License control

[ChasingSleep]

Hello guys,

I've read some posts on this forum regarding how to use a CMDB for controlling licenses. I still have some doubts that I would like to share with you...

We want to do license control. I know a CMDB is maybe not the ideal tool for that, but as we are a small environment (300 desktops) we do not want to have a tool for license control and another tool for a CMDB.

So, we see two possibilities:

a) Have a CI for the each "Master" Software and another CI for every instance of that software installed. This master CI would have a relationship with every installed CI.

b) One CI for each software, linked to each desktop where it is installed.

The second one seems easier to deploy and control, but I think the only way we could control license usage would be by counting the number of relationships a software have with desktops. And then comparing that number with the maximum number of licenses we should have.

The problem is that it seems to be a "manual" control. I mean, we would have to count it and compare it. But what we really want is that the tool can do it, and even alert us whenever we reach the maximum number of licenses...

We are first defining the process to then choose the tool. But we would like to know how the cmdb tools out there deal with it, because our cmdb model depends on it.

What do you guys think?

Cheers !

[UrgentJensen]

Hi ChasingSleep,

It really depends on the scale of your IT team looking after this. The way you structure and record this info in a cmdb should be as easy as possible to manage - after all licence management can have legal implications.

If all you want to do is count licences and compare against what you've purchased then either way you have suggested will be fine.

It is worth mentioning though that it might be worth looking into the 'software asset management lifecycle' but really, don't over complicate things - a cmdb is only as useful as how you can manage the information in it.

Also, have you checked with finance about their requirements for asset management?

Cheers,

UJ
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[ChasingSleep]

Hi UJ,

Yes, we have checked with finance about their requirements. As for the lifecycle, we are working with more "steps" than we would normally do with a cfg prc, adding things like acquired and decommissioned, more related do asset management.

I wonder how people in this forum deal with license control through a cmdb. I am particularly interested in how the tool can help, for example automatically comparing "use license" relationships with "max number of licenses" attribute from a license CI (it is an idea). We really do not want to rely on manual checking...

Cheers!

[ChasingSleep]

Replying to myself (I need to catch sleep... )

Maybe a report could do the trick.

So, we would have:

license IC <-used by-> software IC <-installed on-> desktop A
desktop B
desktop C
.....

If the tool allow us to have a report that compares the number of "installed on" relationships of a software CI with the attribute "max number of licenses" of the associated license IC...

Is this a normal "feature" of the cmdb tools these days?

Cheers!

[UrgentJensen]

CS,

The question you are asking depends on what tool you are using, so pick one and then maybe folks can comment on their experiences of using it.

The way you structure cmdb data is a different question.

Cheers,

UJ
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[ChasingSleep]

UJ,

I understand that. But the way I am structuring cmdb data must be compatible with the way the tool can take advantage of it.

Let's take for example one of the "big tools": BMC's Atrium.

How does BMC's Atrium work with this approach?

Folks that use BMC's Atrium, comments please!

Cheers!