As an ESM administrator, you have access to the Licenses view, from which you can manage user licenses. You can import licenses into ESM, assign the imported licenses to relevant folders, and assign dedicated licenses to users. 

You cannot, however, change a dedicated license to a floating one, or the other way round, nor can you change a read license into a write license or vice versa.

To navigate to the Licenses view, click Licenses in the Administration UI.

When you access the Licenses view for the first time, the folder tree pane on the left of the view is empty unless you have created folders in the User view. The folders that are under Users and roles in the Permissions tree pane are identical to the folder structure of the Licenses view. This is because the primary function of the license folders is to reserve floating licenses for the users of the corresponding User folders.

If you are working on a new ESM installation that you have not accessed yet, you can login as root user. ESM automatically displays the Licenses view, from which you can start importing licenses.

Importing User Licenses

You can import user licenses from the Import licenses view. Click Licenses in the main menu, and select the folder where you want to store the license in the folder tree. If you do not want to import the licenses into a specific folder or you do not have any, select the root of the folder tree. The selected node in the folder tree appears highlighted. 

Click Import licenses in the display menu to open the Import licenses view:

Select the import source:

• Source: File to import a license from an XML file (click Browse to locate the file in the file system).
• Source: By hand to import a license from XML text (type or copy–paste the text in the XML text field).

After selecting the import source, click Ok to complete the license import.

The imported licenses appear in the Licenses view under the selected folder in the folder tree. You can open the license information in the work area by clicking on it in the folder tree. If the folder contents are visible in the work area, the license information can opened by clicking the view icon (magnifying glass) in front of the license row.

License Information

Each user license has license-specific information:

• Valid – Validity of the license is either Yes (valid) or No (invalid). The license can be invalid if it has expired or your server name does not match the information stored in encrypted form in the license key.
• Product – The ESM module to which the license applies.
• Holder – Owner of the license. Typically, a license holder is a company.
• Issuer – Name of the license provider, usually Efecte Plc.
• Expires – Expiration date of the license (for example, dd.mm.yyyy).
• Type – The type of the license: either Floating or Dedicated; read or write.
• Assigned to – Person to whom the dedicated license is currently assigned.
• Serial number – Serial number of the license.
• Key – License key.
• Current user – Person who is reserving the license (if any). 
• Folder – Folder where the license is located.

From the Licenses view, you can assign a dedicated license to a user or release it, and you can move a license to an appropriate folder. The sections that follow describe how to manage a single license.

Assignment of Dedicated Licenses to Users

The easiest way to assign all the needed dedicated licenses to a user is by going to Permissions > Users and roles and opening the folder containing the users. Users view is visible in the display area. Select the checkbox on the left side of those users you wish to assign the licenses for and click the Assign Licenses button. Note that licenses can be only be allocated users who have roles.

After successful license assignment, a message “Licenses were successfully assigned for the user [username].” is shown in the display menu. Dedicated license icon and permission type are displayed under those modules for which licenses were available.

Another way to assign all the needed dedicated licenses to a user is by selecting the user from the folder tree under Permissions > Users and roles. All the needed license types for all the allowed modules (defined by the user’s roles) are assigned, when you select Settings in the display menu and then Assign dedicated licenses.

You can change the assigned user of a license by selecting the dedicated license from the Licenses menu. Click on the dedicated license in the folder tree pane, or, if the folder contents are visible in the work area, click on the magnifying glass. The License information view opens in the working area.

Click the Select button. The Select a user pop-up window opens with a list of users to whom you can assign the license. Select a user and confirm the selection. The user's name appears in the Dedicated to field in the License information view.

NOTE! If you change the license holder while the current holder is logged in to ESM, the change takes place only after the current license holder logs out.

Releasing a Dedicated License

You can release licenses if there is a need to change the holder of the dedicated licenses; the released licenses will stay in ESM, but they cannot be reserved by anyone until you assign them to a new user.

Under Licenses tab, select Licenses in the folder tree pane, and select the licenses you want to release by selecting their checkboxes in the display area. Click the Release button.

(If you have placed licenses into folders, you can also select an appropriate folder in the folder tree pane instead of the Licenses folder, and then proceed with the license releasing as instructed above.)

It is also possible to release one license by clicking the view icon of a license to open the License information view in the display area and then clicking Release. ESM removes the name of the assigned user from the Assigned to field, and the dedicated license is free.

Moving Licenses

You can move a license into a new license folder or to the root of the license tree. Select the license, by clicking on it in the folder tree pane, or by clicking the magnifying glass if the folder contents are visible in the work area. The License information view opens in the working area.

In the Folder drop-down menu at the bottom of the view, select where you want to move the license. Click the Move button.

If the license folder contents are visible, you can move more than one license at a time. Select the checkbox in front of the licenses you want to move and click the Move button. Select the folder to which you want to move the licenses. 

Allocation of Licenses

When a user logs in to ESM, it searches for an available license for all the modules to which the user is allowed access. Each module requires a license. The license should be a read or write license, depending on the user role permissions – do not grant write license to a user who has only read permissions, or read license to a user who has one or more write permissions. If an appropriate license is found for all of the required modules, the user is allowed to login to ESM.

Assigning a user an appropriate license has several aspects you need to consider after importing the licenses into ESM. Paying attention to the following helps you to ensure that all ESM users have proper licenses to access the licensed modules:

1. Place licenses in appropriate license folders - To ensure that you provide appropriate floating licenses to a user or a user group, place the imported licenses in appropriate license folders. If you place floating licenses in a folder, make sure that the corresponding user folder contains the users who are to use these licenses. If you intend to make the floating licenses available to users of any user folder, place the licenses in the root of the licenses tree pane.
   1. For example, if a user whose user card is stored in the Helpdesk user folder logs in, ESM searches for appropriate licenses in the corresponding Helpdesk license folder first. If neither the license folder nor the folder tree root contains an appropriate license, the user cannot access ESM – even if a free license of an appropriate type exists in another license folder.
2. Provide all necessary licenses for a user - To login to ESM, a user needs one free license to each module that the user has permission to access. When the user logs in, ESM reserves necessary licenses for this user. If any of the reserved licenses is for some reason unavailable, the user cannot login to ESM.
   1. For example, if a user has permissions to use Efecte CMDB and Efecte IT Processes modules, the user needs one free license for Efecte CMDB and one for Efecte IT Processes in order to access either ESM. If either of the licenses is reserved or unavailable, the user cannot access either. If there are any so-called “All Modules” licenses, the user only needs one of those as they contain all modules.
3. Place an appropriate number of licenses in a license folder - When using floating licenses, it is imperative that a proper number of floating licenses is allocated to the relevant license folders. This ensures that there are enough licenses available for the intended users.
   1. If the Helpdesk user folder has, for example, 20 helpdesk users, you should provide the users with enough Efecte IT Processes floating licenses either in the corresponding license folder or in the root of the license tree. If you expect five users to be logged in at a time, you should place at least five floating licenses in the license folder. Placing the licenses in the root of the folder tree allows any user of other user folders to reserve the licenses. For more information, see section 8.8.1 Floating Licenses.
4. Allocate license types systematically - To login to ESM, a user should have only one type of license. If you allocate a dedicated license to the user, all other licenses that you assign to the same user must be dedicated licenses. Do not assign the user both types of license, even if the licenses are for different ESM modules.

In an example case, you have assigned the user a dedicated license to Efecte IT Processes, and the user needs a license for Efecte CMDB. To access either of the ESM modules, the user needs a dedicated license also for Efecte CMDB. If the user has a dedicated license for Efecte IT Processes and there is a floating license for Efecte CMDB available, the user cannot login to ESM. 

Otherwise access permissions are not limited from login point of view -- it does not make a difference if separate licenses of the user allow reading and writing of the data cards, any combination of these is allowed.

Floating Licenses

A floating license gives a user or group of users a module specific right to share a single license. A floating license is intended for all users whose:

• User role permissions include the corresponding module rights.
• User card is stored in a user folder that corresponds to the folder where the license is stored.

Allocate a floating license to a group of users by placing the licenses in a license folder corresponding to the user folder where you placed the group of users in the User view. Since the floating licenses are intended for the common use of a group of users, the correspondence of the license and user folders is important.

For example, to allocate floating Efecte IT Processes licenses to a group of Local Helpdesk users, move the licenses into the Local Helpdesk license folder. Licenses you placed in the Local Helpdesk folder in the Licenses tab are usable by only those users whose user cards are stored in the Local Helpdesk folder in the Permissions tab.

ESM does not allow concurrent use of a floating license that is currently reserved by another user. That is, if a license is currently reserved, other users cannot use it when logging in. A user may reserve a floating license only when the license is free and located in the corresponding license folder or in the root of the license tree pane.

To ensure that floating licenses are available to the intended user group, pay attention to the correspondence of content in the License tree pane and User tree pane. When allocating floating licenses for your ESM users, pay attention to the following:

• If you place the floating licenses in a folder, make sure that the license folder corresponds to the user folder where the user cards of the intended user group are stored.
• Make sure that the rights of the users for whose use you intended the licenses correspond to the module to which the license applies.
  •    Make sure that the users you intend to use the floating licenses do not have dedicated licenses for any ESM modules.
• Remember that a user with write permission needs a write license.

Dedicated Licenses

Dedicated licenses improve the management of licenses significantly. With a dedicated license, you can make sure that a license holder has access to the ESM whenever logging in.

A dedicated license gives a single user the right to reserve the license whenever needed. The dedicated license is tied to its holder. The license cannot be used by any other user without the license holder first being changed. As an administrator, you can change the license holder freely and as frequently as needed.

A dedicated license does not need to be in a folder that corresponds to the user folder of the license holder. To ensure that dedicated licenses are available to the intended user, pay attention to the following:

• Make sure that the rights of a license holder correspond to the module to which the license applies.
• Make sure that the users to whom you allocate a dedicated license have dedicated licenses for all modules they may access.
• Remember that a user with write permission needs a write license.

TIP! To help you keep track of which license types you have assigned to which users, creating a separate folder for dedicated licenses might pay off. Create a user folder called Dedicated and leave it empty in the User view but place all your dedicated licenses in it in the Licenses view. 

Read and Write Licenses

Write permission for a module always requires a write license. Read-only permission for a module always requires some license. If the user has read permission only, a read-only license is assigned to the user if there is one available. If not, a free write license is allocated instead. If neither is available, the user cannot log in.

With the Login settings section of the platform settings (editable via Administration > Maintenance > Edit settings), you can configure whether having only read permission always requires a read-only license. You can also choose whether a write license is ever allocated to a user with read permission only. If there is no read-only license available, the user is not allowed to login. By default, this feature is not turned on. To turn it on, change the value of the setting license.deny_use_of_write_for_read to true.

Deleting Licenses

You can delete licenses by selecting Licenses from the Administration UI and opening the folder in the folder tree pane where the license is stored. A list of licenses opens in the display area.

To locate the licenses you want to delete, you can sort the list by clicking, for example, the Assigned to header of the list. You can delete one or several licenses at a time. Select the licenses by checking the appropriate checkboxes, then click the Delete button.

To delete all licenses in the folder, check the Select all checkbox and click Delete.

Session Handling and License Allocation When User Logs in

A session is opened when the user logs in and is closed or invalidated when the user either logs out or is idle for long enough. When the user logs in, the licenses that the user’s permissions require are allocated for the user. The licenses are tied to the session opened for the user. The allocated licenses are not released until the session is closed at the end of day or whenever the Single Sign-On session ends.

It can take some time before the session expires and the licenses are released. In some situations, it is preferable to be able to invalidate sessions before they expire and licenses are released. For example, users are not able to access ESM if all licenses are being allocated to the idle sessions. The root user can access the sessions from the Maintenance menu and close them.

It is also possible to invalidate existing sessions at the time of login. During login, the user can invalidate a session via the screen (see screenshot below) when the following are true: 

• The same user is logged in from another workstation.
• The user has entered a correct username and password.

Clicking “Terminate” button ends the other session and logs the other user out. The users should be aware of what happens regarding session termination if they use more than one workstation or browser to access ESM at the same time. There might be a user editing a data card. If the session is invalidated before the user has saved the data card, the information entered is lost because saving is no longer permitted in the session.

No user can terminate another users’ session during login.

If the platform setting login.show_session_invalidation_information is set to true, the user is shown more details about the session that is about to be invalidated. The details include the IP address of the session holder and the time the user has been idle. Default value is false.