Creating contracts

You create contracts to store information about your software licenses, their cost, and the period for which they entitle you to use the software. The contracts are then used to generate a contract usage report. It shows the number of software instances to which you are entitled and the actual number of software instances that are used.

Before you begin

An icon representing a user. You must have the Manage Contracts permission to perform this task.

About this task

You can create a contract for a software product, its version, or a release. If you have an entitlement that applies to all versions of a product, create a contract on the level of the product. It will cover all versions and releases. If you have an entitlement for a specific version or release, create a contract on the appropriate level to ensure that it covers the right software version or release. You can also create a contract that covers multiple products, versions, and releases according to your entitlements.

Procedure

  1. In the top navigation bar, click Management > Contracts.
  2. To create a contract, in the upper left corner click New.
  3. Enter the name of the contract and specify the software product, version, or release that you want to assign to that contract. When you start typing, a list of suggestions is displayed below the search field. It is based on the content of your software catalog. Choose a product from the list.
    Important: The software product for which you want to create a contract must be in the software catalog. If it is not available in the BigFix catalog, create a custom catalog entry.

    Image showing how to select a software product.
  4. Choose the type of licensing that is used for the product that you assigned to the contract:
    • Choose Seats if a limited number of product instances can be deployed. Additionally, you must specify the number of software instances that you are entitled to under the license.
    • Choose ELA if an unlimited number of product instances can be deployed.

    The image shows an example of choosing a type of licensing.
  5. Choose the computer group to which you want to assign the contract. Provide the acquisition and maintenance cost, and the entitlement start date. You can also specify the entitlement end date, and the maintenance start and end dates.
    Important: Acquisition cost is the total cost of the license for a particular product. If you create a contract for a specific number of seats, provide the total cost of acquisition for all seats.
  6. To save the contract, click Create.
  7. To make the contract available for generating a contract usage report, run an import.

Results

You created a contract that reflects your entitlement to use a particular software product under the license that you have for that product. You can now view the contract usage report to find out whether you conform to the license regulations.