Solved: Setting up Visual Studio Licenses in Flexera

mdh33955 · ‎Feb 13, 2023

What is the correct way to link a Visual Studio App to a Visual Studio license in Flexera. For example, ours was set up for us. Under applications, Visual studio components show the usage, not the commercial Visual Studio license. This is deceiving for when I run a VS license report.

Do you add the components to the VS commercial license application and then create the usage as all my users state they are using the full VS app?

Thank you for any help on this so we can make sure we are tracking this license appropriately

spierce · ‎Feb 24, 2023

Hi,

When setting up a Visual Studio (With MSDN) License you should either create it from the Purchase, using the SKU you have, or create the License from scratch and choose the Visual Studio Application, at which point you will have the choice of choosing a Product Use Rights Template – just be sure to choose the appropriate Edition (Enterprise, Professional etc). Either of these approaches will auto-create your License with the correct Use Rights and Applications.

Please note:

The License will be a Named User License. This means that it will only be consumed by users who are allocated. Therefore in addition to setting up the License you will need to allocate the users from your MSDN Portal.
Wherever a User is allocated, any of the included Visual Studio and MSDN Applications found on that User’s device/s will consume the Visual Studio License, as desired.

I would also recommend setting up a Device License to catch Visual Studio only for any installs on devices of users who are not allocated to the Named User License (This is a good indication of users who should have an MSDN subscription, but do not).

To allocate large numbers of users you can use an Excel template and the Business Adapter Studio.

An alternative approach would be to change the Named User License to a User License and let Flexnet consume the license naturally, but then the big risk is that any of the included Applications will consume the Visual Studio License instead of their own license (Like SQL Server for example). You could avoid this by changing all of the included Products to Supplementary status in the Use Rights tab of the License, but this:

Will take time
Will mean consumption includes the devices of Users who may not have Vis. Studio and MSDN Subscriptions (But do have Visual Studio installed).

Kind Regards,

Stewart

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spierce · ‎Feb 24, 2023

Hi,

When setting up a Visual Studio (With MSDN) License you should either create it from the Purchase, using the SKU you have, or create the License from scratch and choose the Visual Studio Application, at which point you will have the choice of choosing a Product Use Rights Template – just be sure to choose the appropriate Edition (Enterprise, Professional etc). Either of these approaches will auto-create your License with the correct Use Rights and Applications.

Please note:

The License will be a Named User License. This means that it will only be consumed by users who are allocated. Therefore in addition to setting up the License you will need to allocate the users from your MSDN Portal.
Wherever a User is allocated, any of the included Visual Studio and MSDN Applications found on that User’s device/s will consume the Visual Studio License, as desired.

I would also recommend setting up a Device License to catch Visual Studio only for any installs on devices of users who are not allocated to the Named User License (This is a good indication of users who should have an MSDN subscription, but do not).

To allocate large numbers of users you can use an Excel template and the Business Adapter Studio.

An alternative approach would be to change the Named User License to a User License and let Flexnet consume the license naturally, but then the big risk is that any of the included Applications will consume the Visual Studio License instead of their own license (Like SQL Server for example). You could avoid this by changing all of the included Products to Supplementary status in the Use Rights tab of the License, but this:

Will take time
Will mean consumption includes the devices of Users who may not have Vis. Studio and MSDN Subscriptions (But do have Visual Studio installed).

Kind Regards,

Stewart

mdh33955 · ‎Feb 24, 2023

Thank you Stewart! I have decided that it is a lot less work to just manage the license from the MS Visual Studio Portal than in Flexera. Maybe one day Flexera can integrate with this. Appreciate the time you took to respond.

ChrisG · ‎Feb 24, 2023

The following Idea in Flexera Ideas is potentially related to what you're doing here: FXONE-I-127: SaaS Manager to support Microsoft Visual Studio.

Please vote on that Idea if it would be useful for you.

(Did my reply solve the question? Click "ACCEPT AS SOLUTION" to help others find answers faster. Liked something? Click "KUDO". Anything expressed here is my own view and not necessarily that of my employer, Flexera.)

spierce · ‎Feb 24, 2023

Hi, you are welcome.

See Chris's note about the potential for a Saas Manager integration to the Visual Studio Portal.

Please note that managing the VS licenses in Flexera is less about the VS Licenses themselves and more about licensing the related software you may find on your developer's Laptops or Development VMs (Like SQL Server for example). Therefore I would encourage you to consider allocating your VS Portal users one way or another.

Regards,

Stewart