Anyone using JTB FlexReport to track license usage?

[MinottKerr]

We are considering using JTB FlexReport to track Desktop license usage and looking for people who have implemented it. We have a series of our own scripts tracking max # of users, etc. but we are interested in tracking particular users and aggregating usage by departments and the like. Are there folks who are using JTB FlexReport and if so have found it to work well? Also would appreciate any advice in setting it up, caveats, gotchas and whatever else to look out for. Thanks!

[JasonRoper]

I use it at my company.  I use JTB FlexReport LT and the full product for Autodesk and ESRI products.  The LT product is great for a spot check of licenses.  It's free to use and it will show a report of all licenses available and the people using them.  You just enter the licenses with their port@servername in the 'Licenses to report on' tab and click 'Find Licenses'. 

Then click 'Add Features' on the Features(Applications) tab.  It will display all the feature codes from the license server.  I add the descriptions manually.  I preface my descriptions with ArcGIS - so the ArcGIS products are sorted together in the report separate from the Autodesk products.  Then I exclude redundant features like ArcStorm. 

I keep the JTBReport LT.exe function in a common network directory that is read-only accessible to all users.  That way they can run reports themselves.  I have set up a shortcut in a special folder that they can copy to their desktops.  I add a '/h' option in the shortcut so it will only run an HTML report and not launch the full product to keep configuration hidden.

[JasonRoper]

Regarding the full JTB FlexReport - It does a pretty good job.  It's been the most cost effective option so far.  Other things we looked at were too expensive, such as the offerings from Flexera. 

To set it up, we gave the product it's own VM to install the usage recording services and database.  Give it enough HD space to accommodate the expansion of the .mdb. You can get a trial version of the software and run it for a month.  But the guy running JTB will work with you if you need an extension.  There are 3 parts to the installation - the Core, the Chart Service and Chart Client.  Install the Core and Chart Service on the same machine.  The Chart Client can be installed on the core machine and on any other workstation for running reports.  I recommend installing the full version of Microsoft Access as well. 

In order to record usage for ESRI, your ArcGIS License Server Administrator will need a debug.log.  You will need to specify it's creation in the ArcGIS.opt file.

In the JTB Core Configurator, you will need to specify the location of the debug.log in the Flexnet tab.

Also in the Core Configurator, set up the features and Descriptions of products you want to log.  You can select products that you do not want to log.  I would recommend not logging ACT, ArcStorm, ArcStormEnable, MrSID and TIFFLZW features.  These are all part of the ARC/INFO feature (Desktop Advanced) and will clutter the database.

We also need to report usage by department level.  I haven't found a way to split up the user base by department in JTB itself.  But I can run a raw data report of all users and their product time.  Then using vlookup and an employee table in Excel, I can match the user login with their department.