Autodesk Cloud

Introduction

Open iT supports Autodesk usage reporting by collecting data from the Autodesk Admin Portal. This will produce the following aggregated data types used for historical reporting:

• (137) License Token Individual Usage
• (138) License Token Total Usage
• (139) License Subscription Inventory v2.0
• (140) License Product Assignment v2.0
• (146) License Seat Usage

The following sections will guide you on the required configuration for cloud data collection.

Configuring Cloud Data Collection

The following sections will guide you in setting up data collection account, setting up cloud data collection, verifying data collection through the Dagster UI, and troubleshooting issues in data collection.

Autodesk Cloud Support Architecture

Data Collection Architecture

To initiate data collection, account credentials are configured in the Open iT Core Server and authenticated via OAuth 2.0 through the Open iT Customer Portal (Identity Provider). The AWS Centralized Data Collection Service then connects to the Autodesk Admin Portal to collect license metrics using these credentials.

Once authenticated, the service gathers data periodically, converts it into the Open iT format, and securely transfers it to the Core Server. The Core Server processes this data and sends it to the SQL database on the Analysis Server for further aggregation and reporting. The Autodesk data can then be visualized in Open iT’s reporting services or integrated with third-party BI tools like Power BI.

Requirements

• Account with at least secondary admin privileges to the Autodesk Portal, which is https://manage.autodesk.com/ by default
• Installed Autodesk Cloud plugin
• Registered account in the Open iT Customer Portal
• Configured Open iT customer account to CBCS. This is done by the Open iT CBCS Administrator upon customer's request. To request configuration, please send an email to cbcs@openit.com with the following details:
  • Company name
  • Email address of the registered account in the Open iT Customer Portal
  • Open iT Core Server time zone

Proxy Configuration Requirements

If the Core Server is configured to use a proxy server, make sure that the following URLs are exempted from the proxy configuration. These exemptions allow the required Open iT components to securely access and retrieve data from cloud-based collection services.

Access	Description	URLs
Core Server Access	This is used when requesting or refreshing Core Server access via openit_oauth.exe.	portal.openit.com
Autodesk Portal Access	This is used when requesting Autodesk Portal access via openit_autodeskoauth.exe.	developer.api.autodesk.com idp.auth.autodesk.com
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Access	This is required for AWS-related data access.	s3.amazonaws.com s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com sts.amazonaws.com sts.us-east-1.amazonaws.com

Required Proxy Exemption URLs

Make sure these URLs are allowed for outbound access and are not blocked or intercepted by the proxy, firewall, or SSL inspection rules.

Setting Up Data Collection Account

This provides instructions on setting up an Autodesk account for data collection from the Autodesk portal for Named User Subscription and Flex.

Inviting Email to Autodesk

To invite an email specifically for data collection purposes, follow the instructions below:

1. Provide an email address that will be used for data collection from the Autodesk Cloud Portal.

   note

   Make sure that the email address is not configured for Single Sign-On (SSO), as Open iT does not support this functionality for the data collection service. If your organization's default email domain is configured for SSO, please use a different email domain. Consult your IT department for assistance.

2. Go to the Autodesk's official website and sign in to your existing Autodesk Administrator account.

   note

   The email address used for data collection should differ from the one associated with your existing Autodesk Administrator account. Make sure you use a separate email address specifically for data collection purposes.

   

   Sign in

3. In the top-right corner of the page, click the icon, then click Account.

   

   Navigating to Account page

4. In the Account page, navigate to User Management, then select By User on the left side.

   

   Navigating to User Management

5. Click Invite users in the top-right corner of the page.

   

   Inviting User

6. Enter the user's first name, last name, and the provided email address for data collection. Once done, click Send invite. A confirmation message will appear indicating that the email invitation was successfully sent.

   

   Entering User Information

   note

   After the invite is sent, the invited user will be listed on the User Management by User page with a status of Invited shown in the Account status column, indicating that the user still needs to accept the invitation.

   Click Done to close the window.

   note

   Make sure that the data collection email is added in all the teams where usage data needs to be collected. If the email is not included to a particular team, the usage data for that team will not be collected.

   To add the email to a team, select the relevant team name from the Team dropdown in the upper-left part of the User Management by User page. Then, invite the data collection email to join that team.

7. Open the invitation sent to the email and follow the instructions in setting up the new email account.

Assigning Secondary Admin Role

To export usage data from the Autodesk Portal, the email address used for data collection must have a secondary admin role. Follow these steps to assign the secondary admin role:

1. Find the user associated with the provided email address for data collection. Use the search box to filter users. Once found, click the at the end of the user row.

   

   Search User

2. Click Change role below the name of the user.

   

   Change Role

3. Select Secondary admin, then click the Save button.

   

   Select Secondary admin

   note

   Make sure that the invited account is assigned a Secondary Admin role for all associated teams within the Autodesk portal.

   To assign a secondary admin role to the data collection account in other teams, select the relevant team from the Team dropdown in the upper-left part of the User Management by User page. Then, follow step 1 again to assign the data collection account to the secondary admin role for that team.

Setting Up Cloud Data Collection

This section guides you in setting up data collection in the Autodesk Admin Portal. The configuration process is divided into three main steps: initiating OAuth authentication, authenticating to the Autodesk Portal, and configuring Dagster Job schedules.

Initiating OAuth Authentication

note

If your Customer Portal account hasn't been configured for the Open iT Cloud-based Collection Service (CBCS), new customers should contact their Open iT Project Manager for assistance, while existing customers can reach out to the Open iT Support Team at support@openit.com for further support.

To initiate OAuth authentication process:

1. Open a command prompt with Administrator level privileges.

2. Go to the Autodesk Cloud Plugin directory, which is by default C:\Program Files\OpeniT\Autodesk Cloud Plugin, run the command:

   Command Syntax

   cd <plugin_dir>

   Example

   cd C:\Program Files\OpeniT\Autodesk Cloud Plugin

3. To initiate the OAuth authentication process, run the command:

   Command Syntax

   openit_oauth

   After running the command, you will be redirected to a web browser page for OAuth authentication.

4. To authorize the access request, click the YES, ALLOW button.

   

   Allow Permission

   After successful authentication, you will see a confirmation message indicating that the process has been completed.

   

   Successful Authentication

Authenticating to the Autodesk Portal

To enable usage data collection, authenticate to the Autodesk Portal using your Secondary Admin account. Follow these steps to complete the authentication process:

1. Run the following command:

   Command Syntax

   openit_autodeskoauth.exe

   This command will launch your default web browser and redirect you to the Autodesk authentication page.

2. Sign in using your Secondary Admin account on the Autodesk Portal.

   

   Sign in Autodesk Account

   You will be redirected to the Authorize Application page after you sign in.

3. Click the Allow button to approve the requested permission.

   

   Allow Requested Permission

   Once authentication is successful, a confirmation message will be displayed, indicating that the process is complete. You may now close the browser tab.

   

   Successful Authentication

4. Go back to the console and wait for the command to exit without errors.

note

When the data collection is newly configured, the usage data collected from the Autodesk portal will be available in the Core Server within 1 to 3 days. Data transfer to the Core Server is scheduled daily at 11 PM Local time.

Configuring Dagster Job Schedules

Dagster, a data orchestration tool, enables you to control job scheduling and execution timing. By configuring the environment variables, you can align job execution with the desired timezone and schedule to ensure daily synchronization across data collection jobs.

Follow the steps to configure the schedule and timezone of the Dagster job schedules responsible for collecting and loading data.

1. Open the Environment Variables settings on your machine. Press Win + R, type sysdm.cpl, and press Enter.

   

   Open the Environment Variables Settings

2. Once the System Properties window appears, go to the Advanced tab and click Environment Variables.

   

   Click Environment Variables

3. Under System variables, click New.

   

   Add System Variable

   Note

   If the system variable already exists, select it and click Edit to update its value.

4. To configure the job schedule, add the following variable:

   

   Configure Job Schedule

   Note

   The variable OPENIT_CBCS_CRON defines when the job runs using a cron expression.

   A cron expression consists of five fields:
   * * * * * — (minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week)

   Each asterisk (*) acts as a wildcard, representing every possible value for that field.

   From the example above, the OPENIT_CBCS_CRON value, which is 0 12 * * *, schedules the job to run daily at 12:00 PM (noon). This cron expression is composed of five space-separated fields:

   Field	Value	Description
   Minute	0	At the 0th minute
   Hour	12	At 12 PM
   Day of Month	*	Every day of the month
   Month	*	Every month
   Day of Week	*	Every day of the week

   Dagster Job Schedule Cron Expression
   
   

5. To configure the timezone, add the following variable:

   

   Configure Timezone

   Note

   The variable OPENIT_TIMEZONE specifies the IANA Timezone name (e.g., America/New_York, Europe/London). This value is case-sensitive.

   In this example, the timezone is set to Africa/Porto-Novo, ensuring the job runs at the correct local time.

6. After entering the required variables, click OK to save the variables.

   

   Save the Variables

   Note

   If the timezone is not configured, the system will use the local timezone of the machine running Dagster.

7. Restart the OpeniTOrchestratorWebserver service via Task Manager.

8. After restarting the service, open your preferred web browser and navigate to the Dagster UI at:

   Dagster UI URL

   https://<hostname>/dagster-webserver/jobs

   where <hostname> is the name or IP address of the machine where the Dagster service is running.

Refresh the page to ensure the updated configurations are loaded.

Mapping Email-to-Subgroup

If you want Sub Group data to appear in your Analysis Server reports, you can enable it by setting up an email-to-subgroup mapping using email-to-subgroup.map.

1. Access your Open iT Analyzer Server web interface.

2. On the Open iT Analyzer Server, go to Administration > Mapping Sources.

   

   Go to Mapping Sources

3. Under the Sources table, click New Mapping Source.

   

   Click New Mapping Source

4. Configure the mapping source details:

   • Name: email-to-subgroup
   • Enabled: True
   • Kind: MultiMap
   • FilePath: C:\Program Files\OpeniT\Core\Configuration\email-to-subgroup.map

   Click Save.

   

   Configure the Mapping Source

   A notification message appears at the top of the page, and the mapping sources list should refresh automatically.

5. Under the Destination Field Sources table, locate the User.Department row. Select the radio button under the email-to-subgroup column, then choose group from the dropdown beside it.

   

   Assign Mapping Source

6. Click Save Configuration.

   

   Save Configuration

Verifying Data Collection through the Dagster UI

Dagster, as the orchestration tool, plays a key role in managing and monitoring the data collection process in the Core Server. To verify the status of the data collection process through Dagster UI, follow the instructions below.

Accessing the Dagster UI and Verifying Latest Run

1. Open a web browser and navigate to the Dagster UI:

   Dagster UI URL

   https://<hostname>/dagster-webserver/jobs

   where <hostname> is the name or IP address of the machine where the Dagster service is running.

2. Upon loading the Dagster UI, click Jobs in the left navigation panel. Then, review the Latest run of jobs under the Autodesk code location to verify their run status.

   Make sure the Latest run is up to date and displays the most recent collection as expected, based on the default schedule (daily at 11:00 PM GMT+8) or based on the configured Dagster job schedule. This confirms that the system is collecting data as expected.

   

   Review Latest Run

Verifying Run Status

To determine the status of data collection jobs:

1. Open a web browser and navigate to the Dagster UI:

   Dagster UI URL

   https://<hostname>/dagster-webserver/jobs

   where <hostname> is the name or IP address of the machine where the Dagster service is running.

2. In the Dagster UI, click Jobs in the left navigation panel. Then, select the jobs under the Autodesk code location to verify their run status.

   

   Navigate to Jobs Page

3. Go to the Runs tab and review the Status column for the latest job executions. Ensure that all jobs display a Success status. Failed jobs will display a Failure status.

   

   Check the Status of Jobs

   If a job fails, click View to inspect the run details.

   

   Check Failed Run

   You will be redirected to the Run details page. Open the Events tab to review error messages and execution logs.

   

   Check Error Details

   To re-execute a failed job, return to the selected Jobs page. In the Runs tab, click the dropdown next to View for the failed job, then select Re-execute.

   

   Re-execute Job

Re-executing the job triggers the data collection process again. Make sure that the job completes successfully in the next run.

Note

If the issue persists or the error cannot be resolved, contact support@openit.com for further assistance.

Navigate back to the Jobs page to verify other jobs associated with Autodesk. Repeat the same verification steps to determine the run status.

Sample Reports

Token Usage Record per User

This sample report provides a detailed record of token consumption per user, showing which product package and feature were accessed, the feature version used, and the number of tokens consumed per access record. It also includes user group and subgroup details for better visibility across organizational structures. It offers several key benefits:

• Token Consumption Tracking – shows how many tokens were used per user and per access record.
• Cost and Budget Monitoring – supports tracking usage behavior that may impact token spending and subscription costs.
• User-Level Accountability – identifies which users are consuming tokens and what products/features they are using.
• Product & Feature Insight – highlights which packages and feature versions drive the most token usage.
• Group-Based Analysis – enables comparisons of token consumption across user groups and subgroups.
• Usage Validation & Oversight – supports administrators in validating token-based license activity and monitoring unusual usage patterns.

Token Usage Record per User

Feature Access Record per User

This sample report provides a detailed record of user access to specific software features, including the product package, feature version, and associated user groups. It offers several key benefits:

• User Activity Tracking – shows which users accessed specific features and on what dates.
• Audit & Compliance Readiness – maintains an access history that supports internal audits and compliance requirements.
• License Usage Validation – helps confirm that users are accessing the correct products, features, and versions.
• User Group Analysis – enables visibility into access patterns across user groups and sub groups.
• Feature Adoption Insight – identifies which features and versions are actively being used within the organization.
• Operational Oversight – supports IT and license administrators in monitoring and managing feature access behavior.

Feature Access Record per User

Named User License Assignment per User

This sample report provides visibility into named user license assignments, showing which users are associated with a specific license type within a given vendor environment. It offers several key benefits:

• Named User Visibility – clearly identifies users assigned to named user licenses.
• License Assignment Tracking – helps track and verify license assignments across teams and sub groups.
• Compliance & Audit Support – supports audits by maintaining a record of named user allocations in line with vendor licensing terms.
• User Group Analysis – enables review of license distribution across user groups and sub groups.
• Cost Management – helps identify inactive, duplicate, or unnecessary named user assignments that may drive up licensing costs.
• Administrative Oversight – supports IT and license administrators in managing and maintaining accurate license assignments.

Named User License Assignment per User

Troubleshooting

This section guides you in troubleshooting issues encountered in data collection.

Resolving Missing or Outdated Data

If reports show missing or outdated data, you may need to manually trigger a run for the relevant dataset:

1. Open a web browser and navigate to the Dagster instance URL, http://<hostname>/dagster-webserver/, where <hostname> is the name or IP address of the machine where Dagster is running.

2. Navigate to Jobs page by clicking Jobs in the left navigation bar of Dagster UI. Select parsed job under Autodesk code location.

   

   Select Parsed Job

3. Go to Launchpad tab, then select the specific dataset associated with the missing or outdated data in your report from the dropdown.

   

   Select Dataset

   To determine which dataset to select for manual execution, refer to the table below. Each dataset is linked to a specific data type used in Autodesk reporting:

   Dataset	Archive	Associated Data Type
   openit-usage-seat	CBCSAutodeskSeat.license.record	(146) License Seat Usage
   openit-usage-token	CBCSAutodeskToken.license.record	(137) License Token Individual Usage (138) License Token Total Usage
   openit-usage-token-adjustments	CBCSAutodeskToken.license.record	(137) License Token Individual Usage (138) License Token Total Usage
   openit-usage-token-cloud	CBCSAutodeskToken.license.record	(137) License Token Individual Usage (138) License Token Total Usage
   openit-usage-token-desktop	CBCSAutodeskToken.license.record	(137) License Token Individual Usage (138) License Token Total Usage
   openit-usage-token-adjustments-raw	CBCSAutodeskTokenAdjustments.license.raw	---
   openit-users	CBCSAutodeskUsers.license.record	(140) License Product Assignment v2.0
   openit-subscriptions	CBCSAutodeskSubscriptions.license.record	(139) License Subscription Inventory v2.0

   Autodesk Dataset Reference
   
   

   For example, if there is missing or outdated data related to Autodesk Seat License Record (Data Type 146), you should select the openit-usage-seat dataset.

4. Click the Launch Run button to manually start a data collection process for the selected dataset.

   

   Launch Run

note

If you encounter more complex errors or issues that are not covered in this documentation, feel free to reach out to the Open iT Support Team at support@openit.com for further assistance.