Categorize discovered software

Group discovered installed software packages in your environment by business relevance.

Before you begin

In the System Properties, verify that the software categorization system property is set to true: sn_acc_vis_content.sw_categorization.enabled=true.

Role required: discovery_admin

About this task

Software categorization classifies discovered software packages into categories, such as AI tools, security software, communication software, or a publisher-based category. Use this procedure to define a category and a signature that matches discovered software to that category.

Procedure

1. Create a category.

   1. Navigate to All > System Definition > Tables.

   2. Open the Entity Categories (sn_acc_vis_content_entity_category) table.

   3. Under related links, select Show List.

   4. Select New.

   5. On the form, fill in the fields.

<table id=“table_utr_pxf_lkc”><thead><tr><th>

Field

</th><th>

Description

</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>

Name

</td><td>

The display name of the category. This field is required.For example: Adobe Acrobat, AI Tools, or Microsoft.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Description

</td><td>

Brief description of the category.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Active

</td><td>

When selected, activates the category. Note: You can also activate a saved category later from the Entity Categories table.

</td></tr></tbody> </table> 6. Select Submit.

7.  View the saved categories in the **Entity Categories** table.

    **Note:** You can activate saved categories from this table by setting Active=true for the relevant categories.

1. Create a signature.

   The signature is a rule that matches software to a category based on the software name or publisher.

   1. Navigate to All > System Definition > Tables.

   2. Open the Installed Software Signature (sn_acc_vis_content_sw_install_signature) table.

   3. Under related links, select Show List.

   4. Select New.

   5. On the form, fill in the fields.

      Define the match condition using the software name, publisher, or both. Either the software name or the publisher is required.

<table id=“table_d5c_byf_lkc”><thead><tr><th>

Field

</th><th>

Description

</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>

Name

</td><td>

The display name of the signature. This field is required.For example: ChatGPT.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Category

</td><td>

Category assigned to matching software.For example: AI Tools.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Software name condition

</td><td>

Matching condition for the software name. Options are: Exact match, Contains, Starts with, and Ends with.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Software name

</td><td>

Pattern to match against the software name. Defining either Software name or Publisher is required.For example: ChatGPT.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Publisher condition

</td><td>

Matching condition for the publisher.Options are: Exact match, Contains, Starts with, and Ends with.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Publisher

</td><td>

Pattern to match against the publisher. Defining either Publisher or Software name is required.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Version condition

</td><td>

Matching condition for the version. Options are: Any version, Exact match, Starts with, Ends with, Contains, Less than, Greater than, Not empty, and Empty.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Version

</td><td>

Pattern to match against the version.Note: If you don’t specify a version, the signature matches any version.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Description

</td><td>

Brief description of the signature.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Active

</td><td>

When selected, activates the signature.

</td></tr></tbody> </table> 6. Select Submit.

Submitting the signature triggers evaluation of the installed software against it and categorization of any matches.

Result

The categorized software appears in the Installed Software Catalogs (sn_acc_vis_content_sw_install_catalog) table. Each entry in the table shows the software package, its assigned category, and the signature that matched. For each record, either the Software package or the SAM discovery model column is populated, depending on whether SAM is installed on the instance. Filter by category to see all the software in the group.

Parent Topic:Software packages categorization