to start monthly depreciation of a one-time cost

Entity Links

Agreement A legal document between an Enterprise and a Company relating to one or more Assets




Purchase orders The Purchase orders related to the item


Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Recurring Cost

Cost

Recurring charge The amount of the recurring cost



Recurring cost type Describes the reason for the one-time cost

Start date The due date of the first payment

End date The due date of the final payment

Payment frequency The number of months between payments

Recurring account number

The vendor account number for the cost



Entity Links





Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Software License Metrics

Entity Links







Licensing

Platform The hardware platform for the software asset

Licensed unit Defines the licensing metric of the Asset Group

Licensed unit capacity The capacity of the specified license

License type Defines the type of software license

Tier group The tier group specified for a CPU license

License unit cost Defines the cost per licensed unit

WLC Licensing

Product license certification number

The number or other identification appearing on the IBM Workload License Charge certificate

Defined capacity date The date the defined capacity was set

Cost

Additional licensed unit cost

The cost for additional units

Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Cluster Template Sysplex

Entity Links

LPAR Identifies the item

Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Event Templates Event

Entity Links

Contact A person who works for a Company

Miscellaneous

Date of event The date the event occurred

Comments Comments

Audit Audit



Company Template Company Note: A user cannot create a new Company item.

Address

Address The street address or P.O. box

City The city in the address

State The state in the address

Zip code The zip code in the address

Country The country in the address

Contact

Telephone The telephone number

Email The email address of the person or organization

Fax The fax number of the person or organization

Distiller import

SoftAudit Vendor URL

The Company’s Web site address as reported by the SoftAudit Distiller

Unrecognized Vendor Flag to indicate that SoftAudit does not recognize the vendor

Entity Links

Agreements Legal documents between an Enterprise and a Company relating to one or more Assets

Cataloged Software Products

Generic descriptions of software products

Cataloged Hardware Products

Generic descriptions of hardware products

Contacts People who work for a company


Profile

Fiscal year end The month the company uses as its financial year end

Public corporation? Indicates if the company is a publicly traded corporation

Miscellaneous

Alias An alternative name for the item

Hardware vendor? Indicates if the vendor manufacturers hardware products

Software vendor? Indicates if the vendor manufacturers software products

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Usage

SoftAudit Vendor ID Distiller Vendor ID from Distiller



Configuration Template Desktop

Entity Links

Location A physical location within an enterprise. Generally a place or site.



Miscellaneous

Department The responsible internal organization

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Mainframe

Entity Links




Miscellaneous


Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Midrange/Server

Entity Links




Miscellaneous


Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Contact Template Contact


Email The e-mail address of the person or organization




Entity Links


Event An event with a Contact from a Company

Miscellaneous

Title The person’s job title

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Employee Template Address

Address The street address or P.O. Box





Contact


Email The e-mail address of the person or organization


Entity Links

Users Users of a software product that are reported by the SoftAudit Monitor

Miscellaneous

Logon ID Owner/User logon account

Title The person’s job title

Employee number The corporate identifier of the person

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Enterprise Template Note: A Vista user cannot create a new Enterprise item.

Miscellaneous

Comments Comments



Audit Audit

Cataloged Hardware Product Template Mainframe

Entity Links

Vendor The company that sells the item




Technical

Model The hardware model number

Miscellaneous


Comments Comments

Audit Audit

UNIX Computer

Entity Links





Technical


Operating System Describes the operating system running or the operating system required to run the software product.

Miscellaneous


Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Windows Machine

Entity Links







Technical


Windows HW

First MPU Type Type or family of the MPU

First MPU Speed Measurement in MHz of the MPU speed

First MPU Serial Number

Uniquely identifies an MPU

Device Type The specific type of device (for example, desktop or laptop)

MPUs A total of all the MPUs residing in the PC computer

Total MHz A total of the MHz speed of the machine

Miscellaneous


Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Installed Hardware Product Template Mainframe

Entity Links

Configuration Group of installed hardware

Cataloged Hardware Product


Hardware asset The hardware asset that the item is part of

Partitions The Partitions related to the item

Installation

Date installed The date the product was installed

Installer The name of the person who installed the item


Miscellaneous

System Admin The name of the system administrator



Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Technical



MIPS The measured capacity of the CPU, in MIPS

MSUs The measured throughput of the CPU, in MSUs

UNIX Computer

Entity Links

Partitions The partitions related to the item


Cataloged Hardware Product


Hardware asset The Hardware asset that the item is part of

Installation




Usage

Last Encountered The last day that the product was inventoried as reported by the discovery tool

First Encountered The first day that the product was inventoried as reported by the discovery tool

Distiller Import

Hostname Last surveyed hostname

Running Operating System

Operating system version

Miscellaneous


Department The responsible internal Organization


Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Technical

Processor Speed The speed of the processor

Processor The type of chip in a PC or server

Memory The memory installed on the hardware product

Disk Space The size of the hard drive

Processor Type Hardware platform, for example, Intel TM, Alpha

Processor Count The number of processors



Operating System Describes the operating system running or the operating system required to run the software product

Disks Number of hard drive disks

Licensing

Candle points Candle capacity measurement used for licensing

Oracle power units Oracle capacity measurement used for licensing

SAS points SAS capacity measurement used for licensing

BMC value unit BMC capacity measurement used for licensing

CA power units CA capacity measurement used for licensing

CA processors CA capacity measurement used for licensing

Windows Machine

Distiller import

Hostname Last surveyed hostname

Entity Links

Cataloged Hardware Products

Generic descriptions of hardware products

Hardware Asset The Hardware asset that the item is part of


Owner Owner of the installed hardware

Partitions The partitions related to the item

Installation

Serial Number The serial number



Miscellaneous

Department The department that the hardware asset owner/user belongs to



Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Technical

Memory The memory installed on the hardware product

Disks Number of hard disk drives

Usage

First encountered The first day that the product was inventoried or used, as reported by the discovery tool



Last encountered The last day that the product was inventoried or used, as reported by the discovery tool

Windows HW

First MPU Type Type or family of the MPU

Total MHz A total of the MHz speed of the machine

First MPU Serial Number

Uniquely identifies an MPU

First MPU Speed Measurement in MHz of the MPU speed

Hardware Parent Tag The hardware asset tag of the equipment that this asset is associated with.

Hardware Asset Tag Uniquely identifies the hardware asset that the software is discovered on. Affixed to the specific equipment.

MPUs A total of all the MPUs residing in the PC computer

Device Type The specific type of device (for example, desktop or laptop)

Installed Software Product Template Mainframe Software Note: A user cannot create a new Installed Software Product item.

Entity Links

Partition A segment of the operating system that contains a logical grouping of software products

Libraries Logical representation of where the software product resides

Cataloged Software Product


Software asset The software asset that the item is part of

Installation



Usage



Usage start date The start date of the usage period

Usage end date The end date of the usage period

Total Activity The sum of Batch jobs, Started tasks, and TSO uses

Batch Jobs The number of jobs submitted as reported by SoftAudit Distiller

Started Tasks The number of uses by started tasks



TSO uses The number of times the product was used by a time share user

Distiller Import

Product Enablement Status

Indicates if product is enabled

Product Feature Code IBM product enablement feature code of the product

SoftAudit Product ID The product identifier assigned by SoftAudit

Unrecognized Product Indicates if SoftAudit does not recognize the product

Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

UNIX Software

Distiller import



Entity Links



Partition The partitions related to the item

Software asset The Software asset that the item is part of

Libraries Logical representation of where the software product resides

Usage






Installation



Miscellaneous

Audit Audit

Comments Comments



Windows Software

Entity Links



Partition The partitions related to the item

Software asset The software asset that the item is part of

Owner Owner of the installed software

Installation


Usage






Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Department The department that the software owner/user belongs to

Windows Software

SW Product ID Unique identifier of a software product and version

SW Asset Tag Uniquely identifies the software asset

Invoice Templates Cost




Payment due date The date that a payment is due

Purchase order number

The Purchase Order number related to the invoice

Date received The date the invoice was received

Date issued The date the purchase order was issued

Payment terms Describes the terms of payment

Entity Links




Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Location Templates Building

Entity Links


Sub-locations The sub-locations related to the item

Configurations Groups of installed hardware

Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

City

Entity Links




Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Country

Entity Links

Location A physical location within an enterprise. Generally a place or iSub-locations The sub-locations related to the item


Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Floor

Entity Links





Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Generic

Entity Links




Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Location Description Description of the location

Region

Entity Links



Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Room

Entity Links




Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit



State

Entity Links




Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Street

Entity Links




Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Street Address 1 Street 1 from the SoftAudit for UNIX Target installation screen prompt.

Street Address 2 Street 2 from the SoftAudit for UNIX Target installation screen prompt.

Zip/Postal Code Zip/Postal code from the SoftAudit for UNIX Target installation screen prompt.

Installed Product Location Template Library Note: A user cannot create a new Library item.

Usage











Average link date The average link date

Last link date The last date the module was processed by the Linkage Editor

Last zap date The last date that the IBM ZAP utility was executed

Module count The number of modules for a product found in a library by the Surveyor

Miscellaneous

Modification The modification level of the software as reported by SoftAudit

FMID count The number of Function Management IDs in a product

FMIDs The number of Function Management IDs in a product

Release The release level of the software as reported by SoftAudit

Volser Volser

LPA/Link list indicator

Indicates if the library is part of the LPA, Link List, or neither

Library deleted Indicates if the library was deleted or renamed

Technical

Version The vendor’s version number for the product

Hostname

Distiller Import

Partition Name The partition name

Miscellaneous

Audit Audit

Usage






Organization Template Organization

Address



Address The street address or P.O. Box





Contact


E-mail The e-mail address of the person or organization


Entity Links


Sub-Organizations The sub-organizations related to the item

Agreements Legal documents between an Enterprise and a Company relating to one or more Assets

Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Partition Templates Domain

Distiller import

SoftAudit Distiller identifier

Enterprise, Location, and System (LPAR) names entered into the SoftAudit Distiller and used for mapping to an LPAR



Entity Links



Cluster A group of partitions

Installed Hardware Product

A hardware product that is installed in the Enterprise

Installation

Defined capacity unit The unit measure for the LPAR capacity

Defined capacity User-defined capacity value of a server (LPAR) for a specific workload

Miscellaneous




Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Technical


LPAR

Distiller import

LPAR ID The LPAR ID consisting of System Name and CPU ID as defined by the Distiller file



Entity Links






Installation


Defined capacity User defined capacity value of a server (LPAR) for a specific workload

Technical

Operating system Describes the operating system running on

Miscellaneous

Department The responsible internal Organization

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Partition

Distiller import





Entity Links








Installation


Defined capacity User-defined capacity value of a server (LPAR) for a specific workload

Miscellaneous


Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Technical


Purchase Order Template Entity Links


Cost



Invoice number The invoice number related to the purchase order

Purchaser The individual or department making the purchase

Date issued The date the purchase order was issued

Payment terms Describes the terms of payment

Miscellaneous

Valid from The date from which the Purchase order

Valid to The date from which the Purchase Order is valid

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Cataloged Software Product Templates Mainframe Software Note: A user cannot create a new Cataloged Software Product item.

Distiller Import





Entity Links









Miscellaneous

Release date The date the product was released by the vendor.

Announcement letters Link to product announcement information on the Web

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Technical

Function Describes the software product’s general function

Mainframe Software Version Group

Distiller Import

Software Version Group ID

The version group identifier assigned by SoftAudit.

Entity Links









Miscellaneous

Audit Audit

Comments Comments

UNIX Software

Distiller Import





Entity Links









Technical


Function Describes the software product’s general function

Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

UNIX Software Version Group

Distiller Import

Software Version Group ID

The version group identifier assigned by SoftAudit.

Entity Links









Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Windows Software

Entity Links







Software products that are installed in a designated location




Distiller import


Technical


Miscellaneous

Comments Comments

Audit Audit

Windows SW

SW Product ID Unique identifier of a software product and version

Installed User Group Template Note: A user cannot create an Installed User Group item.

Usage





Total activity The sum of Batch jobs, Started tasks, and TSO uses




Miscellaneous

Audit Audit



213

Appendix B: Manually Importing Inventory Data

This chapter describes how to import inventory data manually. If you are using SQL Server, it is recommended that you select the Automatically grow file option of the tempdb database properties. This will allow the size of the tempdb to grow during the import. For SoftAudit data, you may need to copy Distiller files from the directory where they are stored on the server to the Vista import folder.

Note: Downloading Mainframe Data to the Workstation When the Distiller has been executed, an output file is available for downloading to the Vista server. Use a download mechanism such as FTP, IND$FILE, or the program supplied by your 3270 emulator package, in ASCII mode with CRLF (Carriage Return Line Feed) enabled. The filename should end with an extension of .ASC (ASCII). Do not overwrite any existing downloaded Distiller files, since the Distiller may not be able to recreate them.

Creating Entities Vista uses data from SoftAudit for z/OS Distiller files to create a location, a configuration with the same name as the location, a CPU, and an LPAR.

The Import Process Start the process of importing data by clicking the Inventory Import icon on the Vista Bar.


214 Appendix B: Manually Importing Inventory Data

The Inventory Import dialog appears.

To choose your Import Type, click the Import Type drop-down arrow and choose a type: SoftAudit for UNIX Import or SoftAudit for z/OS Import. For this example, we will select SoftAudit for UNIX Import.

Now, choose the files to import. Click the Browse button that appears to the right of the File to Import field.


Appendix B: Manually Importing Inventory Data 215

The Browse for Folder dialog opens:

If you’d like to import just a single Distiller file, highlight the file and click OK. In this example, we will choose just one file. To import every SoftAudit for UNIX Distiller file in the folder, highlight the folder and click OK. You return to the Inventory Import dialog, which now shows the name, path, and file identifier of the file you’ve just chosen. Click OK to begin the import.


216 Appendix B: Manually Importing Inventory Data

Import Type To select your import type, click the drop-down arrow and choose SoftAudit for UNIX Import or SoftAudit for z/OS Import.

File to import Click the browse button and navigate to the folder that contains your Distiller files or Windows data files

File identifiers Displays information about the Distiller file, such as file name, identifier, and Vista partition

Import Log Displays information about the import process Import Status Displays the start time and elapsed time of the import You can click Cancel at any time to terminate the import. After the import is complete, click Close.

217

Appendix C: Setting the Display Currency

The currency in which you display monetary values in Vista does not have to be the same as the base currency (explained in the Entering Cost Information on page 86). To change the display currency, click Tools on the menu bar and select Options.

The Options dialog opens. Select a display currency from the Choose a display currency drop-down list and click OK.

219

Index Agreements

entering new, 75–96 Alerts, 147–54

activating, 150 deactivating, 150 defining, 147 editing, 151 managing, 150

Charting, 127–45 Data. See Viewing Data Display currency, setting, 217 Entity

Agreement, 11 Asset, 11 Asset Group, 11 Cataloged Hardware Product, 12 Cataloged Software Product, 12 Cluster, 12 Company, 12 Configuration, 13 Contact, 13 creating a new, 31 definition of, 11 Employee, 13 Enterprise, 13 Event, 14 Installed Hardware Product, 14 Installed Product Location, 15 Installed Software Product, 14 Installed User Group, 14 Invoice, 15 Location, 15 Organization, 15 Partition, 15 Purchase Order, 16 User Group, 16

Filtering Data, 52–55 by platform, 55 by Usage Dates, 56 Global Filter, 55 within a custom view, 71

Getting Started, 5–10 Help

customer support, i online, 27

Importing inventory data manually, 213

List View adding columns, 39 definition of, 37 Group by Box, 42

removing columns, 41 reordering columns, 40 sorting, 41

Logging on, 19 logon, 5 Mainframe Usage Data, 160–67 Menu Bar, description of, 21 Notifications, 147–54

deferring, 154 deleting, 154 managing, 153 reading new, 153

Password, changing your, 20 Predefined Views, 57–65

Agreements with Invoices, 62 Agreements with Purchase Orders, 62 Agreements with Vendors, 63 Companies with Contacts and Events, 64 Hardware Agreements by Vendor, 63 Hardware by Software, 61 Hardware Capacity of Installed Software, 58 Hardware Inventory by Location with

Agreements, 63 Installed Hardware by Company, 61 Installed Software with No Agreements by

Hardware, 57 Installed Software with No Agreements by

Vendor, 57 Installed Software with No Usage, 57 list of, 35 Product Location by Company and Hardware,

60 Software Agreements by Vendor with Usage,

64 Software Agreements with No Installed

Software, 58 Software Agreements with No Usage, 58 Software Assets with Passwords, 65 Software by Location, 60 Software Inventory and Usage by Vendor

(Sysplex and Library), 59 Software Inventory by Hardware with

Licensing, 64 Software Inventory by Location with

Agreements, 64 Software Usage by Hardware, 61 Software Usage by Product Location, 62 Software Usage by Sysplex, 59 User Usage by Company and Hardware, 59 User Usage by Sysplex, 60

Property, 17


220 Index

compare, 47 Property Viewer, 44

undocking, 46 Reporting, 97

creating CSV reports, 125 Starting Vista. See Logging on status bar, 48 Template, 18 Toolbar, description of, 23 Tree View, 36 View Selector, 35

Viewing Data, 29–65 Views

adding a filter, 71 creating a variation of a predefined view, 68 creating custom, 67 deleting, 74 list of. See Predefined Views

Vista Bar description of, 24 Popup Menu, 25 Shortcut Groups, 26

Documents

Vista User's Guide 3.7 - IBMpublib.boulder.ibm.com/tividd/td/ITCCMan/SC32-1526-01/en...Vendor Usage Over Time .....133 Product Usage Over Time .....135 Usage by Location.....138