Consumption for user-based licenses adjusted

IT Asset Management version 2019 R1.3
If you have computer users in your enterprise who are all of:
  • Consuming from user-based licenses (for example, User, Named User, IBM Authorized User, IBM User Value Unit and others)
  • Linked to more than one inventory device (such as a desktop and a laptop) that may have installed software linked to the same license
  • Showing either Retired or Inactive in their user Status setting

you may observe a change in consumption results on the affected licenses.

From this release, it is assumed that inventory devices for retired/inactive users are in transition to new, and as yet unknown, users. However, devices in transition are not exempt from licensing. The rule is that devices linked to user-based licenses, but with an unknown user, consume a single entitlement. Therefore, in the corner case described above, the departing user previously consumed one entitlement as an active user; but now, being treated as an unknown future user, each of the user's devices consumes a separate entitlement. Of course, if those multiple devices are all then reassigned to a single new known user, the next license reconciliation restores the original single consumption.

To help identify any such cases:
  • The retired/inactive user name is still displayed in the Consumption tab of the license properties (even though they are treated as 'unknown' for calculation purposes)
  • Their separate devices now appear on separate rows of the same listing – which may make it look like a duplicated user (in contrast, an active user with multiple devices lists them all on the same row)
  • A new optional column for affected user-based licenses displays the User status, so that you can immediately check for users who are retired/inactive.

Best practice to avoid this minor fluctuation is to transition devices to the new user (even if that user has a status of Pending) before marking the previous user as Retired. Any change from the default Active status requires a manual edit in the user properties page.

As a side benefit of this change, the license properties for affected user-based licenses no longer show inconsistent totals on the Compliance and Consumption tabs, where previously retired/inactive users could cause minor differences.

Duplicated evidence rows

Duplicate rows may appear in the list of evidence for the following reasons:
  1. Multiple sources: Pieces of evidence from multiple inventory sources match the same rule in the ARL.
    • This is the most common reason for duplicated rows of evidence. This behavior is by design, so that you can compare differences in evidence returned from different inventory sources.
    • Required action: None. This is deliberate and normal behavior.
  2. Multiple rules: An individual piece of evidence matches more than one evidence rule from the ARL.
    • Example: Assume that the ARL includes these two rules:
      1. Publisher: "Flex%", Name: "%", Version: "%"
      2. Publisher: "Flexera", Name: "%", Version: "%"
      Now imagine this piece of imported evidence: Publisher: "Flexera", Name: "Agent", Version: "1.0". Both rules match this evidence, and there are two rows displayed so that you can compare the rules. Provided that both rules are linked to the same application, there is no impact on application recognition.
    • Required action: Review whether both rules are needed. You might discuss concerns in the Customer Community.

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

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