Reviewing, upgrading, and updating software license certificates

From the Functions menu in the navigation pane, you can view the following information:

• Audit trail - Displays the modifications to the license certificate.
• Connection details — Information that you provided when adding the license certificate

• Compliance Details — Information that you provided when adding the license certificate, and information resulting from a license job run, such as the number of licenses deployed.

  Important

  • The number of purchased and the number of deployed licenses are also displayed in the License Certificate Information form.
  • License models provided by BMC are set up to compute the number of deployed licenses per product. The number deployed per product can also be viewed in the Related Product Categorizations table on the General tab of the License Certificate Information form.

To upgrade license certificates

BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management supports the upgrading and downgrading of license certificates. When you have a license to use a certain version of a product (for example, Microsoft Visio 2003), you want to have a license certificate that allows you to upgrade when a new version of the product (for example, Microsoft Visio 2007) is released. Rather than purchasing new full licenses of Microsoft Visio 2007, you could decide to buy upgrade licenses, which might be a more cost-effective option. However, in order to be able to use the upgrade licenses, you must have a certificate for the original full version. Asset Management provides a wizard to walk you through upgrading your original certificate to a new upgraded certificate.

Do the following steps:

1. On SAM Console, select the Company, Manufacturer, and Product Name for which you want to upgrade a license certificate.
2. In the Functions section, select Upgrade License.
   The Upgrade License Certificate wizard is displayed. 
   
   On the Product to upgrade page, complete all necessary fields, and then click Next.
3. On the Certificate to upgrade page, select the appropriate Master Certificate and Available Certificates to upgrade.

4. Depending on your action, perform the following steps:

   Action	Step
   To create a new upgrade license certificate	Select Create Certificates, complete all the necessary fields on the Upgrade information page, and then click Next. The Summary page is displayed, prompting you to either save the certificate or go back and review your information.
   To use an existing license certificate	Select Search Certificates, select an existing certificate on the Search existing certificates page, and then click Select. The Summary page is displayed, prompting you to either save the certificate or go back and review your information.

5. Click Save.
6. In the dialog box that displays the upgraded certificate number, click OK.
   The wizard closes and the SAM Console is displayed.
7. On the SAM Console, select the certificate that you upgraded, and click View Certificate.
   On the General tab of the License Certificate Information screen, the upgraded product details are shown in the Related Product Categorizations table. The Group Certificates tab displays the newly upgraded license certificates. However, if you had selected more than one certificate to upgrade, a corresponding upgrade certificate is created for each of the original certificates.

To roll back the upgrade of an original license certificate or delete an upgrade license certificate

After you have upgraded some or all of the licenses on a license certificate, and you want to revert or roll back the upgrade to the original certificate, or delete it, perform the following steps:

1. On SAM Console, select the master certificate, and click View Certificate.
   The License Certificate Information screen opens displaying details about the master certificate.

2. On the General tab, from the Related Product Categorization table, select the upgrade product categorization, and click Remove.

   Important

   Perform this step only if you do not have any certificates in the group with this version, otherwise leave it as is.

3. Open the Group Certificates tab and select the certificate that was upgraded (not the original certificate), then click Ungroup Selected.
   A dialog box appears asking you to confirm the upgrouping.
4. Click Yes.
   A message appears confirming that the certificates have been removed from the group.
5. Select the original certificate, and then from the Functions menu, select Compliance details.

6. In the Number of licenses purchased field, enter the amount of original licenses, and click Save.

   Important

   The original licenses should include the the original license plus the licenses that were moved to the upgrade certificate.

   You can delete the upgraded certificate or leave it in a draft state if you want to use it later for upgrading another original certificate.

7. If you keep the upgraded certificate, clear the Full license flag as the certificate is not valid towards a full license.
   
   

Before you upgrade, Certificate 1 includes 100 licenses for Visio 2003.

After you upgrade 50 of the 100 licenses to Visio 2007:

• Certificate 1 includes 50 licenses for Visio 2003.
• Certificate1_Upgrade includes 50 licenses for Visio 2003 and 2007.

So you can still use up to a maximum of 100 Visio 2003 licenses, or you can use a combination of a maximum of 50 Visio 2007 licenses and 50 Visio 2003 licenses.

Following are more details about the certificates and their relationship:

• The Number Purchased value of Certificate 1 was downgraded by 50 licenses and is still good for 50 licenses of Visio 2003.
• The Number Purchased value of Certificate1_Upgrade is 50 licenses and is valid for Visio 2003 and 2007 licenses.
• Certificate1_Upgrade was created as the next available Sequence number on the master certificate.
• Certificate1_Upgrade Product Categorization Visio 2007 is added to the master certificate. (The master certificate now has both Visio 2003 and 2007.)
• Both certificates are grouped on the same master certificate under the Grouped Certificates tab.
• Both certificates are related to each other on their Related Certificates tabs with the appropriate relationship.

Before you upgrade, Certificate 1 includes 100 licenses for Visio 2003.

After you upgrade all 100 licenses to Visio 2007:

• Certificate 1 includes 0 licenses for Visio 2003.
• Certificate1_Upgrade includes 100 licenses for Visio 2003 and 2007.

You can now use a combination of a maximum total of 100 Visio 2003 and Visio 2007 licenses.

Following are more details about the certificates and their relationship:

• The Number Purchased value of Certificate 1 was downgraded by 100 licenses to 0 and no longer usable.
• The Number Purchased value of Certificate 1_Upgrade is 100 licenses and is good for both Visio 2003 and 2007 licenses.
• Certificate1_Upgrade was created as the next available Sequence number on the master.
• Certificate1_Upgrade Product Categorization Visio 2007 is added to the master certificate. (The master certificate now has both Visio 2003 and 2007).
• Both certificates are grouped on the same master certificate under the Grouped Certificates tab.
• Both certificates are related to each other on their Related Certificates tabs with the appropriate relationship.
• Because the number of purchased for Certificate 1 became 0, it will now be marked Historical and the Status reason will be upgraded.

Before you upgrade:

• Certificate 1 included 50 licenses for Visio 2003.
• Certificate 2 included 100 licenses for Visio 2003 and 2005.

(You originally have 150 licenses of Microsoft Visio 2003 or a combination of licenses for Visio 2003 and Visio 2005, with a maximum of 100 licenses for 2005.)

After you upgrade, all 150 licenses to Microsoft Visio 2007:

• Certificate 1 has 0 licenses for Visio 2003.
• Certificate1_Upgrade has 50 licenses for Visio 2003 and 2007.
• Certificate 2 has 0 licenses for Visio 2003 and 2005.
• Certificate 2_Upgrade has 100 license for Visio 2003, 2005, and 2007.
• Because Certificate 1 and 2 are left with 0 licenses, they will be marked Historical and Status Reason will be upgraded.

So you can now use 150 Visio 2003 licenses, or 150 Visio 2007 licenses, or a combination of a maximum of 100 Visio 2005 licenses with a combination of 50 Visio 2003 and 2007 licenses.

Following are more details about the certificates and their relationship:

• The Number Purchased value of Certificate1 was downgraded by 50 licenses to 0 and no longer usable.
• The Number Purchased value of Certificate1_Upgrade is 50 licenses and is good for both Visio 2003 and 2007 licenses.
• Certificate 1_Upgrade was created as the next available Sequence number on the master certificate.
• Certificate 1_Upgrade Product Categorization Microsoft Visio 2007 is added to the master certificate. (The master now has Visio 2003, 2005, and 2007.)
• Both certificates are grouped on the same master certificate under the Grouped Certificates tab.
• Both certificates are related to each other on their Related Certificates tabs with the appropriate relationship.
• The Number Purchased value of Certificate 2 was downgraded by 100 licenses to 0 and no longer usable.
• The Number Purchased value of Certificate 2_Upgrade was created for 100 licenses and is good for Visio 2003, 2005, and 2007 licenses.
• Certificate 2_Upgrade was created as the next available sequence number on the master certificate.
• Certificate 2_Upgrade Product Categorization Visio 2007 was already added to the master certificate when the first certificate was upgraded.
• Both certificates are grouped on the same master under Grouped Certificates tab.
• Both certificates are related to each other on each of their Related Certificates tabs with the appropriate relationship.

To record the purchase cost for a license

On a certificate, you can record the purchase cost for a license. Each software contract displays the costs for the licenses attached to the contract.

1. From the Software Asset Management console, open the license certificate.
2. In the Purchase Cost field, type the cost to purchase the license, and select the currency. The cost center comes from the software contract.
3. Click Save.