Apply LIS template to software products
Introduction
Overview
The Matrix42 License Intelligence Service (LIS) provides templates for software products. They are ready to be used to assign purchased licenses and installed applications. In addition, they offer further options to create license requirements automatically from other sources as well as to consolidate side-by-side or with suites and to entitle using downgrade options. These templates are managed by Matrix42 and updated whenever necessary.
It is important to understand, that software products are created as a copy from the templates. With every LIS Update the templates may be updated, e.g. adding new downgrade options. It does not mean, that your software products are updated automatically as well in any case. Synchronizing the templates with the software products that have been created from those templates is controlled by the setting "LIS Synchronization" at every software product:
- automatic: software products are synchronized automatically after every LIS update
- manual: software products are synchronized only manually by the action "apply LIS template"
We strongly recommend to set the synchronization mode of a software product to "manual" as soon as it is included into the reporting scope. This prevents unseen changes coming from a LIS update that change the way the compliance of the software product is determined. Instead, check your reported software products in frequent periods for updated templates and run action "Apply LIS template".
The action "Apply LIS template" can be run at any time and will display all differences between the software product and the underlying LIS template. It also offers options to adopt or reject those changes to your needs. You can also use the this action to connect a individual (custom) software product, being created manually, with a LIS template.
LIS data must be downloaded prior to running this action.
Template Status
The status of the LIS template at the software products may be either one of following values:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Up-to-date | The software product is based on LIS and the template was not updated since last synchronization. |
| Updated Template | The software product is based on LIS and the template was updated since last synchronization. |
| Discontinued | The software product is based on LIS and the template was discontinued since last synchronization. |
| Update in Progress | The software product is based on LIS and a LIS update is currently in progress. Check status again after the update is done. |
| Custom | The software product was created manually and is not assigned to a template. |
| Matching LIS Template | The software product was created manually and is not assigned to a template. However, based on software or license recognition, there might be a template that corresponds. Therefore it might be a suitable option to merge the custom and the LIS software product. |
Discontinued Templates
In rare cases, it may occur that a LIS template is being discontinued. This is the case if there had been logical duplicates of the same software with different names or versions. If Matrix42 consolidates those duplicates, only one template remains active as a successor, the others are marked as "obsolete" (discontinued). Discontinuation of a template also happens if the product had been removed from the managed LIS repository, e.g. because it is not relevant anymore.
In these cases, the state of the software product that refers to a discontinued template decides how the system is processing the discontinuation:
| State | Processing | Required interaction |
|---|---|---|
| Software is listed as "reported" or "relevant" and there is a "successor template" | The software product is assigned to the successor template which then is assigned to multiple software products. If "LIS Synchronization" is set to "manual", the status of the template becomes "Updated Template" - otherwise the synchronization is performed automatically. |
Review if there are any individual information or configuration for your purposes. If no: delete the software product and continue to use the active software product of the template. If yes and if "LIS Synchronization" is set to "manual": run action "Apply LIS template" and (optionally) delete the other software products of the template. |
| Software is listed as "reported" or "relevant" and there is no "successor template" | The status of the template becomes "Discontinued". | Decide if it makes sense to continue using the software product for your purposes or not. If not, delete it. |
| Otherwise | The software product is deleted automatically | none |
Apply template to LIS software
Select one or multiple software products that you want to reconcile agains their respective LIS template and click on "Apply LIS template". The system performs the comparison and displays the result on the first page. Any differences detected are displayed in a single list box.
After reviewing the differences you may choose if you want to:
- Select the changes to apply or reject (one by one)
- Apply all changes to the software products
- Reject all changes and keep the software products as they are
In addition, the setting "Automatically synchronize software with corresponding template" can be enabled. We strongly recommend to use this option only for software products that are not included into reporting.
f you decide to apply (#2) or reject (#3) all changes, the wizard will terminate with the next page (summary) and your choice will be executed.
If you choose to decide about application of changes case-by-case (#1) the next pages will present you all changes by type (e.g. general attributes, downgrades, suites etc.) and you can select those change you want to apply. 
Apply template to custom software
With or without using License Intelligence Service, you may create your own (custom) software products. In this case the is no LIS template associated.
However, the action "Apply LIS template" can make sense if you have created a software product that is also provided by LIS. Of course you may just delete your custom software product and continue to use the one from LIS. In case you have added attachments, entered information or configured it already for your use the action provides you an easy way to merge your software product with the LIS product.
If the template status is "Matching Template" and you choose "Don't assign LIS template to current software product" the status of the LIS Template changes to Up-to-Date. However, this software will not be associated with any template and will remain unchanged after automatic update from LIS.
How to migrate custom software product to LIS:
- Go to the Software Compliance navigation item and choose a software product that has been created manually.
- Execute the Apply LIS Template action either from the right-click menu or from the actions bar.
- The apply LIS template wizard opens.
Step 1
In the first page of the wizard, the Assign current software product to selected LIS template option is selected by default. To choose a LIS template to be associated with the custom software:
- Click the magnifyer glass button in the Please select software template object picker to access a list of matching software templates.
- Use search if necessary and then click a LIS template to select it. The system will perform comparison between current software values and template values. A grid with differences will be generated automatically.
- Now you need to select one of the three options:
- Select changes to apply or reject.
Select this option if you want to decide which values of the custom product should be overwritten by a LIS template and which values should remain intact. - Apply all changes.
This option means that all custom values of the software product will be overwritten by a LIS template. - Reject all changes.
Selecting this option will associate your custom product with a corresponding template. However, none of its values will be overwritten by the template.
- The Automatically synchronize software with corresponding LIS template checkbox is selected by default. It means that when the template is updated on the LIS server, all values of the associated software will be updated accordingly. You can clear the checkbox to prevent automatic update of software product values.
- To proceed, do one of the following:
- Click the Changes button if you have previously selected the Select changes to apply or reject option.
- Click the Summary button if you have previously selected either Apply all changes or Reject all changes.
Step 2
- In this step you can review all differences between the software and the LIS template. Select a checkbox for values that should be overwritten by the template.
- Click Summary to proceed to the final step.
Step 3
- Click Apply LIS Template to finish.
As a result, the LIS Template value on the software product preview will be changed to Up-to-Date and you will not be able to edit fields on the General tab of the software product dialog.
The "LIS Synchronization" setting at software products is not effective if the "Enable automatic synchronization with LIS templates for all software products" option is enabled in the settings page of the Licenses application. In this case all software products will be automatically updated once a corresponding LIS template changes.
We do not recommend that in productive use of the application.