A floating license is not linked to a specific computer, but can float among different computers on the network.
In a floating license environment, there is one machine that acts as the floating license server; its job is to keep track of how many floating licenses are available, how many are in use, and who is using the license.
One floating license can be used by only one computer on the network at any given time. Two licenses can be used by any two computers on the network at any given time, and so on.
When a client host needs a license, it will contact the server and ask for a license. This process is called checkout. If a license is available, the server will grant the client the license, and the license will no longer be available to other clients. If all the floating licenses are checked out, then the server will send an error to the client (SpinFire Ultimate).
When the client no longer needs the license, it will check-in the license (return the license to the server). Typically, this happens when the user exits SpinFire Ultimate. (Note the even if SpinFire Ultimate shuts down unexpectedly, the floating-license server will reclaim the license.)
Server and client are configured through a floating-license file (license.al). The floating-license file contains the following information:
- Server Hostname - The network name of the machine acting as the floating-license server.
- Server Host ID - The server MAC address; also referred to as the physical address.
- Vendor Name - A name that uniquely identifies the company whose product is licensed—in our case, the vendor name is actifyd. The vendor name is needed to determine the service name.
- Number of Licenses - The number of available licenses.
- Licensed Feature - A feature is any software component that can be licensed; for example, SpinFire Ultimate is a feature. Specifically, any component that gets checked out/checked in is considered a feature.
- Borrowing Flag - A flag indicating whether or not a feature can be borrowed.
- Borrowing Time - Specifies how long (in hours) a feature can be borrowed.
SpinFire Ultimate determines if a license is floating by looking at the configuration code. If the license is floating, then the license.al file includes an xml node containing the floating-license text. SpinFire Ultimate will extract the text and save it to disk as a new file, sfpflv2.dat, which is used by the floating license system.
Will probably need screenshots and explanation of new way for users to connect to their floating license servers.
Related Topics
Borrowing/Returning Licenses
The Borrow License command allows a floating license to be used temporarily when a computer is disconnected from the network that runs the license server. This is a useful feature for mobile users.
When SpinFire Ultimate is in floating-license mode, the Borrow License command appears in the Tools menu. Select this menu item to borrow the license for two weeks. This borrowed license will not be available to other users until it is either returned or expires.
You can return the license anytime within the two-week borrowing period by connecting to the network that runs the license server and selecting Tools > Return License.
Upon return or expiration, SpinFire Ultimate will no longer operate without a network connection
Borrowing a License for More than Two Weeks
If you need to borrow a floating license for more than two weeks, you can use the command line utility lmborrow.exe provided by Actify, Inc. to borrow a license for up to 45 days. (If you need to run SpinFire Ultimate off the network for more than 45 days, consider purchasing a standalone seat of SpinFire Ultimate.)
To borrow a license for more than two weeks, run lmborrow.exe in the %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Program Files\Actify\Kernel directory from the command line.
Enter lmborrow.exe without any parameters to see a syntax list..
Loss of Network Connection
If the network connection between SpinFire Ultimate and FLEXlm ***explain FLEXIm here?*** is broken, the floating license will remain checked out for two hours. The license will be unavailable to other users, even if the network connection is re-established within the two-hour time period.
After a period of time, an error message may announce that SpinFire Ultimate is unable to connect to the FLEXlm server and the application will close. Any work that has not been saved will be lost. This does not apply to a borrowed floating license.