License management FAQs

Frequently asked questions about license management.

How many number of licenses are available for a customer account during the trial period?
By default, trial customer accounts are allowed to use 10,000 license units during the trial period. If the overage setting is enabled in license settings, the trial customer account can exceed the allowed 10,000 license count.
Are all available license units migrated to a paid customer account?
Any base license parts and add-on licenses that are purchased by the trial customer account are available to the paid customer account for license usage on devices. The default 10,000 licenses from the trial period are not migrated from the trial customer account to the paid customer account. Only the number of license units that are purchased by the trial customer account are migrated to the paid customer account from the default 10,000 licenses.
Do all license services that are available during the trial period apply to the paid customer account?
The services that are available for use on devices in the paid customer account depend on the purchased license entitlements. For example, if the secure email service was used during the trial period and the customer purchases the Essentials Suite base license, secure email is no longer available for use on devices. Although the corresponding policy and services are enabled, if the purchased license does not support the service, the device cannot use this service. To check whether the assigned license supports a service on the device, go to Device Inventory, select the device, and then view Device Summary > License entitlements.
What happens if license overage is not allowed and the administrator tries to assign a license that has reached its usage limits?
License assignment fails if the purchased license quantity for a license type is used and the administrator tries to assign a license to a device that does not allows license overage. To resolve this issue, the administrator can purchase more licenses or revoke licenses from devices that no longer need a license and then assign those licenses to devices that need them. The administrator can also enable the overage setting on the License Settings page and try to assign licenses to devices.
What steps do I need to take when the license management feature is enabled?
Administrators must set up license settings and then assign licenses to the To Be Assigned devices with the Change license entitlements workflow or the bulk assignment method. Administrators can view license assignments, license usage, and other license part information on the License Overview page.
What is a license part?
The license part is the MaaS360 license such as a base license or an add-on license.
What is a base license versus an add-on license part?
The base license includes the following MaaS360 license parts: Enterprise Suite, Premier Suite, Deluxe Suite, and Essentials Suite. The add-on licenses are MaaS360 licenses you can purchase in addition to the base license. You must have at least one base license in order to purchase an add-on license.
What license bundles are displayed on the License Settings page?
All active license bundles for base and add-on licenses that are available in the customer account are displayed on the License Settings page. The trial license bundle is displayed for a trial customer account only, and all purchased licenses are displayed for a paid customer account. Suspended license bundles are not displayed on the License Settings page to prevent the administrator from assigning a suspended license bundle to devices.
What happens during the bulk license assignment action?
During the bulk license assignment action, the license bundle that is selected for assignment is checked for license compatibility. This check is performed on all devices that are selected for the bulk assign action. If license services are duplicated with license bundle services that exist on the device, the license bundle is revoked from the device and the bulk license assignment action is taken on the device. For example, if the Productivity Suite license is already assigned to the device and Mobile Application Management is selected for bulk assignment, the services in Mobile Application Management are already available in Productivity Suite, so the Productivity Suite license is revoked from the device. After the license is revoked, the bulk assignment for Mobile Application Management is assigned to the device. The assignment status for the device is displayed as success in the Bulk License History CSV file.
Can I upgrade or downgrade a license bundle on a device during the bulk license assignment action?
Yes, you can upgrade or downgrade a device license bundle with the bulk license assign action. In this case, a device is checked for existing license bundles and if needed, the license is revoked and the selected licenses for bulk assignment are assigned to the device. For example, if a device uses a Premier license bundle and the Essentials Suite license bundle is selected for bulk assignment, the Premier license is revoked from the device and the Essentials Suite license is assigned to the device.
Why does a bulk assign action fail?
The bulk assign action might fail on devices due to one of the following reasons:
- The selected license bundle is already available on the device.
- You must have at least one base license available on the device before you can assign an add-on license on the device. If services on the selected license bundle for assignment are duplicated with the existing license bundle services on the device that is the base MDM license, the license cannot be revoked and license assignment fails.
Note: If the bulk license assignment action fails on a device, the Export Assignment Status CSV file in the Bulk License History explains why the action failed. Administrators can use these details to fix the license assignment failure on the device.
Why does a bulk revoke action fail?
At all times, a device must have at least one license bundle that is assigned on the device. If the bulk revoke action is initiated on a device that has only one license bundle, the license revoke action on that device fails.
What happens if a license bundle selected for assignment during self-enrollment is suspended?
During self-enrollment, if any of the selected license bundles are suspended, self-enrollment might be successful or fail depending on the type of license bundle.
- If the selected license bundle is a base license bundle, self-enrollment fails.
- If the selected license bundle is an add-on license bundle, self-enrollment continues and all selected license bundles are assigned to the device. However, the add-on license bundle that is beyond its usage limit is not assigned to the device.
What happens if a license bundle selected for assignment during self-enrollment is completely used and overage is not enabled?
If the license quantity that is purchased for a license bundle is used on assignment for devices and if overage is not allowed, you cannot assign the license bundles to devices. During self-enrollment, if the licence quantity for any of the selected license bundles is fully used and overage is not enabled for this license bundle, self-enrollment might be successful or fail depending on the type of license bundle.
- If the selected license bundle is a base license bundle, self-enrollment fails.
- If the selected license bundle is an add-on license bundle, self-enrollment continues and all selected license bundles are assigned to the device. However, the add-on license bundle that is beyond its usage limit is not assigned to the device.
How to trial out new features of MaaS360 after License Management is activated?
For customers who want to try out features of MaaS360 outside their subscriptions after License Management is activated, an additional Enterprise Trial part D1P3CTR has been created that is valid on 10 devices for 30 days.

Customers can get this trial part provisioned on top of their purchased base bundles to try out features of MaaS360 outside their subscriptions. This new license part has all features of MaaS360 and customers can try these feature on 10 devices for 30 days.

To get this trial part provisioned, customers must contact MaaS360 Support or visit https://ibm.biz/maas360csm to connect with the CSM team.
After License Management is activated, are the license-related alerts turned on by default?
Once License Management is activated for an account,
- The following alert settings are turned on by default:
  - Subscription is about to expire
  - Subscription expiry
  - Subscription removal
  - Discovery of new subscriptions
- The following alert settings are not enabled by default, and you must manually enable them if required:
  - License usage threshold
  - License exhaustion
For more information on License Management-related alert settings, see https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/maas360?topic=portal-configuring-license-settings-as-customer.
What criteria is used to assign licenses to devices when the auto-activation of License Management is triggered for an account?
When the auto-activation of License Management is triggered for an account, the system analyzes all the active base bundles that are subscribed by the customer and prioritizes the least available active base bundle. The system selects the base bundle with the least number of services to assign licenses to the following categories of devices:
- For devices that are enrolled in MaaS360 through self-enrollment or self-activation methods, or both depending on the service mode (MDM, SPS, or mixed-mode) of the customer account.
- For devices without license recommendation, meaning those devices that were enrolled in the MaaS360 account after the daily recommendation job was executed. For more information on the recommendation job, see Recommended assignments section.
Note: The default licenses for devices coming in for enrollments in the future, will be auto-configured with the active base bundle having the least number of services.
To provide an example, let's consider a scenario where the customer has an active subscription for both the Essentials and Premier suites. Among the two bundles, the Essentials suite has the least number of services. During the auto-activation of License Management for the account, the Essentials suite will be designated as the default license for devices enrolled in MaaS360 through self-enrollment or self-activation methods, or both. Additionally, it will also serve as the license for devices without any license recommendation.

However, if there is no active base bundle available, the activation of License Management will be terminated, and a report will be sent to the MaaS360 team to address the situation.