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How does the Client in Asset Inventory Service update itself?

This blog entry will give you an insight into the self-initiated update functionality of the System Center Online Client.

 

The SC Online client you have installed on your computers does not only perform inventory scans, it also makes sure it is up-to-date with the latest released version of its software.

 

How does the Client update itself? 

The System Center Online Client can update itself either through the standard Windows Update experience or by self initiating the update directly through the System Center Online Client.

 

Updated via Microsoft Update: 

The SC Online client can automatically update itself through the Windows Update experience.  If a system is “opted-in” to Microsoft Update and is set to download and install Recommended and Important updates, your SC Online clients will be updated depending on your client settings (e.g.  Automatically download and install or notify). 

 

Self-initiated update:

For systems not opted into Microsoft Update, or not set to download Recommended updates, the System Center Online Services client can still update itself to the latest version.   

 

When the client runs it looks for updates to itself.  

If a new update is found, it will be downloaded and installed after the current session has finished, to make sure there is no reboot required when the update is installed.

 

If the update system in Windows is set to get updates from an internal server (ex. WSUS), it will look there first.

The client stops looking if the internal server does not have any updates. However, if the server is not reachable the client connects to Microsoft Update. This functionality can be turned off if you do not want clients to connect to Microsoft Update as a backup if they are outside of the corporate network. A laptop that is connecting to the internet from home is a perfect example of this situation.

 

Use the Administrative Template if you wish to turn off direct access to Microsoft Update. We recommend that you only turn it off if you are using a separate update server (ex. WSUS) or if the computer is running Vista and opted-in to Microsoft Update. In the other cases, the clients will not be updated if direct access is turned off.

 

What classifications does the Client use?

Client updates can come in these classifications:

-          Security Update in case a vulnerability is found. Designated as Important.

-          Update to improve  the current version. Designated as Recommended.

-          New functionality. Designated as Optional, but very recommended by the product team!

The frequency of updates for the client will be low. We estimate it to be up to two per year.

 

Why self-initiated update?

The purpose of having the client to update itself is to provide updates for only this product, while using the reliable Microsoft Update channel. The computer does not have to opt-in for updates from other Microsoft products. It is also the only way Recommended and Optional updates will be available for Windows 2000 and XP. Automatic update agent will only install Important updates on those operating systems.

A client that initiates the search for and installation of new updates enables the full functionality for all operating systems supported by AIS, not just Vista.

 

What’s coming?!

When Microsoft Volume License Reconciliation is added to your Asset Inventory Service in Q3 of 2008, we will also release a new version of the client. It will be available when the preview is released. A Product Family and Category will be published in Q3 so it will be visible in WSUS servers.

 

The update will contain improvements that make the client gather more detailed data about the licensing information to enable the new addition to the service. It will also improve the reliability of the scheduling of the tasks that run the client.

 

We really appreciate if you take the time to participate in the Preview of our upcoming release and provide feedback on the service addition that can go into the official release! Look for a new tab in the Web UI, and use the TechNet forums to provide feedback.

 

Annika Elias

Program Manager

System Center Online

Posted Wednesday, May 14, 2008 6:18 PM by annikae | 0 Comments
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John, on the AIS Software Catalog...

Hello,

The following is a contribution by John Ellis, one of our senior program managers.  He is responsible for one of the most important aspects of our service: the Software Catalog.  This exerpt describes in detail how our Catalog operates, and how it can lend value to your repoting experience.

=======

The software catalog is comprised of “signatures” and “annotation”.  The signatures are the raw properties that have been inventoried from computer systems (e.g. Publisher, Title, Version etc.) for a specific piece of software. The annotation is data that has been supplied by researchers to provide more information about the piece of software.  Initially, this annotation is limited to specifying a category for the application, but in the future this will be expanded to provide more information and value.

 

In addition to adding information, the annotation supplied by researchers also addresses inconsistencies in the signature data. For example, in an ideal world, a software company would always use the same name in the publisher field of the software signatures it produces. However, in the real world this tends not to be the case. Even Microsoft uses “Microsoft”, “Microsoft Corporation” and, sometimes in the case of updates & patches, supply no name at all in the publisher field. The annotation provided by the researchers operates on a case-by-case basis and supplies an appropriate name for the publisher which leads to vastly increased consistency, readability and organization of the data in reports etc.

 

In fact, the benefit of this consistency is so great that systems and processes have been evolved to “alias” publisher names and add the signature to the software catalog even if the signature itself has not been categorized. This explains where certain entries will appear in reports as “uncategorized” even if the publisher name has been aliased.

 

Another key role of the researchers is to identity public/private signatures. Users of the service will always see the data they have submitted – whether nominally public (e.g. a commercially available software application) or nominally private (a line-of-business application) – as a set. Great care is taken to ensure that customer data is restricted to being viewed by that customer only. However, there are major benefits in extracting the public signatures from the collected inventory – if only so that that the researchers can supply the desired annotation. As an integral part of this activity, the researchers indicate which signatures are public to ensure that when the list of public signatures is used for other aggregate reporting and systems management purposes, the others are excluded.

 

The distribution of signatures over customers has a classic “long tail”. There are certain signatures that are reported by many/most customers, but these represent a tiny percentage of the total. Conversely, there are huge numbers of signatures that are reported by only one, two or three customers ….. viewed as a graph, these would appear as a “long tail”. From the service perspective, the return on investment from focusing on signatures in this “long tail” is very low, and in many cases these signatures are restricted to a particular customer. However, the return on investment from focusing on the popular signatures is very high since these are almost guaranteed to be public commercial software or freeware. As a result of this distribution of software signatures, the number of customers reporting a particular signature is a major factor in establishing the priority to add further annotation.

 

When a signature is displayed as “uncategorized” it is generally in a queue waiting to be categorized. If it is considered to be restricted to a particular customer, it will likely never be categorized. If it is popular, it will be categorized as soon as possible. Over time additional systems and processes will evolve to accelerate the rate at which software signatures are annotated. In the first release of the service, there will a significant latency as these processes are developed. It is likely that the catalog will not undergo substantial update for 2 or 3 months while new signatures are being received & processes evolve. After that time, updates on a weekly basis are a reasonable expectation.

“This posting is provided “As Is” with no warranties, and confers no rights. “

Posted Friday, November 16, 2007 5:42 PM by pbourgeau | 0 Comments
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AIS Account Activation

I thought we would start this blog by beginning at the beginning: a walk-through of how your AIS account gets activated.  As you probably know, an AIS account gets created automatically through an integration with the Microsoft volume License Service site.  Typically, your company's MVLS administrator logs into MVLS, and either makes him or herself the AIS admin, or designates another person.  There are one or two gotcha's that are good to know about.  I asked our program manager responsible for the account creation and activation part of the service to write a piece to explain in more detail, as follows.  I hope this clears it up for folks.

==================================

Here is a quick overview of the AIS registration process:

Your company has purchased the MDOP Asset Inventory Service subscription on its Microsoft volume license agreement. The Volume license agreement administrator receives an invitation e-mail to visit https://licensing.microsoft.com to activate your AIS subscription. During activation the agreement administrator is asked to designate a subscription contact who will administer the AIS subscription by specifying their Passport/Windows Live ID. If they do not know the Passport/Windows LiveID then they are asked to provide the e-mail address for the subscription contact. The subscription contact receives an e-mail  to login to AIS and must login with the Passport/Windows Live ID specified by the agreement administrator.

 

In case, you get the message “Login Error: Sorry, we do not have an AIS account associated with this LiveID. If you are logging in for the first time then please try back after 24-48 hours. For additional help and support, please visit the AIS TechCenter. “

Please try these two steps:

 

1)      Create a Passport/Windows Live ID for the e-mail address on which you received the e-mail and try to log back in to AIS. This can be done by clicking the ‘Windows Live ID’ link on the AIS login page. Click ‘Sign Up’ on the top left hand side of the sign-up page. Select the option “Yes, use my e-mail address” and specify the e-mail address on which you received the invitation e-mail from Microsoft Volume Licensing. Please create a strong password as Asset Inventory Service requires usage of a strong password for security purposes.

2)      If you still get the login error, check with your agreement administrator and ask him/her for the Passport/Windows LiveID that was specified during activation.

 

Posted Friday, October 05, 2007 8:32 PM by pbourgeau | 1 Comments

Introducing Microsoft Asset Inventory Service (AIS)

Welcome!

Welcome to the System Center Online Services, Asset Inventory Service forums.  If you are participating in our current  Asset Inventory Service Technology Preview,  you are already one of our best customers with Windows Client, Software Assurance and the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack. You may have questions that others have had before you, or you may have suggestions for the Microsoft development team for the next version of the service.    If you don’t have all that, you may be here because you want to hear about other people’s experience with the service, or register for our upcoming technology preview. 

In both cases we want to welcome you and encourage you to post your ideas, feedback, questions, input and comments.

 

What is it?

Asset Inventory Service is a hosted service that allows you to download a small client and install it on your PCs, upon which the client will register and report the software inventory of that PC to a web-based service.  The service compares the list with the AIS central software title catalog, rationalizes the publisher, names and version numbers, and categorizes the software in your report.  You (and your designee’s) can then securely access the reports through a simple-to-use webpage after providing proper credentials.  You can use these reports to simply count your installations, prepare for your next round of procurement, or check the successful deployment of applications.

In the future, you will also be able to compare this information to your Microsoft software licenses and automatically build your license reconciliation reports.

 

How is the service available?

Currently in beta, the Asset Inventory Service ‘Community Technology Preview' is a beta program available only to Software Assurance customers who have purchased the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP).   The CTP program provides a pre-release opportunity to deploy the final release candidate of the AIS service before the final release to MDOP for SA customers later this year.

We will be expanding the availability of the Asset Inventory Service offering to more customers in future releases.

 

MDOP customers can register for the CTP program via the Asset Inventory Service Connect site once they have activated their AIS account. After logging in to AIS, simply click on the “AIS Support” link on the right side of the AIS homepage.  From there, you can register on the AIS Connect site.    The AIS Connect site allows you to post feedback directly to our development team, and participate in feedback and discussions about the service.

 

 

More information about MDOP and Asset Inventory Service:

For more information on Asset Inventory Service, find our datasheet here.  A video and other information about the service can be found under this link: www.windowsvista.com/optimizeddesktop.  Here, you will also find information about the other components of MDOP.

 

Thank you and we look forward to your participation in these forums for our new AIS service.

 

The AIS team

 

“This posting is provided “As Is” with no warranties, and confers no rights. “

Posted Friday, September 28, 2007 6:25 PM by pbourgeau | 4 Comments
 
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