Modules > Asset Management > Software License Management > Authorizing Software

In some instances it is necessary to adjust authorizations that are automatically assigned by the MIE (rogue authorizations). An example are rogue authorizations for Microsoft products that are found on one or more assets assigned to a person who has an MSDN subscription authorization. Autodiscovery generally cannot differentiate Visual Studio that was purchased under license (for example), from that which was licensed under an MSDN subscription, and that will cause the MIE to issue a rogue authorization for that software title against the asset on which it was found. An authorization adjustment is needed to effectively "zero out" the rogue authorization that was issued by the MIE. (This assumes the MSDN subscription is being managed under a separate Named User authorization.)

Authorization adjustments work by first specifying matching criteria that will be used to match specific authorization records, as well as MSL titles whose authorization records are to be adjusted. In addition, the License Units required to cover the authorization adjustment value is entered.

Authorization Adjustments is available, given sufficient access, as a fly-out menu option of the Managed Software left menu.

Authorization adjustments are performed via one or more rules.

The adjustment (rule) logic works as follows:

1.Adjustments are only performed for rules that are currently set to Active.

2.Once an adjustment has been made, it will remain in force until the Authorization is harvested or the rule is released manually (by editing the associated Authorization records)

3.An authorization will only match one rule (even if other rules have been set in such a was as to cause it to match more than one). The first rule that processes the adjustment will "own" the authorization.

4.An authorization that has been adjusted by a rule will drop from participation in rogue authorization.

5.Once a rule has processed an authorization for an adjustment, the rule will continue to "watch" that authorization and will continue to enforce the adjustment. If any change is made to the authorization, either through the Software Request Portal, Bulk Authorizations, or manually through the User Interface, the change will be lost the next time the rule is enforced.

6.Authorization adjustments run as part of Consolidate, and are therefore checked and adjusted whenever Consolidate runs (except for when Consolidate is running the License Optimizer.)

7.Any adjustment made will cause a proper credit or debit record to be staged. For example, if the authorization is "zeroed out", a credit will be staged to offset the debit that was staged as a result of the rogue authorization.

8. If an Authorization Adjustment is deleted or made inactive, and if that adjustment zeroes out License Units required, all authorizations that applied to that adjustment will have their License Units required set back to 1. This also applies to change made to the Authorization Adjustment that cause the adjustment to no longer apply, such as changing the conditions of the Authorization Adjustment, or changes to attributes of an asset in such a way as to cause the Authorization Adjustment to no longer apply.

To "zero out" unwanted rogue authorizations, adjust the License Units required value to 0 (meaning no license units will be required to cover the rogue authorization). The advantage to using this method of adjustment is that a record of the rogue authorization remains, allowing reporting of which MSL titles are installed on which assets.

Authorization Adjustments can be used to set the License Units required to any value, not just 0. Rogue authorizations always set the License Units required to 1.

NOTE: Once an adjustment is made, it can only be cleared by manually going to the authorization record via the User Interface and releasing the rule (edit the authorization record, find the drop-down that refers to the rule, choose to release the rule, and then save the record). The rule should be set to inactive before doing this. Mass updates may be used to release the rule from all authorizations for which the rule is currently active. Also note that modifying the selection criteria to include fewer authorizations will not remove the rule from the authorizations that matched previously. Once a rule has been applied to an authorization, it must be released manually.