TM1 License counts

[rikard78]

Hi,

I am trying to build something to monitor TM1 license counts and am having some trouble doing this. Essentially what I am trying to get is for each }Client element, whether that user is a Modeller (i.e. has Admin rights), Contributor (i.e. has any Write access) or is an Explorer (i.e. has Read access only).

I have a couple of comments/questions:

1. Is this functionality available out of the box? I noticed in }ClientProperties cube has "ReadOnlyUser" as an element of }ClientProperties but this doesn't appear to do anything...

2. Failing there being anything out of the box, I built a TI which inspects the }ClientGroups and }CubeSecurity cubes which I think is giving me the correct answer.

Does anybody have any comments about the approach or if there is a standard way of doing this? I would imagine it's a pretty common request to be able to understand how many licenses (and of which type) are being consumed?

thanks

[Ken Vuong]

This has always been a problem due to the way TM1 licensing relying on the the TM1P8.lic file on local user PC.

Would be interesting to see this Cubewise product as that would be really handy for us too.
Cheers,

Ken

[tomok]

I am trying to build something to monitor TM1 license counts and am having some trouble doing this.

That's because there is no cube value or dimension attribute, or anything else, on the server that distinguishes the type of client. Basically, the server has no knowledge of your client license type. You'll have to keep track of it either on your own, or through the use of one of the license tracking third party apps out there.

[rikard78]

I am trying to build something to monitor TM1 license counts and am having some trouble doing this.

That's because there is no cube value or dimension attribute, or anything else, on the server that distinguishes the type of client. Basically, the server has no knowledge of your client license type. You'll have to keep track of it either on your own, or through the use of one of the license tracking third party apps out there.

I understand that the server doesn't have knowledge of the client types, however, what I have been told by IBM is that this mostly irrelevant for licensing. My previous understanding (as told by IBM!) was that Modeller license = Architect client installed, Contributor License = Perspectives client installed. I now understand that Modeller License = Admin rights, Contributor License = Write access to any cube, Explorer License = Read access

Is that also your understanding of how these licenses are counted? Frankly, I've found the licensing model from IBM to be very hard to understand.

thanks,

[macsir]

Well, I think Modeller License = Admin rights (Any user has ADMIN or SecurityAdmin or Data Admin), The rest two are just calculated based on write/read access.

[macsir]

I just found this article. Maybe it is helpful to you. http://tm1help.wordpress.com/2011/06/20 ... implified/

[stephen waters]

I just found this article. Maybe it is helpful to you. http://tm1help.wordpress.com/2011/06/20 ... implified/

The article is simplifying the roles to:
- Modeller = Developer\Administrator
- Contributor = Read-write\update
- Explorer = Read only

This is more or less correct but I would like to clarify a couple of couple of of points:
- The Contributor role is specifically excluded from using Perspectives\Architect for administration functions and cannot use Performance Modeller. So Contributors can only administer dimensions through a TI process.
- The acronym "ICAS" ( for IBM Cognos Analytical Server) is normally used specifically in the context of Cognos Express. I believe they called it this to try and pretend it is different from the enterprise version of TM1. Pricing for Cognos Express is not based on PVU's

May seem minor but understanding the IBM licensing is complex at the best of times and it is good to avoid ambiguity ( just wait till we get a query on sub-capacity!)

My previous understanding (as told by IBM!) was that Modeller license = Architect client installed, Contributor License = Perspectives client installed.....Frankly, I've found the licensing model from IBM to be very hard to understand.thanks,

From my experience, a lot of IBM Sales reps and account managers ( but not all) don't really understand either the way TM1 works or the licensing so this does not surprise me!

[HeathWebster]

Does anybody have any comments about the approach or if there is a standard way of doing this? I would imagine it's a pretty common request to be able to understand how many licenses (and of which type) are being consumed? thanks

Having a good relationship between the developers and the group responsible for licensing(sometimes the same group) is probably the best bet. We have quite a few 'apps' contained within each instance. We have explained from the beginning to the development team the importance of helping keep licensing in compliance. One of the processes we use is to name the groups/userclasses with the application name and the level of access. While this obviously can be ignored, we have put the trust in the development team to comply. An example:

TM1App1 Explorer
TM1App1 Contributor
TM1App2 Explorer.....

This also helps the development team to give the correct access to the groups as they develop.

For tracking/compliance, we use the method you described with analysis of the }ClientGroups and the use of Excel.

Sorry there was not a more direct or easy process. Good luck.

[rikard78]

Hi,

Essentially the developers and the people responsible for licensing are the same for us....

However, I did just want to follow up that the solution we now have that I mentioned in my first post is working quite well for us. We are easily able to see in a single cube, exactly how many users we have consuming each license type. I'm now thinking of extending the TI that populates this cube with a check against a lookup of our actual license counts and then sending an email warning if either we have broken or are approaching our license threshold.

Combining this licensing count with the ability to see the timing of when users last logged in (as described here http://www.tm1forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=6798 ) gives us quite a good suite of tools to manage our licenses.