This article provides an overview of license recycling included with Security and Event Manager (SEM) 2024.2. This article also includes relevant use cases and examples of using license recycling in a hybrid environment.

Overview

License recycling is designed to assist users in managing their Universal license (SEM) or Workstation Edition license (SWE) pool by removing inactive and unneeded nodes from the node list. It can be executed manually or configured to periodically check the node list.

License recycling removes any node that meets the following criteria (which are further explained below):

• The node is offline.

• The node's inactivity time exceeded the set threshold.

• The node is a target.

It is not recommended to use license recycling for agent nodes that are expected to automatically reconnect to the SEM manager when they become active again. Recycling such node would result in data loss until the agent is reinstalled.

Online status

Agent nodes are considered offline when they are disconnected from the SEM manager for any reason. Nodes obtain their online status when they reconnect to the SEM manager. Non-agent nodes are always considered to be offline.

Inactivity

The inactivity time is set by the user in the license recycling configuration. Node activity occurs when a managed node sends an event to the SEM manager. As a result, the inactivity time of a node is the time that has elapsed since the SEM manager received the last event from the node up to the present time.

Target nodes

The target nodes are a set of nodes configured in the license recycling configuration. The following options are available to define this set:

• All – All nodes are a target.

• Selected nodes – Only nodes that belong to one of the selected user-defined groups or have one of the selected connector profiles configured are a target.

• All Except Selected Nodes – All nodes except for nodes that belong to one of the selected user-defined groups or have one of the selected connector profiles configured are a target.

The following example shows a license recycling configuration located in the SEM user interface at Settings > License > Recycle.

Scheduling

License recycling executions can be scheduled with intervals in minutes, hours, days, weeks, and months. The interval length can be customized from 1 to 2,147,483,647 units. Each interval option includes a starting time.

Starting time

The starting time is the point in time used to determine the time of the first execution. If the starting time is set in the past, license recycling calculates the schedule from that point in time (not the present time). Instances calculated in the past are not considered for execution.

For example, with an interval of "every 10 minutes," a starting time set to today at 10:30 and the time on the SEM machine at the moment the configuration is saved is equal to 10:30.17, the first execution will occur at 10:40.00. It works analogously for an hour time interval.

For day, week, and month intervals, the scheduling behavior is different. The first execution occurs at the first configured time occurrence (and possibly day) after the starting time. The starting time is 00:00 (12 AM) of the configured starting day.

Minute interval

When the minute interval is selected, license recycling is executed every nth minute starting precisely at the whole minute that is set in the configuration.

Hour interval

When the hour interval is selected, license recycling is executed every nth minute starting precisely at the whole hour that is set in the configuration.

Day interval

When the day interval is selected, license recycling is executed every nth calendar day at the selected time.

Week interval

When the week interval is selected, license recycling is executed every nth calendar week on the selected days of the week and at the chosen time.

The first occurrence for each day of the week is calculated separately.

For example, if the selected interval is “every 2 weeks”, Tuesday and Thursday are selected, and the starting time is the upcoming Monday, license recycling will first execute on Tuesday and Thursday following the upcoming Monday, and then every other week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

If the starting time was the upcoming Wednesday instead, license recycling would first execute on Thursday following the upcoming Wednesday, then on Tuesday the following week, and on Thursday the week after that, continuing in this pattern.

Month interval

When the month interval is selected, license recycling executes every nth calendar month at the selected time on the 1st, 15th, or last day of the month.

Manual recycling

Manual recycling execution is identical to the scheduled execution. However, the inactivity threshold and target configuration are retrieved from the SEM UI at the time the "Recycle now" button is clicked. This option does not overwrite the scheduled recycling configuration. Manual recycling can be used for one-time license recycling of nodes that are not managed by scheduled recycling.

Reinstalling a recycled node

When a node is recycled, it is removed from the node list but remains installed on the agent due to its offline status, preventing automatic uninstallation. The agent reinstallation is necessary for the agent to re-register with the SEM manager.

If the previously configured hostname or IP address is still valid, run the SEM agent installer again. When the installation is completed, the configuration will be reused automatically.

If the previously configured hostname or IP address is no longer valid, uninstall the SEM agent and then reinstall the agent using the SEM agent installer.

License recycling use cases

License recycling is intended for environments with temporary nodes but can be used as a convenient way of managing any type of node. It optimizes license utilization for active nodes by releasing licenses of inactive nodes.

Cost optimization for small businesses

Small businesses often have limited resources, including budget constraints. With license recycling, they can ensure that they’re not wasting licenses on inactive devices. As a result, small businesses can optimize their costs and receive the most value out of their SEM investment.

Scalability for growing companies

As companies grow, their network infrastructure expands. It becomes increasingly challenging to manually manage nodes. License recycling streamlines this process, allowing growing companies to efficiently manage their expanding nodes list.

Dynamic workforce

In companies with a dynamic workforce where employees frequently join or leave, devices associated with these individuals are continuously being added or removed from the network. With license recycling, licenses can be automatically freed up when devices associated with departed employees go offline or become inactive.

Seasonal demand

Industries that experience seasonal fluctuations, such as retail or hospitality, may have a varying number of devices connected to the network throughout the year. During off-peak periods when certain devices are not in use, license recycling ensures that the licenses assigned to these devices are freed up for reallocation to active devices during peak seasons.

Device decommissioning

When companies decommission outdated or obsolete devices, such as legacy servers or endpoints, license recycling helps by automatically removing registrations associated with these devices.

License recycling usage example

Let’s consider a subnet of monitored virtual machines (10.120.110.0/24) with preinstalled SEM agents. These machines are deployed and used for varying durations, ranging from 1 day to 3 months. Once these machines are no longer needed, they are powered off and removed. On average, 5 machines are added and removed each workday.

Additionally, we have approximately 1,000 employees, each equipped with a Windows laptop or desktop machine connected across multiple networks. Each of these machines is running a SEM agent with a configured connector profile named “Employee nodes”. On average, 12 employees leave the organization each month.

To assign all virtual machines to license recycling targets, we can create a user-defined group and configure it accordingly, as shown below.

Next, we can open the license recycling configuration at Settings > License > Recycle, select “Selected Nodes”, and then select the new user-defined group and corresponding connector profile. We will choose an inactivity time of 1 month. Selecting a shorter period could result in removing the employee nodes during a longer period of employee inactivity (for example, when the employee is on vacation and their device is shutdown). License recycling will be scheduled once a week on Fridays after work hours. More frequent license recycling executions would be useful when a larger number of nodes become inactive each month—for example, in case of higher fluctuation of virtual machines in the environment.

Alternatively, if we prefer not to automatically remove employee nodes, we can choose to select only "Recyclable nodes" as targets and potentially set a lower inactivity time, such as 1 week.

Then we can use manual recycling to bulk-remove employee nodes as needed. To achieve this, we need to access the license recycling configuration at Settings > License > Recycle, replace the "Recyclable nodes" set with "Employee nodes", set the required inactivity time, and then click "Recycle now". These steps need to be performed each time we want to manually recycle employee nodes.

In this scenario, license recycling will automatically release approximately 25 licenses per week for the new nodes.