Creating a license type by using basic mode

This topic provides the rest of the steps required to create a license type by using basic mode.

For an example of how to create a license type in basic mode, see Site license type example (basic mode) and Per instance license type example (basic mode).

To continue creating a license type by using basic mode

1. Complete the steps in Creating custom license types, including selecting Basic as the License Type Mode and clicking Next.

1. Specify the connection questions.
   For each connection question, perform the following steps:
   1. Type a question in the Question field.
      The question name is the question that is displayed to the user who adds a license certificate. In the next stage of the license wizard, you map this question to an attribute in the BMC Atrium CMDB. The user's answer to the question is used by the license engine in a query to BMC Atrium CMDB.
   2. Select a field type of either Char or Int.
      The field type determines whether the user enters a character or integer answer to the question.
   3. Select the CI grouping:
      • Software — The question is about the software being licensed.
      • Component — The question is about a component on the computer system on which the software is installed.
      • Computer System — The question is about the computer on which the software is installed.
        
        Selecting the CI grouping for the question also determines the CI type attribute you can select to map to it. For example, if the CI grouping question is set as Software, then you can only map attributes belonging to the software classes. The CI Type menu is dynamically populated when you select the question to be mapped.
   4. Select the sequence in which the question is asked.
   5. Click Add.

      Tip

      To delete a question, highlight it in the list and click Delete. If you want to modify a question, you must delete it and add a new question.

   6. To enter questions in other languages, select a question and click Manage Locales.
      The Manage Locales form displays the selected question. You can add translations of the question for other locales.
   7. When you have finished adding questions, click Next.
      The Map Connection Attributes page of the license type wizard for basic mode is displayed.

      Tip

      The Map Connection Attributes page is displayed only if you define connection questions.

2. Specify how to map the questions to CIs in BMC Atrium CMDB.
   For each connection question, select the CI Type and Attribute and click Map Attribute. You must use the same CI Type for each connection question. The query to connect to the appropriate CI uses a logical AND between attributes.

   Note

   For any CI Type that you select, the Attribute field lists the DB names used in BMC Atrium CMDB forms.

   Tip

   To delete a mapped attribute, select it from the list at the bottom of the Build Connection Mapping list and click Delete.

3. Click Next.
   The compliance questions are used by the compliance actions to determine the compliance for the given license type. The CIs connected to a certificate and the number of CIs that are allowed to be connected are analyzed through these actions.
   The Compliance Questions page of the license type wizard for basic mode is displayed.
4. Specify the compliance questions as follows:
   1. Type a question in the Question field.
      The question name is the question that is displayed to the person who adds a license certificate. In the next stage of the license type wizard, you build compliance actions to get, calculate, compare, or update values based on answers entered when a license certificate is created using this license type. The answers to the questions are used by the license engine in a query to BMC Atrium CMDB.
   2. Select a field type of either Char or Int.
      The field type determines whether the user enters a character or integer answer to the question.
   3. If you specified Groupable on the Create License Type page of the license type wizard and Int as the field type here, select one of the following values in the Integer Question Type field:
      • None — Indicates that the field is to accept an integer value that is operated on according to actions specified in the Build Compliance Actions page of the license type wizard
      • Summable — Indicates that the field that you specify as summable gets rolled up from all the children to the master certificate
      • Distributable — Uses the summable amount and distributes the number to the children based on the sequence of the children and the value for each

        Example

        On three separate occasions, 10 licenses, 5 licenses, and 20 licenses were purchased. When their certificates are grouped at the master level, 35 are displayed for summable. The distributable value that is displayed shows the value for each certificate. If a total of 45 CIs are found connected to the certificate, 10 are assigned to the first child certificate, 5 to the second, and the remaining 30 for the last. (Amounts are distributed back to the child certificates based on the sequence in which they were grouped under the master certificate.) Because the last certificate gets assigned 30 while it had only purchased 20, it is marked as not compliant. The master certificate is also marked as not compliant.

   4. If you selected Distributable in the preceding step, specify values for the following fields:
      • Summable Field List — Select the summable field based on which the distributable field should divide the totals amongst the child certificates.
      • Set Compliance Alarm — Select whether to set a compliance alarm. If set to Yes, this distributable field is used to trigger compliance on the child certificates.
   5. Specify whether the question uses a computed value.
      You can specify rules on the next page of the license type wizard to compute values.
   6. Select the field visibility:
      • Visible Read / Write — Identifies fields that are updatable from the certificate
      • Visible Read Only — Categorizes fields that do not need to be updated from the certificate, such as those retrieved for a compare or computation. For example, this attribute can be used for the results of CMDB queries.
        Selecting this value results in a dimmed, uneditable field when you use this license type to create a license certificate from the Software Asset Management (SAM) Console.
      • Hidden — Used to categorize fields that are used in an operation but do not need to be seen in the certificate
   7. Select the sequence in which the question is asked.
   8. To enter questions in other languages, select a question and click Manage Locales.
      The Manage Locales form displays the selected question. You can add translations of the question for other locales.
   9. Click Add.

      Tip

      To delete compliance questions, select them from the list at the bottom and click Delete.

   10. When you have finished adding all of the compliance questions, click Next.
       The Compliance Actions page of the license type wizard for basic mode is displayed.
5. Specify compliance actions.
   Based on the run-time data from the license engine and based on the compliance questions, select and create the following compliance actions:
   • Get — Retrieves a list of values or a count of the matching records from the specified form. For more information, see Creating a Get Compliance Action.
   • Calculate — Computes an expression. For more information, see Creating a Calculate Compliance Action.
   • Compare — Performs a comparison defined in an expression. For more information, see Creating a Compare Compliance Action.
   • Update — Updates a list of values on a specified form. For more information, see Creating an Update Compliance Action.
   • Start loop — Lets you process a set of actions before moving on to the next. The Start Loop action is used to start a loop to return a list of values from a Get Action. A Start Loop Action must be created before the Get Action is created. Actions that use the Get action's results list are created after the Get.
   • End Loop — Ends the loop before moving to the actions outside the loop. When you select End Loop, a dialog box appears prompting you to select the Start Loop action for which the End Loop is to be created.
     
     End Loop being created for a Get action list
     
     
6. When you have finished specifying compliance actions, click Done.