Keeping a database of all your license's

[EduTech]

Hi All,

I have been asked to make a database of all the licenses for all the machines in our group. Basically i need to include the following:

- Site Number
- Machines Asset Number
- Software Installed
- The Licence (product Code)
- What Kind of Licence (OEM or Single License or Site license)

How do you Keep your licenses on file?

It would be nice to know how you do this, as i have been told to just make a database on access or use Excel and record it all on a spreadsheet.

It’s a little project i have been given as at the moment all the licences are in a fireproof safe, but just in boxes and we don’t know which ones for what site/machine etc

Its going to take me a while to do it sorting through them all but i do need to put them all on some form or record. *what a great first job to give me only started a few days ago lol :P *

Any suggestions are much appreciate, and i hope you understand what i mean here..

Thanks in advance

James

[Edu-IT]

If I was doing this then I would probably use Access as it'll allow you to do exactly what you want. You could create a system which can be accessed on the network through a web browser using a scripting language to pull the data from the database. Of course you need to take into account that some of this information should not be viewable by everyone.

[Grommit]

When we buy the PC's they come with XP Pre installed so we have no paper licenses...

What then ?

[EduTech]

@ Grommit.. it is mainly the office Lisences, We also have XP installed on the machines when we buy them. and we have Office sent but they send the lisence seperate so we just have loads of boxes with codes stuck to them.

and we still have all the 2003 lisences that i need to go through lol.

This is going to be a pain.. lol

James

[GlennT]

I use Spiceworks to keep track of this...
Spiceworks - Free Network Monitoring Software for Network Management

[pallen]

Spiceworks will show you the information you need, but you will need to match this with the licences you have purchased. You will need to make sure all the software installed can be tallied with the paper documentation you have for the licences(As you need to ensure that the person before you didn't just install the software without buying a licence). Although once you have done this, you will only need to run spiceworks to show what software is on the machines, and if it is only you who is installing it, you know that this matches the licences you have.

[sparkeh]

Spiceworks will show you the information you need, but you will need to match this with the licences you have purchased. You will need to make sure all the software installed can be tallied with the paper documentation you have for the licences(As you need to ensure that the person before you didn't just install the software without buying a licence). Although once you have done this, you will only need to run spiceworks to show what software is on the machines, and if it is only you who is installing it, you know that this matches the licences you have.

Spiceworks allows you to enter the number of licences you have for a product and will flag up when you are over that licence.

[pallen]

sparkeh, didn't realise that, it's been a while since i used it. But the point I was getting at is that you will need to do the paper trail originally to ensure you have all documentation for your no of licences. I had to remove software from computers when I started as teachers had been making requests for MS Office to be looked at as it wouldn't load properly. This was because it wasn't installed on the machine, and the fix was to install the software. The problem was that when I started, we had 1 suite with MS Office installed an no licences. This all had to come off as the school could not afford to buy them.

So as someone has pointed out, no documentation = no software.

[EduTech]

Thank you guys going to look at spiceworks now i have seen this before but never really looked at it.

Only one thing that worries me,

"Organizations with less than 250 devices on their network. It will work with more but it won't be as fast"

i have allot more than that.. will this be a problem


James

[sparkeh]

@pallen: Yes of course you are correct, this is something that is easy to overlook. Got me wondering if I could actually 'prove' the amount of licences we know we own.

*scurries off to sort through the filing cabinets*

[Pete10141748]

We keep the paper copies of all licenses, scans of these paper copies in jpeg format, and an Access database which we use to store all info about software and its licenses.

Access is a pain to setup, but it definately works if you get it right! :P