Defining product and component relationships in a software bundle

Use the Software Catalog application to manually define the relationships among products and components in a software bundle that might or might not be deployed. This task allows businesses that use discovery tools other than Asset Discovery for z/OS® to define the representation of a bundle.

About this task

In the Software Catalog application, the parent-child relationships displayed on the Product Relationships tab represent the software component relationships in a software bundle.

The software bundle relationships that you define are informational only; they are not validated by Control Desk, nor are they used by any report or linked to any other application. Similarly for Asset Discovery for z/OS, any bundle relationships established in that application, once imported, appear as read-only values here.

Also note that if a software bundle is defined in the knowledge base, a user of Tivoli® Asset Discovery for Distributed can use these software bundle relationships to identify a deployed software instance as a component of a bundle, and Control Desk can import these relationships. But it is not possible to import such relationships for software instances that originate with other discovery tools.

This task, therefore, is for people using those other discovery tools; it gives you the ability to define the same kind of bundle relationships that the aforementioned products already do.

The steps for defining product and component relationships in a software bundle follow.

Procedure

On the navigation bar, click Go To > Administration > Deployed Assets > Software Catalog.
On the toolbar, display all records for software products, or use the table filter or Advanced Search to filter the records that you want to display.
Select the software catalog record for the software whose bundle relationships you want to define. The software catalog record cannot originate with Asset Discovery for z/OS. It must either originate with another discovery tool or be a manual entry.
Note: To determine manual entries, you can select Where Clause from the Advanced Search menu for the record list and enter the following clause:
(isdeleted = 0 and catalogsourceid is null)
Click the Product Relationships tab. Any parent and child relationships already associated to the software in the current software catalog record are displayed in the table sections.
Add a child or parent relationship to the currently displayed software catalog record. Together, all the relationships that you define should describe a complete software bundle. There are two ways to add child or parent relationships:
- Select the software you want from a list of software catalog records.
  1. From either the Children or Parents section, click Select Software.
  2. In the Select Software window, add any related records from the already existing software catalog records to the table.
    The Select Software window does not display software catalog records that were imported from Asset Discovery for z/OS.
  3. Click OK to save your changes and return to the tab.
- Create an empty row and provide the required values for software name and relationship.
  1. From either the Children or Parents section, click New Row.
  2. In the Relationship field in the new row, click Select Value and select the relationship you want.
    The Relationship field should indicate which software is free and which has an additional charge associated with it in the license agreement.
    - Select PARENT_PROGRAM to indicate software whose price is based on the usage of the currently displayed software named in the record heading section of the tab.
    - Select FREE to indicate any no-charge components included under the same license agreement.
    - Select CHARGED to indicate any components included under the same license agreement but at additional cost (an agent, for example).
    - Select MANAGED to indicate components that are managed by the parent program. The MANAGED component is always charged; that is, it is included under the same license agreement but at additional cost.
  3. In the Software Name field, click Detail Menu and select the software product or component you want by choosing a value or going to the Software Catalog record list and locating a software catalog record.
  4. Click OK to save your changes and return to the tab.
[Optional.] To remove a new or existing relationship entry, delete the unwanted row from the table by clicking Mark Row for Delete and then Save. Only the row linking the software catalog record is removed, the software catalog record itself is unaffected.

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