How to alert when a SW was uninstalled on Agents?

Products

• CA Client Automation - IT Client Manager
• CA Client Automation

Issue/Introduction

In this article will be explained how to alert the Admin if an End User deletes/uninstall a SW from his local machine, using Event Based policy.

Environment

Client Automation - 14.x

Resolution

(As a way to make the procedure simple to explain, a Custom Signature was used, but it works for any kind of SW detected by the Asset Management)

1.- Created a new SW Definition:

2.- On the Agent, this SW already exists and it's detected under Software -> Discovered section in DSM Explorer:

4.- Create a new Event Based policy with the following details:

5.- As a way to simulate that this SW was uninstalled, the EXE file was renamed:

6.- After a new Agent cycle, the SW is removed from Software -> Discovered section:

And the notification is shown:

Additional Information

There are few consideration to have in mind:

- The policy has to be set to 'Notification', which is the small yellow icon (check the screenshot from step #4).
- Be sure to select the 'Release' of the SW (it has a small circle icon next to the name, check the screenshot from step #4).
- When the Agent runs and updates its SW Inventory, the policy will be triggered, so if you uninstall a SW today, tomorrow (on next Agent cycle, if the Agent ran already that day) the SW will be detected as uninstalled and the notification will appear.
- If after the SW was uninstalled, the Agent is not turned on (or not connected to the network), the notification won't be triggered until the Agent runs at least once.