Using Manual Mapper to gather missing software usage information

Author: Abhishek Mittal

Summary

How to enable usage tracking for the products which are detected as UNKNOWN PRODUCTS in usageagent.log

Synopsis

Sometimes an application is detected as UNKNOWN PRODUCT in the usageagent.log (c:\windows\temp\Managesoft\). This generally happens with click-to-run versions applications. When the usageagent.log is investigated, the running instance of the executable of the application is found to be marked as UNKNOWN PRODUCT. To make this UNKNOWN PRODUCT a KNOWN PRODUCT, we need to create registry entries under Manual Mapper key of Managesoft. In the absence of usage information, it becomes difficult for the Licensing team to right-size the licensing requirements. Usage information is helpful to claim unused licenses. Common applications which are detected as UNKNOWN PRODUCT are Microsoft Click-to-run applications and Adobe Acrobat. This issue happens with the applications which are not installed via an installer such as msi. The implementation of the solution to this issue requires a person with technical knowledge of deploying Flexera Management Suite such and agents and have sufficient administrative privileges in the environment to perform the changes.

Solution

1. Enable Manual Mapper
2. Create entries under Manual Mapper key of Managesoft in one of the following ways:
3. During agent installation and upgrade: Entries to be created under Manual Mapper can be added to the ‘mgssetup.ini’ file which are created by the agent installer.
4. Manually / through Registry GPO in an already installed agent: Entries are created manually in the windows registry of a machine. If the entries are required to be created on a large number of machines, then a Registry GPO can be created in Active Directory to push the entries on the machines.

1. Enable Manual Mapper

Method 1: Through mgssetup.ini

Create the following entries under [Usage Agent]

Desc0 = CurrentVersion\UseManualMapper

Val0 = true

Method 2: Manual

Step 1: Browse registry to the following location:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft\Usage Agent\CurrentVersion

Step 2: Set ‘UseManualMapper’ value to ‘true’

2.           Create entries for the unknown product under Manual Mapper either through Mgssetup.ini or manually

We must perform the following steps:

1. First check if ‘Manual Mapper’ key exists under the following registry path, otherwise create the key

HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft\Usage Agent\CurrentVersion

• The following entries are required to be created by creating a key by the name of the exe / software which is being detected as UNKNOWN PRODUCT in the manual mapper and then add following values are added to it:

              Application – Small Description

              Executable Path – Full Path of the executable from the usageagent.log or wildcard / regex path

              Regex – Set this value to ‘true’ if using regular expression or ‘false’ if using exact path

              Version – The version of the executable, this will be reported in Flexera also.

              Using mgssetup.ini to create the entries

Create the following entries in the mgssetup.ini under Manual Mapper section of the file

desc0 = Manual Mapper\javaw\Application

val0 = Java(TM) Platform SE (Binary)

desc1 = Manual Mapper\jawaw\ExecutablePath

val1 = .*\\javaw[.]exe

desc2 = Manual Mapper\javaw\Regex

val2 = True

desc3 = Manual Mapper\javaw\Version

val3 = All

More such entries can be created for various softwares which are detected as an UNKNOWN PRODUCT in usageagent.log either manually or through mgssetup.ini. To apply the changes to multiple machines through GPO, then the following entries can be created under the Registry GPO and pushed via Active Directory Domain Services.

If you would like to hear more information about Manual Mapper or assistance with using the tool, please reach out to us via email at info@tmg100.com or visit our website https://tmg100.com.