Oracle Java Inventory

[mbartosh]

I have a need to gather Oracle Java usage because Oracle is going to start charging for maintenance releases of Java. The maintenance releases will be required for security reasons. We want to install Java only on machines that need to use Java. I was hoping that BFI would supply the needed usage data.

The problem I am having with BFI is that it usage data for java.exe is not separated by vendor or path. We have at least 4 different paths for Java.exe, and only one of them would be stand alone Oracle Java. The other java.exe would come bundled with another vendors product.

[itsmpro92]

@mbartosh Try looking at Reports -> Software Inventory -> Software Installations Report with a filter of Publisher Name contains Oracle.

In my environment I can see several entries for OpenJDK and Java Run Time Environment which have usage data, and the underlying signature points to java.exe.

[mbartosh]

@itsmpro92 - I did what you suggested, and I get the same results. When I click on details for one of the systems reporting java.exe, I get at least 3 different paths.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.8.0_181\bin
C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Client Access\JRE\bin
C:\Program Files (x86)\Calabrio\WFO_QM\Java\bin

Which java.exe is creating the usage?

[itsmpro92]

@mbartosh In addition to the list of locations where java.exe is found, there is also the detected Installation Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.8.0_181\bin, which is required to identify Java Runtime Environment from Oracle.

This is not quite definitive as to which exact java executable has the usage data, but it does seem to point in the direction of Oracle Java. I will keep poking into the usage data and see if the file path is captured somewhere.

[itsmpro92]

@mbartosh You were right to be skeptical. I was disappointed to find that the matching of usage data is purely by process name alone.

I ran the following Relevance query on the machine showing Oracle Java Runtime Environment usage:

q: image paths of instances of application usage summaries "java.exe"
A: C:\IBM\TDI\V7.2\jvm\jre\bin\java.exe
A: C:\IBM\SMP\maximo\tools\java\jre\bin\java.exe

Both of these javas are from IBM, obviously. I then queried BigFix for the Total number of Runs:

q: total run count of application usage summaries "java.exe"
A: 192

This matches the reporting in BFI, as seen in the screenshot below. Clearly, the path of the executable is not taken into account when matching usage data from BigFix with usage signatures in BFI.

This is what the documentation has to say on the subject.

The usage data is first collected when the BigFix client is installed on an endpoint, and an application usage statistics is enabled. The statistics are displayed on the Metering Data report. When the processes are matched against usage signatures from the software catalog, or custom usage signatures, the statistics are available on the Software Classification panel.

You will have better results using an analysis in BigFix to capture the paths of the running java.exe processes.

[mbartosh]

@itsmpro92 Thanks for your great work on this. I wonder if an analysis would make any difference since there seems to be only one number stored for java.exe usage.

Do you have an idea what the relevance for an analysis would look like?

I have a case open with support. I will let you know what comes out of that.