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License Consumption removal | Automation Possible - Best SAM practices?

Hi Dear Community,

I have an ITAM question– When an application is removed from a CI or an inventory device at the source system and a specific license has already been allocated to the CI in Flexera  as shown here[attachment]. Is it best practice to automate this license deallocation from the CI when there is an application being removed on the actual host.

Is this ITAM best practice to automate the license deallocation for any particular CI when an application associated with a license has been removed from the inventory device?

Once deallocated from the license and reconciliation is completed; the CI would be removed from the consumptions tab of the all license page for the particular license as shown below[attachment].

Right now we are deallocating the license manually from to reflect the changes on this consumptions tab.

Thank you

Abhilash M

(7) Replies

Hi Abhilash.

 

I see that this stems from your previous post where allocation was deemed to be the cause of this problem.  I know that allocation is the most accurate way of forcing a specific license to consume on a device - but this need only be applied when there are two or more licenses for the same thing and you specifically want this device to consume this license.   IF NOT ALLOCATED, the device should consume your license based on an applications presence, and then should stop consuming simply when the related asset is retired/or inventory device is directly ignored.

 

Please confirm your use case for allocation.

Hi Nico,

I got a request from our business team for Flexera who handles all these license activities in SAM process. So the question was, once an application is removed on the device and reconciliation happens overnight, the application would simply disappear on the application tab for inventory properties. However the license that was associated with the application would still show in the license tab of the same page. 

Is it SAM best practice to perform automatic removal of the license once an application is removed from the inventory device? I am hoping not, assuming a single license sometimes may be more than often be linked to multiple applications on the device being inventoried.

Thank you

Abhilash M

Hi.

In a simple scenario, the license should also be removed in the reconcile process -it is best practice for a license to consume where the license consumption conditions are met - eg the application is present.

@Cloaky :  When an application is removed from a device, then once FNMS received updated inventory and performs a full reconciliation, then when looking at the updated properties of the device:

1) The application will be removed from the Applications tab

2) The license will be removed from the License tab, UNLESS the device/user was "allocated" to the license.

3) If the devices/user was "allocated" to the license, it will no longer have consumption against the license, but it will remain linked to the license until it gets "unallocated" from the license.

Kirk

@kclausen  Hi Kirk, to this point - I have a question.

 

If the devices/user was "allocated" to the license, it will no longer have consumption against the license, but it will remain linked to the license until it gets "unallocated" from the license.

 

Until it gets unallocated from the license - Should this (unallocate license step)be a manual action or would there be a possible automation following SAM best practices? Just to make sure before diving into automating such critical things in the system.

 

Thank you

Abhilash M

There is no "productized" automation that would unallocate a device or use from a license when it is no longer consuming against the license.

You should be able to create a report that lists devices allocated to a license that are not consuming and have a process built around the report.  Further investigation may be needed on such a report.  For example, the device may not be consuming because it has an exemption.

 

Yes I got it now!, Thanks a lot Kirk!