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Implementing software license management

The power of software license management comes when you use the License Engine to automate the process. When you add a license certificate, you specify the license type (such as a per instance or site license) and specify details required for that license type. Each license type provides a set of connection rules, which the License Engine uses to query BMC Atrium Configuration Management Database (BMC Atrium CMDB) and select the appropriate CIs to connect to the license. Each license type also provides a set of compliance rules, which the License Engine uses to calculate whether the license is in compliance. The software asset manager schedules license jobs, so that the License Engine regularly connects software CIs to license certificates and checks for compliance.

You are not restricted to the license types that come with BMC Asset Management. An application administrator can create new license types, as described in Creating-custom-license-types. The application administrator can create sophisticated queries and calculations based on the data in BMC Atrium CMDB. For example, the Per Copy license type, which comes with BMC Asset Management, calculates the number of users for a software product by looking at the number of users (stored as BMC_Person) with a dependency on the computer system of which the software CI is a component. For compliance calculations, you can get data from an BMC Remedy AR System form, in addition to data stored in BMC Atrium CMDB.

The software license management lifecycle, as described in The-software-lifecycle, is implemented as described in the following table. The contract manager and software asset manager create software contracts, add license certificates, and relate software CIs to license certificates. For a user example of how Calbro Services implements software license management, see Purchasing-software-and-assigning-a-license.

Software license management lifecycle

 

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