Allocating Licenses

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

An allocation:

• Permanently ties individual computers/users (depending on license type) to a particular license, preventing consumption from other licenses for the same application(s)
• Is managed manually, staying in place until you remove it again
• Can include devices that cannot be inventoried in license consumption calculations, causing them to be counted even though they are missing from inventory.

Tip: When you make an exemption for a user or device in a particular license, this also functions like an allocation in that it ties the [absence of] consumption to the particular license, thus preventing consumption from another relevant license.

Allocations (and exemptions) can be managed for individual licenses, devices and users through the license properties (see Making License Allocations). Allocations and exemptions can also be managed in bulk using this Apply Allocations and Exemptions page.

To allocate license entitlements:

1. On the License Compliance > Apply Allocations and Exemptions page, use the smart-search filter to identify appropriate licenses or applications (see The Smart-Search Filter), and use the column or advanced filters (see Using Filters to Limit Data Size) to find the desired record(s).
   Typically, for example, you may be identifying:

   • Devices with specific hardware features
   • Machines matching certain naming conventions
   • Groups of either servers or desktops
   • Certain virtual machines
   • Users from a specific area of your enterprise.
2. Select the record(s) that you wish to allocate to license(s).
   You may make selections from multiple pages of the listing. The current count of selected items is shown on the left above the listing. Notice that it is the devices (or users, depending on license type) associated with the selected installations that are the subject of the allocation process.

   Tip: If you want to reuse this set of records, use the Save view as... control to save this data set. In future you can simply open the saved view, and select all.
3. Click Allocate.
   The blue Allocate to license section appears, showing the number of selected item(s) as Selected installations/allocations.
4. Identify the desired license(s) using the Allocate to drop-down list:
   • Select the licenses these installations are already consuming to allocate the selected installation(s) to the license(s) that they are already consuming. This prevents future compliance calculations from linking these installations to a different license that may appear appropriate at that time.
   • an existing license (search) — Select this to allocate the selected installation(s) to a specific license. IT Asset Management displays a control to search and select the required license. For details on the properties displayed in the search results, see the listing at the bottom of this topic.
5. Select the type of allocation from the Allocation type drop-down list:
   • Allocated — Select this standard allocation type to allocate the installation(s) to the selected license(s). The allocated installation(s) always get top priority in consuming entitlement(s) from the linked license, and cannot consume entitlements from any other license.
   • Awaiting inventory — Select this allocation type if the installed application is on an inventory device that has not reported inventory (it may be in transit), and you want to count this installation in the license compliance calculations by allocating the installation to the inventory device. When inventory is received and reconciled, the type automatically changes to Allocated.
   • Permanent — Select this option to make the selected installation(s) to permanently consume the entitlement(s) from the linked license(s) on this inventory device, regardless of whether any matching software inventory is reported for this device.
6. Document the allocation reason using the Allocation Reason field.
7. Click Apply allocations to allocate the selected record(s) to your chosen license. IT Asset Management displays a notification about the result of the action you just performed.
   Note: You cannot allocate certain license types such as Microsoft User CAL or Microsoft Device CAL. An appropriate warning displays when you try to allocate such licenses.

The following license properties are available in the search results for licenses:

Allocated

The number of license entitlements allocated to computers or end-users. Those with allocations have top priority consuming from this license, and cannot consume from any other. Allocations may also be set (per license) to always count as consumption (regardless of inventory). For each inventory device, you can also modify the behavior of allocations.

The Allocated value is editable in the Consumption tab of the license properties. Furthermore, the type of allocation can be adjusted on the Licenses tab of the inventory device properties.

Not available for SAP Named User licenses.

Category

The category chosen for this license.

Categories represent how licenses are classified within your enterprise. For example, if you would like to group licenses for different types of software (such as word processing, drawing tools, or business systems), you could define a category called Software Types and sub-categories for each type of software. You could then assign each license to one of these categories.

Tip: You can create categories through Enterprise > Categories .

Compliance status

Whether or not the current use of software under this license complies with the license terms and conditions. Values may be:

• At risk — Consumption exceeds entitlements. Consider uninstalling some software, or finding more purchase records, or making new purchases to cover the shortfall.
• Compliant — The calculated consumption is less than or equal to the total recorded entitlements (these may be recorded in one or many purchases linked to this license). If your data input is complete and accurate, this license is in good shape.
• Not tracked — This is the initial (default) value for CAL Legacy, Oracle Legacy, and Concurrent User licenses, because the compliance status of these license types is not calculated by license reconciliation process. However, you can manually set the compliance status value in the Compliance tab of the properties for these licenses. Custom Metric licenses also start out as Not tracked, but for Custom Metric licenses you may manually set the value only if you first set the Set Compliance status manually check box in the Identification tab of the license properties.
• Unknown — Inventory data cannot be used to determine the compliance status of this license. Typical reasons may include:
  • Missing calculations — You haven't yet run a compliance calculation (called a Reconcile, available in the Reconcile page, or run automatically overnight).
  • Missing applications — The license has no application linked. You can identify the installed software and link it to the license; or as a short-term workaround, you can switch to the Consumption tab, allocate the license to specific computers (or end-users, depending on license type), provided that in the Use rights & rules tab you expand the License consumption rules section and select the Allocations consume license entitlements check box.
  • Missing inventory details — This license may require details from hardware inventory that are currently not available. For example, Microsoft Server Core and Microsoft Server Processor licenses require the number of threads and cores or processors from hardware inventory. All inventory tools do not include these details. Prior to the 2012 release, Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (previously Microsoft SCCM) did not provide information on cores; and threads may be missing from various sources, and the license compliance cannot be accurately calculated without this information. Unless the license is already at risk, it is given a status of Unknown. To correct this, identify the computers linked to this license that are missing the necessary hardware properties, and set the values manually until you can change to an inventory tool that provides all required data. Consider augmenting the inventory on these computers with direct inventory gathering by IT Asset Management through an inventory beacon.

Consumed

The number of license entitlements (or points) consumed across the enterprise.

Tip: Access rights on an operator's role may restrict the values that the operator is entitled to see. An unrestricted view provides the total consumption that should be balanced by purchases.

Note: Special provisions apply to these license types:

• For SAP Named User licenses, this is the license requirement based on the current user license assignments in SAP. This is the same value that would be calculated by SAP LAW, had you run it with the same data.
• For IBM PVU licenses, this is the most recently calculated value shown in the Peak consumed field on the Compliance tab of the license properties. The historical peak is the licensable metric for this license type.

Corporate unit, Cost center, or Location

The name of the related enterprise group.

May be linked to the license on the Ownership tab of the license properties.

Duration

The time-based nature of the license, whether it is a Perpetual, Subscription, or Time limited license.

Editable in the Identification 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.

Expiry date

For subscription (or other time-limited) licenses, this is the date when the current license expires. You should aim to renew the subscription before this date.

Has maintenance

Displays No when there is no current maintenance recorded for this license; or Yes when there is at least one purchase of maintenance for which today falls between the Effective date and the Expiry date (inclusive) on the purchase. When this is Yes, the Maintenance field shows the corresponding number of entitlements that are currently covered by maintenance.

License type

The kind of license, which determines what properties are available for the license, and how compliance is calculated for the license. For details of an individual license type, please see the appropriate entry in the glossary.

Editable in the License type field in the Identification tab of the license properties.

Maintenance

The total number of license entitlements currently covered by maintenance (or support, or Software Assurance), as shown in maintenance-related purchases linked to the license and taking account of their effective date ranges. (Keep in mind that the total purchases of maintenance may be split across licenses.)

The total is not directly editable in license properties. The value is summed from maintenance purchases linked to the license, and is displayed in the Compliance tab as Maintenance from purchases. To increase the total coverage, link additional current maintenance purchase records to the license.

Tip: Maintenance purchases can also be split across multiple licenses, for example by editing the Maintenance column in the Purchases tab of the license properties.

Maintenance can be included in purchases of the following types linked to the license:

• Not set
• Software
• Software baseline
• Software maintenance
• Software subscription
• Software upgrade.

Manager

The delegate who has responsibility for the license.

Editable in the Ownership tab of the license properties.

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 Oracle Processor license from which the devices in this row are consuming. The License name is editable in the Identification tab of the license properties.

The license from which the devices in this row are consuming for their installations of Oracle software. The License name is editable in the Identification tab of the license properties.

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

Override unit price (currency)

The unit price for a single entitlement under this license. This value has been set to override prices on all related purchase records. This may be set to the current single purchase price.

Editable in the Purchases tab of the license properties.

Product (primary)

The basic name of the application, excluding the publisher and references to versions or editions. This field displays the value Multiple products for multi-product licenses that have multiple primary products. See Multi-Product License.

Product values are not directly editable in the license properties, but are taken from the latest version of the application linked to the license (visible in the Identification section of the General tab of the application properties). In license properties the product is listed in the Applications tab. For multi-product licenses, linked products are listed in the Use rights & rules tab.

Publisher

The name of the publisher of this software, responsible for its development and distribution.

For application records that you create manually, Publisher is editable in the General tab of the application properties. For applications supplied through the Application Recognition Library, the Publisher field is not editable.

Purchased

The total number of license entitlements recorded for this license. This is the sum of the Entitlements from purchases and Extra entitlements values stored in the properties of the license. This is the number of license entitlements your enterprise is entitled to consume.

Not directly editable. The value changes as you:

• Link purchases to a license (for example, through the Purchases tab of the license properties)
• Edit a value in the License entitlements column of the Purchases tab of a license
• Change the Extra entitlements field in the Compliance tab of the license properties.

Raw consumption

The consumption from this license before taking account of any savings gained from product use rights that may cover some installations without consuming additional entitlements. For most license types, this is shown on the Compliance tab as Raw installations.

Not editable.

Serial number

Any serial number associated with this license.

Editable in the Identification tab of the license properties.

Shortfall/Availability

Displays the result of Entitlements from purchases plus Extra entitlements minus Consumed fields shown in license properties. The result is positive when you have surplus entitlements (according to the last license consumption calculation), and negative when you are under-purchased. For points-based licenses (such as Core Points or Processor Points licenses), the value is the number of points, rather than entitlements.

Not editable. Visible at the Available Entitlements field on the Compliance tab of the license properties.

Subject to true-up

A value of Yes means this license cannot be displayed as "at risk", and that at the end of the true-up period, you must make purchases to retroactively cover any over-consumption. Most licenses display No.

Editable in the Subject to true-up field in the Identification tab of the license properties.

Note: For SaaS User licenses covering Salesforce, this field should show a value of Yes. However, if the Subject to true-up field in the Identification tab of the license properties is manually deselected for a Salesforce license, this field will temporarily display a value of No until the next time IT Asset Management recalculates a license position, after which this field reverts to Yes.

Used

The number of installations of the licensed applications actively being used. Shows a zero if:

• Usage thresholds are not set for the application(s) linked to the license
• Usage data is not collected in inventory for the linked applications
• Nobody used this application throughout the time-span specified in the Usage period field on the Usage tab of the application's properties (by default, three months).

If a non-zero Used count is less than the Consumed count, you may be able to harvest licenses by uninstalling applications.

Exceptions:

• For SAP Named User licenses, this column shows optimal license use calculated by FlexNet Manager for SAP Applications. This forms the basis of recommendations made available to your SAP Administrators. (If Used is identical to Consumed, no further optimization is currently available.)
• For SAP Package licenses, this column always has the same value as the Consumed column.
• For Concurrent User licenses created during import of data from FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications, usage is a figure directly imported and not locally calculated. (By default, these special case licenses are not linked to application or computer records.)

Version

The version assigned to the license. Depending on settings, this may or may not reflect the version of the first-linked application.

The license Version is editable in the Identification tab of the license properties.