Correct way to manage licenses and free license seats

[StotheR 0]

Hi there,

as IT service provider we administer the ESET licenses for our customers with hundreds of client licenses (Endpoint Antivirus/Security, File Security, Mail Security). Therefore we run an ESET PROTECT on prem server which contains all of the licenses.

When a client was decommissioned, we removed it on ESET PROTECT while thinking that should be enough to free the relevant client license. Recently we noticed that client licenses are not freed through this process (anymore?).

I came across ELA web interface and created accounts for some customer licenses. Looks like it's possible to free client licenses there. When I do that the client license/unit counter decrements in ELA but the change is not syncing to our ESET PROTEC server though. Besides ELA login page shows, that it's not fully supported an a legacy portal. 

So what is the correct way to manage ESET licenses and to free license seats?

Regards

 

[MichalJ 434]

Hello @StotheR , as of now, there is not a dedicated "reseller focused" portal. ELA can serve that way, but especially for the new products, like EDTD, or new ESET PROTECT Bundles, you need EBA, to work with them. However, EBA has been created as a customer centric system.  If you add the customer license to your EBA, customer will no longer be able to create EBA of his own.  If your customers are OK with that, as you fully manage them also in ESET PROTECT, you can do it, however in order to add a license to EBA, the license e-mail should be matching the EBA e-mail, or the customer will receive "license authorization request" on his license e-mail, and if he confirms, license will be added to your EBA. 

With regards to the ESET PROTECT - it should still free the seats when a device is removed, and option to "deactivate licenses" is clicked. If it does not work, I would recommend you open a ticket, as there might be some communication problem.  However, there is a delay, between the time when you trigger the "removal" and when it is reflected in the data on the side of the licensing, and subsequently in ESET PROTECT (that gets updated only once every 24 hours, if you want quicker turnaround, you can click on "synchronize licenses" in there. 

[StotheR 0]

Thank you for your answer. 

How does it work, when I add a customer license with dedicated ELA account to our central EBA account? Does the mail contact receive another mail to confirm the process?

[MichalJ 434]

Hello @StotheR

If the customer does not have yet EBA account, and the license is not added to it, upon adding such license into your "central EBA" account the owner of the license will receive authorization request to the e-mail address that is listed in our licensing system (was specified during the license purchase). Once he confirms, the license will be visible in your central EBA account, however customer will not be able to add the license anymore (license can be added into EBA only once). 

We are currently designing a solution intended for resellers / MSPs, that will allow them to transparently / automatically get visibility into all of their licenses (licenses that they have provisioned for their customers). So those manual steps will no longer be required + customers will have have the option to have their own EBA (for example to create the ESET PROTECT / ECOS instances).

[StotheR 0]

Okay, thanks so far. 

How does it behave, if we deactivate a client and respectively its license on  the ESET PROTECT on prem server when the client is already decommissioned at that time and will never connect to the ESET PROTECT server again?

Should the license be freed than?

[MichalJ 434]

Yes, the license should be freed again. As the connection is between the PROTECT server, which knows the "seat ID" (registration identifier for our licensing) and our licensing infrastructure. So even in case when the machine is no longer running, it should still reach the server, and trigger the license correction.