Concept: Automate License Acquisition
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@tiagom said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
@scottalanmiller Makes sense. Also could have multiple vendors in case one fails.
True, but that would add a lot of complexity. One with email backup is likely quite adequate.
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In fact, it should be the vendors like Softmart that make a script like this for this kind of use case
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Im sure the vendors rather get the sales upfront
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So pretty much FlexLM with a true up for OS level stuff.
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@tiagom said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
Im sure the vendors rather get the sales upfront
Would rather, but they'd rather not lose the sales completely.
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@stacksofplates said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
So pretty much FlexLM with a true up for OS level stuff.
Yeah, or just "extremely rapid license acquisition."
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I love the idea, the simple question is how do you configure it. Per DR node to go out and purchase a license of said level?
What if you aren't able to purchase that version license any more?
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From my understanding FlexLM only handles managing floating licenses, it doesn't actually automatically purchase licenses.
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@DustinB3403 said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
I love the idea, the simple question is how do you configure it. Per DR node to go out and purchase a license of said level?
What if you aren't able to purchase that version license any more?
It would be very case by case, I think. It could have guidance in it, or logic. Example...
Script: I need Windows 2003 Server Standard
Logic: If 2003 is needed, buy 2016 instead and downgrade rights.
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@tiagom said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
From my understanding FlexLM only handles managing floating licenses, it doesn't actually automatically purchase licenses.
But with a true up you could.
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@scottalanmiller said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
@DustinB3403 said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
I love the idea, the simple question is how do you configure it. Per DR node to go out and purchase a license of said level?
What if you aren't able to purchase that version license any more?
It would be very case by case, I think. It could have guidance in it, or logic. Example...
Script: I need Windows 2003 Server Standard
Logic: If 2003 is needed, buy 2016 instead and downgrade rights.
Can you get downgrade rights that far spread?
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@stacksofplates said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
@tiagom said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
From my understanding FlexLM only handles managing floating licenses, it doesn't actually automatically purchase licenses.
But with a true up you could.
Not sure i follow.
I have several floating licensing servers and none provide any automatic purchasing feature.
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@tiagom said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
@stacksofplates said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
@tiagom said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
From my understanding FlexLM only handles managing floating licenses, it doesn't actually automatically purchase licenses.
But with a true up you could.
Not sure i follow.
I have several floating licensing servers and none provide any automatic purchasing feature.
A true up would give you the ability to use as many as you wanted and then pay at a later time. We have a big contract with a software company and we can essentially use as many licenses as we want but we take hourly snapshots or our licenses being used. Then it's reviewed every 6 months or so and if we are over what we signed up for we pay the overage.
FlexLM let's us set hard limits so we can control it but we could use as ma y as we want.
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@stacksofplates Oh cool I assume that is all automated? The snapshot and then the review at 6 months?
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@tiagom said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
@stacksofplates Oh cool I assume that is all automated? The snapshot and then the review at 6 months?
We have to submit the review but other than that ya it's all automatic.
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"Backup" or "failover" licenses is something I have never understood. Like you said, more licensing can be purchased extremely quickly. Often the approval takes longer than license acquisition.
I honestly thought my previous boss was joking when he asked me to look into it... Until he said he was serious and we talked about it... We didn't get failover licenses.
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@BBigford said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
Often the approval takes longer than license acquisition.
Then that is a manager deciding that being down is more important than paying for the license, even in the heat of the moment while the outage is happening. If that happens, it proves that the company felt that the lowest possible cost for risk mitigation was not worth it so the license and the failover should not happen. Easy peasy.
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@BBigford said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
"Backup" or "failover" licenses is something I have never understood. L
Basically there is no such thing. Feeling that there is is what makes it confusing. All usage of Windows is... well.. usage of Windows. So if you use it, you have to license it.
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@scottalanmiller said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
@BBigford said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
Often the approval takes longer than license acquisition.
Then that is a manager deciding that being down is more important than paying for the license, even in the heat of the moment while the outage is happening. If that happens, it proves that the company felt that the lowest possible cost for risk mitigation was not worth it so the license and the failover should not happen. Easy peasy.
I should have specified. We'll be trying to buy something, whether that is hardware or software... After we vet the product and state the reasoning, it goes through a lengthy approval process. In some networks, I would say "If we upgrade the software, it'll break this over here.. so we need to upgrade that software before we do anything else. It costs X amount of money." Manager says it'll be taken under consideration... Some time passes and the software is beyond its point of being supported and we run into an issue where we have to contact the company. But they won't talk to us until we pay them quite a bit of money for the upgrade... then all of a sudden it's quickly cutting a check for $25k and a late night to upgrade that monster of an install.
Apparently it's not important sometimes unless it's an emergency. Even if you're saying (for months) "This is important... Hey, this is coming down the pike, it's important..."
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@BBigford said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
@scottalanmiller said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
@BBigford said in Concept: Automate License Acquisition:
Often the approval takes longer than license acquisition.
Then that is a manager deciding that being down is more important than paying for the license, even in the heat of the moment while the outage is happening. If that happens, it proves that the company felt that the lowest possible cost for risk mitigation was not worth it so the license and the failover should not happen. Easy peasy.
I should have specified. We'll be trying to buy something, whether that is hardware or software... After we vet the product and state the reasoning, it goes through a lengthy approval process. In some networks, I would say "If we upgrade the software, it'll break this over here.. so we need to upgrade that software before we do anything else. It costs X amount of money." Manager says it'll be taken under consideration... Some time passes and the software is beyond its point of being supported and we run into an issue where we have to contact the company. But they won't talk to us until we pay them quite a bit of money for the upgrade... then all of a sudden it's quickly cutting a check for $25k and a late night to upgrade that monster of an install.
Again, that's a manager making a VERY clear decision. Not a good one, but there is no such thing as "no decision." Not paying for needed support is the decision there. For whatever reason, the decisions maker(s) decided that that risk and cost was what they felt was a good idea.
