Windows Core Infrastructure Services (CIS) DataCenter License Management w/ SAM

[Jen Wenrick1]

Our Windows Core Infrastructure Services (CIS) DataCenter license allocations have been established now for quite some time with our VMWARE clusters having CIS datacenter licenses  Allocated In Use.  Recently something has changed that caused ALL of the clusters (more than 10-15 in total) to switch to Allocated NOT In Use.  We have not made any changes to this licensing in SAM in many months (no changes to models, etc). 

The only change I can think of that might have been related (but I can't say with certainty) is an upgrade to San Diego.  I noticed it after the upgrade, but it could have been that way before and just gone unnoticed because no one was looking at it. 

I have looked at everything I could think of to check, reviewed all the white papers, documentation, etc I could find.  I can't find any reason for why or how to fix.   All is in order with regard to the Software model, etc - this has been established now for a LONG time without changes.  As best I can tell the relationships around VMWARE are all as they should be - hosts know which cluster they are in and which servers are on them, etc.

The only thing I have observed is that SAM now seems to want me to apply those licenses at the host level instead of the cluster level? (based on what I see in the license workbench remediation options).

Advice/help/suggestions are much appreciated!!!  

[Christina Guidr]

We had to open a ticket with the ServiceNow team on our Core Infrastructure Suite reconciliation - even though our entitlement is Per Core we had to modify the metric to be Per Core+CAL and it does assign per host in our results (I can't say pre-San Diego as we hadnt had it setup prior)

[julianf · Accepted solution]

Hi Jen,

Thanks for the post.  In the San Diego release, we introduced support for Partial Cluster Licensing (Per Core w/ CAL) for Windows Server.  We had a number of customers configuring clusters with host affinity so that some machines in the cluster were not hosting (nor configured to host) and Windows Servers.  Allocating to the cluster would then over-consume licenses in this scenario.

This design change requires allocations at the host level, which is why you're seeing allocated not in use.  The quickest way to update your configuration is to use remediation options to remove allocations from the clusters.  You could also allocate to the hosts using remediation options as well (once the other licenses are un-allocated).  Unless you are taking advantage of partial cluster licensing, your license position should be the same before/after the upgrade.

Please feel free to post any follow up questions.

[Jen Wenrick1]

Hi Julian, 

Thanks for that information! This makes perfect sense!  As you noted, net result is the same and a simple matter to switch from cluster to host.  In some ways for our environment, this makes managing easier as hosts come/go and cluster sizes shift.  My bigger concern was the possibility that this could have been a symptom of some underlying issue that needed attention.  Glad to hear that is not the case!!

THANKS!!