Finding Serial Keys used to install a software
There is a Internet based company where every user has local admin rights on his desktop system. These user require such free hand to carry out their day to day work, but the company also wishes to do a software audit from time to time.
Using Software inventory in SCCM 2007, is it possible to discover the product/serial keys used to install a particular software on the SCCM clients?
Risposte
- Yes, if the serialnumbers are stored in registry you can use the configuration.mof and SMS_def.mof to get the information. You can use this tool - http://www.myitforum.com/inc/upload/12336RegKeyToMOF.zip to create the correct entries in the two mof files.
Kent Agerlund | http://scug.dk/members/Agerlund/default.aspx | The Danish community for System Center products- Contrassegnato come rispostaCosmicStorm domenica 15 novembre 2009 2.19
Well, anyone who knows me knows that I hate using the word "impossible". So I won't say it's impossible. But it's highly improbable. The reason is that every software vendor may use different techniques to ensure software is licensed. Some may check during installation simply to confirm that the serial number entered matches a complex mathematical algorythm, which simply allows installation to continue, but doesn't record the actual serial number applied. Some may modify a regkey, or locally data-obfusticated file, or WMI entry, with some messed-up version of the serial number, which only the vendor could interpret using reverse data reading programs. Some may make a change to a local file, like a .exe or .dll, and change a single bit from meaning "30 day trial" to "licensed".
And we're back to Kent's answer: if the serial number is directly recorded in the regkey, sure, no problem. We can get that. But no one has clearly listed the serial number in a regkey in years and years because of software piracy.
So... it's really going to depend upon the vendor of the software. What you can do is contact each vendor, and tell them your delimma, and see what they offer as ways to resolve serial numbers.
...and that's why I'm saying you don't really need to care about the serial numbers used. I'm not sure why you think you need to know. If someone installed software locally that wasn't a corporate-purchased software license, you should be able to smack them back (they are your employees, and that's a corporate asset--they must have signed something when hired that said they aren't supposed to do that). And if it was a corporate purchased software, then your accounting department should have records. If neither of those statements are true in your organization--forgive me for being cynical--but your company has bigger problems than trying to determine the serial number of software installed. They need to clean up their processes.
Standardize. Simplify. Automate.- Contrassegnato come rispostaCosmicStorm domenica 15 novembre 2009 2.17
Tutte le risposte
- Yes, if the serialnumbers are stored in registry you can use the configuration.mof and SMS_def.mof to get the information. You can use this tool - http://www.myitforum.com/inc/upload/12336RegKeyToMOF.zip to create the correct entries in the two mof files.
Kent Agerlund | http://scug.dk/members/Agerlund/default.aspx | The Danish community for System Center products- Contrassegnato come rispostaCosmicStorm domenica 15 novembre 2009 2.19
- are there any step by step instructions to use the tools
A wiki on how to extend Hardware Inventory for ConfigMgr07: http://www.myitforum.com/myitwiki/SCCMINV.ashx
However, Kent did say "if the serialnumbers are stored in the registry"
The last time I heard of a software vendor that stored their serial number in the registry, it was 1998. No one does that anymore because of software piracy. If you happen to *know* that a particular software has the serial number stored in the registry, then yes, you can easily use Mark Cochrane's RegKeyToMof to extend Hardware Inventory to send you the data in that registry into your database. But I really doubt you'll find much. Piracy is too much of an issue to make it that easy to find a serial number anymore.
What you, as a ConfigMgr07 Admin can do from a licensing standpoint is to start looking into the "Asset Intelligence" reports, and configuring the AI Licensing, and possibly setting up an AI Sync Point to keep your categorizations up to date. It's not the easiest aspect of ConfigMgr to configure, but once done will help. Note it will NOT tell you the exact serial number used to install software. What it will do is help you compare the # of licenses you've purchased (based on an import of valid license counts you provide) against the # of installed instances of that software.
Standardize. Simplify. Automate.- so you mean to say that there is no way you can use SCCM2007 to tell what serial key the users used while doing a local software installation using local admin rights on their desktop systems?
Is there no other way? Well, anyone who knows me knows that I hate using the word "impossible". So I won't say it's impossible. But it's highly improbable. The reason is that every software vendor may use different techniques to ensure software is licensed. Some may check during installation simply to confirm that the serial number entered matches a complex mathematical algorythm, which simply allows installation to continue, but doesn't record the actual serial number applied. Some may modify a regkey, or locally data-obfusticated file, or WMI entry, with some messed-up version of the serial number, which only the vendor could interpret using reverse data reading programs. Some may make a change to a local file, like a .exe or .dll, and change a single bit from meaning "30 day trial" to "licensed".
And we're back to Kent's answer: if the serial number is directly recorded in the regkey, sure, no problem. We can get that. But no one has clearly listed the serial number in a regkey in years and years because of software piracy.
So... it's really going to depend upon the vendor of the software. What you can do is contact each vendor, and tell them your delimma, and see what they offer as ways to resolve serial numbers.
...and that's why I'm saying you don't really need to care about the serial numbers used. I'm not sure why you think you need to know. If someone installed software locally that wasn't a corporate-purchased software license, you should be able to smack them back (they are your employees, and that's a corporate asset--they must have signed something when hired that said they aren't supposed to do that). And if it was a corporate purchased software, then your accounting department should have records. If neither of those statements are true in your organization--forgive me for being cynical--but your company has bigger problems than trying to determine the serial number of software installed. They need to clean up their processes.
Standardize. Simplify. Automate.- Contrassegnato come rispostaCosmicStorm domenica 15 novembre 2009 2.17
I agree with Sherry but to simplify just the collecting of serial numbers process.
If you can tell us where the serial number is that you want to collect, then we can tell you how to collect it with ConfigMgr.
http://www.enhansoft.com/- Dear Sherry, Garth & Kent,
Well it was just a wild idea that ran thru my mind just to know if SCCM can do it. As for pulling up an employee is one thing I would love to do, but I am afraid that they would give me a full time policing job.
Thanks anyway all of you for addressing my wild wierd ideas.
