License upgrade and downgrade with the legacy Software Asset Management plugin

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of License upgrade and downgrade with the legacy Software Asset Management plugin

    The legacy Software Asset Management (SAM) plugin enables ServiceNow customers to manage software license upgrades and downgrades effectively during license reconciliation. Downgrading allows use of an earlier software version than purchased, while upgrading permits use of a newer version without purchasing it. Downgrading is more commonly used.

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    Key Features

    • Downgrade Child and Upgrade Parent Relationship: You can define unlicensed software versions as downgrade children of licensed versions (upgrade parents). This creates software model records linking versions and allows unlicensed installations to be counted against licensed versions, avoiding forced uninstalls.
    • License and Entitlement Counters: If a downgrade child has licenses or entitlements, it must have a counter that tracks installations against its own license. Install counts for downgrade or upgrade versions are capped by the available rights of the parent license.
    • Example Scenario: For instance, installations of Microsoft Word 2007 can be counted against licenses for Word 2010 by setting Word 2007 as a downgrade child of Word 2010. This helps maintain compliance without requiring removal of unlicensed older versions.
    • Validity Period: Start and end dates can be set for upgrade parents and downgrade children, restricting license counting to those periods.
    • Scope of Configuration: Upgrade and downgrade relationships can be applied either at the software model level (affecting all licenses of that model) or at the individual software license level.
    • Methods to Upgrade or Downgrade: License upgrades and downgrades can be performed using either software license records or software model records within the legacy SAM plugin.

    Key Outcomes

    This capability allows ServiceNow customers to manage software license compliance flexibly by counting installations of different software versions against licensed versions. It reduces the need for uninstalling software to maintain compliance, provides controlled license usage based on rights availability, and supports tailored license management through configurable upgrade and downgrade relationships.

    The concept of upgrading and downgrading licenses is built in to the legacy Software Asset Management (com.snc.software_asset_management) plugin.

    This is helpful when reconciling licenses. Downgrading a license is the process of purchasing a license, but using an earlier version. Upgrading a license occurs when a newer version of a license is not purchased, but you are allowed to use the newer version. Downgrading is more common than upgrading.

    Any version defined as a downgrade child that does not have entitlements and a license can be counted as an installation of the upgrade parent. Use this method to avoid having to uninstall unlicensed versions of software running in your environment. When you define an unlicensed version as a downgrade child of a licensed version, the system creates a software model record for the unlicensed version with an upgrade path to the licensed version. If you delete the downgrade child from the licensed version's record, it is automatically deleted from the Software Model record for the unlicensed version.
    Note:
    If the downgrade child has either a license or an entitlement, it must also have a counter, which counts all installations of the downgrade child against its own license.

    For example, you have licenses for the software model Microsoft Word 2010, but no licenses or entitlements for Word 2007. Discovery finds installations of Word 2007 being used in your organization. Rather than force users to uninstall all instances of this unlicensed version, you decide to count installations of Word 2007 against your Word 2010 license. To do this, you configure Word 2007 as a downgrade child in the Word 2010 Software Model record. A Software Model record is automatically created for Word 2007 which specifies Word 2010 as the upgrade parent.

    If a software version has a downgrade child or an upgrade version that can be counted against the parent, the number of installs counted is restricted to the number of available rights of the parent. For example, Microsoft Word 2010 has a downgrade to Word 2007. Both versions have an active counter. Microsoft Word 2010 finds all entitled copies of Word 2007, and also takes out of compliance any installs from that downgrade counter until the available downgrade rights are used. However, if Microsoft Word 2010 only has 100 rights, then the maximum number of rights to be taken from the downgrade counter is 100.

    You can set the start and end dates for a software upgrade parent and downgrade child to be valid. The software counter counts the upgrade and downgrade licenses within the selected dates. If the software counter runs outside of the date range, the upgrade and downgrade licenses are not counted.

    Note:
    If an upgrade parent or downgrade child is set on the software model, it applies to all licenses of that model. If set on the software license, it applies specifically to that license.