MCS: How to Track Client Usage
Goal
Track the use of client applications through the assignment of client licenses.
Technique
The Licensing feature in Management & Control Services (MCS) reports current and historical usage of client applications, including summary statistics on maximum usage. MCS calculates usage by tracking the consumption of client licenses.
This feature is used by the following Attachmate products and components:
Before You Start
This How To assumes that you have already installed MCS and set up access control permissions. It also assumes that your client application's product CD includes a license certificate.
Tasks
The following are the main tasks you need to complete for this How-To (with links to the detailed steps which follow):
- Configure licensing options.
- Install a license certificate.
- Assign permission to use a certificate.
- View usage information.
1. Configure Licensing Options
To configure licensing options |
- In the MCS Selection panel under MCS Functions, choose Licensing.
- Under Licensing, choose Configure Licensing.
- In the Settings page, ensure that Enable Licensing is selected and modify the values for other options as required.
For a description of options on the Settings page, choose Help in the upper-right corner of the MCS window.
- Click Save to activate your settings.
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2. Install a License Certificate
Before you can use the Licensing and Metering functions of MCS for a client application, you must install the license certificate for that client.
To install a license certificate |
- In the MCS Selection panel under MCS Functions, choose Licensing.
- Under Licensing, choose Configure Licensing.
- In the Certificates page, choose Add.
- In the Open dialog box, locate the license certificate (.xml) file, which is typically provided on the product's installation CD, and then choose Open.
For example, for 3270 viewers, the license certificate is located at \myExtra\HAS30\EViewer\ViewerLicense.xml.
- When prompted, type a description for the certificate (for example, Terminal Viewers) and click OK, and then click OK to close the Certificate Install message box.
The certificate is added to the certificate list.
In addition, when you refresh the browser, a Metering node and a corresponding sub-node are added to the MCS Licensing tree. (The name of the new node is defined in the license certificate file.) These nodes allow you to access Metering information for the corresponding client applications.
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3. Assign Permission to Use a Certificate
Once you have installed a license certificate for a particular client application, you can assign permissions to use that certificate. You can grant permissions to all client users — by assigning Anonymous access — or you can grant permissions to specific users or groups.
To assign user permissions to a certificate |
- In the MCS Selection panel under MCS Functions, choose Licensing.
- From the Licensing tree, choose Permissions.
If the Permissions node does not appear in the tree, no client license certificates have been installed.
- To assign permissions for a specific client license, select that client license name in the tree.
- In the Licensing Permissions page under Authentication Type, select the type of authentication you want to use to control access to the selected client license.
- AnonymousNo user name or password is required; any client user can access the license certificate.
- User nameNo password is required; however, the client user name must be assigned to the license certificate.
- User name/passwordBoth the client user name and password are required to access the license certificate.
If you select User name or User name/password, the user directory is displayed.
- From the Directory list, select one or more users or groups, and then click Add>> to assign those users to the selected client license.
- Click Save to activate your settings.
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4. View Usage Information
If the Licensing feature is enabled and you have installed a license certificate for one or more client applications, you can view current and historical usage information about those clients from the MCS Metering pages. MCS meters licenses on a per-user basis, not on a per-client basis.
To view usage information |
- In the MCS Selection panel under MCS Functions, choose Licensing.
- From the Licensing tree, choose Metering.
If the Metering node does not appear, it indicates that no client license certificates have been installed.
- Click one of the Metering tabs, Overview, Current, History, or Log, to view license usage data.
- The information on the Current, History, and Log pages is presented in sortable lists. Click a column header to change the sort order or direction. An indicator arrow shows which column is sorting the list and in what order.
- To return to the unfiltered list after choosing a date from the filter list, choose the blank item at the top of the filter list, and then click Refresh.
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