The 1E Catalog
An introduction to 1E Catalog and how to access and use the feature.
1E Catalog provides the following capabilities within the Inventory and other applications:
Have a consistent view of your estate
Uniquely identify software products deployed in your estate
Identify device types (laptop, desktop, virtual machine), operating system, device family, device manufacturer, and maximum number of processors
Normalize processor information like processor model, processor family, vendor name, and number of cores of processors running on your devices
Define and apply bundling rules to identify suites and their components
Define and apply entitlement rights, such as version upgrade/downgrade, edition downgrade, and software assurance rights which are used during license demand and compliance calculations
Apply autofill entitlement information using software SKU.
1E Catalog and SLA are components of the Inventory application. Other applications such as AppClarity access it directly and many Catalog related operations are carried out within these companion applications and features. Therefore you will rarely need to directly access the Catalog UI, but it can be used for the following:
Managing match rules - so the Catalog can link and normalize inventory products.
Connecting to the CatalogWeb UI
Note
The Catalog UI can be reached directly using the following URL:
https://<tachyon DNS Name FQDN>/CatalogWeb
where <tachyon DNS Name FQDN> is the one set up during the preparation phase, as described under the heading DNS Names.
Software Products page
When you access the Catalog UI, the first page displays a list of software products in the Catalog.
The top right of the screen shows navigation elements for each section of the UI:
Admin
Allows you to manage who runs resynchronization events to refresh Catalog data. Only users with admin privileges see this tab.
Updates
Provides the status for catalog updates - only if you subscribe to the service.
Products
The software products screen, which is also the Catalog landing page where you can perform tasks like:
Devices
List of Catalog devices - click Managing match rules to update details of a device or Match Rules to edit an existing rule or associate a new rule with it.
Processors
List of Catalog processors - click Modify to update the details of a processor or Managing match rules to edit an existing rule or associate a new rule with it
Vendors
List of software publishers in the Catalog
Glossary
List of terms used in the Catalog UI
Managing software products
To add a new software product:
Click the Add a new product link.
On the Product Information page, complete the following mandatory fields:
Vendor
Title
Version
And optionally:
Colloquial Version
Edition
Release Date
End of Support Date
Is a License Required?
Click Save.
To provide more information about the new product, click the Additional details tab and complete these fields or tick the checkboxes as necessary:
Is Bundle
Is Distributable - is this software title distributed separately?
Language
Windows 10 Compatibility
Vendor Unique Number
Installer Identifier
UN Standard Product Service Code
Common Procurement Vocabulary Code
eCl@ss
Global Product Classification.
Click Save.
Managing versions
To view a software product's versions, click the Version link to the right of the product screen to show a list of versions for that product, refer to Using filters.
Adding a new version
To add a new version:
Click the Add a new version link at the top of the screen - Adobe Acrobat in this example.
On the Product details tab for Adobe Acrobat, complete the Version field.
And optionally:
Colloquial Version
Edition
Release Date
End of Support date
Is a License Required?
Click Save.
To provide additional information associated with this particular version, click the Additional details tab and complete the fields or tick the checkboxes as necessary:
Is Distributable?
Vendor Unique Identifier
Installer identifier.
Click Save.
Deleting an existing product version or edition
You can only delete products, versions, or editions you created. New product items added by the 1E curation team are marked as 1E Verified and cannot be deleted.
To delete an existing product version or edition:
On the Version screen find the item in the list.
Under the Actions column, click Delete.
Managing bundles
Bundles are a collection of products and the 1E Catalog already contains all the bundles you should need. In the event you need to create a bundle:
On the Products screen, find the item from the list, for example, Microsoft BackOffice Small Business Server.
Under the Actions column, click Bundles.
Click Add a new bundle.
On the Bundles screen:
In Vendor, click the list and choose a vendor for this bundle. The title list displays after you pick a vendor - the image displays both the Vendor and Title pick lists
In Title, click the list and choose a product title for this bundle
Complete the remaining fields as necessary.
Click Create.
Managing filesets
Filesets define which files are used by a particular product. AppClarity consumer uses filesets to determine its usage, it does this by looking at the last run dates for that filename.
Adding a fileset
To add a fileset:
On the Product screen, find the item you want to add files to.
Under Actions click on Files.
On the Product Files screen, click Add a new Product File.
On the Product File screen, enter the filename:
Note
From 1E Catalog 2.0 and later products can be associated with more than one executable, before this version products were restricted to a single executable.
Click Create.
Modifying an existing fileset
To modify an existing fileset:
On the Product screen, find the item you want to modify.
Under the Actions column, click Files.
From the list of files, locate the one you want and click Edit.
In the Product File screen, update its filename
Click Save.
Deleting an existing fileset
To delete an existing fileset:
Repeat steps 1 and 2 above.
From the list of files, locate the one you want and click Delete.
You will be prompted to confirm your actions.
Click Delete to remove the file or Back to List to cancel the action.
Managing license rules
Licensing rules define how a product or a specific version of a product is licensed, for example, what metric they use or the average price of the license. You can set up different license rules for specific versions by using version patterns, for example, 10.*.* has license metric = Device; 11.* is licensed by User.
To add a licensing rule:
On the Product screen, locate the item you want to associate a licensing rule with.
Under the Actions column for that product, click License Rules.
Click Add a new license rule.
In the Product Information screen:
In the Matching section, populate the pattern fields if you are using patterns - you can use the wildcard (*) in the pattern.
In the License information section for these mandatory fields:
License Metric - click the list and choose one
License Term - click the list and choose from device, non-perpetual, perpetual or subscription
Currency - click the list and choose one
Price - enter the unit price for it
Optionally:
Pricing Date.
Click Save.
Updating an existing license rule
You can modify or delete an existing Licensing Rule associated with a product, for example the licensing rules for Adobe Acrobat.
To modify an existing license rule:
Locate the item from the list and under the Actions column, click Modify.
In the Product Information screen, update the fields as necessary.
Click Save.
Deleting an existing license rule
To delete an existing license rule:
Locate the item from the list and under the Actions column, click Delete.
You will be prompted to confirm your actions.
Click Delete to remove the rule for that product or click Back to List to cancel the action.
Managing devices
To add a new device:
Click the Devices link - top right of the screen.
On the Devices screen, click Add new Device.
On the Add a new Device screen - fields marked with a red asterisk are mandatory:
Vendor - enter the name of the vendor
Device Type - enter the type of device, for example, motherboard, laptop, notebook, desktop, server, or blade server
Family - enter the family of the device such as EliteBook, HP Omni, Pavilion, Pro, TouchSmart
Model - enter the model number of the device
Max Socket Count - enter the socket count for the device
Release Date - click the calendar icon and choose a date.
Click Save.
Managing processors
Note
From 1E Catalog 1.2.100 and later Processor identification and normalization has greater accuracy and coverage.
To achieve this we removed the current dependency on Processor frequency during normalization. We did this because processors can run at a variety of speeds, so using the processor frequency for normalization does not help to identify processor type. For example, you could have up to 10 different speeds for a single processor because an OS typically reports the speed of a processor as it’s currently running.
Now, one of the following criteria has to match during normalization:
SourceFamily and SourceModel
SourceName.
This change makes finding matches more successful because there's no need to evaluate every source field.
In the following example, the two source entries will be matched to the same processor because the SourceName values are the same:
SourceVendor | SourceFamily | SourceName | SourceModel | SourceFrequency | SourceSocket |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
GenuineIntel | Intel Xeon | Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2637 v4 @ 3.50GHz | NULL | 3500 | NULL |
GenuineIntel | NULL | Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2637 v4 @ 3.50GHz | NULL | NULL | NULL |
To manage processors:
Click the Processors link - top right of the screen.
On the Processor screen, click Add new processor.
On the Add a new Processor screen - fields marked with a red asterisk are mandatory:
Vendor - enter the name of the vendor
Processor Type - enter the type of processor such as desktop, server
Family - enter the family for the processor such as A4, Athlon XP, Atom, Corei5, Corei7, Pentium, Xeon
Model - enter the model of the processor such as 260M, T2500, Z670
Frequency - enter the processor frequency in GHz such as 0.600, 2.500
Socket - enter the model of the socket supported by the processor such as FM1, FCBGA676
Core Count - enter the number of cores for the processor such as 1, 2, 4, 8
Threads Per Core - enter the threads for the processor core such as 1, 2
Chip Module Count - enter the count for it such as 1
Release Date - click the date icon and choose a date.
Click Save.
Managing vendors
To add a new vendor:
Click the Vendors link - top right of the screen.
On Vendors screen, click Add new vendor
On the Add a new vendor screen:
Vendor - enter the name of the vendor - a mandatory field.
Short Name - enter a short name for the vendor.
Alias - enter an alias if there is one.
Click Save.
Managing match rules
Match rules are the method used to link source inventory to catalog entries. Match rules can be assigned to a specific:
Version of a product - typically used if the product is not an edition-based product
Edition of a version of a product - typically used if the product is an edition-based product.
For example, the inventory source holds the following information about a software title:
Source Vendor = Microsoft
Source Title = Microsoft Visio Professional 2013
Source Version = 15.0.2.355
However, the corresponding entry in the Catalog has a different vendor and title resulting in a mismatch. To resolve this, the Catalog contains rules which directly match these types of entries. In this example, the product is edition-based (Visio) so the Catalog match rule is an edition match rule – linking the source to a specific edition of a specific version (15.0.2.355) of this title.
Vendor Microsoft resolves to Microsoft Corporation
The Microsoft Visio Professional 2013 title resolves to:
Title = Visio
Edition = Professional
Colloquial Edition = 2013
Version 15.0.2.355 maps directly to 15.0.2.355
This is how the Catalog normalizes the source inventory. The same match rule principles apply equally to devices and processors in the Catalog.
Adding a match rule to a version of a product
To associate a match rule to a version of a product:
On the Product screen, click Filtering and enter your search criteria.
Click the Versions link to the right of the product.
Filter by version number to narrow the list and select the product version you want.
Under the Actions column, click the Match Rules link for that specific version.
Click the Add a new match rule link.
Enter the source inventory data that will be used to link to this product and version combination:
Source - the source for this inventory, for example SCCM
Source Vendor - the text that's in the Vendor field in the source data
Source Title (mandatory) - the text that's in the Title field in the source data
Source Version - the text that's in the Version field in the source data
Source Colloquial Version - the text that's in the colloquial version field in the source data
Source Edition - the text that's in the edition field in the source data.
Click Save
When a source inventory contains all the information that's recorded in the match rule fields, it's linked to the product version containing that match rule.
To add a match rule to an edition of a version, follow steps 1 through 3, and then:
Under the Actions column, click Editions.
From the list of editions, choose the one you want and click the Match Rules link to the right of it.
Repeat steps 5 to 7 above.
You can add match rules to Devices and Processor by simply following the procedures above in the respective Devices and Processor sections.
Removing an existing match rule
You can disassociate the link between a source inventory and a catalog item by deleting its match rule.
Follow the steps above to navigate to the product or version the current match rule is associated with, or the product, version, or edition.
Click on the Match Rules link on the right-hand side of the specific version, or edition.
Then click delete on the match rule to be removed:
This unlinks the source inventory from this catalog entry.
Using filters
The Filtering feature narrows the results of your search list. To do this:
Click Filtering.
Enter your search criteria.
Click Filter.
How we manage versions
The same number of version parts are required for each major.minor version of a product, the logic is:
If the first entry for a product is 9.0, we accept it.
If a new entry in the Catalog has 9.0.1, the original 9.0 entry will be automatically updated to 9.0.0 thereby forcing a three-part version number for consistency (9.0.0 and 9.0.1).
If there are two entries in the Catalog with the same major.minor version and title (like 9.0 and 9.0.0) they will be merged to form one record (after merging just 9.0.0 will be left).
Any existing match rules are added to the new consolidated record.
For example:
Adobe After Effects 9.0 has a match rule:
Adobe After Effects 9.0.0 has a match rule:
The source parts of these two match rules are merged to produce two new match rules associated with the new 9.0.0.0 version: