Solution
With the upcoming release of ESET Secure Authentication (ESA) version 2.8, ESA will become fully integrated with ESET’s core licensing framework, which is a modern and flexible framework that brings new options for different stakeholders. Relevant licensing operations will look similar to what customers are already used to from other ESET flagship products.
Product behavior changes
To become fully integrated with ESET’s core licensing framework, ESA had to update some of its parts.
Change of SMS budget and handling of SMS
With the transition to ESET’s core licensing framework, the initial SMS budget will change. The initial package (standard license) will contain SMS for “onboarding” only, meaning, the delivery of a mobile app activation link (also known as provisioning) to a user’s mobile phone. Onboarding SMS count will not be displayed in ESA Web Console since the idea is that onboarding (provisioning) will work.
From a licensing perspective, ESA version 2.8 and later will distinguish between “Onboarding SMS” and “SMS OTP”, the latter meaning delivery of a one-time password (OTP) via SMS. It will not be possible to use “Onboarding SMS” for SMS delivery of OTP, and vice versa.
Customers will not receive any “SMS OTP” initially as part of standard ESA license. However, they can buy additional SMS for delivering SMS OTP.
The initial "SMS budget" was always meant to be used for onboarding only. However, ESET did not strictly limit its usage for "SMS OTPs". As a by-product of this, a small number of our customers used "Onboarding SMS" for authentication purposes. To ensure a smooth transition to ESET’s core licensing framework, we will transfer a percentage of remaining "SMS balance" of those customers to their updated ESA license. They will then have enough time to switch to "cost-free" mobile authentication (mobile OTPs, Push) or purchase additional SMS OTPs, just in case they want to continue with this type of authentication.
This transition will not affect the number of extra SMS credits the customer purchased and has not spent yet.
Clarification of “Onboarding SMS”
- “Onboarding SMS” is subject to Fair usage policy.
- If the administrator of an ESA instance activates two-factor authentication (2FA) for a user, the user will receive an “Onboarding SMS” containing a mobile app activation link.
When will the transition happen and what behavior should users expect?
Besides the changes described above, current customers/users of ESET Secure Authentication should expect the following behavior:
There will be a decrease in SMS count in ESA Web Console during March 2019 as a result of not displaying the number of “Onboarding SMS” anymore, while onboarding (provisioning) remains fully functional.
The final SMS count displayed in ESA Web Console will be the sum of “yet not spent extra SMS credits the customer purchased” and the “transferred percentage of remaining SMS credits the customer received as part of standard ESA license”.
Previous versions of ESA (2.6, 2.7)
In ESA version 2.6, the MMC console may warn you about reaching your license limits due to depleted SMS Credit: “You have reached your license limits, please check the management console for details.”
In ESA version 2.7, a warning is displayed in both the MMC and Web Console. You can ignore that warning, since provisioning of new users will work anyway, as explained above. To avoid the warning, we recommend that you upgrade to the latest version of ESA.
