I'm trying to determine how many instances of each Windows OS are being utilized. I think I can get a count of installed OSes from one of the asset management reports, but not sure how to get a count of installations that are actually in use. In the Software Metering rules there appear to be a number of ruls for various common executables like explorer.exe, etc. Do you use these to determine OS usage? Does anyone know how I can get this info? thanks. Dan

Hi Dan, I wouldn't use Software metering for that. I would create a report based on the last hw inventory date. That should give you a hint of how many active servers you have. There are some example reports here - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd334586.aspxKent Agerlund | http://scug.dk/ | The Danish community for System Center products

I'd say if you are using the built-in maintenance tasks to remove stale computers from SCCM then everything in there, at least in v_R_SystemValid would be current records therefore all you have to do is look at the OS according to v_GS_Operating_System John Marcum | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jmarcum |

I agree with John and Kent. One thought I had immediately also is that it also depends on your defintion of "in use". What does that mean for you and your organization as this can be very subjective? You have to define that before you come up with a valid way to meter/count it.Jason | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jsandys | http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/jsandys/default.aspx | Twitter @JasonSandys

thanks for the feedback. I am new to SCCM so will need to review all this and I'm sure it will help. As far as what 'in use' means to me, is a computer we are actively using to support our business. So if there's an older server that hasn't run in a while, or if it is powered up but no apps are being actively launched on it (other than OS), then I want to review it and decommission if it's not neeeded. This is all being done to help determine our MS licensing requirements. Thanks. Dan

So now that you have an English definition of "in use", you need to translate that into a technical defintion. What specific details are you going to examine on the system to meet the criteria of your English definition?Jason | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jsandys | http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/jsandys/default.aspx | Twitter @JasonSandys

If you are cleanign AD, DNS and SCCM correctly you will not see computers that are not "in use" and by that I mean powered on. John Marcum | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jmarcum |