Licenses Tab

FlexNet Manager Suite 2019 R2 (On-Premises Edition)

For Licenses tab under Remote Device Properties, see Licenses Tab.

The License tab on Inventory Device Properties lists the licenses associated with this inventory device.

Available actions

You can perform the following license-related actions on an inventory device:

For more information about using lists, filters, and other UI options, see the topics under Using Lists in FlexNet Manager Suite.

This page displays the following columns (listed alphabetically). Some columns are displayed by default and others can be displayed through the column chooser. To manage columns and other UI options, see the topics under Managing Columns in a Table.

Table 1. Licenses tab details
Field Description
Access mode

The method that this computer uses to access the application attached to this license.

The Access mode value is not editable, and is derived from inventory.

Allocation type
You may use the drop-down list in this column to modify the behavior of an allocation, or make a new allocation, for this inventory device. Click the down arrow in the appropriate cell, and choose one of the following values. To deallocate a license from an inventory device, use the Deallocate button. See Deallocate Licenses from an Inventory Device.
  • Allocated — The standard type of allocation, indicating that this installation is given top priority in consuming entitlements from the linked license, and cannot consume from other licenses. However, consumption (from the linked license) still depends on the existence of an inventory record for the relevant application. For example, if you allocate a license to an inventory device but the installation of the appropriate application is not detected on the inventory device by the inventory process, the allocation count would be incremented but the consumption count would remain the same. A few points to consider about this allocation type are:
    • This is the default allocation type for the licenses added to inventory devices.
    • The allocation behavior changes when the Allocations consume license entitlements option is selected, forcing all allocations to consume license entitlements regardless of reported installations (see Use Rights & Rules Tab).
  • Awaiting Inventory — This allocation is counted as installed (triggering consumption of license entitlement(s)) until inventory is reconciled for the allocated inventory device. Once the inventory is received (and reconciled), the record is automatically switched to Allocated. In summary, this setting acts like Permanent while waiting for the first device inventory, and then switches over to act like Allocated.
    Tip: If inventory has previously been collected for an inventory device and is still current in the database, the switch from Awaiting Inventory to Allocated occurs at the next reconciliation. The typical use case for this setting is when preparing data records for new inventory devices that are not yet in service, for which you want to 'reserve' (allocate) licenses ahead of time. In this case, it will likely be the inventory device's first inventory record that causes the switch.
  • Permanent — This allocation permanently allocates this license to this inventory device. From the next Reconcile, this allocation will be permanently counted as an installation (and consume from the linked license), regardless of whether any matching software inventory is reported for this user. See the note below.
Tip: In FlexNet Manager Suite, you can also use any of the following methods to permanently allocate a license (to an inventory device or user):
  • By setting allocation for a particular inventory device: In the inventory device properties, in the Licenses tab, for Allocated select the Permanent option as described above. This setting applies uniquely to the current inventory device, and does not affect allocations to other devices.
  • By setting allocation for a particular user: In the user properties, in the Licenses tab, for Allocated select the Permanent option. This setting applies uniquely to the current user, and does not affect allocations to other users.
This means that allocations allow fine-grained control. For example, you can allocate entitlements from a license to 50 inventory devices using the default allocation type; but from the inventory device properties, set just one sales consultant's laptop to a Permanent allocation, so that it always counts as installed (regardless of inventory). The remaining 49 get the top priority for the license entitlements, and if they report a linked application, they must consume from the allocated license; but they consume only when an inventory result triggers consumption. But the laptop always consumes, even when the sales consultant's travels prevent inventory collection.
Device name

The name of the inventory device. The compliance calculation updates this field with the machine name returned in inventory (matched by several properties, including serial number).

Editable in the Name field in the General tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records).

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.

Not editable.

Exemption reason

The reason why the individual computer or user is exempt from consuming an entitlement under this license, even though the application is in use. When this column is blank, application use on this computer, or by this user, can count towards consumption of the license.

The Exemption reason may be set on the Consumption tab of the license properties; or it may be based on the setting of the device role which matches an exemption reason identified in the product use rights of the license.

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.

Installed
Displays Yes if any of the following is true, as shown in the last compliance calculation:
  • The application is installed on the device (for device- or points-based licenses)
  • The application was used by the end-user, or is installed on any of this user's devices (for user-based licenses)
  • The application was accessed through Citrix Virtual Apps (when access mode is Citrix).

The Installed value is not editable, but is calculated as inventory is processed.

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.

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.
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.

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 names are supplied by the Application Recognition Library and are not editable. New product names created within your enterprise are editable in the General tab of the application properties.

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.

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.

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.
Used

Displays Yes or No to indicate whether a product license is being used on this inventory device.

The discovery and inventory process generates the value of this field.

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.