License Allocation
License allocation allows you to define how the ownership of the total number of licenses purchased for a particular application is to be distributed throughout your company. The effect of license allocation depends on whether the license type is concurrent:
- Concurrent licenses: For license units with a license type of concurrent, license allocation manages how licenses are checked out. For example, if you purchased 10 total licenses of an application for two groups to use, you might want to split these ten licenses evenly between the two machine groups. To do so, you'd use the Concurrent License Allocations dialog box to set up two allocation pools, one for each group. If the first group is already using five licenses, an attempt to use a sixth license from a machine in that machine group would not be allowed. A license usage from a machine in the second group, however, would be allowed if licenses were still available from that allocation pool.
- Nonconcurrent licenses: For non-concurrent applications, use group assignments in Purchasing to assign licenses to specific groups.
How does the allocation process work with purchasing information?
Allocation is the process of placing resources (such as licenses, computers, and other hardware assets) into groups. From the standpoint of Purchasing, the reason you would allocate something to a group is that the group has some kind of responsibility for it: usually for the purposes of accounting for expenses.
For items that are reconciled, Purchasing makes an entry in the appropriate machine, user, or other asset group for the item you allocate. For example, if you allocate a machine to the accounting machine group, Purchasing will add the machine to that group if it is not already part of that group. Purchasing adds other assets to other asset groups, and adds user-based software licenses to user groups, and machine-based software licenses to machine groups.
For items that are not yet reconciled, Purchasing will “remember” your allocation request. At the time that the software, computer, or other asset is actually reconciled, Purchasing adds the software licenses or hardware to the requested groups on your behalf.
While Purchasing will add resources to groups, it will not remove them later if, for example, they are deleted or returned from a lease. This behavior is deliberate. CAM Administrator is the primary interface used to manage group allocations, and Purchasing cannot keep track of changes to allocations it may have made initially.