So we read through every manual and there is just a brief blurb about being able to do it and then some generic screenshot that shows where to do it. Is there better documentation on how to do it?
We’ve already got Macs reporting in to DSS SAM via a custom Software Source ID of “Installed Applications - Versions - Mac OS X” which is pulling its data from Application Information (Mac OS X) - Installed Applicaitons - Versions - Mac OS X - BES Properties. That Software Source ID tracks the software installed, but not usage. We are looking for something like the Windows “Application Usage Information” Analysis.
The application usage inspector works the same on Macs as it does on Windows. I believe the Application Usage Dashboard can enable it for Macs. If that’s not the case, the task to enable application usage summaries on Windows should work the same on Macs if you edit the relevance.
So with a Windows system, we just deploy the SAM scanner tool and application tracking is enabled for all .exe applications. Is there no equivalent procedure for OS X? Having to use the App Usage Info Dashboard and specifying every application we want to track is not something that we could feasibly maintain.
Using your method, would that usage information get uploaded to DSS / SAM via more custom properties? How would that tie in to the existing inventory properties that we already created in DSS SAM for OS X.
I haven’t had much time to dig into this and our Mac installed base is small, so it’s been low priority. If you happen to figure it out, please post back here. I can only tell you that I’ve read all the docs and I’m either missing it or it does not exist (instructions on how to get it working). I’m actually wondering if usage metering exists on the mac, since I don’t see any native properties / inspectors that would deliver the data. That said - I’m probably wrong and it does exist - I sure hope so anyway!
There may have been a misunderstanding about SAM terminology.
“Application Usage” is an analysis property used by SAM to populate the “Raw Application Usage” page in the computer details page, and to correlate against software detection data. This analysis property is part of the DSS SAM Site, which has relevance making it only apply to Windows machines.
The underlying relevance in the analysis property utilizes the application usage summary inspector. This inspector works the same on Macs. Therefore you can implement an analysis property on Macs to gather the same data.
What this gets you is raw application usage data for Macs, provided you enable this new property in SAM.
What this does not get you is detection of installed apps, because that depends on having a SAMScanner for the Mac. If you were able to detect installed executables on the Mac, the application usage data would be correlated with the installed executables and you would see data in the “View All” report.
@dgies - so this sounds like some good news. We can get raw app usage if we take the relevance and apply it to os x. So the question is, how does one do that.
I can copy the analysis and remove the relevance that checks for windows and registry key values, but should we replace them with anything? Of course we could figure this out via trial and error, but I’d like a method that is both tested and supported, if possible. If this is roll your own, then we’ll do it that way too.
If I get some time, I’ll try that method, but I am REALLY hoping for some clear cut tested and supported method. Thanks!
Did you get this resolved? I am a newbie to DSS SAM and am trying to incorporate my Mac OS X applications into the reporting that SAM has. Thanks for any help you can provide!
Thanks for the pointer to the other message thread. You were correct, step 4 is the key to getting the applications out of raw data and into an actual package. Did you ever hear offline about whether usage data is possible? I’m behind you obviously, since I’m still adding unmapped packages. Thanks for your help.
… Did you ever hear offline about whether usage data is possible? …
Hi Guys,
Usage data is associated with applications – specifically, the item that is indexed as the executable for an application. This is because the agent’s usage inspectors report information about the running processes which frequently correlate back to the executable that spawned the process.
So if you are using definitive packages to detect software on your Macs, unfortunately usage data is not possible. To get usage data on Macs, you’d need a way to get executable lists from your Macs (e.g. via a SAM Scanner for Mac) correlated to applications in the catalog AND you’d need the usage data from your Macs to carry those same executable names from the process tree to correlate to the catalog. In theory, it’s possible, but it requires custom fixlet work, maybe a Mac app that does the same thing as SAM Scanner for Windows (although you could do it with a fixlet – it would be process intensive though and not recommended), Catalog entries for your Mac titles that include the executable name under the app, and a match between executable file, the process name spawned by that file, and the catalog entry.
"App Usage (carries application usage data to correlate into the
Applications-Executables
of the DSS SAM catalog). Any custom properties you use for this must look identical to the default Application Usage property we ship and the data must correlate to an
Application-Executable
entry in the catalog. See a Computer Details>Raw Applications Usage Data for a sample or look at the property results in the BES Console to see the format.