Editable points rules

Note:This feature is available with IT Asset Management.

To calculate license consumption, some licenses use sets of points rules. For example, installations on some more powerful types of computer processor may be worth more points than older models; but there can be many different ways of choosing how many points apply to a particular inventory device where the linked software is installed (or where there is a license allocation causing consumption).

One of the license types that uses points rule sets is the Microsoft Server Core license, which is eligible for the Microsoft Azure Hybrid Benefit (support for AHB was announced in April in the Microsoft Azure Hybrid benefit allows Bring Your Own License for cloud solution providers section of this Feature List document). For these licenses in particular, a points rule may also identify one or more applications that must be present for the points rule to apply. (Recall that an "application" may define both the edition and the version of a particular product.)

In general, points rule sets are delivered as part of the Application Recognition Library downloads, and imported automatically. Within each set, points rules supplied by Flexera cannot be changed.

However, new functionality has now been added so that you can add a new points rule into an existing set, either by creating a rule “from scratch” and defining every detail, or by cloning an existing rule (including one downloaded with the Application Recognition Library) and just tweaking the value(s) you want customized. When, as a result of customization, you have two points rules within the set that have overlapping eligibility, your local copy of the points rule always takes precedence. And if you later decide that your customization is no longer needed, you can also choose to delete any points rule added locally.

You access the editor for points rules by choosing the appropriate points rule set from the Points Rule Sets page of Flexera One (Licenses > License Management > Point Rule Sets), then opening a point rule set’s properties, and finally, selecting the Points rules tab. There you may either CREATE an entirely new points rule, or CREATE FROM an existing points rule that you preselected within the set. A blue editor area opens within the tab so that you can “edit in place”.

Importantly for AHB licensing, the editor also allows you to customize the list of applications “mapped” into each rule. Your customized points rule can then apply only to the applications mapped into its definition. This means, for example, that you may have two related rules within the same set: the first rule may allocate 1 point for each installation of MyApp Standard edition (in any version), while the second rule may allocate 5 points for any installed version of the MyApp Gold edition. The points rule editor is highly flexible.