KACE Systems Management Appliance 14.1 Common Documents - Administration Guide

About license upgrades

About license upgrades

Application maintenance plans often enable users to upgrade to newer versions of applications when those versions become available, and the License Compliance page shows the number of installations that are considered to be upgrades.

To track upgrades, the appliance uses the information in the Software Catalog and the license details to determine whether to associate new versions of applications with existing licenses. For example, if a License asset was created for the 1.0 version of an application, and the maintenance plan entitles users to upgrade, the 2.0 version of the application is automatically covered by the License asset when it is released. In this example, the License asset must be configured as follows:

For more information about these settings, see Add License assets for Software Catalog inventory.

About license downgrades

About license downgrades

Vendors often allow users to apply licenses for newer versions of applications to older versions, and these types of installations are referred to as downgrades. The License Compliance page shows the number of installations that are considered to be downgrades.

License seats are first allocated to installations of the latest version of the application. If additional seats are available, and if the vendor allows downgrades, the seats are automatically allocated to installations that are considered downgrades.

Licenses for upgrades are always allocated before licenses for downgrades.

Customize the License Asset Type

Customize the License Asset Type

You can add, change, or delete the fields available to the License Asset Type as needed. The License Asset Type is the template that determines the fields available when you add License assets.

If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, you customize the License Asset Type for each organization separately.

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In the License Mode Field drop-down list, select a field, such as License Mode, to be used for License Compliance. By default, this drop-down list contains a single field, but you can add fields as needed. If you select a field, such as License Mode as shown in the following illustration, only the selected field is used for License Compliance.

In addition, when you select a field, you can choose the values, if any, you want to ignore in the License Compliance chart. Values that are ignored are listed at 100 percent usage and displayed in gray.

By default License Mode is the only single- or multiple-select field available, so it is the only field listed. If you add single- or multiple-select fields on the Asset Fields table, they appear in this list as well, and they appear on the Asset Detail page when you add a License asset. However, only the selected field, or the first field on the Asset Fields list, is used in the License Compliance widget.

a.	Click the Edit button at the end of a row: .

c.	To add a field, click the Add button in the table heading: . Add field information, then click Save at the end of the row.

d.	To change the order of fields, drag the Reorder button: .

e.	To remove a field, click Delete button: .

Add License assets for Software Catalog inventory

Add License assets for Software Catalog inventory

You can add License assets for applications in the Software Catalog inventory. Adding License assets enables you to view license compliance information on the License Compliance list and on the License Compliance Dashboard widget.

Software Catalog applications must be classified as Discovered, Not Discovered, or Locally Cataloged. You cannot add License assets for applications classified as Uncataloged.

When you associate License assets with applications, you can also view license information on the Software Catalog Detail page. If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, you manage license information for each organization separately.

TIP: To add License assets for multiple applications at once, you can import the information from spreadsheets or CSV files. See Example: Import license data from prepared spreadsheets.

Option	Description
Name	The name of the license, such as Office Professional PO #1234. This is the name that you use to find the asset. If you plan to have multiple licenses associated with an application, provide the purchase order number or purchase date in the fields below to differentiate the licenses.
License Subtype	The Asset Subtype to associate with the license. See About Asset Subtypes, custom fields, and device detail preferences.
Asset Status	The license status, if applicable. You can select a default asset status, or a custom one (if they exist). A default installation of the appliance includes the following asset statuses: • Active: Any asset that is deployed, active, or in use. • Disposed: An asset that is no longer available for use. • Expired: A software license or contract asset that has expired. • In Stock: A recently received asset. • Missing: Any asset that cannot be located. • Repair: An asset that is being repaired. • Reserved: An asset that is set aside for a specific person or use. • Retired: Any asset that reached its end-of-life state, or is no longer in use. • Stolen: An asset that has been reported as stolen. For more information, see View and configure asset lifecycle settings.
Location	The name of the location where the asset is located. See Managing locations.
License Count	The number of installations or seats the license allows. For example, 50.
Applies to Cataloged Software	Applications in the Software Catalog inventory to which the license applies. You can associate License assets with multiple applications in the Software Catalog if necessary. However, it is not necessary to associate a License asset with multiple versions of the same application because the appliance does this automatically to support upgrades and downgrades. You can simply associate the current version with the License asset when you add the license information. In addition, if you assign applications from different publishers, such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat, to the same License asset, the total number of seats specified in the License asset is assigned to each application. For example, if the License asset has 100 seats, both Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat are assigned 100 seats.
Applies to Software	Leave this field blank. A software license cannot be associated with applications from the Software Catalog inventory and the Software page inventory at the same time. For more information on how to create license assets for cataloged software, see Add License assets for Software page inventory.
License Mode	The mode of the License asset. For applications that require licenses, and to display license usage information on the License Compliance page, select either Enterprise or Unit License.   NOTE: Most modes, including Not Specified, Client License, Subscription, Shareware, Freeware, OpenSource, No Licensing, and Site License, are not used for License Compliance. The license mode is used in these sections of the Administrator Console: • The License Compliance list. See View License Compliance information for Software Catalog applications. • The License Compliance chart that is displayed on the Dashboard. Values that are marked as ignored on the Asset Detail page are shown with a usage level of 100 percent. See About Dashboard widgets.

Option	Description
Contract	The contract asset associated with the license.
Product Key	The product key associated with the license. You can modify and edit the default information, which can be captured for a License Asset Type.
Unit Cost	The unit cost associated with the license. You can modify and edit the default information, which can be captured for a License Asset Type.
Vendor	The name of the Vendor asset you want to associate with the application. the Vendor drop-down list is empty unless you have added a Vendor asset. To search for a vendor, begin typing in the list.   NOTE: Assigning multiple vendors to a single software License asset is not recommended because it can result in inaccurate License Compliance information.
Purchase Order Number	The purchase order number associated with the license.
Purchase Date	The date the purchase was made. Click in the field, then select a date on the calendar.
Purchase	Select one or more purchase records associated with this license. See Managing purchase records.

Perform the following optional tasks: