EA floating license problems

[ebeb]

IMO, the way EA handles the license keys is not very handy. At first, I have to add the shared key. In case all keys are used, someone has to actively return a key and then you can add it.

I'd expect that EA just checks at start up if there are any keys left and if yes, just start. In case not, it should present a message that currently all keys are used.

Because otherwise, it could happen that all keys are currently "added" to other workstations, but the people are not present to return the key. In that case I wouldn't be able to use EA at all even though nobody else is working.

I don't see any reason do it like that because also offline working is not working, too. EA can't access the key file when I'm offline.

On the other way around, I can open EA and THEN go offline and I can still work. And, moreover, I can return the license key while EA is running and still keep on working and then open EA on another workstation add the key, start EA, return the and so on.

So, from both Sparx and EA user's perspective, that doesn't make much sense.

Any comments are welcome!

Jan

[David OD]

Jan

We have been playing with floating licences (and indeed just upgraded all our licences to floaters).  I asked similar questions of Sparx, and the following is an extract from their reply:

Yes, the floating license system is configurable to allow you to checkout a key and hold it for offline use if needed.  If you planned on using a laptop system for example and knew you would need to work away from the office the next day, you could checkout the key before leaving the office and be able to use it the next day without having to re-connect to the network.
 
The period that the license can remain checked-out for is configurable by the license administrator using SSKeyStore.
 
An Auto Checkin option configurable which forces EA clients to automatically return the key to the license pool upon closing EA.  With this option enabled, the maximum possible unused licenses should always be available.  To hold a license for offline use while operating in this mode, the user must disconnect from the network while EA is still running, or otherwise prevent access to the shared key file before EA is shut down.
 
If you choose to have the Auto Checkin option disabled, then the license will always be held by the user until it's expiry is reached.  The license 'lease' will be renewed each time the user connects to the keystore (automatic upon opening EA).

While the licencing isn't as intuititive as some other products, I think that this will work fine for us.  We have configured it for automatic release and a 1 day retention period (although we might extend this if we ahver a lot of off-site work).

I hope that this helps you.

[ebeb]

Hi David!

That's great! Actually, I'm not the "master of the keys", so I didn't know. Now we used the auto check-in option and it works pretty good

Thanks a lot!

-Jan

[Guillaume]

The SSKeyStore user guide recommends creating 2 key stores, one for offline users, one for online ones i.e. with different auto checkin options.
Where this is feasible on separate Windows servers, is there a simple way to install and start 2 instances of this service on the same server?

I attempted this by duplicating the Service folder e.g."C:\Program Files (x86)\Sparx Systems\Keystore\Service Offline\"
I then modified the config file to run this service on a different port e.g. 7771
I created a new windows service with the Sc create command.
However when I start this service I get an error message (the service doesn't start).

Any recommandation?

[Guillaume]

Further to my previous post (query is still active), I wonder how relevant the following recommandation in the Keystore user guide is :

This acts against the purpose of having the checkbox. It is therefore advisable to create two key stores, each with a different setting for Auto checkin
- Mobile users who want to use Enterprise Architect from home or other disconnected locations : Auto checkin Not selected
- Fixed users who leave their computers at work : Auto checkin Selected

Let's say you have 30 floating licenses for a pool for 90 users. Amongst those users, 5 need to work offline from time to time. If we assign 25 licenses for the 85 fixed users, and 5 for mobile users, we would be better off purchasing cheaper fixed licenses for mobile users.
If we instead assign e.g. 23 licenses for fixed users and 2 for mobile users, we potentially block mobile users from using EA even when they're online and could benefit from the 23 licenses pool.

There doesn't seem to be a simple answer for this issue.
Perhaps EA should let users explicitely reserve a key e.g. for 1 day (a password could restrict access to this feature) before going offline. They should also be able to release a key. -> possible enhancement?

I would in the meantime recommend the following (a suitable option will depend on the team size and use):
- disable the auto-checkin and leave the expiry duration to 1 day (note that mobile users will be limited to 24 hours offline). This option should work if there aren't too many users connecting within a 24 hours timeframe. Install the Key Store manager application for some users so they can manually release keys if needed
- if the ratio of mobile users is quite high, and they often use EA, purchase a fixed license for this pool of users (cheaper than the floating ones)
- create 2 servers as suggested previously and work out an optimised repartition of keys between fixed and mobile users.

What do you think?