Mac OS X - How to enable Application Usage in Solution Forums : DSS Software Asset Management

Topic: Mac OS X - How to enable Application Usage Message: mellis2000 wrote:@jspanitz....  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.This is what I was referring to in the post referenced above (http://forum.bigfix.com/viewtopic.php?id=6123) when I noted:"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.  -- Jeff