As explained in Section 1.1, License Compliance Components, license entitlements are one of the three pieces of information that you need to understand and manage to effectively maintain license compliance for a software product. The following sections explain concepts that apply to entitlements:
When you create an entitlement, you specify the entitlement type. There are three different types of entitlements:
Full License: Represents a license agreement that gives users the right to install the product without owning a previous version.
License/Maintenance: Represents a license agreement that gives users full license rights to the purchased version and subsequent maintenance versions.
Version Upgrade: Represents a license agreement that gives users rights to upgrade a previous product version to the new version. A Version Upgrade entitlement references a base entitlement to automatically adjust available licenses between itself and the base entitlement. More information about Version Upgrade entitlements is provided in Section 1.6, Version Upgrades.
When you create an entitlement, you specify the license model for the entitlement. The entitlement’s license model determines 1) how license consumption is calculated and 2) which product installations can be covered by the entitlement.
There are different license models for entitlements that use Inventory installation data and for entitlements that use manually-entered installation data.
The Inventory data for a discovered product includes information about the devices on which the product is installed and the primary users associated with those devices. This installation-to-device-to-user association supports the following device-based and user-based license models:
Table 1-1 License Models for Inventory Entitlements
When you manually enter installation data (rather than use the Inventory data), no device or user information is associated with the installations. Because of this, entitlements with manual data source support only installation-based license models. You provide the total installation quantity, and that quantity consumes any of the entitlement’s available licenses.
There are several predefined license models for manual entitlements. These license models are intended to match the license models most commonly used in license agreements. If your license model is not represented, you can define it.
Table 1-2 License Models for Manual Entitlements
Discovered product installations are associated with devices. For example, if a discovered product is found on two devices, both devices are recorded in the discovered product’s information. This installation-to-device association enables the use of device-based license models (Per-Installation, OEM, and Machine).
To enable user-based license models (Per-User and Per-Named User), Asset Management uses an installation-to-device-to-user association. This means that each device must have a user associated with it. There are two different user sources that can provide this association. You must choose one or the other:
Inventory User Data: Each device’s Inventory data includes a user field. Asset Inventory does not automatically populate the field. There are three ways that you can populate the user information: 1) collect the information from users through an automated Inventory Collection Data form, 2) manually enter the user information by editing a device’s Inventory data in ZENworks Control Center, or 3) migrate Inventory data from ZENworks 7.5 Asset Management.
Authoritative User Source: This is the LDAP directory (or directories) your ZENworks Management Zone connects to for user information. By default, the ZENworks system is configured to automatically assign users from this source as primary users on devices. If a device has multiple users, the primary user is determined by a calculation method that you can select (usage based, login based, or direct assignment).
Both options work equally well. The Authoritative User Source method provides greater automation because you don’t need to manually enter user information, migrate information, or rely on users to complete the automated collection form.
If you are using Asset Management with ZENworks 7 Desktop Management, you must use the Inventory User Data method. The ZENworks Adaptive Agent’s User Management feature, which is required with the Authoritative User Source method, cannot coexist on the same device with the ZENworks 7 Desktop Management Agent. Installing the User Management feature automatically uninstalls the Desktop Management Agent.
License agreements (or contracts) might stipulate a period of time during which the product can be used. When you create an entitlement, you specify whether the license period is perpetual (never ending) or fixed term. With fixed term, you specify the start date and end date.
It is common for a licensed product to have multiple entitlements that share the same discovered product. When this happens, the Software Compliance Engine must determine how the discovered product’s installations are allocated among the entitlements.
The Software Compliance Engine processes the entitlements with the most restrictive license models first. The most restrictive entitlements have fewer installations that meet the restrictions. By processing them first, the greatest number of installations can be processed against the entitlements, increasing the likelihood that the entitlement’s licenses are consumed.
Entitlements are processed in the following order (most restrictive to least restrictive):
OEM: Covers an installation only if it is on a specified device.
Machine: Covers an installation only if it is on a specified device.
Named User: Covers an installation only if it is associated with a specified user.
Per User (with Installations > 1): Covers an installation only if it is associated with a user that has the product installed at least twice.
Per Installation: Covers an installation on any device.
Per User (with Installations = 1): Covers an installation associated with any user.
Manual: Covers the manually specified number of installations.
If, after processing all of a licensed product’s entitlements, there are discovered product installations that have not been consumed by a entitlement, the Software Compliance Engine reports the licensed product as undercompliant (more installations than licenses). Each unconsumed installation is also reported as an unresolved installation on the licensed product’s Compliance Status page.