Supported Microsoft license types
Summarize
Summary of Supported Microsoft license types
This document explains the various Microsoft license metrics supported in the Software Asset Management (SAM) publisher pack for Microsoft within ServiceNow. These specialized license metrics apply when Microsoft is selected as the Metric group for an entitlement and help manage compliance with Microsoft licensing rules for different license types including per user, per device, per core, CALs, and server licenses. Understanding these license types enables ServiceNow customers to accurately track, allocate, and reconcile Microsoft software usage according to Microsoft’s licensing requirements.
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License Types and Their Management
- Per User Licenses: License rights are assigned per user regardless of devices used. Users consume allocated rights based on the maximum installs per right defined. Downgrade or upgrade rights assign additional rights after the primary version is licensed.
- Per Device Licenses: Rights are assigned per device regardless of users. Devices consume rights based on maximum installs per right. Downgrade or upgrade rights work similarly to per user licenses.
- Per Core Licenses: Required for licensing server processors’ cores running SQL Server, Windows Server, or components. Licensing depends on physical or virtual Operating System Environments (OSEs), with rights consumption based on Microsoft’s core factor table. Device allocations are managed at the physical server level, with minimum core rights consumed if below defined thresholds. Cost-based licensing optimizations are available when clusters include physical and virtual servers.
- Per Core (with CAL) Licenses: Used with device or user CAL licenses, consuming rights for every core on physical servers or VMs with installed software. Device allocations can be made against physical servers or VMs, with minimum cores rights applied if below thresholds. Cost-based optimizations apply for clusters.
- User CAL Licenses: Client Access Licenses assigned per user, allowing access to server services regardless of devices used.
- Device CAL Licenses: Client Access Licenses assigned per device, allowing multiple users to access server services from licensed devices.
- Server (Per Instance) Licenses: Licenses for a set number of software installations (instances) on a physical server or VM. Device allocations apply, and extra allocated rights are marked as not in use if more rights are assigned than needed.
- Server (Per Server) Licenses: Licenses all software installations on a physical server and hosted VMs. Device allocations are managed at the physical server level and extra rights are marked as allocated not in use.
- Per Processor Licenses: Licenses processors on physical servers hosting software installations. Rights consumption is based on maximum processors per right and maximum installs per OSE. Device allocations are created against physical servers only, and partial licensing across servers is not supported.
- User Subscription Licenses: License rights assigned per unique user with activated software subscriptions. Users without subscriptions but with software installations remain unlicensed.
- Software Assurance Licenses: Microsoft’s maintenance program for active software maintenance, integrated with license tracking.
Key Outcomes
- Enables accurate tracking and reconciliation of Microsoft licenses based on specific Microsoft licensing models within ServiceNow SAM.
- Supports detailed allocation of license rights to users and devices, helping ensure compliance with Microsoft licensing rules and avoiding over- or under-licensing.
- Facilitates management of complex licensing scenarios such as downgrade/upgrade rights, physical versus virtual servers, and cluster cost-based optimizations.
- Provides flexibility to assign allocations at the appropriate levels (user, device, physical server, or VM) depending on the license metric.
- Improves license compliance visibility by reflecting license consumption accurately during software reconciliation processes.
The Software Asset Management publisher pack for Microsoft adds license metrics that are specific to Microsoft.
The license metrics are available when Microsoft is selected as the Metric group for the entitlement.
Per user licenses
A per user license is used when each user accessing the software is licensed, regardless of the number of devices they use to access the software.
To define the number of installations a user has, select the Maximum installs per right on the Metric Attribute related list of the associated software model. If the user exceeds the number of installations you've defined, additional rights are consumed until the user is fully licensed, or there are no more rights available.
You can manage user allocations for the per user license metric. Users are assigned a quantity of rights. Even if they don't need all of the allocations, the user will consume the number of rights you've allocated to them. If a user isn't assigned to a device, a right will be consumed for each unique device with a software installation.
During reconciliation, for a software model that has one or more software entitlements that use this license metric, a right is consumed for each unique user that has at least one installation of the software on any device assigned to them.
When a software model has downgrade or upgrade rights to another versions of a software product, rights are assigned to users with the specified versions of software installed after the primary version of the software has been fully licensed.
Per device licenses
A per device license is used when each device accessing the software is licensed, regardless of the number of users accessing the software.
To define the number of installations a device can have, select the Maximum installs per right on the Metric Attribute related list of the associated software model. If the device exceeds the number of installations you've defined, additional rights are consumed until the device is fully licensed, or there are no more rights available.
You can manage device allocations for the per device license metric. Devices are assigned a quantity of rights. Even if they don't need all of the allocations, the device will consume the number of rights you've allocated to them.
During reconciliation, for a software model that has one or more software entitlements that use this license metric, a right is consumed for each unique device that has at least one installation of the software.
When a software model has downgrade or upgrade rights to another versions of a software product, rights are assigned to users with the specified versions of software installed after the primary version of the software has been fully licensed.
Per core licenses
A server processor is one of the main components of a server. Each server processor contains smaller processing units called cores and the number of cores your processor has is dependent on your system hardware.
System hardware runs in an operating system environment (OSE) and they act as middleware between the operating system and the software applications on your system. OSEs can be either physical or virtual. Depending on the OSE you have, your processor will be physical, virtual, or a combination of both.
Use the per core license metric for any of your physical or virtual core-based licenses. If you are licensing a virtual OSE, you must use either an active Microsoft Software Assurance (SA) or Microsoft software subscription license.
During reconciliation, for a software model that has one or more software entitlements that use this license metric, a check is done to see which edition of the software is installed. If the software is an Enterprise edition, a set number of rights are consumed based on the normalized core count on a physical server that has at least one installation of the Enterprise edition software in the physical operating system environment (OSE) or on a virtual machine (VM) hosted by the physical server. Another check is run to ensure that the number of OSEs that have an Enterprise edition install don't exceed the number of core rights applied to the physical server. If the number of OSEs exceeds the number of core rights, a core right will be consumed for each additional OSE. If the edition is anything but Enterprise, a right is still consumed for every core on a physical server that has at least one install in the physical OSE. The difference is the additional check. In this case, the check ensures that these other editions of software are only installed on the physical server.
If other editions of software are found in a virtual environment and no other rights are owned, then the reconciliation result will be not compliant.
You can manage device allocations. Devices are assigned a quantity of rights. Even if they don't need all of the allocations, the device will consume the number of rights you've allocated to them. For this license metric, all device allocations should be created against the physical server. No matter what edition of the software it is, if the normalized core count is less than the specified value in the Minimum cores per processor metric attribute related to the software model, then the minimum number of rights will be consumed.
For more information on Microsoft per core licenses, see Microsoft Per Core licensing rules.
Per core (with CAL) licenses
You can manage device allocations for this license metric. Devices are assigned a quantity of rights. Even if they don't need all of the allocations, the device will consume the number of rights you've allocated to them. For example, if a device allocation with a quantity of six is created for a server, but only four core rights are needed to fully license the server, six rights would still be consumed during reconciliation. The additional two rights would be considered allocated not in use in the reconciliation results.
This license metric should be used with device or user CAL license metrics. You need to create software entitlements using those license metrics separately.
During reconciliation, for a software model that has one or more software entitlements that use this license metric, a right is consumed for every core on a physical server that has at least one installation of the software in the physical OSE or on a virtual machine hosted by the physical server. A check runs to verify that the number of installations within an OSE and the number of active OSEs don't exceed the specified maximums you defined in the Metric Attributes related list on the Software Model form.
If the specified number of installs and OSEs are exceeded, core rights that are equal to the number of cores or minimum cores on either the physical server or VM will be consumed until all installs and OSEs are licensed or there are no more available rights.
For more information on Microsoft per core (with CAL) licenses, see Microsoft Per Core (with CAL) licensing rules.
User CAL licenses
A user CAL license is a client access license (CAL) that allows users to access a server to use its services, regardless of the number of devices the user uses to access the services.
During reconciliation, for a software model that has one or more software entitlements that use this license metric, the number of rights consumed is equal to total user count in all client access records related to that software model.
Device CAL licenses
A device CAL license is a client access license (CAL) that allows a set number of devices to access a server to use its services, regardless of the number of users accessing the services from the device.
During reconciliation, for a software model that has one or more software entitlements that use this license metric, the number of rights consumed is equal to total device count in all client access records related to that software model.
Server (per instance) licenses
A server (per instance) license is used to license a set number of software installations on either a physical server or virtual machine.
During reconciliation, for a software model that has one or more software entitlements that use this license metric, a right is consumed for the number of installations that exist in an OSE. If the number of installations in an OSE exceeds the value specified in the maximum installs per OSE metric attribute, additional rights will be consumed until all installations on a physical server or virtual machine are licensed or there are no more rights variable.
You can manage device allocations. Devices are assigned a quantity of rights. Even if the software installations, the device will consume the number of rights you've allocated to them during reconciliation. For example, if a device allocation with a quantity of two is created for a server, but only one server (per instance) right is needed to fully license the server, two rights would still be consumed during reconciliation. The extra right would be marked as allocated no in use in the license metric results. Device allocations can be created against physical servers or virtual machines.
Server (per server) licenses
A server (per server) license is used to license all software installations on a physical server and any virtual machines hosted by the physical server.
During reconciliation, for a software model that has one or more software entitlements that use this license metric, a right is consumed for every unique physical server. This license metric differs from the per device license metric, which consumes a right for every unique physical server and virtual machine that has a software installation.
You can manage device allocations. Devices are assigned a quantity of rights. Even if the software installations, the device will consume the number of rights you've allocated to them during reconciliation. For example, if a device allocation with a quantity of two is created for a server, but only one right is needed to fully license the server, two rights would still be consumed during reconciliation. The extra right would be marked as allocated not in use in the license metric results. Device allocations should be created against the physical server.
Per Processor licenses
A per processor licenses is used to license a number of processors on a physical server.
During reconciliation, for a software model that has one or more software entitlements that use this license metric, a right is consumed for processors on a physical server that have at least one installation of the software in the physical OSE or on a virtual machine hosted by the physical server. The quantity of processors licensed by a single right is determined by the Maximum processor per rights on the Metric Attribute related list of the software model.
An additional check is done to ensure that the number of installations in an OSE and the number of OSEs on a server don't exceed the specified maximums in the Maximum installs per OSE and Maximum active OSEs per server Metric Attribute related list of the software model. If any of the metric attributes are exceeded, additional rights are consumed until all processors, installs, and OSEs are licensed, or there are no more available rights. Per processor rights cannot partially license a physical server or license software installations on two different physical servers.
You can manage device allocations. Devices are assigned a quantity of rights. Even if the software installations, the device will consume the number of rights you've allocated to them during reconciliation. All device allocations should be created against the physical server.
User Subscription licenses
User subscription licenses a user for the number of activated software subscriptions.
During reconciliation, for a software model that has one or more software entitlements that use this license metric, a right is consumed for each unique user that has at least one software subscription record associated with the software model. Any software installations that correspond with the software model will also be licensed. However, if a user has software installations, but no subscription record, that user will not consume a right and the installations will be unlicensed.
Software Assurance licenses
Microsoft Software Assurance (SA) is the maintenance program used by Microsoft to provide active maintenance to its users. For more information, see Software license maintenance.