OEM licenses - machine specific licenses

OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) licenses of software can be provided with a computer at the time of purchase. Typically this software is severely discounted, with a catch - that being that it can only be used with that particular machine. Once the computer reaches the end of its life and passes out of the organization (into computer heaven) the license of the software expires with it and cannot be transferred, as with typical licenses, to another machine.

Microsoft OEM licensed software can typically be identified by way of a Product ID (which ENT Server collects during an audit) in the form:

xxxxx-OEM-xxxxxxx-xxxxx

So how does this affect your software license analysis and software legitimacy reports? Basically, it means that these licenses must be recorded as being associated with the particular machine that they were purchased with and can only be offset against an installation of the software on that particular machine. If you have an OEM license for one machine and install the software on another machine (without a corresponding license for the other machine) you will be in violation of the OEM licensing agreement under which that OEM copy of the software was provided.

For this purpose, we have provided an OEM License Summary report, which lists any software products that have OEM license assets recorded against them as well as any software installations that have a product ID in the form:

xxxxx-OEM-xxxxxxx-xxxxx.

Unlike the other reports, the OEM License Summary report does not simply count all the licenses that you own for a particular location and subtract the number of installations that you have at that location - this report will show a license as being "in use" if that license is installed on the machine to which it applies. As such, you might run into situations where you have 30 licenses for a product and 25 installations, but need 20 additional licenses (if 25 of the 30 licenses that you held were for machines you no longer owned).