<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  Modules > Asset Management > Software License Management > Managed Software List (MSL) > Training for Recognition

MSL titles may be trained periodically for recognition from various auto-discovery feeds, including the Workstation Data Assistant (WDA) scanner.

Auto-discovery tools tend to report discovered software at a very granular level, oftentimes reporting the same licensed title in many ways.  Auto-discovery tools will also report a myriad of discovered software that does not require license, such as sub-components of a licensed title.  In order to allow the MIE to update deployed position information using auto-discovery feeds, the MSL title must be updated with the various ways the auto-discovery feed spells the title.  This is performed using the Recognition Training screen.

The Recognition Training screen may be found under the Managed Software left menu option (given sufficient access exists.)

The screen is divided into several regions.

This area also has two checkboxes for filtering the list of displayed MSL titles. Check “Hide items not officially on MSL” if you do not wish to see MSL titles that are not officially on the MSL. This corresponds to the setting “Item is officially on the MSL,” which can be turned on or off from the Managed Software List Entry screen. Check “Hide items not on compliance watch” if you do not wish to see MSL titles that are not being watched for compliance or usage monitoring. This corresponds to the “Watch compliance on this title” and “Watch usage on this MSL item” settings, which can be turned on or off from the Managed Software List Entry screen. If neither setting is enabled, the MSL title will not be displayed if “Hide items not on compliance watch” is checked.

Region 1, MSL Title Selector, is located at the top left.  It contains a list of MSL titles that have not had training performed in the last N days (N is a setting that defaults to 30).  Clicking on an entry in this list will cause the rest of the screen to update with the title's information.

In this area you will also find an input where you may set a filter, to narrow the list of titles to view for training.  Note that the filter you set here will apply to the title or publisher AND the number of days since last training (set below) will also apply.  If you are not seeing the titles you expect to see, make sure you set the Days Since Last Training to 0 and click Set.

 

Note: Selecting a title by clicking on an entry in this region will cause the title's date of last training to be updated.  The title will remain visible, allowing you to check and add any new aliases, until you select another title.  When you select another title, the current title will no longer be visible in the selector box since it will no longer be older than N days (unless N has been set to 0).

 

Region 2, MSL Title Information, is located at the top right.  It contains information about the currently selected title as well as one or more buttons to make a new version for the currently viewed title or create an entirely new MSL title.

The Add New button, if visible, will allow you to create a new MSL entry.  Note that this button will only be visible if the setting SLMAllowAddMSLFromRecognition is set to -1 (it defaults to 0 - off).  If you successfully create a new MSL title, it will be added to the selector list and will be the currently selected title.

The New Ver button allows you to create a new version of the currently selected MSL title.  Most of the information from the current title will be filled in for you, with the obvious exceptions of the version and release date.  The New Ver button is really adding a new MSL title (same as Add New), it just saves time by filling in many of the fields for you.  When saved successfully, the new MSL title will be selected automatically.

 

Region 3, Settings, is located in the middle of the screen.

Days since last training - this is used to focus training attention on just those titles that have not been trained in a while.  The default is 30 days, but may be changed to narrow the focus further.  Click on the Set button directly to the right of this setting to refresh all the regions of the page.

Show hidden - Check this box to show hidden aliases.  Hidden aliases, when showing, may be assigned for recognition the same as any other currently unassigned alias.  If you assign a hidden alias for recognition, then remove it from assignment, it will return to the list of unassigned aliases, but will no longer be hidden.  If you want it hidden, you will have to hide it again.

Show Wiki Trained Titles* - This checkbox is only displayed to users working within customers with CustomerSetting192 (MSLWikiLocalRecogOnly) set to -1.  Check this box to show Aliases that have been trained to Wiki level MSL Titles.  Leave this box unchecked in order to filter out titles that have been trained to Wiki level MSL Titles.  This will allow you to avoid retraining a MSL Title that has already been trained.

Unassigned alias filters - this is used to narrow the unassigned alias list to just those entries that are likely to belong to the currently selected MSL title.  The entries in this setting will be matched (on a "like" basis) to the title of the alias list.  If you enter more than one filter (each one on a separate line), then the filter entries will be applied in an "OR" fashion.

You may enter multiple filters on the same line, each separated from the other using a semicolon.  Any same-line filters will  be applied in an "AND" fashion.  For example:  "Standard edition;9.0" will translate to (title like '%Standard Edition%' AND title like '%9.0%').

Note: You must enter something in this box, or select an Unassigned Alias Publisher from the list, in order to see matching aliases.

Unassigned alias publisher - This is a drop-down list of all publishers in the list of unassigned aliases.  If Show hidden is checked, the drop-down will include publishers of hidden unassigned aliases as well.  By selecting a publisher from the list and clicking Get Aliases, you will only see unassigned aliases that exactly match the selected publisher.

Note: When you select a publisher from this drop-down, any entries in the Unassigned alias filters box will be ignored.

Aliases added since - this is used to focus on only those aliases that have been added to the MIE since a given date/time.  By default, this setting is populated with the date/time of last training of the currently selected title.  If training has been kept up to date, then only new aliases need to be considered for training.

Note: When changing the Unassigned alias filters, Unassigned alias publisher or the Aliases added since settings, you must click the Get Aliases button adjacent to the Aliases Added Since input in order to refresh the unassigned aliases and settings regions.

If you are opted into the Wiki Community for training on this title, you will see the following inputs:

Currently Viewing - used to change the aliases and assigned aliases views from Current MSL to Master (Wiki) MSL (and vice versa)

Wiki Community Notes - This is a common shared free-form note area meant to allow various trainers in the wiki community to leave comments for each other.  If you add a comment, add it at the top and include your first name and current date.

Click the Updt button to save any changes to Wiki community notes and/or to change the current view.

 

Region 4, Training Type Notification, is located just below the Settings Region.  This region displays a message to the user to indicate if the user’s training changes will be only on the local customer or if the changes will be reflected in the WikiMaster Customer.

 

Region 5, Unassigned Aliases, is located in the bottom left of the screen.  This region shows all aliases that are currently not assigned for recognition and that match the Unassigned alias filters andAliases added since settings.

 

Region 6, Aliases Assigned, is located in the bottom right of the screen.  This region offers two views - a list of all aliases that have been assigned to the currently selected MSL title for recognition or a filtered list of MSL titles to which you can assign aliases.

When the Assigned Aliases radio button is checked, the view shows the list of aliases currently assigned to the MSL title that was selected using the MSL Title Selector (Region 1).  Any aliases moved from the unassigned list will be moved into this list and assigned to the MSL title that was selected using the MSL Title Selector.

When the MSL Titles radio button is checked, the view shows a filtered list of MSL titles.  The list will be filtered using the same filter from the MSL Title Selector region (Region 1).  However, the list will not honor the Days Since Last Training setting (meaning the filtered list will show all titles that match the filter, regardless of when training was last performed).  This view lets you assign aliases to titles other than the one that is currently selected.  Choose one or more aliases from the unassigned list, choose only ONE title from the MSL titles list, then click the >> button to make the assignment.  This view is helpful when you spot aliases in the unassigned alias list that belong to other titles.  You don't have to switch to another title and reset the unassigned alias filter in order to make the assignment.  Just switch views to the list of MSL titles and make the assignment.

When you decide to revert a training between an MSL Title and an Assigned Alias, by selecting such an Alias, or multiple aliases, and then clicking the << button, you will see a display of the count of authorizations that have been recognized using that alias and could potentially be impacted by a header harvest event within a Consolidate job once the Alias has been “untrained”.  You may click OK to proceed to remove the Alias or you may click Cancel to leave the Alias trained and prevent the header harvest event for these authorization.

Please check the section on Special characters that have special significance in SQL and might impact Recognition training.