Hardware

Click Hardware under Estate Management on the menu bar to open the Hardware page. The Data Source Name column shows you the origin of the hardware record.

Hardware information is a key component of License Optimizer, as most software (except for non-audited usage) must be assigned to the hardware on which it is found. This means there is full traceability of software and where it can be found in an organization. Hardware information is also key for some licensing rules where the specifics of the hardware are taken into consideration when calculating liability.

License Optimizer refers to a hardware item as an OSI (Operating System Instance): a machine in which an Operating system is installed. An OSI could be a:

  • standalone machine or laptop
  • server
  • machine with partitions
  • partition
  • virtual machine
  • virtual application
  • remote desktop
  • storage device
  • Cloud device

You can import hardware information into License Optimizer or add it manually. For information on how to import Hardware, see Importing data.

You can associate hardware items with specific business units. You can do this individually, but it is more efficient to import OSI to business unit mappings from a spreadsheet. For information, see Creating a new data source.