Design considerations
Information that will help you design and plan the implementation of AppClarity in your organization.
This page is part of the design phase of implementation.
Architecture
The picture opposite shows the AppClarity consumer application installed on a Tachyon server, along with other applications that are installed using Tachyon Setup.
If you have an older version of Tachyon, or SLA Platform, then you will need to upgrade it to Tachyon 5.1 to install AppClarity. For more information on installing and upgrading, please refer to Installation scenarios below.
Software Reclaimer
The Software Reclaimer is an optional feature. It's an executable run on Windows clients responsible for implementing reclaim policies provided by AppClarity. For more information, please refer to Deploying Software Reclaimer.
If you intend to use Software Reclaimer, then consider whether you will use HTTP or HTTPS, and which port.
A default installation of Tachyon uses standard ports HTTP 80 and HTTPS 443. You may wish to use a different port for Software Reclaimer, for example, if you previously used:
HTTP 8335 or HTTPS 8336 with AppClarity 5.2
HTTP 8080 or HTTPS 8443 with SLA Platform 3.3 and AppClarity 6.1
You can manually add a website binding after installation of Tachyon. You may already be using a non-standard port if specified in Tachyon Setup during its installation, or you manually added a binding after installation for another application like Application Migration, or ActiveEfficiency.
If you intend on using Software Reclaimer with HTTPS then the following applies to the Tachyon website's SSL certificate:
It must be trusted by clients running the Software Reclaimer. This is also the same requirement for Tachyon clients. Please refer to Client authentication certificates
Its public key must be encoded in each of the Software Reclaimer XML file(s) as described in Deploying Software Reclaimer.
AI Powered Auto-curation
Using the AI Powered Auto-curation feature, you'll be able to increase the total amount of normalized software in your Inventory repositories. This is done using AI that integrates with the inventory consolidation process. By using AI, your organization will benefit from significant numbers of normalized software and a reduced manual effort needed to normalize software.
You can enable AI Powered Auto-curation either when you install Tachyon or post installation. Refer to AI Powered Auto-curation to find out how you can do this.
Installation scenarios
For all installation scenarios you require:
A valid licensed installation of Tachyon
The license must include AppClarity and Inventory.
New installation
Note
AppClarity is included with Tachyon, so you'll need to use the Tachyon setup wizard to install AppClarity. To activate AppClarity you'll need a valid license file.
1E will provide you with a Tachyon.lic license file that defines the products and features your Tachyon System is able to use, for how long, and how many devices it supports, this may be an evaluation or subscription license.
The license must be activated. Once activated, it may be used only by the Tachyon System that activated it.
Licenses can be renewed or updated, but if allowed to expire, then the affected products or features will not be usable.
For a new installation, the Tachyon Setup program will let you select the license file from any folder on disk.
For an existing installation, the license file is copied into the folder: %PROGRAMDATA%\1E\Licensing on your Tachyon Server.
For details of what the license file needs to contain, please refer to License requirements for consumer applications.
Before installing Tachyon, please refer to Planning for Tachyon, this includes details of server sizing. The addition of AppClarity does not affect sizing, as it is included with Tachyon.
Existing Tachyon installation
You may already have Tachyon installed, perhaps with the Application Migration consumer application installed to support 1E Windows Servicing Suite (WSS).
You can install AppClarity as a local consumer application on your existing Tachyon web server if it is Tachyon 5.1 or later.
Please refer to Upgrading to Tachyon Platform.
Existing SLA Platform installation
You may still have a legacy SLA Platform installation, perhaps with Application Migration to support 1E Windows Servicing Suite (WSS), or AppClarity 6.1.
You can upgrade SLA Platform to Tachyon 5.1 and then upgrade that to 1E . Please refer to Upgrading to Tachyon Platform.
Tip
If you only require the Inventory features of Tachyon, and do not require its Real-time features, then you do not need a Response Stack, and you can choose the Tachyon Master Stack configuration inTachyon Setup.
Migrating from AppClarity 5.x
There is no upgrade path to AppClarity from AppClarity 5.x.
If you have AppClarity 5.x, the simplest scenario is to install Tachyon platform and AppClarity on a separate server. Before installation, you should consider taking a copy of your existing Catalog database and using that for the new Tachyon platform installation. You will then have two installations of 1E Catalog, and you will have to maintain both site-defined Catalog entries separately until you decommission AppClarity 5.x.
You can install Tachyon platform and AppClarity on the same server as an existing AppClarity 5.x installation, provided the hardware specification is suitable. Both installations can share the same 1E Catalog, provided AppClarity 5.x is already using 1E Catalog 2.0 or later. You can have separate Catalog installations if you want, but sharing the same Catalog ensures your site-defined Catalog entries are accessible to both systems.
In either scenario, after installation, you can optionally migrate certain entitlements from AppClarity 5.2 to AppClarity using the AppClarity v5.2 connector.
Comparison of AppClarity 5.2 and AppClarity 6.1 features
The following differences are not definitive or exhaustive. Later versions of AppClarity have additional features not included in AppClarity 6.1.
Area | Feature | New feature in 6.1 | Comparison with 5.2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Entitlement | Types | SKU, defined in Catalog, auto-populates product details and rights. Contracts
| Entitlement storage is compliant with ISO 19770-3. AppClarity 5.x was first tool on market using this standard developed by 1E. 6.1 console does not have renewals reminder. Renewal Date column appears as End Date in 6.1. The table below explains differences between entitlement entry screens.
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Import | Staged bulk upload as drafts for verification in the console, and then published. |
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License Demand Calculation | LDC | LDCs for the following complex metrics:
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Compliance | Compliance |
| 6.1 does not use XPS for reports; XPS Viewer is no longer a requirement. The following is a list of XPS reports available in 5.2 and similar in 6.1. Some of these reports are not related to Compliance but included here for completeness. Also see other reports in Introducing Inventory.
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Currency | Default currency is configurable in the database. Currency exchange rates, and consolidation into a single currency is not used. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reclaim | Policies | A single policy can support multiple editions and versions. Multiple editions can be selected. Versions support wildcards. For example, Microsoft Visio 8.* to create a policy for Visio with major version 8. Each VTVE in the 1E Catalog can then have its own custom command line. 6.1 allows reclaim policies to be created for products that are not yet inventoried, provided they exist in the 1E Catalog. A reclaim policy can be applied globally or to one or more management groups. Any machine can only have one policy applied for a product, therefore AppClarity warns you if there are similar policies and lets you set a precedence for which policy to apply. | Usage is calculated slightly differently, so you will see different numbers in AppClarity 5.2 and 6.1. See Usage categories. The following reclaim features are not available in 6.1:
Big red button: The 'disable integration services' option in 5.2 is replaced by a Reclaimer provider on/off button in 6.1. 6.1 version of the pre-flight (evaluate) report does not have summary details. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Software Reclaimer | Software Reclaimer executable, its settings, and its API are the same as before. Only the base URL is changed, which means new deployments are required. In 6.1, the Software Reclaimer and API are installed as part of the SLA Platform; policies are managed by the AppClarity consumer application. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SLA Platform | Console | New web based UI instead of the old click-to-run Console. AppClarity 6.x is a consumer application, installed on the SLA Platform web server. This is why you sometimes see the name AppClarity Web. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Catalog | SLA Platform console allows for bulk export of Catalog entries from the Console into a macro-enabled Excel spreadsheet, and using macros to import via theSLA Platform API. | For 6.1, SLA Platform connects directly to the 1E Catalog, allowing you to create site-defined entries via either the SLA Platform console, or Catalog console. For 5.2, AppClarity connects directly to the 1E Catalog. Site-defined entries are created in the Catalog console. BDNA integration is not included in 6.1. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Connectors to data sources | AppClarity uses SLA Platform connectors to get inventory and usage data from various data sources, including Tachyon, and third party sources such as SCCM, BigFix, ServiceNow, vCenter, as well as general SQL queries to SQL Server and Oracle, and file uploads. The above connectors are provided by SLA Platform, AppClarity provides additional connectors for importing entitlements. See Connectors page. | AppClarity 6.x does not require ActiveEfficiency. ActiveEfficiency and its Scout are replaced by SLA Platform and its connectors. AppV and iQSonar not supported in 6.1. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Management groups | More flexible. AppClarity now supports devices in multiple management groups, including global, and uses precedence to decide which reclaim policy should be used if a device is a member of different management groups with similar policies. Management groups are configured in SLA Platform using rules. There are rules for device hardware, Active Directory, processor and product. | Management groups operate differently. In 5.x devices can be a member of only one management group according to precedence rules. In 6.x devices can be a member of multiple management groups.
In 6.1, Entitlement is assigned to a management group in the Additional information section, but this is not used in any built-in reports, but can be used in custom BI reports for example. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Access control | SLA Platform supports only users, not AD security groups. SLA Platform does not have role-based access control (RBAC), therefore all SLA Platform users are able to access all platform and consumer features, including AppClarity. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
No emails, therefore administrative alerts not sent by email. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Installation license key | Single license for AppClarity covering all features; previously Desktop, Server and Reclaim were separate licenses. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Repositories | Admins can create multiple repositories for Inventory, Entitlement and Compliance, to allow opportunities for tasks like testing and audit projects. | Although not the same, 6.1 has Entitlement repositories, and 5.2 has Entitlement libraries. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Business Intelligence | BI Dashboard | BI 2.0 for 6.1 is an SLA Platform consumer application, and does not require any third party product, other than SQL Server Analysis Server (SSAS). Overview
Software
| BI 1.0 for AppClarity 5.2 (Dundas) has the following dashboards:
|