Dongle Monitoring

Overview

With Dongle Monitoring you can track USB devices (Dongle License Keys) connected to your PCs using Workstation Agent. This way, license managers can monitor location and usage frequency of dongle-based licenses.

You can't monitor application usage directly through Dongle Monitoring. For application-level usage tracking, use Unmanaged Process Feature along with Workstation Agent.

You can also denylist a specific USB dongle if it’s stolen, lost, or returned to a vendor, and set alerts to notify you if it connects again, helping you avoid compliance issues.

Prerequisites

• Install and connect Workstation Agent using Agent Activity Manager on all target PCs.

Configuration

To configure Dongle Monitoring:

1. Activate Dongle Monitoring in Product microservice on Home page.
2. Open Dongle Monitoring and follow Tour Guide to complete your setup.

Add USB vendor information

Before monitoring, add USB vendor details:

1. On a PC with Workstation Agent installed, identify the USB device’s hardware ID (VendorID and ProductID), for example: USB\VID_0411&PID_0241.
2. Enter required hardware ID information in Dongle Monitoring.

Workstation Agent automatically relays connected USB device information every 10 minutes by default.

Track USB devices (Dongle Keys)

In Usage tab:

• View detailed records of USB dongle connections, including location, connected, and disconnected times.
• Use filters to refine data.
• If the table is empty, reconnect the USB device to refresh the data.
• Export device records by selecting Export.

Denylist USB devices

If you lose a USB dongle or return to vendor, you can denylist it:

1. Add DeviceID of the dongle to Blacklist in Dongle Monitoring.
2. Set up an alert in the Alerts (Alert setup) to receive notifications if denylisted device reconnects.
3. Configure email notifications in Notification (Notification setup).
4. Toggle notifications to On.