Software Metering

Most executable files contain header information that includes the product version, name, and language of the file. SMS 2.0 software metering tracks licenses for local-language versions of executable files by verifying the language field in the executable file’s version stamp. Verification of the language field is automatically performed by software metering when new software packages are identified. You can change this field from the default value detected by SMS when you add a product for tracking, but the language field will then be incorrect, and the correct language version of the product will not be metered. To avoid this problem, verify that the software products you are metering contain the correct language field entry in accord with your licensing agreements. For information about registering a new product, see Chapter 14, “Metering Software,” in the SMS 2.0 Administrator’s Guide. The language version of each software package is displayed in the Defining Metered Software page of the Software Metering tool.

You can change the default software metering messages that are displayed to notify users when product licenses are checked out, product use is denied, or their computer is detected as being inactive. (To do so, in the SMS Administrator console, navigate to the Software Metering Client Agent Properties dialog box and then modify the properties as appropriate.) Note, however, that the language of the message is limited to one language at any time. For example, if you are running a German-language server, you can configure notification messages to be displayed on the client either in German or in English, but you cannot configure them to be displayed in both languages. Whatever language is used on the server will appear on the client as well.