Symantec ALTIRIS ASSET MANAGEMENT SUITE 7.0 - V1.0 User manual

Asset Management Suite
User Guide
Version 7.0

Asset Management Suite User Guide
The software described in this book is furnished under a license agreement and may be used
only in accordance with the terms of the agreement.
Documentation version: 7.0
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For information about Symantec’s Maintenance Programs, you can visit our Web
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www.symantec.com/techsupp/
Contacting Technical Support
Customers with a current maintenance agreement may access Technical Support
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When you contact Technical Support, please have the following information
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■Product release level
■Hardware information
■Available memory, disk space, and NIC information
■Operating system

■Version and patch level
■Network topology
■Router, gateway, and IP address information
■Problem description:
■Error messages and log files
■Troubleshooting that was performed before contacting Symantec
■Recent software configuration changes and network changes
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Technical Support ............................................................................................... 4
Chapter 1 Introducing Asset Management Suite .............................. 9
About Asset Management Suite ........................................................ 9
About configuration item management ............................................ 10
About software license management ............................................... 11
About contract management .......................................................... 11
About procurement ..................................................................... 12
Terminology for Asset Management Suite ........................................ 12
Chapter 2 Installing Asset Management Suite ................................. 15
Installing Asset Management Suite ................................................. 15
Licensing Asset Management Suite ................................................. 15
Chapter 3 Migrating data from Notification Server 6.x .................. 17
About migrating data from Notification Server .................................. 17
Migrating software license items from Notification Server .................. 17
Chapter 4 Using configuration items ................................................. 19
About configuration items ............................................................. 19
Viewing and creating configuration items ......................................... 20
Merging two configuration items .................................................... 21
Chapter 5 Using organizational configuration items ...................... 23
About organizational configuration items ......................................... 23
Importing configuration item data from other systems ....................... 24
Chapter 6 Using financial configuration items ................................ 27
About financial configuration items ................................................ 27
Using accounting codes ................................................................. 28
Using cost items .......................................................................... 28
Using cost types ........................................................................... 30
Using currency items .................................................................... 30
Contents

Using depreciation schedules ......................................................... 30
Chapter 7 Using the currency convertor ........................................... 33
Using the currency convertor ......................................................... 33
Chapter 8 Configuring asset management settings ....................... 35
About settings ............................................................................. 35
Configuring settings for accounting periods ...................................... 36
Configuring base currency settings ................................................. 36
Configuring contract global settings ................................................ 37
Configuring license usage settings .................................................. 37
Configuring settings for migrating legacy software licenses ................ 37
Chapter 9 Using configuration items for assets .............................. 39
About asset configuration item types ............................................... 39
Creating configuration items for assets ............................................ 40
Contents8

Introducing Asset
Management Suite
This chapter includes the following topics:
■About Asset Management Suite
■About configuration item management
■About software license management
■About contract management
■About procurement
■Terminology for Asset Management Suite
About Asset Management Suite
Asset Management Suite provides a management console, a database environment,
and a suite of solutions that let you track assets and asset-related information.
The suite includes Asset Management Solution, Barcode Solution, and CMDB
Solution. It specializes in tracking IT-related assets, such as computers and
software. You can also use it to track other types of assets, such as furniture and
company cars.
In association with assets, you can record and track many types of documents
and documented details. For example, you can track lease schedules, NDAs
(nondisclosure agreements), SLAs (Service Level Agreements), and warranty
information. Contracts and contract details can be associated with assets so you
can easily view the contractual information that is related to specific assets. You
can even configure the software so that it notifies you of the upcoming actions
that might be specified in a contract.
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Chapter

You can use the management console to view the value of an asset or a group of
assets. You can use it to view an asset's assigned department, cost center, and
owner. You can use it to improve your ability to allocate software and hardware
costs to specific owners and departments. You can also use it to keep track of
software license details so that you avoid paying for the licenses that you might
not need.
Asset Management Suite provides predefined templates and quick-start processes
to help you set up and manage different the asset management processes. Asset
Management Suite is divided into the following components:
■Configuration items
■Software licensing
■Contract management
■Procurement
From acquisition to disposal, Asset Management Suite helps you accurately value
your assets, track ownership, and maintain associations with related documents.
Additionally, it aligns with IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) standards and helps
you comply with federal laws, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, COBIT, and HIPAA.
About configuration item management
Asset Management Suite helps you track assets and other resources. For each
asset that you want to track, you create a corresponding configuration item in
the system. When you create the configuration item, you specify the details of
the asset. For example, you can specify the manufacturer, warranty information,
and cost of the asset. Templates are provided to help you create items for assets,
such as phones, computers, monitors, printers, and furniture.
In addition to manually creating configuration items, you can use a discovery
program to detect network-connected devices in your environment. When the
device is discovered, an item is automatically created for it in the system. You can
also create configuration items by importing asset-related details from other
database environments.
In addition to creating items for each asset, you create configuration items for
the details that you want to associate with the assets. You then specify the
associations between the asset items and other items in your environment. For
example, a computer can be associated with its related purchase order, location,
and user. Reports and filters help you determine the status of assets in your
environment.
Introducing Asset Management Suite
About configuration item management
10

The home page for managing assets and configuration items can be accessed in
the Symantec Management Console. Click Home>ServiceandAssetManagement
> Manage Configuration Items.
About software license management
Asset Management Suite helps you track software licenses and applications. You
create configuration items for software licensing elements in your environment.
You then associate these license-related items with other information in your
system. Templates are provided to help you create several types of software
license-related items, such as software products, software licenses, and software
purchases.
You can manually create configurations items for software licensing elements.
You can also use a discovery program to identify and create configuration items
for the software running in your environment. You then specify the associations
between the software products, software licenses, and other related items. Reports
and filters help you determine your compliance level and requirements.
The home page for managing software licenses can be accessed in the Symantec
Management Console. Click Home > Service and Asset Management > Software
Licensing.
About contract management
Asset Management Suite helps you track contracts. You create configurations
item for the contract-related details that you want to track in your environment.
You then associate the contract-related items with other items in your system.
For example, you can create a contract item that specifies the contract details
that are associated with a new computer purchase. The contract item specifies
the details of the agreement and includes attached source documents. The contract
item can then be associated with the computer. This association lets you track
the document-related details that are associated with assets and other items in
your environment. Templates are provided to help you specify different types of
documents, such as contract, lease schedule, NDA, and warranty.
The home page for managing documents and contracts can be accessed in the
Symantec Management Console. Click Home > Service and Asset Management
> Contracts.
11Introducing Asset Management Suite
About software license management

About procurement
Asset Management Suite helps you manage your procurement process. You create
configuration items for procurement-related documents, such as purchase request,
purchase order, and invoice. You associate these items with other items and track
them through your system. For example, a purchase request can be used to
generate a purchase order. When the purchase order is filled, the received items
can be associated with the purchase order item.
Templates are provided to help you create and manage procurement-related item
types, such as stockroom, catalog, purchase request, purchase order, and invoice.
Creating and using these item types lets you track assets and resources from the
initial procurement process to the eventual disposal. You can run reports and use
filters to determine the status of items in your procurement process.
The home page for managing the procurement process can be accessed in the
Symantec Management Console. Click Home > Service and Asset Management
> Procurement.
Terminology for Asset Management Suite
To better understand Asset Management Suite, you should understand the
following terminology.
■Base configuration item type: The configuration item type on which other
configuration item types are based. For example, you might use the Computer
base configuration item type to create a configuration item type named PC
and a configuration item type named Mac. When a configuration item type is
created, it inherits all of the data classes of its base configuration item type.
If data classes are added to the base configuration item type, the same data
classes are added to all configuration item types that are based on it.
■Configuration item: The individual entries that represent specific items,
resources, and other details that exist in your asset management environment.
For example, a user named Jon, a location named California, a computer asset
named GX620, and a depreciation schedule named Straight Line are all
configuration items.
■Configuration item type: A type of configuration item. For example, Location
is a configuration item type that can be comprised of configuration items, such
as New York, California, and Utah. When you create a configuration item, you
select the configuration item type you want to use as a template.
■Data class: Data classes represent the categories of data that you want to record
about a configuration item. For example, the Computer configuration item
Introducing Asset Management Suite
About procurement
12

type contains a data class named Manufacturer. Data classes are comprised
of data class attributes.
■Data class attribute: Specific attributes within a data class that further describes
the data class. For example, the Computer resource type contains the
Manufacturer data class that contains the Manufacturer Name and Model data
class attributes.
■Data class attribute parameter: A parameter that is associated with a data class
attribute. For example, the name to be entered into the Manufacturer Name
data class attribute might have a parameter of less than 256 characters.
13Introducing Asset Management Suite
Terminology for Asset Management Suite

Introducing Asset Management Suite
Terminology for Asset Management Suite
14

Installing Asset
Management Suite
This chapter includes the following topics:
■Installing Asset Management Suite
■Licensing Asset Management Suite
Installing Asset Management Suite
Before installing Asset Management Suite, be sure that your server environment
meets the requirements for Symantec Management Platform.
Symantec Installation Manager is a program that guides you through installing
Symantec products. It can be downloaded from the
To install Asset Management Suite
1Run Symantec Installation Manager.
2From the Install New Products page, check the checkbox to install Asset
Management Suite.
3Click Next, and then follow the on-screen instructions to complete the
installation.
Licensing Asset Management Suite
Each solution in Asset Management Suite includes a trial license. You can register
and obtain extended trial licenses through our Web site at www.symantec.com.
You can also purchase full product licenses. For more information on obtaining
licenses, see the Symantec Management Platform Getting Started Guide.
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Chapter

Installing Asset Management Suite
Licensing Asset Management Suite
16

Migrating data from
Notification Server 6.x
This chapter includes the following topics:
■About migrating data from Notification Server
■Migrating software license items from Notification Server
About migrating data from Notification Server
You can migrate data from Notification Server 6.x environments to be used in
your Symantec Management Platform 7.0 environment. Several different migration
options are available, such as on-box upgrade, off-box upgrade, and import. Use
the option that best meets your needs.
See instructions for migrating data in the Symantec Management Platform
Installation Guide.
Migrating software license items from Notification
Server
After completing the task of migrating data from a Notification 6.x environment,
you must perform additional tasks to migrate software license items to Symantec
Management Platform 7.0. Software license items that still need to be migrated
are called legacy software licenses.
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Chapter

To migrate legacy software licenses
1Complete the steps to migrate data from Notification Server 6.x.
See instructions in the Symantec Management Platform Installation Guide.
2Make sure that your Migrate Legacy Software Licenses settings are correct.
See “Configuring settings for migrating legacy software licenses ”on page 37.
3Make sure that the Software Catalog is populated and current. You can use
manual entry, run the Software Discovery task or run an inventory policy.
4In the Symantec Management Console, click Home > Service and Asset
Management > Software Licensing.
A list of software license items appears in the Licensing Reports part. Software
license items that still need to be migrated do not appear in the list.
5In the right pane, in the Legacy Licenses Requiring Migration part, click
Legacy License Count.
The Legacy License Count indicates the number of software license items
that still need to be migrated.
The migration wizard appears.
6Follow the on-screen instructions in the migration wizard for each software
license item that needs to be migrated.
After a software license item is migrated, it appears in the Software License
list. The Legacy License Count indicates the number of software license items
that still need to be migrated.
Migrating data from Notification Server 6.x
Migrating software license items from Notification Server
18

Using configuration items
This chapter includes the following topics:
■About configuration items
■Viewing and creating configuration items
■Merging two configuration items
About configuration items
Asset Management Suite stores information in its database. All the asset-related
information that you want to track must be entered into the database. Asset
Management Suite provides a user interface that helps you easily enter
information.
You enter information into the database as a configuration item, also called a
resource entry. Configuration items represent an object or any detail that you
want your system to track. Although you can enter any type of information about
any item type, Asset Management provides predefined configuration item types.
A configuration item is an entry that represents a specific resource or detail in
your environment. These items can be assets, locations, invoices, schedules, users,
contracts, and so on.
The following items are examples of configuration items:
■A user named Jon
■A location named California
■A computer named GX260
■A depreciation schedule named Straight Line
■An invoice named Invoic0002
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Chapter

You can associate a configuration item with other configuration items. For
example, you can associate a user named Jon with a location named California
and a computer named GX260. Creating these associations between configuration
items lets you track items and manage information in your asset management
environment.
You create configuration items by using a configuration item type. Configuration
item types are the templates that define what data is created and stored about a
specific configuration item. For example, the configuration item type named
Location can contain configuration items named New York, California, and Utah.
Each of these location-related configuration items contains the same attribute
information, such as address, city, and state.
Predefined configuration item types are organized into the following categories:
■Contract types: Generic contract, lease schedule, master lease, NDA, service
level agreement, warranty
■Financial types: Accounting code, cost structure, cost type, currency,
depreciation schedule
■Organizational types: Company, cost center, department, location, user
■Communication equipment: Cell phone, desk phone
■Computer and peripherals: Computer, monitor, network printer, peripheral,
scanner, virtual machine
■Datacenter types: Computer type, power, rack, services, UPS
■Generic asset types: Asset, network resource
■Other assets: Furniture and fixtures, office equipment, site, subnet
■Software licensing types: Software product, master license agreement, software
license, software purchase, virtual license agreement
Note: We recommend that you use the predefined configuration item types because
they correspond with predefined reports. But if none meet your needs, you can
create your own types.
Viewing and creating configuration items
Configuration items represent the resources and information that you want to
track in your asset management environment.
You can access configuration items using several different procedures.
Using configuration items
Viewing and creating configuration items
20