Adding Licensed Software Catalog Items
If you have also purchased FlexNet Manager Suite, you can use App Portal to manage application licenses.
| • | Flexera Service Gateway—App Portal communicates with FlexNet Manager Suite via the Flexera Service Gateway component. You need to enter the Flexera Service Gateway server name on the Flexera Integration tab of the Site Management > Settings view. |
| • | Linking a catalog item to FlexNet Manager Suite—You can associate a catalog item with its Flexera ID when creating the new catalog item using the New Catalog Item Wizard. Also, after a catalog item has been added to App Portal, you can open the FlexNet Manager Suite tab of the catalog item’s Catalog Item Properties dialog box and search the FlexNet Manager Suite libraries to locate the application’s Flexera ID. |
| • | App Portal can reserve licenses—After App Portal is connected to FlexNet Manager Suite and an application’s Flexera ID has been selected, whenever an end user requests that application from App Portal, App Portal will automatically connect to FlexNet Manager Suite and request that an application license be reserved for that end user. |
| • | Advanced license check—Starting with App Portal 2016, license entitlement evaluation has been enhanced to consider not only available licenses, but also second use rights, upgrade/downgrade rights, and exemption by device role rights (such as an MSDN subscription), all based upon information stored in FlexNet Manager Suite. |
You can add a Flexera ID to a new catalog item using the New Catalog Item Wizard, or to an existing catalog item, using the Catalog Item Properties dialog box.
| • | About Advanced License Check |
| • | Adding a New Licensed Software Catalog Item Using the New Catalog Item Wizard |
| • | Converting an Existing Catalog Item to a Licensed Catalog Item |
Note:To add a software catalog item, you must first provide connection settings to a deployment technology, as described in Configuring Your Deployment Technology.
App Portal gives users the ability, at a more advanced level, to check if a license reservation is needed for a catalog item by evaluating the following during checkout:
| • | Right of second use (also known as portable use)—The right to use the software on both a desktop and a laptop with the same owner and only consume one license. |
| • | Upgrade rights—The right to use the latest version of the software as soon as it becomes available. |
| • | Downgrade rights—The right to use an older version of the software than the version purchased. |
| • | Exemption by device role rights—The right to install software based upon a subscription role, such as an MSDN subscription. |
These additional license rights are evaluated at checkout before a license is reserved. This solution helps ensure that your organization evaluates all key entitlement rights and does not mistakenly purchase more license entitlements that you actually require.
Enabling Advanced License Check
By default, advanced license check is not enabled. To enable it globally, select the Enable Advanced License Check with FlexNet Manager Suite option on the Site Management > Settings >Flexera Integration view.
You can also control the advanced license check feature on a catalog item basis by selecting the Check for available license during checkout option on the FlexNet Manager Suite tab of the Catalog Item Properties dialog box.
Check for Advanced License During Checkout Option
About Product Use Rights
Enabling the “advanced license check” process will improve the entitlement estimate during the reservation process, but it may run the risk of a few exceptions. For instance, the following may occur:
| • | Changes between the pre- and post-approval process may occur. |
| • | Changes between the request process and the deployment / inventory may occur. |
| • | Reassignment of license through the license reconcile process may produce unexpected results. |
There are known limitations in the license optimization performed when using the advanced license check. For instance, only the user/device relevant to the request is considered. In the scenario described in the following table, no new license is required if you consider both User 1 and User 2: you just need to exchange the current licenses between User 1 and User 2. However, because only User 2 is considered at the time of the request, the system wrongly detects that a new license is needed. These are corner case scenarios but they may exist.
|
Users |
License |
Request |
What should happen |
What will happen |
|
User 1 |
Has a license with right of second use |
— |
User 1 and User 2 should switch licenses so that User 2 has a right of second use. |
An additional license will be purchased for User 2. |
|
User 2 |
Has a license with no right of second use |
User 2 requests a license for a second device |
Advanced License Check User Experience
When this feature is enabled, catalog items on the Browse Catalog tab that require a license will display the text “License Check is Required” rather than “License Required”. An advanced license check will be performed using the data from FlexNet Manager Suite to determine whether the right of second use, upgrade/downgrade rights, or exemptions by device role apply.
|
Without Advanced License Check |
With Advanced License Check |
|
Items requiring a license identified by the phrase License Required. License availability is identified as either License available or License not available. |
Items requiring a license are identified by the phrase License Check Required. If an item requires a license and, after an advanced license check is performed, it is determined that the user already has rights to a license for that item (possibly due to second use, upgrade, downgrade, or role rights), the phrase No additional license needed is listed. |
Adding a New Licensed Software Catalog Item Using the New Catalog Item Wizard
To add a new licensed software catalog item using the New Catalog Item Wizard, perform the following steps.
To create a new licensed software catalog item:
| 1. | Select Site Management > Settings. The General tab of the Settings view opens. |
| 2. | Open the Flexera Integration tab. |
| 3. | In the Flexera Service Gateway Server Name field, enter the name of your Flexera Service Gateway server. |
| 4. | Select Catalog Management > Create New Catalog Item > New Catalog Item Wizard. The Catalog Item Type panel of the New Catalog Item Wizard opens. |
| 5. | Select Software Catalog Item and click Next. The Software Source panel opens. |
| 6. | Select SCCM 2012 and then select Application. |
| 7. | Click Next. The SCCM 2012 Applications panel opens. |
| 8. | Locate and select the application that you want to associate with this new catalog item. |
Important:Only a specified number of packages are initially listed in this grid. To search the entire System Center Configuration Manager server for a package, use the column filters.
| 9. | Click Next. The Catalog Item Title and Category panel opens. |
| 10. | In the Title field, enter a title to identify this catalog item in your App Portal storefront. By default, the name of the package that you selected is listed in this field. |
| 11. | From the Category field, select a category to specify this catalog item’s location in the App Portal catalog. |
Note:You are required to select at least one category, but you may select more than one.
| 12. | In the Brief Description field, enter the text that you want to display under the catalog item Title in the App Portal storefront. |
| 13. | By default, a generic icon is associated with this catalog item. If you have another image that you would like to use to identify this catalog item, click Change to open the Image Selection dialog box and select a .gif, .jpg, or .png icon file. |
Tip:For best results, the uploaded image should be at least 80 px by 80 px.
| 14. | In the Search Keywords text box, enter single words that an end user might enter when searching for this catalog item. |
| 15. | In the Full Description text area, enter a longer description of this catalog item, and use the items on the toolbar to format it. |
The text entered in the Title, Brief Description, and Full Description fields will be displayed as follows:
| • | Title—The text entered in the Title field along with the catalog item icon, will be displayed when viewing this catalog item on the Browse Catalog tab. |
| • | Brief Description—When viewing catalog items in list view, the brief description will also be visible: |
| • | Full Description—The text entered in the Full Description field will be displayed when a catalog item is viewed in its detail view, which is opened by clicking on the catalog item name in either the list or card view. |
| 16. | When you are finished editing the fields on the Catalog Item Title and Category panel, click Next. Because you are connected to FlexNet Manager Suite via the Flexera Service Gateway, the Flexera ID panel opens, and by default, does not list any products. |
| 17. | In the filter box under Product, enter the name of the application you are adding and press Enter. The Flexera ID list is populated with applications matching the term(s) you entered. |
| 18. | To track licenses for this catalog item using its Flexera ID, select the application name for this catalog item, and click Next. The SCCM 2012 Deployment Settings panel opens. |
Note:When adding a System Center Configuration Manager package, or an Altiris software product or policy, the options displayed on the Deployment Settings panel will vary.
| 19. | From the Select Deployment Method list, select one of the following options to specify whether this catalog item will be deployed to a computer or to a user: |
| • | Deploy to computer |
| • | Deploy to user |
| 20. | To add an uninstall collection to this catalog item, select the Create Uninstall Collection option. When this option is selected, users will be able to submit an uninstall request from App Portal, and System Center Configuration Manager will uninstall the application. App Portal will inform the user when the uninstall is complete. |
| 21. | Click Next. The Ready to Create panel opens. |
| 22. | Select the Load advanced view after creating the catalog item option. |
| 23. | Click Create to create this new catalog item. The catalog item will now be listed on the Browse Catalog tab in the category you selected. Also, because you selected the Load advanced view after creating the catalog item option, the Catalog Item Properties dialog box for this catalog item opens. |
| 24. | Open the FlexNet Manager Suite Settings > Mapping tab. |
| 25. | To enable license checking for this catalog item, select Check for license position during checkout. |
| 26. | To enable advanced license checking for this catalog item, as described in About Advanced License Check, select Check for advanced license during checkout. |
| 27. | Click Save on the Catalog Item Properties dialog box and then close the dialog box. |
| 28. | Next, open the Browse Catalog tab. |
| 29. | Under Browse Categories, select the category that contains the catalog item that you just added. Because a license is required for this catalog item, a lock icon will be displayed. |
If you add a catalog item that requires a license to the cart and then open the cart, two additional icons will be displayed for that catalog item: the License Source icon, and the License available or License not available icon. In the following example, the License not available icon is displayed.
If a license were available, the following icon would be displayed:
Converting an Existing Catalog Item to a Licensed Catalog Item
You can also add a Flexera ID to an existing catalog item by opening the FlexNet Manager Suite tab of the catalog item’s Catalog Item Properties dialog box.
To add a catalog item’s Flexera ID:
| 1. | Select Current Catalog Items > View All Items and double-click on the catalog item that you want to modify. The Catalog Item Properties dialog box opens. |
| 2. | Open the FlexNet Manager Suite tab. |
| 3. | Enter the name of the application in the Product Name field and click Search. Possible matches are listed. |
| 4. | From the list of search results, select the appropriate entry. The selected item will be highlighted. |
| 5. | Click Save. The catalog item is now mapped to a software entry in FlexNet Manager Suite, and the product information is now listed at the top of the dialog box. |
| 6. | Make sure that the Check for license position during checkout and, optionally, the Check for advanced license during checkout options are selected. |
| 7. | Click Save and close the Catalog Item Properties dialog box. |
| 8. | Select the Browse Catalog tab. |
| 9. | Under Browse Categories, select the category that contains the catalog item that you just added. Because a license is required for this catalog item, a lock icon will be displayed. |
If you add a catalog item that requires a license to the cart and then open the cart, two additional icons will be displayed for that catalog item: the License Source icon, and the License available or License not available icon. In the following example, the License not available icon is displayed.
If a license were available, the following icon would be displayed:
