What a device licence actually counts

Per-device licensing is simple until you ask what a device is. A laptop that was
returned when somebody left. A machine that was rebuilt and re-enrolled. A server
that was decommissioned but whose history you still need for an audit. Count those
and the invoice stops matching the estate.

Removed machines stop counting

When a device is removed it is marked as removed rather than deleted. The row
stays, its session history stays, and the audit trail of who connected to it stays
– because a deleted device takes the record of everything that was ever done to it
along with it.

What it stops doing is counting toward your licence. The same applies to
engineers: an account that has been deactivated is not a seat you are paying for.

A rebuilt machine is the same machine

Re-enrol an agent on a PC that was previously removed and it finds its old record
rather than creating a second one. Without that, a reinstall silently grows the
fleet by a duplicate, splits the machine’s history in two, and bills you for both
halves.

The cap does not strand a fleet

The device limit applies to machines the server has never seen. A machine already
on the books re-registers freely even when the fleet is over its cap, because
re-registration is also how an agent rotates its encryption key and recovers after
a server move.

Refusing that would turn “you bought too few devices” into “your existing fleet
went dark”, which is a far worse failure than the one being prevented. A licence
should stop you adding the next machine, not take away the ones you have.

You can see the count

The figure the licence checks is the one shown in the portal, derived the same
way. A number you are billed against and cannot reproduce is a number you end up
arguing about.