Best Practice to Manage Licensed Software Model

[antony4007]

Hi Experts,

We have enabled the sam property to create software model for the non licensed software install from discovery, where during normalization software model will be automatically created if there is no corresponding software model is available in the system.

Similarly we are planning to enable the OOB property to create software model for the licensable install also. But the current challenges are software models are currently being created from multiple sources now (Manual). 

1. License Management team is creating manually as part of license purchase/upgrade.

2. TRM is creating software model as part of initial product onboarding.

3. Models are getting created by the content library (via PPN, upgrade/downgrade rights).

If we enable the OOB property to create licensable software model from discovery now, we may end up by creating multiple duplicate software models in the system.

Could you please suggest how to move this scenario forward? Is there any best practices for managing the licensable SW model? 

Thanks,

Antony

[dreinhardt]

Hi @antony4007 ,

please check the following: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bundle/yokohama-it-asset-management/page/product/software-asset-mana...

SAM Pro is taking care about the process to avoid duplicates for the same combination of model attributes. All outstanding models will be created as part of the next reconcile.

When reconciliation runs, the system searches if any software model exists for the software installation. The search for an existing software model is based on attributes such as version, edition, language, platform, and install condition. If all conditions for the attributes in an existing software model match, then a software model is not created hence avoiding the creation of duplicate software models.

A software model is only created if no match is found. The software model is created across versions and for the specific edition, if available. However a software model is never created against a specific version.

Best, Dennis

[antony4007]

Hi Dennis,

Thank you for your prompt response on my query. I read through the document and that really helps me in terms of duplicate software model creation.

However our challenge here is our License Management team is not managing all the products currently, They are managing only Managed infra software products & Business user software's.

They are not managing business application related software products & SAAS products.

In this scenario, is this recommended to enable this property (auto create software model for Licensable product) ?

Because If we enable this property, That will create all the licensable software models with License Under Management = true which is difficult to manage the software model + Compliance + Recon.

Any recommendation here would be much helpful to me.  

[dreinhardt]

Hi @antony4007,

please check the following, to scope the number of products based on your current rollout phase. This setting will reduce the amount of models shown in the workspace, but you'll get full transparency based on the software models Publish a specific set of your software products.

Best, Dennis

[antony4007]

Hi Dennis,

I have gone through the document link that you shared. This feature looks applies to the domain separation activated for Software Asset Management instance only. But our instance is not domain separated. Let me know if my understand is wrong.

Shall we make use of License Under Management = True against the software model record to define a scope. So that the SAM recon runs only those flagged products and show in the License Usage Report.

So My approach would be as below

1. Enable the property "Automatically create software models for all 'licensable' products". So that we will get all the unique software model in the instance.

2. Check the flag "License Under Management =true" for those products in scope currently. So that only those scoped products will be shown in the License Usage report as well.

What is your view on this approach? Please share if any other recommended approach as well.

Thanks,

Antony