Interpreting Application Usage Statistics

Hello,

I’m struggling a bit into understanding the output of the Application Usage Statistics Analysis.
In particular, the parameter Application Usage.
I could find the file where all the info is collected (/Installation_path/BESClientLMT/CIT/app_usage_data) but I couldn’t understand it’s output.

An example is the following:

sorted
BESClient;Mon, 26 Feb 2018 11:23:07 +0200;Fri, 23 Aug 2019 09:55:06 +0200;Mon, 07 Oct 2019 19:01:30 +0200;True;223 days, 13:12:21.636;3

Also, most software entries have the same values. Why is that?
Is there a better way to collect info about software usage?

Thanks to everyone.

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You’ll probably get some answers here on how to interpret that directly, but just to be sure … That info is really meant to be interpreted and reported via the BigFix Inventory web interface. Have you found the Software Usage reports there?

Hello Jason, thanks for your answer.
I was able to find the Application Usage parameters in the Software Classification section of BigFix Inventory, but most data seems discontinuus.

For example, when the field “HAS USAGE” is set to “NO”, all other fields are empty. When it is set to “YES” but the software wasn’t used, some fields are empty and some contain the value 0.
Is that normal behaviour?

Also, searching a bit online, I found that the info collected on the file is also used by the Application Usage Information dashboard. But the info on the dashboard and the one collected by the parameters on the Inventory seem discontinuus as well.

Do you think you can clarify a bit my doubts?
Thanks.

Tracking Application Usage is an option that needs to be enabled on the clients…there’s a task for that in the Inventory site. I’ll try to find it a bit later once I get my computers up, but do you recall whether you’ve actually enabled software useage tracking on the clients?

(It’s off by default because it can generate a lot of data.)

Below client settings get created when you run the install scanner task
_BESClient_UsageManager_EnableAppUsage
_BESClient_UsageManager_EnableAppUsageSummaryApps

So you need to check whether this is set accordingly.
Ref: https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSQL82_9.5.0/com.ibm.bigfix.doc/Platform/Config/r_client_set.html

Hello Jason. The task Enable Collecting Executable Files Based On Application Usage has been excecuted on all clients. Is that the task you were talking about?

Thanks.

And also while running the Initiate Software scan task, have you selected the option for enabling application usage statistics?

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSKLLW_9.5.0/com.ibm.bigfix.inventory.doc/Inventory/planinconf/t_scheduling_soft_scans.html

Hello Rohit,
the Initiate Software Scan should have been run with all options selected. unfortunately it wasn’t me who run it. Is there a way to check?

Considering that some software is reporting all usage data correctly, I think all options have been selected.

You need to check the action history for “Initiate Software Scan” on bigfix console. Assuming everything was setup correctly, data might be missing for few reasons

  1. The software or executable for which data is missing might not have been run since the scanner was installed. Once the app is execute again it will show the data.
  2. There might be an issue with the usage data collection which is unlikely since you are getting data for other softwares.

Can you provide a snippet from BFI? Few examples of working and non working ones

Hello Rohit,
yesterday I run Initiate Software Scan task again, following your instructions, and today the results seems more coherent.
But I still can’t understand why the “Has Usage” filed sometimes reads “NO” even when the application has been excecuted. This is an example for MySQL server on a client:

Total Runs: 10
Total Run Time: 133 days, 20:02:33
First Used: 05/16/2019 05:34 PM
Last Used: 10/06/2019 21:07
Average Runs per Day: 0.070
Average Run Time: 13 days, 09:12:15
Has Usage: No

Thanks.

Has Usage is a little misleading. The docs define it as
Indicates whether a usage signature exists for the particular software

So it has nothing to do with whether the software has usage. I don’t fully know what usage signature is so can’t make you understand :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the help Rohit and Jason :slight_smile: