Software Usage Tracking

The Software Usage Tracker feature of the MAP Toolkit provides information about how many client computers and devices in the network environment access core Microsoft® server products. You can use this information to better understand the client access license (CAL) needs in your environment.

The MAP Toolkit uses two categories of methods for determining usage tracking – log parsing and Windows inventory.  The first parses server log files to gather information about software usage for Microsoft® server products such as Windows Server® 2008, SQL Server® 2008 R2, Exchange Server, System Center Configuration Manager, and Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server. Before you can use the Software Usage Tracker feature for these products, you must first configure your servers to generate log files and event logs required by the MAP Toolkit. Not all server products require log files for reporting data about software usage.

The second is Windows inventory.  Starting with Windows Server 2012, a new Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) set of classes was implemented to support User Access Logging (UAL).  User Access Logging collects and aggregates records of client requests (both user and device) of server roles, and installed products (if registered with UAL) on the local server system.

For more information about Microsoft® server products that require log files for usage tracking or are supported via the UAL interface, see the Software Usage Tracker section of the Getting Started Guide, which is available separately on the Start menu after installation of the MAP Toolkit.

Related Topics

Log Parsing Overview
User Access Logging Overview
Combined Products Usage Summary

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