Automatic generation of a software configuration for license reconciliation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10949186-B2
Application number	US-201816228352-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2018
Priority date	Dec 20, 2018
Publication date	Mar 16, 2021
Grant date	Mar 16, 2021

Abstract

A computing system may include a database and server device(s) disposed within a remote network management platform. The database may contain (i) discovery information for installations of software applications on computing devices of a managed network, and (ii) software configurations for a subset of the software applications, the software configurations respectively indicating rights allocations and consumption for each of the subset of the software applications. The server device(s) may be configured to: determine that the software configurations do not support a particular software application, where the discovery information indicates that the particular software application is installed on computing device(s) of the managed network; and responsively, generate a particular software configuration for the particular software application, the particular software configuration indicating: (i) a rights allocation of zero rights, and (ii) a rights consumption according to the discovery information; and update the database to include the particular software configuration.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computing system comprising:
a configuration management database (CMDB) disposed within a remote network management platform associated with a managed network, wherein the CMDB contains: (i) discovery information for installations of software applications on computing devices of the managed network, wherein the software application installations and the computing devices are represented in the CMDB as configuration items (CIs), and (ii) software configurations for a subset of the software application installations,
wherein at least some of the discovery information for the software application installations was obtained by the remote network management platform indirectly accessing the computing devices, wherein the discovery information for the software application installations includes respective indications of application publishers, application titles, and application versions for the software application installations, and wherein the software configurations respectively indicate rights allocations and rights consumption for each of the subset of the software application installations; and
one or more server devices, disposed within the remote network management platform, configured to:
determine that none of the software configurations stored in the CMDB match a particular software application installation of the software application installations, wherein the discovery information for the software application installations indicates that the particular software application installation is installed on one or more of the computing devices of the managed network,
in response to determining that none of the software configurations stored in the CMDB match the particular software application installation, generate a particular software configuration for the particular software application installation, wherein the particular software configuration indicates: (i) a particular rights allocation of zero rights, and (ii) a particular rights consumption according to the discovery information for the software application installations, and
update the CMDB to include the particular software configuration.

2. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the discovery information for the software application installations includes indications of an installation count for each software application of the software applications, and
wherein the particular software configuration indicating the particular rights consumption comprises the particular software configuration indicating a particular installation count for the particular software application according to the discovery information.

3. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more server devices are further configured to:
determine that the particular rights consumption is greater than the particular rights allocation; and
in response to determining that the particular rights consumption is greater than the particular rights allocation, update the particular software configuration to indicate that the particular rights consumption does not comply with the particular rights allocation.

4. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein determining that none of the software configurations stored in the CMDB match the particular software application installation comprises:
based on the respective indications included in the discovery information for the software application installations, determining a particular application publisher, a particular application title, and a particular application version for the particular software application installation; and
determining that the software configurations do not include any association with the particular application publisher, the particular application title, and the particular application version.

5. The computing system of claim 4 , wherein generating the particular software configuration comprises associating the particular software configuration with the particular application publisher, the particular application title, and the particular application version.

6. The computing system of claim 4 , wherein the discovery information for the software application installations also includes respective indications of application editions for the software applications, and wherein determining that the software configurations do not support the particular software application installation comprises:
based on the respective indications included in the discovery information for the software application installations, determining a particular application edition for the particular software application installation, and
wherein determining that the software configurations do not include any association with the particular application publisher, the particular application title, and the particular application version comprises determining that the software configurations do not include any association with the particular application publisher, the particular application title, the particular application version, and the particular application edition.

7. The computing system of claim 6 , wherein generating the particular software configuration comprises associating the particular software configuration with the particular application publisher, the particular application title, the particular application version, and the particular application edition.

8. The computing system of claim 4 , wherein a second particular software application installation of the software application installations has the particular application publisher, the particular application title, and a second particular application version according to the discovery information, wherein a second particular software configuration for the second particular software application installation indicates (i) a second particular rights allocation and (ii) a second particular rights consumption, and wherein the one or more server devices are further configured to:
determine that the particular software configuration is out of compliance with the particular rights allocation;
determine that the second particular software configuration is in compliance with the second particular rights allocation;
determine that the particular application title is out of compliance with a title-level rights allocation of the particular application title; and
provide, to a client device associated with the managed network, a representation of a graphical user interface that includes: (i) a first indication that the particular software configuration is out of compliance with the particular rights allocation, (ii) a second indication that the second particular software configuration is in compliance with the second particular rights allocation, and (iii) a third indication that the particular application title is out of compliance with the title-level rights allocation of the particular application title.

9. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein the representation includes a table containing entries, wherein a first entry in the table represents the particular software configuration and a non-zero number of unlicensed installs of the particular software application installation, and wherein a second entry in the table represents the second particular software configuration and zero unlicensed installs of the second particular software application installation.

10. The computing system of claim 9 , wherein the table is disposed upon a first tab of the representation, and wherein a second tab of the representation includes a second table containing entries for each of the computing devices on the managed network with the particular software application installation installed.

11. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein determining

Assignees

• Servicenow Inc

Inventors

• Wang Ning
• Dwivedi Gyanesh Hari
• Vora Nirali A

Classifications

• G06F21/105 Primary

  Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level · CPC title

• G06F16/2365

  Ensuring data consistency and integrity · CPC title

• G06F8/61 Primary

  Installation · CPC title

• G06F2221/0766

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F21/1073

  Conversion · CPC title