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dgalecki
By
Flexera Alumni
  • July 17, 2019 update:
    • We've now concluded our review of 1-Level IBM bundle tests and the updated content will be released as follows:
      • FlexNet Manager Suite Cloud - July 29th, 2019
      • FlexNet Manager Suite on premises - August 22nd, 2019
        • Please note, if you're on FlexNet Manager Suite 2018 R2 or earlier release, you'll need to apply a patch before importing the new bundle library.  More information about the patch (and how to obtain it) is available in this announcement.
    • As a reminder, once you import the new bundle library and reconciliation process has run, you'll see new license recommendations for IBM Bundle products. The old recommendations based on multi-level bundles will be removed. You'll then be able to either accept or ignore the recommendations based on your current process.

 

  • June 25th, 2019 update:
    • I've been receiving many inquiries about the release date for this library change. Because of a delay in completing our testing, we've pushed it to July. 
  • Why?
    • We've undertaken extensive testing, including testing against the last two releases (2018 R2 and 2019 R1). Because we're still reviewing our results this week, we've decided to push the update in order to finalize our review. The good news is the results are meeting our expectations, so this change will happen in the next couple of weeks.

 

IBM Bundle Library content structure change

After extensive consultations with various stakeholders, including customers, partners and Flexera Professional Services, we're making a change to our IBM multi-product bundle library structure.

Background

IBM multi-product licenses are typically bundles of multiple applications. In many cases, these license bundles might be a component of another license bundle. As a result, a single license may represent many applications via sub-bundle relationships as illustrated below: 

ibm bundle.png

Management of this structure is challenging due to a potentially large number of components, which can often be installed across multiple devices.  FlexNet Manager Suite automatically identifies IBM bundle licenses by matching inventory against applications identified on a single device.

Some customers prefer to create their own IBM Bundle licenses, especially when applications of the bundle license are installed on multiple devices.  Based on our research and discussions, we've decided to update the IBM multi-product or bundle license library in order to improve usability of our content.

What is changing?

The IBM bundle library content will be revised and will result in a change in the number of applications that are part of a bundle license. In many cases, you'll see fewer application components in the IBM bundle license. Based on stakeholder feedback, this will make it easier to understand IBM bundle licenses and assist IBM license administrators to manage components included in IBM bundle licenses.

When will this change take place?

The changes to the bundle library will be effective with the first update of the FlexNet Manager Suite content in June 2019.

How will this change impact me?

All customers with IBM multi product licenses will see new license recommendations based on the new IBM bundle library content. 

  • If you've configured FlexNet manager Suite to automatically accept FlexNet Manager Suite’s IBM bundle identification, you can continue to accept IBM bundle identification
  • If your configuration currently ignores our bundle identification, and you chose to manually create their IBM Bundle licenses, you might now wish inspect the new proposed license changes from our revised content and reduce or even eliminate manual work of configuring IBM Bundles 

You can configure these settings in the Purchases tab of the System Settings page.

If you have any questions regarding this change, please contact Customer Support, your Customer Success Manager or contact us on Flexera Community.

(12) Comments
Povilas
By
Level 4
Hi. Could you please elaborate more on how this change is going to take effect? Do I understand correctly that if automatic acceptance of IBM bundle identification is turned off, then all bundle changes will appear in Recommended License Changes section and won't be applied automatically? Thanks.
dgalecki
By
Flexera Alumni
@Povilas, yes, I can confirm that after the change in the bundle library structure will only result in new license recommendations (which you can then ignore or accept). The change is specifically only limited to the content we produce, we are not changing FlexNet Manager Suite's behavior.
dsalter
By
Level 6

Quote: Some customers prefer to create their own IBM Bundle licenses, especially when applications of the bundle license are installed on multiple devices

Comment: I am a bit confused by this comment.  Is the software installed on multiple devices, or is the software that is part of the bundle installed across a set of devices?

For example, QualStage installed on one server and DB2 on another Or QualStage and DB2 on multiple devices?

Thanks in advance for the clarification.

dgalecki
By
Flexera Alumni

My apologies @dsalter , I missed your question.

If IBM Bundle components are installed on multiple devices, FNMS does not currently have the ability to automatically identify them as belonging to the same bundle.  In your example, you would need to manually add QualStage and DB2 to a single license as FNMS would not have a way to know that both components are part of the same bundle.

If both components are on the same device, then FNMS will provide you with an appropriate bundle recommendation.

tivens
By Level 7 Flexeran
Level 7 Flexeran

@dsalter I recommend viewing the Bundle Assessment and Configuration section of the IBM Best Practice guide available in the Learning Center - https://learn.flexera.com/series/spend-optimization-with-flexnet-manager-suite/advanced-publisher-specific-licensing

 

Kevin_Hou
By
Flexera Alumni

Hello Daniel

Do we have the SKU library version number already for mapping those two important release yet?

  • FlexNet Manager Suite Cloud - July 29th, 2019
  • FlexNet Manager Suite on premises - August 22nd, 2019

Or it only know the version when it's published on that day?

Thanks

 

Kevin

shuduguru
By Level 7 Flexeran
Level 7 Flexeran

Hi Kevin, 

SKU-PURL release build number (SKU library version number) would be available once the release is completed. 

You can track all the Content release update notes in the below link once SKU-PURL bundle release is  completed. 

https://community.flexera.com/t5/FlexNet-Manager-Release-Blog/bg-p/FlexNet-Manager-Release-Notes-blog

Thanks, 

-Srivatsa

sohbinong
By
Level 5

Hi, 

Please confirm if this (review of 1-Level IBM bundle tests and the updated content) has been included in SKU & PURL updates (Release #434). Thank you . 

Reshmadevadiga
By Level 4 Flexeran
Level 4 Flexeran

@sohbinong , yes the 1-level changes are included in #434 SKU/PURL build.

mfranz
By Level 17 Champion
Level 17 Champion

The original article mentions the hotfix for 2018 R2 and below. What will be the implications for customers importing the latest libraries and not having the hotfix installed?

dgalecki
By
Flexera Alumni

The issue the patch is resolving is that with the bundle content change, without the patch FlexNet Manager may not be able to apply the recommended license changes.  There are specific conditions for this issue to occur (comma in the application name), so it does not impact every recommendation, but can impact IBM Bundle recommendations.

carmencrayon
By
Level 3

Not sure if there is any webminar on the exact new use case vs. old?  That would be super helpful.