2.11.3 Checking the usage status of software licenses
Before starting software license management, you need to register managed software information and software license information in JP1/IT Desktop Management 2. Registering such information will enable you to check the usage status of software licenses. The following figure shows an overview of viewing the number of software licenses to check whether there is an excess or shortage of software licenses.
![[Figure]](GRAPHICS/ZU080004.GIF)
For software license information, set information about the owned software licenses and the corresponding software names (managed software names). For software license information, you can also register the computers to which the software licenses are assigned (that is, use of the software is allowed). Use the Software Licenses view of the Asset module to set software license information.
For managed software information, specify information about the software programs for which the number of used licenses is to be counted. You can also specify information about multiple software programs as one type of software programs. This will count the number of installed software programs for each managed software program. Use the Managed Software view of the Asset module to specify the managed software information.
When software license information and managed software information are registered, you can collectively check the usage status of software licenses for each managed software program in the Software License Status view of the Asset module. For example, checking the number of computers with software licenses assigned (number of assigned licenses) allows you to find the computers on which software has been installed without permission. You can also find the computers for which the use of software is allowed but no software is installed. In addition, the total number of owned licenses and the number of remaining licenses are counted for each managed software program. So, you can check whether there is an excess or shortage of software licenses. The usage status of software licenses can be output to a CSV file by exporting the software license status list in the Software License Status view.
The license fee or license type of a software program can vary depending on which operating system the software program is installed on. The number of used licenses of such a software program can be counted for each operating system type. The OS type is registered in managed software information.
The Software License Status view allows you to check the usage status of software licenses by department. The following provides examples of managed software names, values specified in software license information, and usage status of software licenses, and shows the values displayed in the Software License Status view as an example of specifications.
Specification examples of managed software names and software license information, and usage status of software licenses
|
Managed software name |
Software license information |
Usage of software licenses |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Department |
Total number of owned licenses |
Number of assigned licenses |
Number of installed programs |
Department to which the computer with programs installed belongs |
|
|
ABC software |
General affairs department |
10 |
10 |
12 |
General affairs department |
|
Sales department |
10 |
10 |
10 |
Sales department |
|
|
Development department |
5 |
10 |
5 |
Development department |
|
|
Development department/Division A |
5 |
10 |
3 |
Development department/Division A |
|
|
Development department/Division B |
5 |
3 |
3 |
Development department/Division B |
|
|
-- |
-- |
-- |
3 |
Development department/Division C |
|
|
-- |
-- |
-- |
1 |
Personnel department |
|
|
XYZ software |
-- |
20 |
2 |
1 |
Development department/Division A |
|
1 |
Development department/Division B |
||||
Legend: --: Not specified
Information displayed in the Software License Status view
|
Managed Software Name |
Department |
License Total |
Number of Used Licenses |
Remaining License Total |
Assigned License Total |
Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
ABC software |
(Total of All Departments)#1 |
35 |
37 |
-2 |
43 |
The total values of all departments (General affairs, Sales, Development, and Personnel departments) are displayed. |
|
General affairs department |
10 |
12 |
-2 |
10 |
The values only for the General affairs department are displayed. |
|
|
Sales department |
10 |
10 |
0 |
10 |
The values only for the Sales department are displayed. |
|
|
Development department#2 |
15 |
14 |
1 |
23 |
The values only for the Development department (total values of Development department, Development department/Division A, Development department/Division B, and Development department/Division C) are displayed. |
|
|
Development department/Division A#2 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
10 |
The values only for Development department/Division A are displayed. |
|
|
Development department/Division B#2 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
The values only for Development department/Division B are displayed. |
|
|
Development department/Division C#2 |
-- |
3 |
-- |
0 |
The values only for Development department/Division C are displayed. If an upper-level department (Development department) is set for department information in software license information but a local department (Development department/Division C) is not set, a hyphen (-) appears for License Total and Remaining License Total. |
|
|
Personnel department |
0 |
1 |
-1 |
0 |
The values only for the Personnel department are displayed. If neither a local department (Personnel department) nor an upper-level department is set for department information in software license information, 0 appears for License Total and Assigned License Total. A negative value appears for Remaining License Total. |
|
|
XYZ software |
(Total of All Departments)#1 |
20 |
2 |
18 |
2 |
The total values of all departments (General affairs, Sales, Development, and Personnel departments) are displayed. The values of License Total and Assigned License Total for the software programs for which a department is not specified in software license information are also added. |
|
Development department#2 |
-- |
2 |
-- |
2 |
The values only for the Development department (total values of Development department, Development department/Division A, and Development department/Division B) are displayed. If a department is not set for software license information, a hyphen (-) appears for License Total and Remaining License Total. |
|
|
Development department/Division A#2 |
-- |
1 |
-- |
1 |
The values only for Development department/Division A are displayed. If a department is not set for software license information, a hyphen (-) appears for License Total and Remaining License Total. |
|
|
Development department/Division B#2 |
-- |
1 |
-- |
1 |
The values only for Development department/Division B are displayed. If a department is not set for software license information, a hyphen (-) appears for License Total and Remaining License Total. |
Legend: --: Not applicable
Note: Clicking Software License Status List in the menu area displays all fields in the table.
#1: This field is displayed if (Total of All Departments) is clicked in the menu area.
#2: This field is displayed if Development Department is clicked in the menu area.
- Important
-
-
From JP1/IT Desktop Management 09-51 and Job Management Partner 1/IT Desktop Management 10-01, the way of counting the number of used licenses has changed. Therefore, if you upgrade the version, the number of used licenses might be different.
For the number of used licenses, the number of installed software programs corresponding to the managed software programs is displayed. In JP1/IT Desktop Management 09-51 and Job Management Partner 1/IT Desktop Management 10-01, if multiple software programs corresponding to a managed software program have been installed on a computer, all of those software programs are counted for licenses. In JP1/IT Desktop Management 09-51 or later and Job Management Partner 1/IT Desktop Management 10-01 or later, if multiple software programs corresponding to a managed software product have been installed on a computer, they are counted so that only one license is consumed.
-
For Windows Store apps, the number of licenses actually purchased sometimes differs from the number of licenses detected by JP1/IT Desktop Management 2. This is because, while JP1/IT Desktop Management 2 detects the number of devices on which the applicable software is installed as the number of licenses, licenses for Windows Store apps are assigned to each account, not to each device.
-
- Organization of this subsection
(1) Managing managed software information
In the Managed Software view of the Assets module, you can register and manage managed software information.
You can register managed software information manually or by importing a CSV file created for managed software information.
If the corresponding software programs are added or changed, maintain managed software information to keep the latest status.
Note that you can update managed software information in a batch by exporting it and then importing an edited CSV file. You can also delete managed software information for which management is no longer needed.
When managed software information is registered, you can check the usage status of software licenses for each managed software in the Software License Status view of the Asset module.
(2) Managing license status
In software license information, you can set License Status, which indicates whether the license is in use, expired, or in other statuses. By setting License Status, you will be able to check the expired software licenses, as well as a list of owned licenses.
There are following types of license statuses:
- In Use
-
The software license is in use.
- Expired
-
The software license has expired.
The administrator can add other custom license statuses (no more than 100 license statuses excluding the default license statuses).
Managing planned license statuses
You can set license statuses that are planned to change in the future. Setting planned license statuses will enable you to check planned license management tasks. The specifiable fields for planned license status are the same as for license status.
For example, for a software license with In Use status, if you set the planned license status to Expired and set the planned date, you will be able to check the date the software license will expire.
The planned license status types are the same as those of license status.
Note that the planned license status is not automatically changed when the planned date expires. The administrator must manually change the license status around the planned date. If you change the license status to the one set for the planned license status, the values set for the planned license status and the planned date are cleared.
(3) Managing software license information
In the Software License view of the Assets module, you can register and manage information about the total number of owned licenses, corresponding contract information, departments, and other information.
You can use the software type as a judgment condition when considering whether to manage software licenses. For example, you can choose to manage only the licenses for commercial-type software. The software type is displayed in the Installed Software tab of the Managed Software view under the Assets module or the Software Inventory view of the Inventory module, when software dictionary information is updated offline.
For software licenses that are determined to be managed, maintain software license information to keep the status current. For example, you should maintain information about changes to the software to which the licenses are assigned, disposal of software, and addition or deletion of relevant contracts.
You can register software license information manually or by importing a CSV file that was created by editing exported software license information.
You can also delete software license information for which management is no longer needed.
Related Topics:
(4) Updating the tracked date
You can update Tracked Date for hardware asset information and software license information. By updating Tracked Date, you can check whether all assets have been tracked.
- Updating the tracked date manually:
-
Select information about an asset for which Tracked Date is to be updated, and then update Tracked Date. We recommend that you use this method to individually track a small number of assets around you.
- Updating the tracked dates in a batch based on a CSV file:
-
Use a CSV file containing Asset # or License # information to update Tracked Date in a batch. Tracked Date for the individual assets will become the same. We recommend that you use this method to track assets by using a bar code reader. Output a list of Asset # or License # read by a bar code reader to a CSV file.
- Setting automatic update of the tracked date:
-
You can set the tracked date in hardware asset information to be automatically updated. JP1/IT Desktop Management 2 checks the existence of devices by monitoring network connection of devices, users' input on devices, and notification of device information acquired from computers managed offline. If the devices are confirmed to exist, the tracked date is automatically updated. We recommend that you use this method to reduce the time and effort of tracking assets.
- Important
-
Even if Update Tracked Date (on receiving End User Form) is selected in the Update Tracked Date (Automatically) dialog box, the tracked date in hardware asset information is updated automatically if Update Device Details is selected from the Action menu. This menu appears in the Device List view (under Device Inventory) of the Inventory module.
- Tip
-
You can also import hardware asset information and software license information, and then update Tracked Date in a batch. In this case, you can set different dates for Tracked Date for individual assets.
(5) Managing assignment of software licenses
If you manage computers by assigning software licenses to them, you will be able to check for computers on which software has been installed without permission. You will also be able to check for software licenses that are not used even though their use is permitted.
To realize this, in software license information, specify the computers to which software licenses are to be assigned. Then, when you register managed software information, associate the software license information with it. As a result, information about computers on which software programs have been installed and information about computers to which software licenses are assigned can be compared. This will enable you to confirm whether software licenses are being used as assigned. The following figure shows how software licenses are assigned and managed.
![[Figure]](GRAPHICS/ZU080010.GIF)
You can check whether software is used as assigned on the Installed Computers and Licensed Computers tabs in the Managed Software view of the Assets module.
The Installed Computers tab displays the computers on which software programs specified in managed software information have been installed. If you select the Show Only Computers Not Licensed check box on this page to display the computers to which software licenses have not been assigned, you can check for computers on which software programs have been installed without permission.
The Licensed Computers tab displays the computers to which software licenses have been assigned. To check for unused software licenses, select the Show Only Computers Not Installed check box. This will display the computers that software licenses have been assigned to but the software has not been installed on.
- Tip
-
You can also use the ioutils importassetassoc command to assign software licenses to computers.
(6) Managing software license information and the associated contract information
For software license information, you can set the corresponding contract information.
Setting contracts corresponding to the software licenses will enable you to check which contract was made for a software license. Also, you will be able to check the operational costs for software licenses using reports.
![[Figure]](GRAPHICS/ZU080008.GIF)
Multiple software licenses can be associated with one contract.
- Tip
-
You can also use the ioutils importassetassoc command to associate software license information with contract information.
(7) Managing upgrade and downgrade licenses
You can register and manage license information about software upgrades and downgrades.
When you manage upgrade and downgrade licenses, the way of registering the software license information differs from the usual way.
When registering upgrade licenses:
When you upgrade software, in Upgrade Source Name, register information about the upgrade-source software licenses.
For example, if you own 10 licenses for Software A version 2 and purchased 7 upgrade licenses for Software A version 3, when registering software license information about Software A version 3, specify the software license information about Software A version 2 in Upgrade Source Name. As the result, the number of licenses for Software A version 2 is automatically changed from 10 to 3 (so that the number of licenses is not counted redundantly), and you will be able to manage the correct number of licenses after the upgrade.
- Tip
-
You can also use the ioutils importassetassoc command to register upgrade licenses.
When registering downgrade licenses:
When you downgrade software, register the downgrade-destination managed software information as information about software licenses that can be downgraded.
For example, when you own 5 licenses for Software A version 2 and 10 licenses for Software A version 3, if you downgrade 6 licenses from Software A version 3 to Software A version 2, as the software license information about Software A version 3, register 4 usual software licenses and 6 downgrade licenses separately. As information about downgrade software licenses, specify the managed software information about Software A version 2. As the result, the number of owned Software A version 3 licenses becomes 4, and the number of owned Software A version 2 licenses becomes 11 (including the downgrade licenses). Then, you will be able to manage the correct number of licenses after downgrade.
- Tip
-
You can also use the ioutils importassetassoc command to register downgrade licenses.