License Consumption Rules

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

Contracts can modify the product use rights of related software licenses. For example, a contract may allow a user to use additional copy of the same license on a home computer or laptop. The License consumption rules determine how consumption of entitlements that are related to this contract are calculated. For detailed information on background and restrictions of software licensing, see License Consumption Rules. To enable the linked licenses to inherit product use rights from this contract, select This contract grants license consumption rules to linked licenses and select one or more of the following options:

Allocations consume license entitlements

• Clear this check box for the default behavior. In this case, an allocation by itself does not consume license entitlements directly. Instead, it gives top priority to the target user or device to which the allocation was made, so that when an installation record appears in inventory, it is in the first group (the group of all allocations) to consume from the available entitlements. This is valuable when there may not be sufficient entitlements purchased for a license to cover all installations, and you wish to ensure that certain people/machines are covered by this license.
• Set this check box to force all allocations on this license to count as consumption. This is valuable when there are devices (or users) not conveniently covered by your software inventory processes. You can use an allocation to ensure that both the target user/device is licensed, and that its consumption is correctly recorded regardless of the fact that there is no corresponding inventory.
  Important: An allocation is only reflected in consumption calculations from the next inventory import/calculation after both the setting of this check box and the existence of the allocation in the Consumption tab of the license properties.

Access granted to users, or usage, consumes license entitlements

• For most licenses, the default setting (the check box is clear) is correct.
• For licenses covering virtualized applications, set this check box to expose additional controls. (Here virtualized applications includes those streamed from an application server, or deployed from such a server for local installation, or delivered through a virtual desktop solution.) In short, select this check box to allow license consumption for App-V, Citrix Virtual Apps, and Citrix Virtual Desktops applications (the "whether or not" setting for consumption for virtualized applications).
  Tip: The choice between access or usage is made by the last of the newly-exposed controls, described below.

Consume one entitlement for each user or Consume one entitlement per device owned by each user

This group of radio buttons determines, once consumption is triggered, exactly what quantity is consumed (the "what" of consumption).

• One entitlement per user: some licenses (more typically for application virtualization) require a device-based calculations, but make the concession that all the devices 'owned' by a single user may be grouped together and counted as one. This sounds rather like user-based licensing, but meets the publishers' requirements for device-based licenses that can allow such grouping of devices.
• One entitlement per device: other licenses require that every device is separately licensed, and further require that if a user can access the virtualized application on any device, then they are deemed to have access through each of their devices, all of which must be licensed. In this case, a device is 'owned' by a user when the user is either:
  • the Assigned user for a device
  • the Calculated user for a device (both of these are visible in the Ownership tab of the inventory device properties).

Restrictions: These radio buttons are not visible for the following license types:

• IBM Authorized User
• Named User
• User.

Consume entitlements based on

When it is visible (that is, when Access granted to users, or usage, consumes license entitlements is checked), this control determines exactly what triggers consumption calculation (the "why" of consumption). Choose one of the following values:

• Access — No evidence of usage is required. If the user's computer is listed for access in a record returned from inventory (through the appropriate adapter for App-V, Citrix Virtual Apps or Citrix Virtual Desktops), consumption is triggered.
• Usage within the time limit — Consumption is only triggered when there is a usage record (from the same adapters) within the time limit specified in the next control (which appears when you select this option). If there is no usage record within that period, there is no consumption calculated for that device/user. Specifically, even if the device/user is listed in inventory as having access, there is no consumption without the usage also being recorded. Similarly, prior usage outside the time limit counts for nothing. The time limit is always the specified period immediately prior to the most recent compliance calculation (a rolling window).

As an example, suppose there is a usage record for Sam's computer on May 1, and the time limit is set to 90 days. When you examine status on July 29, Sam's computer is consuming from the license. Look again on August 1, and now it is not consuming, because the usage record is outside the rolling 90-day time window. This will be true even though Sam may be listed for access in the App-V data.

Usage time limit in days

This control appears when you choose to Consume entitlements based on Usage within the time limit.

Enter or spin up the number of days (immediately prior to the current compliance calculation) to examine for a record of usage. The default value (90 days) is a typical provision in such licenses, but check the details of your license agreement.