How can I track down all single use licenses in use?

[deleted-user-t3dSviijg-m9]

Just getting started at my new job and I am trying to track down all the single use licenses currently being used. 

There are 18 single use licenses floating around out there. 

When I check the License Server Administrator, Single Use Availability is completely blank. 

I want to know if there is a way to find out what license codes are being used. What license codes are still available. And if any licenses were assigned to a computer, that person has left, and the computer was wiped clean. Technically that license is still "in use", right? I think this is the case on 2 computers.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[JayantaPoddar]

Single Use Licenses are not administered by License Server Administrator. SU licenses are independent of any license manager. So, technically all the licenses are being used (unlike Concurrent Use licenses which returns back when an ArcGIS Desktop Applcation is closed).

In case, a machine hosting ArcGIS SU Desktop License is to be formatted, kindly deauthorize the license using ArcGIS Administrator of the respective machine before formatting the machine.

Also you need to note which Authorization code is used in which machine.

[deleted-user-t3dSviijg-m9]

Unfortunately no one has kept a record of what machines are using SU Licenses. And since the original person in my position left, multiple machines that were being used by interns which had SU licenses on them, were wiped clean and re-purposed. So no licenses were de-authorized. When I check our My Esri page to see who the licenses are activated/belong to, every single on of them was authorized by the previous person in my position, with no notes as to who is using the code and on what machine. 

Do you know if ESRI is willing to "destroy" all current codes and re-authorize new ones? 

It would be great to wipe everyone clean and then re-apply codes accordingly as they call. 

It would help get a-hold of how many of licenses are actually being used and how many are still "available"

[JayantaPoddar]

I suggest you get in touch with your local Esri Tech Support to reset the licenses which have crashed, and to determine the Authorization codes of the remaining licenses. 

Meanwhile, you could inform your team to revert, if anyone is still working on the SU license (In ArcGIS Administrator, it will point to SU license).

[deleted-user-t3dSviijg-m9]

I'll give ESRI a call on Monday about tracking down those licenses that have "crashed". 

[curtvprice]

Nick, I don't know what you mean as a "crashed" license.

You can provision a license and then the machine that is using has its macid changed (or the computer is gotten rid of without deauthorizingt the license), which renders it unusable. If a machine is wiped but the macid has not been changed, you may be able to re-run the provision and Desktop Administrator will simply re-authorize it to that macid.

Somehow I doubt Esri would simply give you new provisions - once the license is provisioned, there is no communication with the network to authorize it - so they would effectively be handing over a new set of licenses and the old and the new would still work.

But I think what you want is a list of provisions by machine -- I think you need to have Esri get that information for you, and they can also give you some guidance on how to proceed.

[deleted-user-t3dSviijg-m9]

Update: I was able to track down, or at least found where the rabbit hole ended on the 8 "missing" licenses. By crashed I meant that they are no longer on a device, and that device had been re-imaged from Windows 7 to 10 before de-authorizing the license. I got on the phone with ESRI and they reset the 8 authorization codes. 

[RebeccaStrauch__GISP · Accepted solution]

Do you know whether they are all registered/assigned to the same Esri customer number? If so, are you the Esri authorized license manager for the customer number?  If so, log into the my.esri.com and review the authorization and provisioning of the single use license. Hopefully your predecessor included some notes as to who they where assigned (although the option to include notes is a semi new feature, so don't be hard on them if there are none).

if you are not the authorized license manager and you don't know who is, that is another reason to can your customer services rep to get that figured out.  

I agree with Curtis that they are unlikely to just give you new authorization codes without some confirmation of the licenses that are activate, and their location. Single use licenses are hard for both Esri and the customer to keep track of, in my opinion, for the exact reason you ran into.  I don't know how bit you organization is, but it would be worth asking possible users to see if anyone knows they have a license. Also, I know our network services people now have utilities they can use to get an inventory of installed software on user machines...might be worth checking with them.

if you can positively account for the licenses that are still in use and working, and can verify and vouch for sure about the machines that are now out of commission, you may have a better chance of "negotiating" for those that are now unusable.  That is, do you homework on myesri and on you own machines. They are not just going to give new single user authorization codes (as Curtis mention, with is basically licke another license) without some verification that they are just accidental lost.  

That's just my opinion, as a long time authorized license administrator. My experience is they will work with you, since your not the first this has happened to. It's bound to happen when supporting many users that don't understand the licensing end of things.  That why I prefer concurrent use licenses...but even in our shop, that don't work for everyone, e.g. offline field or boat use, and field machines seem to be the most vulnerable to rebuilds.

[curtvprice]

In an ELA situation where the cost is no different, single use is a very convenient option, but for a smaller ELA where a more limited number of licenses are available, I believe that concurrent with checkout makes a lot more sense.

I really like checkout better, because the license administrator can easily see where the licenses are -- and they can even revoke them before the checkout times out if necessary (for example, when a machine is decommissoned or (gasp) accidentally dropped into Glacier Bay. 

There are also more complex options available, for example, provisioning local concurrent licenses or even single-use licenses off a local license server (after provisioning from Esri to your own flex server). This kind of thing should be discussed with your customer service rep to make sure your strategy meets your needs.

[RebeccaStrauch__GISP]

I really like checkout better, because the license administrator can easily see where the licenses are -- and they can even revoke them before the checkout times out if necessary (for example, when a machine is decommissoned or (gasp) accidentally dropped into Glacier Bay. 

Word of caution if using the "borrow" option with a concurrent use with a long "borrow" term.....the administrator cannot "revoke" borrowed licenses and if they are not checked back in (before a machine is taken out of commission),  or is the machine drops into Glacier Bay, only recourse is waiting for the borrow-time to time out, or contact customer service rep.

We don't have an ELA so I have to keep tight reign on our concurrent use licenses (50 license, 300 users)and therefore keep our borrow time at about 14 days (then they can re-up). For those needing it longer than the 14 days, and that can't access the network to re-up...those are the folks that get single-user (i.e. machine locked) licenses. The "check-out" option Curtis mentions I believe is a different option to the "borrow" (...or maybe not), but with ELAs (Enterprise License Agreement) there is a bit more flexibility (but also greater cost...at least in my agencies situation).