Possible license consumption changes

FlexNet Manager Suite version 2020 R2

Several improvements made in license compliance calculations may result in some small variations (including possible increases) in consumption of these licenses at this release. The improvements are:

• Where a device is consuming from an IBM PVU license at full capacity (that is, the device is not eligible for sub-capacity consumption), it now commences consuming only from the reporting period in which the relevant software installation was discovered. Although a current-period change is unlikely here, this may result in some reduction of historical consumption figures in the relevant license consumption report, since the device is no longer assumed to be consuming for all time.
• With partitioned VMs (like Solaris zones, LPARs and so on), it is often impossible to identify the host server, and in these cases FlexNet Manager Suite fabricates a host record to accommodate the VMs. From this release, such fabricated hosts no longer count as servers against your license for FlexNet Manager Suite. This change does not impact license consumption calculations.
• For IBM PVU licenses, when a virtual device that is a member of a resource pool moves to a newly-created alternative resource pool, it no longer causes a red error bar on either the Consumption tab of the license properties or on the License Consumption report that includes the affected license(s). This correction does not impact license consumption outcomes, other than preventing the error alert.
• Where an IBM PVU license has multiple group assignments, it now consumes correctly (whereas previously, consumption calculations on this license were silently failing). Fixing that failure may appear to increase the license points consumed.
• On rare occasions, a single software installation on an inventory device can be covered by two user-based licenses:
  • A Named User license assigned to the primary user of the device (either the assigned user for the device, or the calculated user most frequently logged on in the last ten cases)
  • A User license for any other user who may visit the device and use the same software.
  In this unusual case, both users are now appropriately counted in license consumption (whereas previously the visiting second user was overlooked).
• In an even more unusual case, a user may be the primary user on two devices (say, a desktop and a laptop), with the same application installed on both, and licensed per user consuming a point for each device (that is, where license use rights limit the number of devices on which a user may run the application). Later, a second user visits, and makes use of the same software on both these devices, also consuming from the same user license. Now, each user consumes the required two points (for the two devices), whereas previously the primary user was only counted for one point. This change is only visible on the Consumption tab of the license properties. This change only increases consumption if the primary user now exceeds the count of devices permitted by the user license.

These improvements focus on relatively uncommon corner cases, and so should not cause significant license consumption variations for most implementations. These reflect our commitment to continuous improvement in handling the complexities of license consumption.