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Invalid license assignments

A license assignment becomes invalid when a mismatch occurs between the type or quantities of the purchased license compared with the device or user the license is assigned to. For example, a previously valid license assignment can become invalid if:

  • The number of licenses assigned to a computer/datacenter exceeds the number required from a compliance perspective.

  • The application or family covered by the license is no longer installed on the computer/datacenter the license is assigned to.

  • The user the license is assigned to has not used the application nor any application in the family covered by the license within the specified metering period.

  • The processor count of the computer the license is assigned to exceeds the number covered by the license.

To prevent you from creating invalid licenses during assignment, an error will flag when you attempt to assign more licenses to a computer, datacenter, or user than you have purchased. This precaution will help prevent some invalid assignments, over time, changes in your environment will cause mismatches. To help you identify these mismatches alert messages show on the License details view and standard Reports provide a complete overview of invalid license assignments.

Alerts identifying potential mismatches include:

  • No eligible application installed – indicates that the application covered by the license purchase is not installed on the machine you have assigned the license to.

  • Overassignment – indicates that you have assigned more licenses to the user or machine than is required for compliance.

  • Missing primary user – indicates that the license was assigned to a user for an application that is not installed on any of the computers which the user is a primary user of.

  • Missing installation for user – indicates that the license is assigned to a user, but the user has never used the application.

  • No usage within metering period – indicates that the application metric has a metering period, but the application was not used by the user within this period of time.

  • Invalid processor count – indicates that the machine you have assigned the license to has more processors than which are covered by the license. This alert is only applicable for WindowsServer applications.

  • Missing computer, Inactive computer, Missing users, Missing datacenter, Invalid metric (metric equals 0), Invalid quantity (quantity less than, or equal to, 0), Invalid metric group (assigned metric is not supported by the application) - indicates invalid or missing data.

To gain an overview of invalid license assignments in your system, use the Invalid license assignments report, or add the Invalid assignments column to the All licenses report.

note

Invalid license assignment can only occur for licenses that can be assigned to a Computer/datacenter, or a User. Licenses that are assigned automatically to an Organization or Site do not become invalid.

When computers or users are deleted, licenses assigned to them are automatically unassigned, removing any invalid license assignments.