Network Inventory User's Guide

Adding Software Products to Software Catalog

You may need to identify distribution files or portable software that does not leave any installation data on the system and cannot be recognized automatically. In order to enable the Automation Server to recognize such products, you must add a Software Product to the Software Catalog and manually configure its software recognition rules.

A software recognition rule consists of one or multiple conditions. All of these conditions must match in order for the rule to produce a positive match of the software product.

Network Inventory supports the following types of software recognition conditions:

  • Registry conditions — These conditions recognize software products based on the installation information: product name, version, and publisher. For Windows, this information is collected from the system registry; for Linux, the information is collected from the package management system; for OS X, the information is provided by the System Profiler tool. You can specify the following parameters for a condition based on the installation information:
    • Product name (required)
    • Manufacturer (optional)
    • Product version (optional)
  • File conditions — These conditions use the information from files (such as .exe, .dll, .ocx files) to recognize the product. You can specify the following parameters for a file condition:
    • File name (required) - the File Name parameter is not case sensitive
    • File size (optional) - the File Size parameter is specified in bytes
    • Product version (optional) — the Product Version from the Version Information block, which is usually contained in executable files

      IMPORTANT: If you plan to use file conditions for recognizing software, you must enable the Inventory Analyzer to scan computers’ hard drives and apply software recognition rules based on file parameters.

      NOTE: File conditions are applicable only for Windows computers.

  • Custom Registry Key conditions — These conditions recognize software products based on the custom registry keys. You can specify the following parameters for the condition:
    • Condition (required) - the condition for the comparison.
    • Custom Registry Key (required)- the Root Key, Key Name and Value Name parameters of the key.

      IMPORTANT:

    • Comparison parameters (required) - the comparison Operator and the comparison Value, if required by the specified condition.

      IMPORTANT: If you plan to use custom registry key conditions for recognizing software, you must enable the Inventory Analyzer to scan computers’ specific keys and apply software recognition rules based on custom registry keys.

      NOTE: Custom Registry Key conditions are applicable only for Windows computers.

To add a Software Product, follow these steps:

  1. In the Network Inventory application, go to the Software Catalog, click New. This will bring up the Software Product [Product Name] dialog box.
  2. On the General tab, type in the product name (required) and specify other properties as needed.
  3. Click the Recognition Rules tab and add a recognition rule as follows:
    1. Click New and click Yes when prompted to save the Software Product. The Software Recognition Rule [Rule Name] dialog box opens.
    2. If you want to add a file condition:
      1. Click Add > File Condition. The Software Recognition - File Condition dialog box opens.
      2. In the File Name field, type in the name of the file to search computers’ hard disks for. You can click Browse for file and browse the local network for the desired file.

        NOTE: f the Software Catalog already contains a product whose software recognition rule is based on information from the target file, you can click Select from database and select this file using the Select File dialog box.

      3. If you need to refine the condition, you can additionally specify the following parameters:
        • To match by file size, select the File Size check box and type in the size in bytes. If you point to a disk file, or when the file has already been discovered and its information is available in the database, the File Size field will be auto-populated with the information from the file properties. You can keep the value or change it.
        • To match by product version, select the Product Version check box and enter the version number. You can use standard wildcard characters: the question mark (?) substitutes for one character, the asterisk (*) substitutes for any zero or more characters. If you point to a disk file, or when the file has already been discovered and its information is available in the database, the Product Version field will be auto-populated with the information from the file properties. You can keep the value or change it.
    3. If you want to add a registry condition:

      1. Click Add > Registry Condition. The Software Recognition - Registry Condition dialog box opens.
      2. In the Product Name field, type in a value for matching to the product name in the installation information. You can use standard wildcard characters: the question mark (?) substitutes for one character, the asterisk (*) substitutes for any zero or more characters.
      3. If you need to refine the condition, you can additionally specify the following parameters:
        1. To match by software publisher, select the Manufacturer check box and type in the value for matching the product publisher in the installation information.
        2. To match by software version, select the Product Version check box and type in the value for matching the product version in the installation information.

          You can use standard wildcard characters ? and * in both the Product Version and Manufacturer fields.

        Repeat these steps to add as many conditions as needed. When a registry rule has multiple conditions it will be evaluated using AND logic, meaning that the rule produces a match when all of its conditions are satisfied.

        IMPORTANT: Strict conditions (conditions without wildcard characters) take a precedence over non-strict conditions (conditions with wildcards for character substitution). This means that if a product in the registry matches any strict registry condition, all non-strict registry conditions ignore that product.

    4. If you want to add a custom registry key condition:
      1. Click Add > Custom Registry Key Condition. The Software Recognition - Custom Registry Key Condition dialog box opens.
      2. Choose a condition from the list.

        Some conditions let you compare the attribute with another values (such as: equals, does not equal, is greater than, is less than), others simply check the attribute (such as: exists, does not exist).

        • If you want to add a condition that simply checks the attribute by the Key Name or the Value Name, do the following:
          1. Choose a condition, for example “The key exists in the registry” or “The value does not exist in the registry”:
          2. Under Custom Registry Key, specify the Root Key and the Key Name values for matching these parameters in the registry information.
        • If you add a condition that requires a value for comparison, do the following:
          1. Choose a condition, for example “The value satisfied the comparison with the string value“.
          2. Specify the Custom Registry Key parameters, such as Root Key, Key Name, and Value Name.
          3. Under Comparison, specify a comparison operator and a value for comparison in the corresponding fields.

      5. Repeat these steps to add as many conditions as needed. When a rule has multiple conditions it will be evaluated using AND logic, meaning that the rule produces a match when all of its conditions are satisfied.

  4. Click OK. Repeat the steps above to add other recognition rules as needed. When a product has multiple rules, they will be applied using OR logic, meaning that it will be recognized when at least one of the contained rules is satisfied.