Software Identification Tags and Tracking Licensed Software

Updated: 15 April 2022
Product: Jamf Pro

This article provides basic information about software identification (SWID) tags and explains how to create and view a licensed software record based on SWID tags in Jamf Pro.

Licensed Software allows you to store and track licenses for the software in your environment so you can easily access license and purchasing information and monitor compliance. For each software product that you want to track licenses for, you must create a licensed software record in Jamf Pro. However, creating a licensed software record based only on application name and version number can cause inaccurate license counts in certain scenarios.

This potential issue is addressed through the use of software tagging. Software tagging is the process of companies including a software identification (SWID) tag with each installation of their software. Each software company has their own unique registration identifier (reg ID) that matches the SWID tag. The SWID tag is an XML file that contains information about the identification, license, and management of an individual piece of software. Therefore, if a computer has a suite of applications it could potentially have multiple SWID tags.

  • Installation type (standard versus subscription-based)

  • Installation status (stand-alone versus part of a suite)

  • Installation status based on suite (standard versus extended)

  • Installation serialization status (trial, serialized, etc.)

The international standard for SWID tags is ISO/IEC 19770-2:2009.

Creating a Licensed Software Record Based on SWID Tags

Requirements

To create and view a licensed software record based on SWID tags, the software you want to track must have a SWID tag associated with it and the SWID tag must be in Jamf Pro.

Note:

Jamf Pro collects SWID tags from a computer each time the computer submits inventory. SWID tags are not listed in the computer's inventory information in Jamf Pro, but they are stored in the Jamf Pro database for use with Licensed Software.

  1. Log in to Jamf Pro.
  2. Click Computers at the top of the page.
  3. Click Licensed Software.
  4. Click New (+)
  5. Use the General pane to configure basic settings for the licensed software record. To enable email notifications, select the Send email notification on violation checkbox.
  6. Click the Licenses tab and add license and purchasing information.:
    1. Click Add (+)
    2. Specify information about the license, including the license type and count.
    3. (Optional) Click the Purchasing Information tab and enter purchasing information.
    4. (Optional) Click the Attachments tab and click Upload to upload an attachment.
    5. Click Save.
    6. Repeat steps a through e to add more license and purchasing information as needed.
  7. Click the Software Definitions tab.
  8. Choose Software ID Tags from the Software Definitions Type pop-up menu.
  9. Browse for and choose a reg ID.
  10. Add a SWID tag by clicking Add(+). Then browse for and choose the SWID tag you want to add. To add another SWID tag, click Save and repeat step 10.
  11. Select the activation statuses you want to include in the software definitions.
  12. Click Save.
  13. To view a list of computers that have the licenses in use, click View Matches.
    Note:

    This button is only displayed if the licenses associated with the record are in use on managed computers.

Additional Information

For more information about tracking licensed software with Jamf Pro, see Licensed Software Records in the Jamf Pro Documentation.