License Reclamation

EmpowerID Azure License Manager includes a license reclamation framework that you can implement to reclaim unused or underutilized licenses, freeing those licenses up for reallocation throughout your enterprise as needed. Depending on license usage, license reclamation can provide significant savings in licensing costs and give you real-time consolidated data to drive better licensing allocation. The license reclamation framework includes the following components:

  • Reclamation policies – These are templated policies you author to specify the conditions for licenses to be reclaimed. Conditions include:

    • Reclaim for Disabled Accounts – Removes licenses from accounts that are currently disabled

    • Reclaim for Accounts Never Logged In – Removes licenses from accounts where the account owner has never logged in

    • Reclaim for Users Who Have Not Logged In For 90 Days – Removes licenses from accounts where the account owner has not logged in within the last 90 days

    • Reclaim for Person Terminated – Removes assigned licenses from accounts whose EmpowerID Person is marked as terminated.

    • Reclaim for Unused License – Removes assigned licenses from accounts who have never used those licenses

    • Custom Query Group Reclaim – Removes assigned licenses from accounts based on custom conditions

  • License Reclamation Compiler – This is an EmpowerID job that processes license reclamation and creates inbox entries for licenses that are not in use or assigned to an invalid account based on the settings applied to the relevant reclamation policies.

  • License Reclamation Inbox Processor – This is an EmpowerID job that reviews license status on a scheduled basis to determine which assigned licenses are currently not being used. Unused licenses are claimed by the inbox and removed from users based on an organization’s reclamation policies.

  • License Reclamation Approval Inbox Processor – This is an EmpowerID job that generates approval tasks for License Reclamation Inbox entries needing approval based on the approval settings configured for the relevant reclamation policies. Once the approval occurs, the License Reclamation Inbox Processor processes the approved items.

  • License Usage Permanent Workflow – This is a permanent workflow that runs in a continuous loop on a scheduled basis to return license usage information for each user account and license in your tenant. This information is used to provide you with cost analysis of pending/actual monthly savings achieved through license reclamation.

To implement license reclamation, you need to do the below steps.

  1. Create and your License Reclamation policies

  2. Enable License Reclamation jobs

  3. Enable the License Usage Permanent workflow

Step 1 - Create License Reclamation policies

  1. On the navbar, click Azure License Manager to expand it and select Configuration.

  2. Select the Reclamation Policies tab and then click the Add button in the grid.


    This opens the Reclamation Policy form.



  3. Enter the following information in the form and then save the policy.

General Settings

General Settings

Setting

Description

Name

Name of the policy

Display Name

Display name for the policy

Description

Description of the policy

Enabled

When selected, enables the policy for compilation and processing

Report Only Mode

When selected, compiles the policy and generates a report of the number of licenses that would be revoked if they processed

Reclamation Settings

Setting

Description

Reclaim for Disabled Accounts


  • Auto-Approve for Disabled

  • Disable Grace Period

Instructs EmpowerID to remove all licenses from disabled accounts.


  • If auto approve is selected, the system automatically removes licenses without requiring human approval

  • When auto approve is enabled, this setting specifies the number of days the system needs to wait before processing license removal.

Reclaim for 90 Days No Login


  • Auto-Approve for Disabled

  • Disable Grace Period

Instructs EmpowerID to remove licenses from accounts where the owner has not logged in with the last 90 days.


  • If auto approve is selected, the system automatically removes licenses without requiring human approval

  • When auto approve is enabled, specifies the number of days for the system to wait before processing license removal.

Reclaim for Person Terminated


  • Auto-Approve Unused

  • Unused Grace Period

Instructs EmpowerID to remove licenses from accounts where the EmpowerID Person owning the account is terminated.


  • If auto approve is selected, the system automatically removes licenses without requiring human approval

  • When auto approve is enabled, specifies the number of days for the system to wait before processing license removal.

Reclaim for Unused License


  • Auto-Approve Unused

  • Unused Grace Period

Instructs EmpowerID to remove all licenses from accounts where the owner has not logged in with the last 90 days.


  • If auto approve is selected, the system automatically removes licenses without requiring human approval

  • When auto approve is enabled, specifies the number of days for the system to wait before processing license removal.

Custom Query Group Reclaim


  • Auto-Approve Custom Query

  • Mapped Query Grace Period

  • Query-Based Collection

Instructs EmpowerID to remove all licenses from accounts meeting the criteria specified by the query.


  • If auto approve is selected, the system automatically removes licenses without requiring human approval

  • When auto approve is enabled, specifies the number of days for the system to wait before processing license removal.

  • Specifies the query-based collection containing the users meeting the conditions of the query.

Email Notifications Settings

Setting

Description

Admin Pre-Removal Notification

Allows for the selection of an email template to use to send notification emails of pending license removals to administrators.

Manager Pre-Removal Notification

Allows for the selection of an email template to use to send notification emails of pending license removals to the managers of the people selected for license removal.

User Pre-Removal Notification

Allows for the selection of an email template to use to send notification emails of pending license removals to users selected for license removal.

Admin Removal Notification

Allows for the selection of an email template to use to send notification emails of completed license removals to administrators.

Manager Removal Notification

Allows for the selection of an email template to use to send notification emails of completed license removals to the managers of the people who have had licenses removed.

User Removal Notification

Allows for the selection of an email template to use to send notification emails of completed license removals to users who have had licenses removed.

 

Step 2 – Enable License Reclamation jobs

  1. On the navbar, expand Infrastructure Admin > EmpowerID System Settings and select EmpowerID Servers.

  2. Select the Server Jobs tab and then search for reclamation.

  3. Click the Display Name link for the License Reclamation Approval Inbox Processor job.

     

  4. Click the edit link on the job’s View One page to put the job in Edit mode.

     

  5. Check Job Schedule Is Enabled to enable the job.

  6. Click Save.

  7. Next, expand the Server Roles accordion on the EmpowerID Job Details page and verify that the appropriate role is selected for the servers running the job in your environment. Depending on your environment, the appropriate role would be either All-in-One Server or Application Full.

     

  8. Repeat this process for the other two reclamation jobs until all are enabled and have the needed server roles.

If issues occur with seeing licenses being reclaimed, verify your servers have the designated roles.

Step 3 – Enable the Permanent Workflow

  1. On the navbar, expand Infrastructure Admin > EmpowerID System Settings and select Permanent Workflows.

  2. Click the Display Name link for GetLicenseUsageReports.

     

  3. Click the edit link on the workflow’s View One page to put it in Edit mode.

     

  4. Select Enabled and then click Save.

     


Once you have everything configured, you can view the status of license reclamation by navigating to the Manage Assignments page of Azure License Manager and viewing the Reclamation Inbox tab.

 

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