Excluding and suppressing software instances

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9.2.7 Available from 9.2.7. If a software instance should not contribute to license metric utilization, you can exclude it on the product level or suppress it on the component level. Exclusion applies to all components that are assigned to a product and are installed on the selected computer. Use it if license information specifies that the product should not contribute to metric utilization under specific circumstances. Suppression applies to a single component that is installed on the selected computer. Use it when a component is improperly discovered.

Before you begin

You must have the Manage Software Classification permission to view the Software Classification panel and classify software. To view some additional columns related to computers on which the components are installed, you also need the View Endpoints permission.

About this task

Important: Software classification actions are not applied from the moment when they are performed. They affect the entire licensing history. For example, if a software instance is detected in January, and is then excluded in May, it does not contribute to license metric calculation from January. The change is visible after you click Recalculate on the All Metrics report or after the next import of data completes.

Exclusion: Exclude a product when it is installed on a non-production, test, or back up computer and license information specifies that the product should not contribute to license metric utilization under these circumstances. When you exclude the product, all components that are assigned to this product and are installed on the selected computer are excluded from metric utilization.; Excluded products and their components are still displayed on the Software Classification report. They are also listed in the audit snapshot, together with exclusion comments.
Suppression: Suppress a component when it is improperly discovered. For example, when some files were not removed from the computer after the component was uninstalled. Suppression applies only to the selected component on the selected computer. A suppressed component is no longer assigned to any product, and thus does not contribute to metric utilization.; By default, suppressed components are not displayed on the Software Classification report. You can show them by removing one of the default report filters. Suppressed components are not included in the audit snapshot in order not to obscure the view. However, the components and suppression comments are included in the Audit Trail.

Procedure

In the top navigation bar, hover over Reports, and click Software Classification.
Optional: To filter down the report, hover over Configure, and click Configure View. Then, specify appropriate filters.
Select one or more rows and hover over Exclude.
- To exclude the product on the selected computer, click Exclude Product from Metric Calculation.
- To suppress the selected component on the selected computer, click Suppress Component from Inventory.
Provide an obligatory comment.
If a comment was provided for any selected item before, it is overwritten. Exclusion comment applies to all components that are assigned to the excluded product on the selected computer. Suppression comment applies to the suppressed component on the selected computer.
Optional: If you do not want the action to be automatically confirmed, clear the Automatically confirm the affected components check box.
Confirming the action is optional. It is used to indicate how many software items still require your review.
To complete the action, click Exclude or Suppress.
The action completes even if any of the selected items has already been excluded or suppressed.

Results

Excluded products and the suppressed components do not contribute to license metric utilization. You can include them back to the calculations by using the Clear Exclusion, or Clear Suppression option. The instances that you include back in the calculation are marked as unconfirmed.

What to do next

To review exclusion and suppression actions, go to Reports > Audit Trail.