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ESI Usage Monitor is used to monitor application usage patterns.  It monitors when the application is running as well as when the application is being used (active usage). It can be used to report utilization percentages and it can also be used to gather information used to calculate concurrent use (to assist in calculating the actual usage for titles that are licensed by concurrent use).  It can also be used to detect usage for web-based applications.  The ESI Usage Monitor honors the following two settings on the MIE:

The usage monitor collects information about the applications for which it is to monitor usage from the Managed Software list on the MIE.  As the Managed Software list is established, each title can be marked as to whether or not usage is to be watched.  The usage monitor refreshes its list of watched applications each time it reports back to the MIE.

The usage monitor is a silent and small application that simply watches the user's task manager task list as well as the active window.  It samples the task list and determines the active window on the usagePollingInterval frequency, comparing what is actually running to what it has been told to watch.  It records the number of times it sees the target program running as well as the number of times the program is actively being used.

Additionally, the usage monitor can be told to look for a specific phrase in the application window's title bar.  This is used primarily to recognize when a user is accessing a web-based application via a browser.

The following information is reported back to the MIE on the usageUploadInterval frequency:

•Managed software list number (if matched via recognition to an actual MSL title)

•Executable (name of executable image that was running)

•Asset number

•Login ID (ID of individual that was logged in when program was discovered to be running)

•Computer Name

•Publisher (as read directly from the executable file)

•Title (as read directly from the executable file)

•Version (as read directly from the executable file)

•Samples seen (the number of times the application was seen running when sampled)

•Samples active (the number of times the application was actively being used when sampled)

•Samples taken (total number of samples taken during the reporting period)

•Date/time last seen

 

The usage monitor communicates using standard XML over http protocol.  It does not generally require any additional ports to be open or firewall exceptions to work.