Network Licensing - Lock some seats to small group of PCs? 2

[handleman]

I have (I think) a quick question about network licensing. I know my VAR would probably be the official route to go, but I have very little confidence in them.

Is it possible to lock X number of licenses to float among Y number of specific PCs? I'm in a small division of a large company that is considering going to site-wide network licensing of SW. There are currently about 25 or 30 separate licenses owned by different divisions, of which my division has 6 or 7. My fear is that installs will run rampant and that people who really don't need to use SW will be tying up licenses that our division paid for and needs to use. Due to our IS situation, I'm certain that multiple license servers are not an option. I tried looking in the FlexLM user's guide, and it seems to show either floating licenses free to anyone on the network or host-specific licenses that can only be used on a specific machine. However, I'm not much of a networking guy, so this is pretty well on the edge of my comfort zone. I want to make sure I understand all the options before I put in my two cents.

Thanks!

 

[Finethread]

How about borrowing X number of licenses and not returning them? This is an option in the SolidNetwork License Manager.

 

[kcarpenter]

Handle...in the FlexLM End User document look for this section: 5.2.18 RESERVE. I'm assuming you're still using 2007 and this section is from the FlexLM for 2007. I've never setup a reserve group but this is what you want to use.

Kevin Carpenter
CAD Systems Administrator
Invacare Corp.

 

[handleman]

Thanks, Kevin! That's exactly what I was looking for. That was pretty fast, too.

 

[kcarpenter]

No problem. That's why we're here my man!

Kevin Carpenter
CAD Systems Administrator
Invacare Corp.

 

[Updraft]

Handleman,

You have 25-30 stand-alone licenses for the company, 6-7 in your division. It will cost you around $150/seat to convert to network licenses. Here are some options you might consider:
1. Getting separate network licenses. I am pretty sure you can setup a group of computers to access one network license and not the other network licenses (accomplishing divisional separation). You might also be able to setup these computers to access a second network license as a backup in case the workload is shifted from one group to the other.
2. Leave some seats stand-alone. That's what we did here. I have five stand-alone seats for the guys that are on SWX all the time and two that are networked. The networked can be installed on any computer on the network so I have this in the conference room computer for presentations as well as in our Marketing department for their occassional use.

If all 25-30 seats are networked and all are in use you can easily see who is logged on and negotiate for them to relinquish their seat. Perhaps they really do need to use SWX and it becomes a question of either a) priority, or b) buying more seats.

- - -Updraft

 

[handleman]

Thanks, Updraft. We've been told that if we have more than 10 licenses on the same purchase order that the network license upcharge is removed. I don't think leaving standalone licenses will be an option. Our IS is going to make sure everyone is exactly the same. Looking at it from the standpoint of my division, we are currently paying X for our seats. If we share our licenses with other divisions and this causes any inconvenience to us, then we are essentially getting less than we paid for. If some other division needs more licenses, they can purchase them. If we actually do go in this direction, I belive we in our division will want to save money by purchasing fewer seats for our division. Any "negotiation" for licenses would then take place between people who work together rather than someone we've never met in another building.

 

[handleman]

Hope it's not too late to be dredging this thread up. We just had a meeting with our VAR, who said he didn't think that the RESERVE group functionality of the FlexLM worked with the SW license manager. Does anyone know of that actually being implemented?

Thanks!

 

[kcarpenter]

I'm beginning to think that your VAR is not very informed with regard to SNL (or I'm really out of the loop lately). SNL is FlexLM, it just has some SW specific interface but it is Flex. Unless I'm missing something, in the Admin Guide section of support it specifically says, "FLEXlm End Users Guide" for SW2008. AND...within that document is listed "Group" on page 74 and it can be used with the "reserve" option as well as many others.

Hell...I'll attach the document. Feel free to send it to your VAR.


Kevin Carpenter
CAD Systems Administrator
Invacare Corp.

 

[kcarpenter]

Sorry...I mentioned "GROUP" option because I was thinking you wanted to create a group of users and then reserve a set number of licenses for them. Either way the GROUP and RESERVE options are still listed in the guide as being functional.

Sorry for the mix up.

Kevin Carpenter
CAD Systems Administrator
Invacare Corp.

 

[SBaugh]

handleman I am sorry your VAR is not very competent! The FLEXLM guide section 5 explains all that they need to know on setting this up. Its not to bad... I think the hardest thing is setting up the options file and making sure the license file has a path to the options file. This is does not happen often meaning people setting this up, but it is possible.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376

 

[SBaugh]

FYI -

http://www.3dvision.com/Support/docs/MakingandsavinganOptionsfileforTimeoutinSNL.doc

I found this on lour website that I made years ago... it needs updated, but its has some info in there for you.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376

 

[handleman]

Thanks again, guys. I've gotten way more (and more accurate) help over the last few years from here than from my VAR.