License Allocation History Report

FlexNet Manager Suite 2020 R2 (On-Premises)

The License Allocation History reports lists all devices that have been allocated to, or deallocated from, any licenses within a specified period before today. This report enables operators who manage software assets to analyze changes in license consumption, which have been affected by allocations, over a recent time period. Typically, these operators will view this report when they notice a change in license consumption. This report enables them to identify any allocation changes in the recent past that may explain these changes, and gain insight into the possible causes of these changes.

Generating the report

  1. Navigate to License Compliance > Licenses > License Allocation History.
  2. In the top left corner is a standard filter labeled Period. From the adjacent drop-down list, choose your preferred reporting period. You can choose the last 7, 14, 30, or 90 days, all measured from today. The default selection is seven days.
  3. Click Run report.

Reading the report

The following columns (listed alphabetically) are available in this list. By default, some are available through the column chooser.

Table 1.
Column name Description
Action Indicates whether the inventory device has been allocated to, or deallocated from, a license.
Date The date when the change was made.
Inventory device properties
Column name Description
Assigned user

The user assigned to this device.

Editable in the Assigned field in Ownership tab of the inventory device properties.
Calculated user
The name of the most frequent user of this inventory device, over the previous 10 inventory collections. This value is calculated as follows:
  • If there is only one primary user linked to the inventory device, this user is recorded
  • If there are multiple primary users linked to the inventory device, the most frequently logged in user is recorded
  • If there is no primary user associated with the inventory device, the last user to logon is recorded.

The value of this field is automatically generated by FlexNet Manager Suite.
Corporate unit

The corporate unit responsible for the inventory device.

Editable in the Ownership tab of the inventory device properties.
Cost center

The cost center responsible for all costs incurred for this inventory device.

Editable in the Ownership tab of the inventory device properties.
Inventory device name
The name of the inventory device. The compliance calculation updates this field with the machine name returned in inventory (matched by several properties, including serial number).
Tip: The name displays as Flexera SaaS Manager if this is a dummy device record created for imports from your Flexera SaaS Manager connector.

Editable in the Name field in the General tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records).
Inventory device type
Specifies the type of the inventory device, which may be any of the following values:
  • Computer — A computing device like a desktop, laptop, workstation, or a non-virtualized server.
  • Mobile device — A mobile device like a tablet or smart phone.
  • Product — Not a device type, but a pseudo-value used only in IBM VPC licenses to identify rows showing the licensed IBM product. This value may appear only if the Bundle consumption rules (in the license properties Use Rights & Rules tab, under License consumption rules) have the option Consume for each product on a device selected.
  • Remote Device — The device is a remote device (not appearing in inventory) known to have accessed virtualized applications. This value is created automatically.
  • VDI Template — The VDI template used to create the virtual desktop instance that was accessed from an inventory device (see Virtual Desktop Templates). This value is created automatically.
  • Virtual Machine — A virtual machine running on a physical host machine. A physical host can run multiple virtual machines using virtualization technologies from VMWare, Oracle, Microsoft, and so on.
  • VM Host — A physical virtual host running one or more virtual machines using any virtualization technology, such as VMWare.

Editable in the Inventory device type field in the General tab of the inventory device properties. The value may be overwritten by incoming inventory.
Linked asset

Indicates whether this device is, or is not, linked to an asset.

The link between an inventory device and an asset is editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties.
Location

The location within your enterprise that is responsible for the device.

Editable in the Ownership tab of the inventory device properties.
Manufacturer

The manufacturer of the inventory device.

Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records).
Model

The manufacturer’s model name or number for this device.

Editable in the Model field in the General tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records). If the value is gathered from inventory, it cannot be edited, but it can be overridden by entering a new value in the Overridden field in General tab of the inventory device properties. The original value continues to display on the General tab, alongside the overridden value, and may be restored at any time.
Serial no.
The serial number of the device, attempting to uniquely identify either the hardware (for a stand-alone device) or the virtualization container (for a virtual machine), as reported in inventory.
Tip: This displays Flexera SaaS Manager with a numerical suffix in the special case where the inventory device is a dummy record created for linking with imports through your Flexera SaaS Manager connector.

For manually-created inventory device records, this value is editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties. This value is not editable for records created or updated from collected inventory.
Status
Indicates the current state of a device. It can have any of the following values:
  • Active — A device for which the inventory information is received from an inventory source.
  • Archived — This device is in transition pending deletion, but is currently held because of its historical impacts on IBM PVU sub-capacity retrospective calculations.
  • Awaiting Inventory — This device is a place-holder that has not yet appeared in imported inventory from any source.
  • Ignored — The device that is not managed. An ignored device is not considered in license consumption calculations.
    Tip: If an inventory device is linked to an asset record, and that asset is given a status of either Retired or Disposed, this Ignored value is automatically set for the linked inventory device.

Provided that the inventory device has not [yet] been linked to an asset record, this value is editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties (although Awaiting Inventory is no longer available once inventory has been collected for the device, and Archived can never be set manually).
VM name

The friendly name of the virtual machine, as displayed in the user interface of the VM management software (such as ESX), and returned in inventory.

Editable in the Friendly name field in the VM properties tab of the inventory device properties for the virtual machine. The compliance calculation updates this field with the machine name returned in inventory (matched by serial number).
VM type

The type of the virtual machine.

Editable in the VM properties tab of the inventory device properties for the virtual machine (for manually-created records). The value may be overwritten by incoming inventory.
License properties
Corporate unit, Cost center, Location

Details about the ‘ownership’ of this license by enterprise groups.

These settings are, in the main, an administrative record of convenience. These settings:

  • Have no impact on compliance calculations
  • Do not limit how the license can be allocated to individual users and computers across the enterprise (on the Consumption tab)
  • Do not limit how entitlements under this license can be assigned to other enterprise groups (on the Group assignment tab)
  • Have no relation to legal limitations on the consumption of this license (on the Restrictions tab).

Editable on the Ownership tab of the license properties.
Edition

The edition property of the license, which may or may not be the same as the edition of the licensed application.

Editable in the Identification tab of the license properties.
License name
The license name may be:
  • Copied from the first-linked software product
  • Derived from the License Name field of the SKU in the first-linked purchase (or if there is no SKU, from the purchase Description field)
  • Created manually.

The Name value is editable in the Identification tab of the license properties.
Manager

The delegate who has responsibility for the license (for example, the manager of the corporate unit that owns the license).

Editable on the Ownership tab of the license properties.

FlexNet Manager Suite (On-Premises)

2020 R2