Discovery, consolidation, and archival of multiple operating system software licenses

1. A server software license archiving method comprising:

identifying, by a discovery engine stored in a non-transitory memory and executable by a processor, vendor specific license markers;

in response to identifying the vendor specific license markers, copying, by the discovery engine, a software license file associated with a software deployment on a server;

saving, by an archiving engine stored in a non-transitory memory and executable by a processor, the software license file to a discrete directory;

forming, by the archive engine, an archive of software license files including the software license file, wherein forming the archive comprises copying and saving the software license files at predetermined intervals, and wherein the archive comprises copies of each of the software license files and data regarding software packages associated with the software license files, deployment of the software packages, and an initial location of each of the software license files;

retrieving the software license file from the archive; and

redeploying the software license file from the archive with a software deployment.

2. The server software license archiving method of claim 1 , wherein copying the software license file comprises locating server software files in the registry of the server or in binary form.

3. The server software license archiving method of claim 1 , wherein saving the software license file comprises saving a time/date stamp with the software license files.

4. The server software license archiving method of claim 3 , further comprising copying or compiling the saved software license files according to the time/date stamp.

5. The server software license archiving method of claim 1 , wherein forming the archive further comprises forming an archive that is separate from the server.

6. The server software license archiving method of claim 1 , wherein redeploying the software license file further comprises installing a new software deployment.

7. The server software license archiving method of claim 6 , further comprising verifying the retrieved software license file and obtaining a new software license file associated with the new software deployment.

8. A server system software license archiving method, comprising:

identifying, by a discovery engine stored in a non-transitory memory and executable by a processor, license file markers for a vendor's software deployed on a server system;

copying, by the discovery engine, license files and any file associated with the license files on the server system identified based on the identified license file markers;

saving, by an archiving engine stored in a non-transitory memory and executable by a processor, the copied files to a common directory;

forming, by the archive engine, an archive of software license files including the copied files, wherein forming the archive comprises copying and saving the software license files at predetermined intervals, and wherein the archive comprises copies of each of the software license files and data regarding software packages associated with the software license files, deployment of the software packages, and an initial location of each of the software license files;

accessing the archive to identify a license file; and

providing the license file to the vendor for use with a software deployment on one or more server systems.

9. The server system software license archiving method of claim 8 , wherein identifying the license file markers further comprises identifying vendor specific license markers.

10. The server system software license archiving method of claim 9 , further comprising locating files containing the license file markers in the registry of the server or in binary form.

11. The server system software license archiving method of claim 8 , wherein saving the copied files comprises saving a time/date stamp with the software license files.

12. The server system software license archiving method of claim 11 , further comprising copying or compiling the saved software license files according to the time/date stamp.

13. The server system software license archiving method of claim 8 , wherein the archive is stored on a computer or a server that is separate from the server system.

14. The server system software license archiving method of claim 8 , wherein the archive further comprises copying and saving all related software license files and data related to the software license files.

15. The server system software license archiving method of claim 8 , wherein providing the license file comprises providing the vendor with an inventory of licenses and software packages on the server system based on the archive.

16. A system for archiving software licenses, comprising:

a server system configured to host a network, wherein the server system comprises a plurality of software packages associated with a plurality of license files;

a non-transitory memory;

a processor; and

an application stored in the non-transitory memory that, when executed by the processor:

identifies vendor-specific license file markers associated with server software license files for software packages;

locates vendor-specific software license files on the server system based on the identified vendor-specific license file markers;

copies the vendor-specific software license files;

saves the vendor-specific software license files to a common directory; and

forms an archive of software license files including the vendor-specific software license files by copying and saving the software license files at predetermined intervals, wherein the archive comprises copies of each of the software license files and data regarding software packages associated with the software license files, deployment of the software packages, and an initial location of each of the software license files.

17. The system for archiving software licenses of claim 16 , wherein the vendor-specific server software license files comprise files in the registry of the server or in binary form.

18. The system for archiving software licenses of claim 16 , wherein the application saving the vendor-specific software license files to a common directory comprises saving a time/date stamp with each software license file.

19. The system for archiving software licenses of claim 16 , wherein the application forming the archive further comprises inventorying the license files, associated files, and software packages on the server system.