1.1 License Compliance Components

To know whether or not a software product’s deployment within your organization complies with your software product license records, you must reconcile three important pieces of information about the product:

The following illustration shows the components that Asset Management uses to bring your product information together:

Figure 1-1 Compliance Components

Licensed Product: A licensed product is the software product whose license compliance status you want to monitor. The information (entitlements, installations, and purchased licenses) needed to determine the compliance status is provided through the licensed product’s components (entitlements, discovered products, catalog products, and purchase records).

A licensed product can be version independent (such as Product A) to cover multiple versions, or it can be version-specific (such as Product B Version 11).

License Entitlement: More than likely, not all of your purchases of a software product fall under the same license agreement. Some agreements might specify different license types (full, upgrade, and so forth), some might specify different license models (per-user, per-installation, OEM, and so forth), or some might have different license periods (perpetual or fixed-term).

Each different license agreement for the software product must be represented by a unique license entitlement. A license entitlement defines the agreement details such as the license type, license model, and license period. In addition, a license entitlement includes the number of product installations, the number of purchased licenses, and the users and devices whose product installations can be covered by the entitlement. Based on the entitlement details and the available licenses, consumed licenses (from installations), and coverage information, Asset Management determines the licensed product’s compliance status.

In the example, Product A has two entitlements representing two license agreements with different license models:

More information about entitlements is included in Section 1.2, Entitlements.

Catalog Products: A catalog product identifies a software product for which you’ve purchased licenses. When added to an entitlement, a catalog product’s licenses become available for consumption by the entitlement’s installations.

Typically, a catalog product corresponds to a specific product part number. For example, when you purchase a single copy, a 10-pack, and a 100-pack of the same software product, each has a different product part number. As a result, each is a separate catalog product. Likewise, if you purchase two 10-packs of the same software product, one a full license pack and the other an upgrade license pack, each of these is a separate catalog product.

As a result, a single software product might have multiple catalog products. This allows you to assign the appropriate catalog products to the appropriate entitlements. In the example, the catalog products that represent non-OEM versions of Product A are associated with the Product A Per-User entitlement, resulting in 25 available licenses. The Product A OEM catalog product is associated with the Product A OEM entitlement, resulting in 5 available licenses.

More information about catalog products is found in Section 1.4, License Data.

Purchase Records: A purchase record provides details about the number of licenses purchased for a software product. The licenses roll up to the catalog product that represents the purchased software product.

When you purchase a software product over time, you end up with multiple purchase records for the same software product. In this case, the software product’s licenses (included in each purchase record) roll up to the same catalog product. In the example, Product A (10-Pack) was purchased at two different times; however, the licenses from both purchase records are rolled into the Product A (10-Pack) catalog product.

If you have electronic purchase record files, you can import the purchase records. When you import a purchase record file, Asset Management creates catalog products for the software products included in the file. If you do not have purchase record files, you must manually enter the purchase records and manually create the catalog products.

If you do not have purchase records that include detailed software purchase information, you can create purchase summary records to represent the purchased licenses. To provide proof of purchases, you can attach supporting documents to the purchase summary records.

More information about purchase records is found in Section 1.4, License Data.

Discovered Products: A discovered product represents a software product installed in your Management Zone. When associated with an entitlement, the discovered product’s installations are eligible to consume the entitlement’s licenses.

If a discovered product’s installations can be covered by different entitlements (for the same licensed product), you can assign the discovered product to each entitlement. Based on the entitlements’ license models and coverage, the Asset Management compliance engine determines which entitlement covers each installation.

In the example, Product A (the discovered product) is associated with both entitlements. Five of the installations (on M1, M2, M3, M4, and M5) consume licenses in the Product A OEM entitlement. The other 20 installations consume licenses in the Product A Per-User entitlement.

More information about discovered products is found in Section 1.3, Installation Data.