Maintaining License Policies

On the Policy Details Window window, when you click Add License to create a license policy or click the icon (at the end of a license policy entry) to edit a license policy, the Add (or Edit) License and Usage Criteria window is displayed. From here you can add or modify the following criteria used to define the license policy.

Note that a license policy must be unique. That is, you cannot have two license policies for the same license when all their usage criteria are the same (such as all are Any). However, you can have two license policies for the same license if they define different usage criteria.

License and Usage Criteria Used in a License Policy

Category

Column/Field

Description

Select License

The license on which the policy is based.

License

Do either:

• Select the license from the dropdown list of available licenses.
• Click Create Custom License to create a license to assign to this policy. See the next description.

Create Custom License

Click this button to open the Create Custom License window and create your own license. See Step 2: Create the Custom License for instructions. Once you save the custom license, you are returned to the current Add (or Edit) License and Usage Criteria window, where the custom license has now been added to the License dropdown list and is in focus for your immediate selection.

Select Usage Criteria

These properties are defined for an inventory item to describe how a software package developed in your organization uses the OSS or third-party component associated with the inventory item. Because usage can have an impact on your license obligations and conditions of use, the following usage properties are available as criteria in a given license policy.

Distribution Type

Specify the criterion that identifies how the OSS or third-party component associated with the inventory item is distributed with your software package. Distribution type can affect license priority and your license obligations.

• Internal—The component is distributed internally only (for example, as an internal test framework included in the codebase but not distributed publicly with the software package).
• External—The component is a separate entity from your software package. It might be shipped as a separate component along with the software package or deployed through some method, such as a private cloud at the customer site.
• Hosted—The component is hosted in your company’s data center (for example, as a SAAS application)
• Any—The policy ignores this criterion.

 

Linking

Specify the criterion that identifies how your software package links to the OSS or third-party component libraries. This method can affect license priority and obligations.

• Not linked—The software package uses no links to the component libraries.
• Statically linked—The component libraries are included in the software materials and thus linked statically.
• Dynamically linked—The component libraries are brought in at runtime.
• Any—The policy ignores this criterion.

Modified

Specify the criterion that identifies whether code from the OSS or third-party package has been modified for use by your organization.

• No—The component software has not been modified.
• Yes—The component software has been modified.
• Any—The policy ignores this criterion.

Actions

These actions manage the license policy creation or update.

Add

Click this button to add the license policy to the Licenses list on the Policy Details window. Once added, you can select the review status that the policy automatically assigns when an inventory item meets the policy criteria.

Save (for updates)

Click this button to save the policy changes and return the to the Policy Details window.

Cancel

Click this button to discard any policy changes and return to the Policy Details window.