Question & Answer
Question
When looking at the licenses table used under Manage > Licenses > Global license usage, it shows different license counts than what is assigned to users. This license table will not update until each user logs in.
Cause
The licenses table not updating until the user is authenticated into the Cognos environment is as designed.
Answer
The reason why the licenses are only updated when users log in is because it is based on their accounts and needs to be verified through the authentication process.
If a user with former system administrator privileges does not log in again after their privileges were changed, the license counts will not be updated as the licensing can only be confirmed through the security authentication. This has always been the case with the licensing displayed in the 'Manage > Licenses > Global license usage' area of Cognos.
This behaviour is documented here:
Managing user licenses
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.2.0?topic=access-managing-user-licenses
"Note: The usage of each license role is calculated by Cognos Analytics, based on the capabilities of each user when they last logged in."
This document outlines which capabilities count for which licenses:
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ag_manage.doc/c_default_permissions_based_on_licenses.html
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ag_manage.doc/c_default_permissions_based_on_licenses.html
Information on how to remove used licenses when a user will no longer be accessing Cognos Analytics can be found in the following technote:
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/how-remove-used-license-when-user-will-no-longer-be-accessing-cognos-analytics
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/how-remove-used-license-when-user-will-no-longer-be-accessing-cognos-analytics
There is also an existing request for a feature to be added to allow the Administrators to refresh the credentials of the users without having them log in. See the following link:
https://ibm-data-and-ai.ideas.ibm.com/ideas/CA-I-2783
https://ibm-data-and-ai.ideas.ibm.com/ideas/CA-I-2783
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Document Information
Modified date:
09 May 2023
UID
ibm16960247