Confluence Upgrade
Asked by Amit_Saha:

We are users of Atlassian products since 2011. Over time we are using on 2 products Atlassian JIRA and Confluence very effectively. Now the existing license needs to increase from 100 user to 150 user with some increase in manpower. But the challenge that we are facing with Atlassian policy of upgrade is that of to purchase 500 user slot as an upgrade to our existing license. But the cost is huge for our size company to bear and we actually do not require 500 user license as opposed to just 150 user license. Anyone may pl. come fwd for a suggestion.

Also if we purchase a 50 user license as fresh that would be a new server installation and how can we collaborate in between 2 databases.


Answers:
author: Daniel Wester
body: Take a look at our addon on the marketplace: [](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.wittified.confluence.user-deactivator)<https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.wittified.confluence.user-deactivator>Even if you just use it to evaluate things, it might be able to help to identify users...


author: William Zanchet [Atlassian]
body: Hi Amit,

Yes, if you set the "Can Use" permission to false, you can see that the number of users will reduce.

Cheers,  
WZ


author: Amit_Saha
body: Hi William ,

Thanks a lot for your guidance. But I have checked the Global permission the image below is the current status. We do not use any LDAP / Active Directory for users connected with Confluence Server. Also most of our users are under one single group. Pl. help is there any way that I can remove / revoke number of license count.

![](../../upfiles/Confluence_Global_Permission.JPG)


author: William Zanchet [Atlassian]
body: Hey Amit,  

<br />

Confluence's license count is based on [Global Permissions](https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Global+Permissions+Overview). Users will count towards the license in the following ways:  
\* If the user belongs in a group that has global permissions to use Confluence  
\* If the user is individually granted global permissions to use Confluence  

Within the UI, you can get a listing of users that are assigned Global Permissions by navigating to Confluence Admin \> Global Permissions. From there, you can see a list of users and groups that will count against your license. You can click on each group individually to reveal their members.  

Also, this query will return users that belong in a group which has global permissions:  

SELECT DISTINCT u.lower_user_name  
FROM cwd_user u  
JOIN cwd_membership m ON u.id = child_user_id  
JOIN cwd_group g ON m.parent_id = g.id  
JOIN spacepermissions sp ON g.group_name = sp.permgroupname  
WHERE permtype='USECONFLUENCE' AND u.active = 'T';  

<br />

<br />

If using LDAP, you can use filters to restrict the scope of the LDAP search. The best option would be to use filters based on Group Memberships. Example:  

(\&(objectCategory=Person)(sAMAccountName=\*)(memberOf=CN=jira-users,OU=Sydney,DC=example,DC=com))  

To get your user count down, the following guidelines may be helpful:  

\* If you have more than one directory, ensure that the same user does not exist in multiple directories.  
\* We recommend that you allow only particular groups to log in to each application, rather than entire directories.  
\* Note that a mapped application can 'see' all users in a directory, even if not all of them can log in to the application. For example, a Human Resources application might be mapped to your entire Active Directory server, but only the HR group is allowed to log in to the application.

Cheers,  
WZ


author: Andris Grinbergs
body: Check if you really need 150 users. Check last login dates of all users... Maybe 50 users didn't login during last months. If so, you can "play" with permissions. Some companies use scripts which remove permissions from inactive users, but with simple way how they can get back permissions (for example - when user logs in to Jira).

You may also want to consider On-Demand setup, it may allow to save some money, depending of your circumstances.

comments: author: Amit_Saha
body: Hello Andis,

Thanks for your response. But we actually are able to revoke number of licenses when a user leaves out of organisation and we disable that user and also remove his / her permission from spaces. Number of License count remaining increases. Are you saying something apart from this. Pl. help.