<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  Modules > Asset Management > Software License Management > Licenses > Upgrades > Upgrading in Lots

Upgrades can be processed in several ways. One way is to simply purchase enough upgrade licenses to nullify existing older licenses and handle the transaction completely in the "back end".  Doing so, however, will deplete the old licenses and add to the newer licenses.  The MIE's license optimizer will handle re-allocating all the newer licenses to cover any existing older installs (assuming the newer title has been set to recognize the older versions as downbound equivalents.)

Keep in mind, however, that purchasing upgrades in bulk will preclude the MIE from offering upgrade pricing to individual users seeking to upgrade their authorizations.  This is because the bulk purchase of upgrade licenses consumed the available eligible licenses, which is something the MIE checks before extending upgrade pricing to end users.  Therefore, if end users wish to have the opportunity of being offered upgrade pricing on a given MSL title, the better strategy is to only purchase enough upgrade licenses to satisfy the upgrade authorizations granted by the MIE during the most recent period.  For instance, if 50 users go through the software request portal and are granted upgrade authorizations, the MIE will mark 50 eligible licenses as necessary to satisfy a pending upgrade license purchase.  In this case, purchasing only 50 upgrade licenses will cause the MIE to consume only those marked licenses, leaving other eligible licenses available to satisfy future upgrade requests.

Also be careful to purchase upgrades within any constraints that have been established on the MIE (for instance, if a constraint has been imposed to only allow upgrades to be purchased off of the same contract enrollment as the qualifying license.)