Updating from VFE licence type

[Simon Smart]

Hi folks

I'm helping out with some changes from VFE to AU for an org. Users currently are in VFE and they will end up in EntSt-AU

A user must be 'archived' from the corresponding SKU

In this domain to accommodate an upgrade there are currently some G Suite Basic,  2 x Google Workspace Enterprise Standard (1010020026) and enough Google Workspace Enterprise Standard AU licences to facilitate the shift.

Since the archiving process is different to the VFE process in that you have to 'archive' like you would 'suspend' a user rather than simply assign the licence we need to follow this process. 

1. Switch the user from VFE to Ent Standard

2. Archive the user

To facilitate this I was thinking of using a batch file. Since the number of Ent Standard licences is limited to 2 I need to run this ensuring no more than 2 licences are used at any time (just to explain the 'commit-batch' line:

gam user [user1] update licence 1010020026 from Google-Vault-Former-Employee

commit-batch
gam update user [user1] archived on
gam user [user2] update licence 1010020026 from Google-Vault-Former-Employee

commit-batch
gam update user [user2] archived on
gam user [user3] update licence 1010020026 from Google-Vault-Former-Employee

commit-batch
gam update user [user3] archived on
gam user [user4] update licence 1010020026 from Google-Vault-Former-Employee

commit-batch
gam update user [user4] archived on

[cont x 500ish users]

When trying to remove the VFE licence with:

gam user [user1] update licence 1010020026 from Google-Vault-Former-Employee

or

gam user [user1] add licence 1010020026

Receives error such as: 

Combination of product and sku is invalid or the product has auto-assigned feature enabled

User does not have a license for specified sku and product

I'm thinking this is due to "update license" expecting a like for like update (e.g. Vault and VFE, Workspace licences, or Drive storage) and the add function isn't working as you can't have a VFE and a Workspace/G Suite licence at the same time so this causes a collision.

So if this is the case what is the method for reversing a VFE and giving the user a specific Workspace licence in its place? Guess I'm missing something obvious here.

Thanks in advance folks

Simon

[Danny Dillon - NOAA Affiliate]

FYI, in Sep 2020 we were able to switch ~30k VFE licenses directly to AU by simply setting Archived On.  There was brief to considerable lag ( seconds to many minutes ) in the actual license update, so do one account and give it a couple hours...  We also had very limited cap room with our Enterprise licenses at the time, but encountered no issues and did not appear to ( auto ) use them in transition.

Danny

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[Simon Smart]

Hey Danny

Thanks for the tip I'll give it a go.

Otherwise I'm still happy to receive responses regarding the process I should be taking (assuming the workaround Danny has mentioned didn't/doesn't work)

Thanks

Simon

[Jay Lee]

What Danny suggested should work and it's the simplest, recommended process.

Jay

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[Simon Smart]

Hey Jay

Do you know if they changed the API behaviour for this? Trying to move frontline users into archived but it doesn't allow 'archived on' any more. We're having to switch them to ENT+ then over to archived. Not a huge deal but its doubled the calls resulted in some changes being required as well as an overage of ENT+ license... not to mention if you need to do it in bulk you need a buffer and 'batches' like my original method

Any insight would be appreciated

Simon