Tag Archives: FIM

Overview of the Changes to the April 2015 Volume Licensing Product List

It’s a bizarre month these days when a Forefront product has the most interesting licensing changes in the Product List but that’s exactly what we find this April!

Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) 2010 R2 exited the Product List last month but sneaks back in this month with some changes to the licensing. Essentially, the right to install FIM is moved to Windows Server 2012 R2 (see page 39) and those customers who had active SA on FIM 2010 R2 at 1 April 2015 are deemed to have 1 Windows Server Datacenter licence. There aren’t, however, changes to the licensing of users accessing FIM functionality – see this article for which licences can be used: http://wp.me/p3K5IZ-et.

The other main changes are to do with some name changes – Microsoft Social Listening is rebranded as Microsoft Social Engagement – again more details are here: http://wp.me/p3K5IZ-ep and Lync Online changes to Skype for Business Online, all ready for its launch in the middle of April.

Finally, the information on the upgrade rights for customers who had SA coverage for SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse on 1 March 1 2013 is removed, and there’s a reference back to the March 2014 Product List.

Changes to Forefront Identity Manager 2010 R2 Licensing

Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) 2010 R2 is removed as a product from the April 2015 Product Use Rights document (see page 5) and the right to install FIM is moved to Windows Server 2012 R2. New text on page 39 of the April 2015 Product List states that customers are allowed to run an instance of FIM for each licensed instance of Windows Server that they have.

Licences for users to access FIM functionality are still required and pages 25/26 of the PUR tell us that a FIM 2010 R2 User CAL is eligible, as is an Enterprise Mobility Suite User SL or a Microsoft Azure Active Directory Premium User SL or, for external users, a FIM 2010 R2 External Connector licence. Pages 26/27 state, however, that if a user is only using the FIM synchronisation service then a CAL is not required.

And what about customers who have active SA on FIM 2010 R2? Well, as long as it was active on 1 April 2015 then they’re deemed to have 1 Windows Server Datacenter licence, and you’ll find confirmation of that on page 39 of the Product List.