Licenses Tab

FlexNet Manager Suite 2019 R1 (On-Premises Edition)
The Licenses tab lists any software licenses for which entitlements have been adjusted because of this purchase. The link may have been established through the purchase processing wizard (recommended — see Unprocessed Purchases), or may have been created manually, either through this page (see topics below) or through the license properties.
Tip: It’s valuable to link the purchase to the software licenses obtained, as this allows for later automation of license upgrades, as well as automatic management of expiring subscription licenses or maintenance. Using the purchase processing wizard is preferable because of its increased automation; and even where you use the wizard to prepare things manually, you have additional facilities there such as the ability to create a suitable license when one is not already available.

One purchase to one license

For many purchases, just one license is linked. In this case, the quantity shown in the Effective quantity field (on the General tab of this purchase's properties) adds to the number of license entitlements available to be assigned to computers.

One purchase to many licenses

There are two ways that you can split a purchase across several licenses, one common and one quite rare:
  • The common case is where you have purchased one product, but you have multiple licenses in the system for that product (for example, perhaps you are using separate licenses for different regions within your enterprise). In usual way that you expect, you want to split your purchase across the appropriate licenses. For example, if your total purchase was for 70 entitlements, you could assign 40 to your US license and 30 to your APAC license. In this scenario, the total number of purchased entitlements should be found by aggregating (or summing up) the allocations to each of those affected licenses.
  • The rare case is where you have a summary purchase order that records a single line for (say) a reseller to supply 10 sets of your four standard applications, needed to get ten new employees functional without delay. You are tracking these four applications, of course, on separate licenses; but in this scenario, the total number of entitlement purchased must be applied equally to each of those licenses (because the purchase was for 10 sets, so you must add 10 entitlements to each member of the set). The same total entitlement count is shared (or replicated) across the affected licenses.

In both cases, the method of applying a purchase to multiple licenses is simply to use the search control to add more than one license to the listing. By default, each selected license initially shows the total Effective quantity for the purchase as its Assigned entitlements value. This looks like the rare case described above, and the Allocate assigned entitlements value, at the top of the tab, shows by sharing. If you leave these default values for each added license unchanged so that all have that identical value in the Assigned entitlements column, you are replicating the Effective quantity for the purchase across each of the listed licenses (the rare case).

It is easy to convert to the more common case. As described in the table below, just edit the Assigned entitlements values for the licenses, directly in the listing, making sure that (when you've finished) the total matches the Effective quantity for the purchase. As soon as the values are no longer all identical, Allocate assigned entitlements shows by aggregation.
Tip: If you save the edited purchase with more entitlements assigned than are available as the Effective quantity for the purchase, the purchase is flagged with a notification to remind you to adjust your assignments. (There is no equivalent notification if you assign less than the Effective quantity.)

Many purchases to one license

Looking at this from the license perspective, it is common for one license to receive entitlements through many purchases. For example, you may have given every member of your marketing department a licensed copy of Adobe Acrobat in a single purchase. Later, as the team expands, you purchase further entitlements to the same product. In this way, the number of available license entitlements becomes the sum of the entitlements assigned from all linked software purchases.

Properties of related licenses

The Related licenses list shows licenses adjusted through this purchase. The following license properties (shown alphabetically) are available for the list, many of them through the column chooser. (You can also navigate directly to the property sheet of a linked license for further details.) For actions available on this tab, see the following topics (linked below this table).

Property Comments
Accepted

If this purchase was processed automatically, this is the date of processing. If the link was created manually through property sheet adjustments, this is the date that the purchase was linked to this license.

Not directly editable.

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.

Assigned entitlements
This column allows splitting of the total number of license entitlements in the purchase across more than one license. The total assigned across all licenses must not exceed the Effective quantity shown in the General tab of the purchase properties. (If you save the purchase properties in that condition, an alert is displayed on the Licenses tab.)
Tip: When the Purchase type is Software maintenance, this is the number of license entitlements that are covered by the maintenance purchase/renewal.
If the license has an Entitlement status of Disabled (such as, for example, after the import of a Microsoft License Statement for a date later than the Purchase date of the purchase), the quantity assigned is shown as zero, followed by the originally assigned quantity in brackets. The latter is the value that will be restored if entitlements are once again enabled. Also, if the license has an Entitlement status of Not contributing, the quantity assigned is shown as zero. This typically happens for Microsoft Office 365 licenses as the entitlements are maintained by Microsoft Office 365 Online Service, and directly imported into FlexNet Manager Suite through the Office 365 connector (see Creating Connections to Microsoft Office 365).
In the Licenses tab:
  1. Use the Search field to select multiple licenses to attach to this purchase.
    Note: At first, each proposed license shows the total Effective quantity as being assigned exclusively to itself. The equal quantities trigger the rare 'sharing' mode (discussed above the table of properties), when Allocate assigned entitlements shows by sharing, and the summary figure below Assigned entitlements shows the same common value shared across all related licenses. Continue the process below to edit the values to lesser (and hopefully distinct) values, when the mode changes and the summary shows the total assigned.
  2. For each license in turn, select the value in the Assigned entitlements column of the main Related licenses list.
  3. Overtype with the desired number to assign to the license listed in that row.
  4. Tab (or click) off the column to see the impact in the total shown at the bottom of the Assigned entitlements column.
  5. When the total at the bottom of the column is equal to the Effective quantity shown in the General tab, click Save to commit your changes. These will take effect from the next calculation of license consumption (by default, scheduled overnight).
Category

The category chosen for this license.

Selectable in the Identification tab of the license properties.

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.

Not editable. This value is the result of the latest compliance calculation (the time and date of which is displayed at the top right of every web page).

Tip: If this is the only purchase contributing entitlements to the linked license, and the Consumed count exceeds the Assigned entitlements, investigate whether there are additional purchases to link to the same license, whether installations can consume from a different license, and so on. Otherwise you may need additional (new) purchases of license entitlements to cover consumption.
Corporate unit

The name of the related enterprise group.

Selectable on the Ownership tab of the license properties.

Tip: Licenses may also be restricted to specific enterprise groups (license properties, Restrictions tab). In this case, they can only receive entitlements from purchases linked to the same enterprise groups.

To edit group names and relationships, navigate to Enterprise > groupType.

Cost center

The name of the related enterprise group.

For details, see Corporate unit, above.

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. Commonly this echoes the edition of an application attached to the license, but may be used in other ways in your enterprise.

Editable in the Identification tab of the license properties.

Entitlement Status

The entitlement status determines whether this purchase contributes towards the entitlement count (or maintenance coverage, as applicable) of the linked license. The setting may be automatically adjusted when a Microsoft License Statement is imported, or set manually. (For purchases that have been split across multiple licenses, each linked license is considered independently, so that entitlements from a single purchase may be disabled for one license and enabled for another.) For more information, see Purchase Order Upload and Uploading Purchases from Microsoft License Statement.

To set the Entitlement status, do either of the following:
  • Select one or more purchases from the list, click Change entitlement status above the list, and select the preferred value.
  • In the row for the appropriate purchase, open the drop-down list in the Entitlement status column and select the preferred value.
This property can have any of the following values:
  • Enabled (default): The purchase contributes to the entitlements for this license.
  • Disabled — The purchase does not contribute to entitlements for this license. For Microsoft licenses, this status is automatically assigned when the purchase date is on or earlier than the date of the last uploaded baseline position that includes a purchase for the same product (that is, the purchase is already included in the MLS baseline, and should not be double counted). A purchase that was previously Enabled is changed to Disabled if a later MLS document is imported (you may override this with the next setting).
    Tip: When entitlements are disabled, the purchase cannot contribute to maintenance coverage either.
  • Always enabled — The purchase is always enabled. This is valuable for purchases of Microsoft license entitlements that might be expected to be included in an MLS import, but in fact are not. Purchases with this status always contribute to the entitlements on a linked license. This value is not updated for any future MLS import.
  • Not contributing — The purchase does not contribute to entitlements for this license. This value is displayed when you add a purchase of Microsoft Office 365 to an existing license. The entitlements for Microsoft Office 365 licenses are maintained by Microsoft Office 365 Online Service, and directly imported into FlexNet Manager Suite through the Office 365 connector (see Creating Connections to Microsoft Office 365).
Expiry date

For subscription (or other time-limited) licenses, this is the date when the current license expires. Ignored for perpetual licenses (even though any previously entered date may still be visible). Check the Duration field to see whether this license is perpetual or time-limited.

The Expiry date is editable on the Identification tab of the license properties.

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.

Location

The name of the related enterprise group.

For details, see Corporate unit, above.

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.

The total is not directly editable in license properties (although the total can be split across licenses). 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 Name value is editable in the Identification tab of the license properties.

Override unit price

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.

Publisher values are recorded in the General tab of the application properties. They are not directly editable in the license properties, but are linked through the latest version of the application linked to the license.

Purchased

The total number of license entitlements owned by the enterprise, as currently 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 licenses 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.
Tip: This value may be equal to Assigned entitlements (above) when:
  • This is the only purchase linked to the license
  • There are no Extra entitlements recorded on the license
  • You have previously saved the purchase properties, and reopened or refreshed this tab.
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.

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.

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 through License Compliance > Reconcile, 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. As all inventory tools do not include these details (Microsoft SMS or SCCM prior to the 2012 release did not provide information on cores; and threads may be missing from various sources), 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 FlexNet Manager Suite through an inventory beacon.

Editable for Custom Metric license types in the Compliance status field in the Compliance tab of the license properties (depending on the check box to Set Compliance status manually in the Identification tab).

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 FlexNet Manager Suite 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.)

The Used value is not editable, and is set by the most recent compliance calculation.

Version

The version assigned to the license. This may be tracking versions of a linked application, or may an independent value.

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