Agreements

Agreements, including master and sub-agreements, can be viewed and managed in the Agreements category.

Agreement types

Snow License Manager supports six agreement types, described in the following table. It is also possible to create custom agreement types, intended for agreements that do not match any of the pre-defined agreement types.

Agreement type	Description
Software agreement	The only agreement type that allows attachment of licenses.
Maintenance agreement	Hardware maintenance only.
Support agreement	Hardware support agreements only.
Purchase agreement	Hardware purchase agreements only.
Custom agreements	A general agreement type that can be used for any agreement.
Oracle agreement	Oracle agreements only, such as Oracle Support and Software Updates Agreement or an Oracle ULA (Unlimited License Agreement). For information on how to view and manage Oracle agreements, see Manage Oracle agreements.

Master agreement

A master agreement is an agreement that controls the terms, conditions, and dates of subordinate agreements or tasks. Master agreements can also carry licenses or other objects in the system.

Sub-agreement

A sub-agreement is an agreement signed within another agreement, a master agreement.

Subscription agreement

A subscription agreement is only valid for a specified period. Licenses that are part of a subscription agreement are only valid over the validity period of the agreement. Subscription licenses attached to a subscription agreement will have their period overridden by the agreement period. For example if a subscription license’s specified period expires after the subscription agreements specified period, the subscription license will not be considered in compliance once the subscription agreement period has expired.

In practice, there are two different ways to manage subscriptions depending on how expiration is handled by the product use rights:

• If all of your licenses within an agreement expire when the agreement does, you should create the agreement as a subscription agreement and you will not need to add periods to each license you attach.

• If you have licenses within your agreement that expire at different times, or will expire after the agreement is renewed, you should not add the agreement as a subscription agreement, and should instead add the subscription periods when adding each license purchase.

Agreement numbers and names

When you register an agreement in Snow License Manager, you need to specify an agreement name and number. Unique names and numbers make it easier to identify the agreements, especially if you have many different agreements. If the manufacturer has not provided this information, it is recommended to internally agree on a naming convention. In that way, the agreements are managed in the same way by everyone within your organization.

Archived agreements

When an agreement expires and becomes obsolete, you have the option to archive it. The difference between deleting and archiving an agreement is:

• When you delete an agreement, it is removed from the system and all associated details are deleted. Any attached sub-agreements and licenses are released.

• When you archive an agreement, you have the option to also archive any attached sub-agreements and licenses. If you select not to, the attached sub-agreements and licenses are released. A released license may become incomplete, since information on agreement number and maintenance period is no longer available.

It is possible to retrieve agreements from the archive. When doing so, you have the option to also retrieve any previously attached sub-agreements and licenses that were archived together with the agreement. If you archived the agreement but not the attached sub-agreements and licenses, they can be re-attached as long as they are not already attached to other agreements.

You can see your archived agreements in the report Archived agreements. In the Agreement list, you can use Show archived to either show or hide the archived agreements in the list.