Everybody using System Center Components for Managing Client Systems, has heard about Client Management Suite, or actually owns it.
Client Management Suite
Adiotionally to the System Center Configuration Manager Client Management License (CML), which allows you to use ConfigMgr and Virtual Machine Manager, the System Center Client Management Suite was a package of all the other System Center Products and allowed you to use them for Client Management:
- Service Manager
- Operations Manager
- Data Protection Manager
- Orchestrator
Changes
Starting from January 1st, 2017 the licensing for the System Center components has been changed and the Client Management Suite is no longer exisiting. Also it is only part of the Enterprise CAL if it was purchased till Decmber 31st, 2016.
Unfortunately most documents still show the old licensing information. So for example the System Center 2016 Licensing Datasheet is still talking about the Suite. Also in the System Center 2016 Licensing Factsheet there is no real definition how the new licensing is working.
New Licensing
If you have a look into the Product Terms, you will find the following description:
System Center 2016 Client Management Suite was the last version of Client Management Suite. Each component of Client Management Suite is now licensed as a separate product.
Microsoft switched the licensing of the System Center Products from Suite to licensing all products on their own. So from now on you have to purchase Client Management Licenses for the specific product you want to use. This will make licensing more flexible but also a bit more complicated.
Who acutally owns a Client Management Suite with SA, should know that for every purchased license you will receive a product CML for each specific product:
For each Eligible License, Customer is granted one System Center 2016 [#PROUCT] management License, which will supersede and replace that Eligible License.
ATTENTION
All information is supplied without guarantee. I am not responsible for your correct licensing and please keep in mind that conditions can change and sometimes there are differences in licensing based on model, contract, and so on…Reading this article does not mean, you shouldn’t ask you Licensing Professional for confirmed advice!
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3 Comments
Thanks for this post. It’s just about the only source of this information other than the Product Terms.
Hi, my organisation had licensed the suite under an enterprise CAL, with the change to the licensing we have been advised that the Software Assurance will be moving to a “Per User” basis. It is proving to be quite difficult getting a definition of what a “User” under the new licensing terms i.e. for Service Manager we have about 20 IT staff using the console but 980 other staff accessing the self-service portal, so how many “users” would be in the count?
Hi John,
best would be to contact your trusted license reseller. Unfortunately there is no specific definition in the Product Terms for which users require a license. From an per OSE perspective it means every managed non-server OSE. And so i would assume that it also means every managed user…so everybody who is able to create a ticket or be marked as the user in the ticket…but please clarify this with your LAR…
In the actual ProductTerms there is still the opportunity for per OSE and per User licensing for Service Manager.
Best Regards
Eric