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Measuring Red Hat Subscription Usage

Goal

Our goal is to understand:

  • Usage - How much technology am I using?
  • Capacity - How much technology have I purchased?
  • Utilization - percentage of capacity I have exhausted by deploying technology.

Steps for Auditing Licensing Compliance

AI generated

  1. Assemble an Audit Team
    • Form a team with members from IT, procurement, finance, and compliance to ensure a comprehensive approach to the audit.
  2. Define the Audit Scope
    • Clearly outline what will be audited, including specific software applications and their usage. Establish timelines and future audit frequencies.
  3. Inventory Software Licenses
    • Compile a complete inventory of all software licenses owned by the organization, ensuring that you have documentation for each license.
  4. Verify Software Installations
    • Cross-check installed software against the inventory to confirm that all software in use is licensed and compliant with agreements.
  5. Analyze Usage Data
    • Review software usage metrics to ensure that they align with licensing agreements. This includes checking the number of installations against the number of licenses purchased.
  6. Identify Unauthorized Software
    • Look for unlicensed or unauthorized software installations within the organization, which can lead to compliance issues.
  7. Document Findings
    • Maintain detailed records of all findings during the audit process, including discrepancies and areas of non-compliance.
  8. Develop a Compliance Plan
    • Create a corrective action plan addressing any identified compliance issues, and seek management approval for implementation.
  9. Train Personnel
    • Inform relevant staff about updated compliance policies and provide necessary training to mitigate future risks.
  10. Prepare Final Audit Report
    • Compile a comprehensive report summarizing the audit process, findings, and recommendations for future compliance efforts.

These steps help ensure that organizations remain compliant with software licensing agreements, thereby mitigating legal and financial risks associated with non-compliance

Tools

Available tools:

  • Subscription Watch
    • Subscription Watch is a capability in Red Hat’s subscription tools which provides unified, aggregated reporting of the usage of Red Hat technology, in any environment (Physical, Virtual, Public cloud, Private cloud, Edge).
    • Subscription Watch is available at console.redhat.com and is available for all customers and partners.
  • Red Hat Satellite 6.5 and later
  • subscription-manager
  • Insights Client

Resources