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Enable or disable cloud application metering

This page describes how to enable or disable the cloud application metering functionality for Snow Atlas and Snow License Manager, respectively.

In the following sections, saas.[browser].enabled is used as a placeholder for the supported browser settings, for example, saas.firefox.enabled. To find all supported settings, see configuration-doc.html.

Snow Atlas​

The cloud application metering data flow is enabled by default in Snow Atlas. If you do not want cloud application metering data to be collected, follow the description below to disable the functionality.

Disable cloud application metering​

To stop cloud application metering data to be collected from computers in your organization:

  1. In the agent configuration file, set all saas.[browser].enabled settings to false.

    EXAMPLE
    <SystemSettings>
        <Setting key="saas.firefox.enabled" value="false" />
    </SystemSettings>

  2. Uninstall the Apple Safari browser extension manually according to Uninstall Apple Safari browser extension.

  3. Remove the webmetering.rules and webmetering.crules files from the agent installation folder.

    The files can be removed by using a software deployment tool of choice.

  4. Optional: To prevent the agent from continuing to download the webmetering.[c]rules once a week, in the agent configuration file, set the system setting disable_all_updates to true.

    <SystemSettings>
        <Setting key="disable_all_updates" value="true" />
    </SystemSettings>

    This prevents the agent from performing any update operations.

Snow License Manager​

For cloud application metering data to be collected from computers in your organization and displayed in the Snow License Manager user interface, you must enable the cloud application metering data flow between the Snow Inventory Server and the agents, as described below.

Enable the cloud application metering data flow​

There are two alternative ways to enable the cloud application metering data flow between the Snow Inventory Server and the agents: either via the Snow Inventory Admin Console, or by configuring the Snow Inventory Server configuration file. The Snow Inventory Admin Console alternative gives you the possibility to target a set of computers based on site name and agent configurations. The Snow Inventory Server configuration file alternative will enable the data flow to all agents.

  • To open up the cloud application metering data flow between the Snow Inventory Server and the agents, do one of the following:

    • Snow Inventory Admin Console alternative: enable cloud application metering for one or more groups of computers based on site name and agent configurations, see Enable Cloud application discovery and metering.

    • Snow Inventory Server configuration file alternative: in the CloudMeteringModule module in the ModuleConfiguration element of the configuration file, set the EnableForAllAgents setting to true, see Module configuration/Cloud metering.

Disable cloud application metering​

To stop cloud application metering data to be collected from computers in your organization and displayed in the Snow License Manager user interface:

  1. Disable the cloud application metering rules data flow between the Snow Inventory Server and the agents by reverting the configuration made when enabling the data flow.

    This prevents the Snow Inventory Server from publishing updated rulesets to the agents.

  2. Remove the webmetering.rules and webmetering.crules files from the agent installation folder.

    The files can be removed either by using the Inventory Server Agent update feature or by using a software deployment tool of choice.

  3. Additionally, in the agent configuration file, set all saas.[browser].enabled settings to false.

    EXAMPLE
    <SystemSettings>
        <Setting key="saas.firefox.enabled" value="false" />
    </SystemSettings>

Note that if the browser extensions have been installed via the agents, steps 1 and 2 of the procedure above are sufficient to make the agents uninstall the browser extensions permanently. But if you have installed the extensions via a management tool or policy, you must uninstall the agents either via your chosen management tool or policy, or by setting the saas.[browser].enabled settings to false (step 3 of the procedure above).

The Apple Safari browser extension must be manually uninstalled according to Uninstall Apple Safari browser extension.