Software Tags page
Using Software Tags allows you to create custom labels and associate them with the software titles you have deployed in your estate.
You can do this from the Settings→Configuration→Custom properties→Software Tags page, which can be viewed by users with the Full Administrator role.
The following headings show the steps to add, edit and delete properties and set property values.
Software Tag custom properties
The following table shows the constraints of the text that can be used for property names and values.
Property | Constraints |
|---|---|
Name | Consists of a combination of alphanumeric characters, underscores and dots - spaces are allowed. Case is not significant, so names " |
Values | Consists of a combination of alphanumeric characters, underscores, dots and spaces. Case is preserved. |
When creating your Software Tags, note that:
You can have multiple tag values under one tag name
A combination of one tag name and tag value is a Software Tag
You can associate Software Tags with Software at Vendor, Title, and Edition (VTE) level
A VTE can be associated with none or as many Software Tags as needed, there's no upper or lower bound
A VTE can be associated with 1 tag value only under a tag name
You can create Management Groups based on your Software Tag
Any change in Software Tags will be reflected in Inventoryafter running Management Group evaluation.
Adding a property and values
The following steps can be used to create a property name:
Navigate to Settings→Configuration→Custom properties→Software Tags.
Click the Add button.
Type in a name for the property (the field warns you if you exceed a maximum of 16 characters).
You now need to add values to the property:
In the edit field below the Values heading, type in a value for the property.
If you want to add more values, click the + button beneath the Values heading.
Repeat step 5 to add as many values as you require for the selected property name.
When all the values have been added, click Add.
Editing a property
The following steps show how to edit the settings for an existing property:
Check the checkbox at the start of the row for the property you want to edit.
Click the Edit button.
You can change the Name or Property type and add and remove Values.
To add a value, click on the + icon and fill out the edit field.
To remove a value click on the trash can icon
that appears when you hover the mouse to the right next to the value field you want to remove.
Clicking on the trash can removes the item immediately.
When all the required changes have been made click Save.
Deleting an entire property
The following steps show how to delete an existing property and all its values:
Check the checkbox at the start of the row for the property you want to delete, click Delete
A notification will be displayed asking if you want to remove the property and reminding you that the property and all of its values will be deleted
Click the Yes, delete software tag button to delete the property and all its values, or click the No button to abandon the deletion.
Working with Software Tags
Using Software Tags allows you to create custom labels and associate them with the software titles you have deployed in your estate. An administrator with either the Full Administrator or Group Administrator role can set Software Tags in their environment, they can also create Management Groups based on the tag name and value. For details about configuring Tachyon users, Roles, and Management Groups refer to the Permissions Menu pages.
In short, you can work with Software tags by:
Creating your Software Tag.
Associating the new tag with a software title.
Creating a Management Group based on the Software Tag name and Tag value rules (This step can be run anytime before evaluation).
Evaluating the new Management Group by running a Basic Inventory Consolidation.
If an administrator adds or modifies Software Tags or associations, they will have to run the Management Group evaluation report again to see the updated devices reflected in Inventory.
In the following example, we create a Software Tag to show how an EUC Manager who is a Full Administrator can use this feature alongside Management Groups and Experience. They want to do this, as part of an initiative to track down the causes for a recent spate of software crashes in their estate, because they want to prohibit this software from use.
Note
To find out about, how an EUC manager can use Experienceto track down the causes of a recent spate of software crashes, refer to Investigating software crashes and Broadcasting information via Announcements.
Creating tags for a software installations
Our administrator, needs to create their Software Tag and associate the new tag with a software title.
To create our Software Tag, our administrator logs into Tachyon and switches to Settings→Configuration→ Custom Properties→ Software Tags
There are already tags for the Finance department for Microsoft products and specifically installations for Microsoft Project. Now, they will create a new tag called Adobe Reader X - prohibition.
Then they click Add. In the Add Software Tag box, they type Adobe Reader X - prohibitionin the Name field.
In the Values box, they add the Adobe Reader X values by clicking the plus button, and click Add.
Apply Software Tags
Now our administrator has set up the Software Tag for the legacy software, they can assign the tag to installations of Adobe Reader X software.
They switch to the Inventory→Software Inventory→Aggregate page.
Then, filter on Title contains reader which returns five Total Installs.
With the results selected, our administrator can click Assign Tags. In the Assign Tags pop-up, they choose Adobe Reader X - prohibition for the Tag Name and Adobe Reader as the Tag Value from the drop-down lists, and then click Save.
Note
Please note, Software tags will be assigned to every version of that software edition. For example, in our example we only have one version of Acrobat Reader, which is version 10.0.1.0, the one we want to prohibit.
But in a production environment, it's common to have multiple versions of a software title, Software Tags apply to all versions of a software edition not individual versions of that title.
Create a Management Group
Now our administrator has created their Software Tag and associated it with a software title, they will create a Management Group based on the Software Tag name and Tag value rules. When they have completed this step, they will evaluate the new Management Group by running a Basic Inventory Consolidation.
To create the Management Group for Adobe Reader X, our administrator navigates to Settings→Permissions→Management groups. Because our administrator wants to create a group that captures every install of this legacy software, they decide to create a Child group under All Devices called Adobe Reader X - prohibition.
Next, the administrator needs to add at least one rule to the new group to define its scope. They select, Software Tag Adobe Reader X - prohibition is one of Adobe Reader and then click Save.
Now, they click Evaluate. This evaluates then new group against the default Inventory, and matching items populate the Management Group.
Finally, our administrator navigates to Inventory→Hardware→Hardware Inventory and filters the view by the newly created Management Group, Adobe Reader X - prohibition. Now, they can view every device where Adobe Reader is installed.
Now our administrator has identified their problematic software installations, they can use Explorer to run instructions against that Management Group. For example, they could run Remove application <appname> published by <publisher> using the Adobe Reader X - prohibition Management Group as a coverage parameter to remove all versions of the specified application published by the specified publisher, if present.
Or, they could use Remove version <version> of application <appname> published by <publisher> to remove the specified version of the specified application published by the specified publisher, if it is present. Our administrator could identify these details using Inventory filtered to the Adobe Reader X - prohibition Management Group.
Note
Both Remove application <appname> published by <publisher> and Remove version <version> of application <appname> published by <publisher> are included in the Instructions.
Refer to Tachyon Product Pack Deployment Tool to find out about the PPDT that you can use to upload multiple Classic and Integrated Product Packs into Tachyon.