Working with a software license certificate

A license certificate indicates the right to deploy software in your environment. When you add license certificates to a software contract, the compliance module tracks if all the licenses added to the contract are compliant or not.

To maintain a history of the purchase, you can link the certificate to a purchase order line item.

When the License Engine runs, it attaches CIs to the certificate, based on the following information about the license certificate:

• Company
• Product manufacturer and name
• Categorization
• Answers to connection questions
  
  

In BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management, you can add license certificates to software contracts, group multiple software certificates in a master certificate to track individual licenses easily, modify software license certificates, and so on. The following screenshot shows a master certificate:

To add a license certificate to a software contract

1. On Contract Management console, select the software license contract, and click View.
2. On the Software License Contract form, click the License Details tab, and click Add.

3. On the License Certificate form, complete all the required fields.
   
   

   Field name	Description
   Company Software Contract ID	This information comes from the software contract.
   Certificate ID	The certificate ID identifies the license certificate in listings and reports. It does not have to be unique.
   Summary	This field provides additional space to describe the certificate.
   Status	When you create a license certificate, the status is set to Draft.
   Status Reason	A status reason is not required for an executed license certificate. For an historical license certificate, the status reason indicates whether it expired, and whether this expiration is a result of the contract expiration. Important: When a contract expires, all the certificates under it expire.
   License Category Type	Select from Client, Server, or Mainframe. The selection you make here is used for informational purposes only.
   License Type	Select the appropriate license type. The license type determines the connection questions and the compliance questions. BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management comes with the following license types: Enterprise — A company-wide site license for the product Per copy — This license type counts the number of licenses deployed based on the number of users of the product. If the same user has the product installed on two computers, such as a desktop and a laptop, one license is consumed. Per copy per device — This license type counts the number of licenses consumed based on the number of computer systems on which the product is installed. To be in compliance, the number of licenses must be equal to or less than the number of licenses purchased, and the number of copies per device must not exceed the number indicated on the license certificate. Per instance — Each instance of the software requires a separate license. Site — The product is licensed for an entire site within the company. It can be restricted to a region, site group, or site. The site is determined by the site of the computer system on which the product is installed. Per Server — This license supports doing a count of the unique number of servers with the specified manufacturer and model, that a particular software title is installed on, and compare that with the total number of servers with the specified manufacturer and model that a certificate allows from a compliance standpoint. Per CPU Sum Based — This license model is based on the sum of all unique CPUs associated with products that are associated with the certificate. Per CPU Multiplier Based — This license model is computed based on a multiplier factor for each processor. The value for each processor is then summed to determine the number of licenses consumed. Per CPU Constant Based — This license model is computed based on a constant value for each processor. The value for each processor is then summed to determine the number of licenses consumed. Per Core Sum Based — This license model is based on the sum of cores on the unique hardware the software is installed on. These server instances can be either physical or virtual systems. Per Core Multiplier Based — This license model is computed based on a multiplier factor for each processor type which is then multiplied with the number of cores found. This value is then summed to determine the total number of cores in use. Per Core Constant Based — This license model is computed based on a constant value for each processor which is then multiplied with the number of cores found. This value is then summed to determine the total number of cores in use. Important: BMC Configuration Automation for Clients Configuration Discovery Integration for CMDB (BMC Configuration Automation CDI) does not populate the Site attribute (field) for CIs. You can perform bulk updates of location information (including the Site field) for CIs. For more information see, Performing-bulk-updates. If your administrator created other license types, select the appropriate license type. The license types listed above are applicable only to the computer systems type CIs. Select <license type>_All to include all the CI types.
   Cost Center	This information comes from the software contract, but can be changed.
   Effective Date	Specify the date that the license becomes effective.
   Expiration Date	Specify the date that the license expires. If the license does not expire, leave this field blank.

4. To link the certificate to a purchase, perform the following steps:
   1. In the Purchase Line Item area, click Search Line Item.
   2. In the Search Purchase Line Items dialog box, search for the purchase line item.
   3. Select the appropriate line item, and click Relate.
5. Click Next.

6. Select the software from the product dictionary. 
   You must select the manufacturer. Optionally, you can select the product name, the version, or the categorization.

   Important

   Software license management uses the market version of the software product for licensing. This helps in the maintenance of certificates, so that you do not need to relate each of the minor versions to the certificate, instead just relate the market version for the product. For example, Adobe Acrobat Professional gets discovered with various minor versions in BMC Atrium Configuration Management Database (CMDB) such as 6.1.1, 6.1.2, and 6.1.3 depending on the patch level. The market version attribute allows you to refer to these three versions by a single version in BMC Helix CMDB. For more information about setting the market version for Product Catalog entries, see Configuring product catalog information. To configure rules for normalizing the market version on CIs, see Creating a Version Rollup rule.

   If the same type of certificate exists, you are asked whether to group the certificates. You are prompted to group only certificates that have the same product categorization.

   Best practice

   • If you do not need to track license certificates separately, group them. If you must track license certificates separately, however, do not group them. For example, if each department pays separately for their own Microsoft Visio licenses, do not group them. For information about certificate groups, see Grouping-software-license-certificates.
   • Do not group site licenses if they are for different sites.
   • We recommend that site licenses, if for different sites, should not be grouped.
7. If you are prompted to group the certificate, perform the following steps to add it to a group:
   1. Click Manage Grouping.
   2. Search for and select the master certificate.
      If there is no appropriate master certificate, you can create a master certificate.
   3. Click Add to Group.
   4. After you finish grouping certificates, click Next.

8. Provide connection details and compliance details:

   Detail type	Description
   Connection details	To determine which CIs use the license certificate, the License Engine uses the information that you provide about connection details. These details provide information about how to connect the license certificate to the appropriate CI.
   Compliance details	To determine compliance, the License Engine uses the information that you provide about compliance details. For example, a Per Instance license certificate asks you how many licenses were purchased and displays how many licenses were deployed.

   (If prompted) Enter the connection and compliance details, and then click Save.

9. On the certificate, click Save.

To manually specify a license certificate for a software CI

The License Engine automatically attaches software CIs to license certificates, based on company, product information, and answers to connection questions. However, if necessary, you can manually specify the license certificate for a software CI. Software CIs include the following CI types: Operating System, Package, Patch, Product, Software Server, and System Software.

1. Open the software CI from either SAM Console or Asset Management Console, as described in the following table.
2. On the CI form, click the Contracts tab.
3. In the Search Existing Contracts area, select the License Certificate contract type, and click Search. 
   In the Searching for Certificates dialog box, you can refine your search.
4. Select the applicable software contract, select a relationship type of Attached to, and click Relate.
5. In the message window that appears, select whether to run a license job. 
   The license job checks for connections and compliance.
6. If you run a license job, complete the Create License Job form and click Submit. 
   The Company, License Type, and product catalog fields are filled in with values from the license certificate. In the Job Name field, you must enter a descriptive name to identify this job.

To relate one license certificate to another

When you renew or upgrade a software license, you can relate the new and old license certificates to each other, to help maintain traceability. You can also relate certificates for other reasons, if appropriate.

For upgrades, both certificates might be executed. Software CIs for the old version are connected to the old certificate, and software CIs for the new version are connected to the new certificate.

License renewals execute only new certificates.

Do the following steps:

1. Open the Software Asset Management (SAM) console.
2. Select the license certificate, and click View.
3. On the License Certificate Information form, click the Related Certificates tab. 
   
   
4. In the Relationship Type list, select Renew, Upgrade, or Relate.
   If you select Upgrade, skip to step 7 or step 8.
5. If you selected Relate or Renew to create a new certificate to relate or renew to the current license certificate, click Create.
   Information from the current license certificate is copied to the Create License Certificate wizard. 
6. If you selected Renew or Relate in step 4 to renew or relate the license certificate to an existing license certificate, complete the following steps:
   1. Click Search.
   2. In the Searching for Certificates dialog box, specify the search criteria and click Search.
   3. Select the appropriate license certificate.
   4. Select whether the relationship indicates an upgrade, a renewal, or that the two certificates are otherwise related, and click Relate.
7. If you selected Upgrade in step 4 and then clicked Create to upgrade the existing license, the Upgrade License Certificate wizard is displayed. 
   
   
   To upgrade the license certificate, you need to provide the following information:
   
   1. On the Product to upgrade page, enter information regarding the product version you want to upgrade to. Complete all necessary fields, and then click Next.
   2. On the Upgrade information page, complete all necessary fields.
      • The Software Contract ID is set to the original certificate software contract ID. However, you can select a different Software Contract ID if you bought a new licenses under a different software contract or vendor.
      • The Supplier Company is populated based on the supplier of the software contract. You can select a different supplier company.

      • When entering Number Purchased, the maximum number of licenses that you can enter must not exceed the value entered in the Number Upgradable field. The number upgradable is based on the maximum number of original licenses that you had selected to upgrade.

        Important

        You are entering only upgrade information in this page. However, other fields on the new upgraded certificate are populated based on the original certificate that is being upgraded.

   3. After you have entered all relevant information on this page, click Next.
      The Summary page is displayed, prompting you to either save the certificate or go back and review your information.
   4. Click Save.
      A dialog box appears, displaying the upgraded certificate number.
   5. Click OK.
      The wizard closes and the newly upgraded license certificate is displayed on the Related Certificates tab. Observe that the number on the original certificate is reduced by the number that you have upgraded. The new upgrade certificate is now a part of the Master Certificate group. The new certificate will handle the old version and the new upgraded version.
8. If you selected Upgrade in step 4, and then selected Search to search for an existing license certificate, the Upgrade License Certificate wizard is displayed.
   1. On the Product to upgrade page, enter information regarding the product version you want to upgrade to. Complete all necessary fields, and then click Next.
      The Select Upgrade Certificate to Relate area on the Upgrade information page displays certificates which are already in the system. These certificates can be used to upgrade original certificates to the new version.
      If you are upgrading a certificate that is not a part of any group, you must enter the Master Certificate ID that will get created. Then the original and the new certificate ID become a part of the Master Certificate created with the ID that you specified.
   2. Select an existing certificate, and then click Next.
   3. Click Save.
      The Summary page is displayed, prompting you to either save the certificate or go back and review your information.
      A dialog box appears, displaying the upgraded certificate number.
   4. Click OK.
      The wizard closes and the newly upgraded license certificate is displayed on the Related Certificates tab. Observe that the number on the original certificate gets reduced by the number that you have upgraded. The new upgrade certificate is now a part of the Master Certificate group. The new certificate handles the old version and the new upgraded version.

To add work information

You use the Work Info tab on the License Certificate Information form to add information about tasks performed on the current certificate. For example, you might want to add work information about the following topics:

• General Information — Notes about the record. For example, you might want to add a note that a particular license has been upgraded, and include the date.
• Asset Task — Notes about the asset task you are working on
• Implementation Plan — Notes about a plan to implement a global change throughout your organization

Do the following steps:

1. On the Software Asset Management (SAM) console, select a certificate.
2. Click View Certificate.
3. Click the Work Info tab.

4. Complete the following fields:
5. To see the work information that you have created and to update the Work Info History table, if necessary, click View.
6. To add the information to the Work Info History table, click Save.

To add or remove a software CI from a license certificate

The License Engine automatically attaches CIs to license certificates, based on company, product information, and answers to connection questions. However, if necessary, you can manually add or remove software CIs from the license certificate. Software CIs include the following CI types: Operating System, Package, Patch, Product, Software Server, and System Software.

Do the following steps:

1. Open the license certificate from either SAM Console or Contract Management Console, as described in the following table:
2. Click the Software Assets tab.
   The Software Assets tab lists all the CIs that use the license certificate.
3. To add a CI, perform the following steps:
   1. From the CI Type lists, select the type of configuration item that you want to relate to the license certificate.
   2. Specify the CI to which you are relating the current contract.
      • To create the CI, click Create and complete the new CI form.
      • To select a CI, search for the CI, select the relationship type, and then click Relate.
4. To remove a CI, select it and click Remove.
5. In the message window that appears, select whether to run a license job. 
   The license job checks for connections and compliance.
6. If you run a license job, complete the Create License Job dialog box and click Submit. 
   The Company, License Type, and product catalog fields are filled in with values from the license certificate. In the Job Name field, you must enter a descriptive name to identify this job.

To determine which CIs use a license certificate

You can determine which CIs use a license certificate, which can help you handle the following situations:

• A license certificate is out of compliance. You want to find software instances that can be removed.
• A software contract is up for negotiation. You want to determine if all the licenses are required.
• You have a license certificate that is not applied automatically, at least for some CIs. You want to confirm that the appropriate CIs are related to the license certificate. If necessary, you can manually relate CIs to the license certificate.

Do the following steps:

1. Open the Software Asset Management (SAM) Console.
2. Select the license certificate.
   The Related CIs table lists CIs that use the selected license certificate.