Asset Management Suite

The new software management framework, included with the Symantec Management Platform, dramatically changes the way software license contracts are evaluated for software compliance. See the article Software License Compliance with Software Management Framework in Asset  for more details.  

In Asset Management Suite (AMS) version 7 software license contracts are linked to software products in the software catalog.  Software purchases are linked to the software license contract.  When you do an upgrade, you are going to be working with a different software product for the new version.  This then requires a new software contract and the software purchases that go with the new version of the software.

So you don't lose your audit trail with the old version and purchases of that version of the software, you need to create a new software license for the new version of the software.  To assist you with the process of creating the new software license contract,  AMS7 comes with a wizard which you can access through right-clicking on the software license for the old version of the application you are upgrading.

Here, we will walk through the process.

1. Software licensing can be accessed in at least two places in the Symantec Management Console.
   1. Home > Service and Asset Management > Software Licensing
   2. Manage > Software
2. In the tree-view on the left, open the Software License folder.
3. Right-click on a software license that you want to Upgrade or Renew.
   
   The options 'Upgrade Software License' appears in the right-click actions if the software license has one or more software purchases associated to it.
   
   The option ‘Renew Software License’ appears in context menu of software license when following conditions are met:
   • The software license must have one or more software purchases associated to it.
   • Option ‘Renewable’ should be checked in the edit page of software license.
   • ‘End date’ must be set for software license ( should not be blank or NULL).
     
     
     
      
4. You are required to upgrade or renew the entire quantity of licenses associated to the original software license.  For example if the software license has 10 licenses associated to it, either in one or more software purchases, the new software license upgrade or renewal will also have to a software purchase for the same total number of licenses.
   
   Example
   Original License
   Software License:   Adobe Photoshop ver 7
   Software Purchase:  Adobe Photoshop v7 – 5 licenses
                                     Adobe Photoshop v7 – 5 licenses
   New Upgrade License
   Software License:   Adobe Photoshop ver 8
   Software Purchase:  Adobe Photoshop v8 – 10 licenses
    
5. If you selected to upgrade, the following wizards will display.  The first section is information to assist you in creating the new software license contract.  The total number of licenses associated to the old software license is important because you must upgrade all of them at one time.
   
   
   
    
6. The software license that was selected is cloned.  The original purchases are still associated to the original software license and a link is created to indicate that the software license has been upgraded.  
    
7. Give the new software license contract a name. 
    
8. Select the software product, from the software catalog, that this new software license is to be associated.
    
9. Enter the software license details.
    
10. Select the software purchases for the upgrade.  You can select multiple software purchases if that is how you entered the information.
    
    If you have not already entered the new software purchase (meaning you have not already created one or more software purchases with the information about the upgrade) you can use the link just below the New software license name to go create the software purchase record.  Remember the total of the software purchase quantities must equal the total software licenses associated to the original software license contract that is being upgraded.
     
11. Fill in the rest of the information as you would like.
     
12. Click OK.  The new software license contract will have a link to the old software license contract.
     

Renewal

Software with an expiration date is rare; usually applications have perpetual licenses for the version that was purchased.  Many customers use the expiration field for the date the maintenance is going to expire.  The renew software license right-click action is intended for renewing the software, not the maintenance. 

You might be able to use the renewal process and the wizard to record the maintenance renewal but it is very important to test that the compliance calculations are correct.  Symantec did not intend it to be used that way and no test cases were run on that scenario.  

The compliance report does not include software purchase quantities if the software license contract they are associated to is expired.

The renewal wizard is the same as the upgrade wizard with one exception.  You do not link it to a new software product because the new software license contract the wizard is creating will be linked to the same software product as the original software license contract.

Caution:  Migrate software licenses from version 6.5 of Asset Management Solution and manually link the version 7 software licenses together if one is an upgrade on another license.  Do not attempt to use the upgrade wizard until the software licenses are all migrated.