Optimization vs Allocation on ServiceNow SAM Pro

[Srinivas Ramanu]

ServiceNow Software Asset Management presents customers the most “optimal” application of licenses to deployments. 

 License entitlements are assigned to clusters, hosts, or virtual machines depending on the publishers’ specific terms and conditions. 

SAM Managers can “allocate” rights to specific deployments if they have a certain licensing strategy they would like to apply. 

Optimization	Allocation
Performed Automatically by ServiceNow, requires no manual intervention	Requires manual intervention from customer to ensure few entities are prioritised over other during license assignment, based on the customer’s licensing strategy

 Optimization and Allocation are different concepts, however there is an interplay between both these feature sets. They can be utilised by customers to effectively perform license assignment in the most optimal way. 

Optimization: 

ServiceNow SAM supports optimisations on several products such as Microsoft Windows Server, SQL Server, and many more 

Example  For Microsoft Windows Server:  

 ServiceNow SAM automatically determines which license is more optimal and cheaper to apply on a cluster whether it is Datacenter or Standard.   

This is driven by the virtualisation density determined by SAM. If virtualisation density is high, then Windows Datacenter licenses are applied automatically otherwise Windows Standard licenses are applied. 

Incase of Windows Server Data Center licenses are insufficient, Windows Server Standard Licenses are consumed in a high density environment.

However, ServiceNow automatically generates recommendation to the customer with potential savings to step up to Windows Server Datacenter 

 

                 Figure 1 Potential Savings Recommendation generated for Windows Server 

In the above, Cluster 3 was licensed using Windows Server Standard licenses, even though the virtualisation density was high. Hence, the recommendation is to “upgrade” to Windows Server Data Center licenses which will be more cost effective as it provided for unlimited virtualisation benefit.

 Allocation: 

Customers can use allocations to ensure licenses are consumed by specific deployments: 

1. Customers can use Optimization results to determine the number of rights to allocate to an entity. 
2. Customers can allocate rights to the deployment; this will prioritise the license assignment to that entity first before others 
3. Customer can use “Create Allocations” remediation option to automatically allocate licenses to entities. This remediation option is taken when the customers are satisfied with the license assignment suggested by ServiceNow SAM, and want to essentially “lock” their license assignment  

 1. Using Optimization Results to determine rights to allocate: 

Customers can allocate the rights as provided by optimization recommendation to Cluster 3. This will license the 32 licenses for Windows Server Data Center to Cluster 3 

 

Figure 2 Performing Allocations 

 2. Allocations to Prioritise licensing 

Customers can allocate license to Hosts, Virtual machines etc., this will prioritise the license assignment to these entities.  

 

Figure 3 Performing Allocations 

Please note that it is not necessary for customers to know the exact number of rights needed for the entity, ServiceNow will automatically determine the correct number of licenses required for that entity. 

3. Using Create Allocation Remediation Option 

Customers can make use of Create allocation remediation option to "lock" license assignment, if they are confident on the license assignment performed by ServiceNow. This will make sure that in subsequent reconciliation these allocations are preferred for license consumption always

 

 Figure 4 Using Create Allocations Remediation option 

Notes: 

   a. Pre- San Diego Customers: For Windows Server, SQL Server one can perform allocation at the Cluster level only ; to perform allocations at the host please ensure that the host is not part of a cluster 

b.  San Diego+ Customers : Allocations can be made to on specific hosts or Virtual machines within a cluster. Allocations can be performed on the Host or Virtual machine (Host for Windows Server, and Host or VM for SQL Server). This is because, we are introducing support for Partial Cluster licensing in San Diego