Floating licence strategy

[andykennelly]

My organisation is planning to convert its fixed licences to floating licences.
Before we do the conversion, however, we want to prove that the floating licence approach will work as expected in our organisation. Therefore, we aim to purchase an initial 5 floating licences to be used alongside the current fixed licenses (a question as to the technical validity of this will follow below).
As I understand the ‘Sparx Systems Keystore (SSKS) User Guide ‘ (and the ‘Visual Quick Start Guide), during the installation process I will be defining a location for the Sparx System Keystore server which I will then populate with the floating licences.
My questions are:-
I currently have a SQL DB set up as a persistent store of modelled artefacts to which users connect a project. Can I use this same SQL DB as the floating licence store (I want to use something more robust than a desktop machine)? If so, can I easily populate it with licence keys during the installation process?
Is the administration of the licence store (monitoring usage etc.) done only from the machine from which the installation was driven? If so, it sounds like it would be difficult having a deputy administrator (who would ideally access some central admin function from his own machine using relevant user id / password).
If I want to alternate between using a floating licence and a previously issued fixed licence (see point earlier regarding this) is that easily done using the ‘Help/Register and Manage licence keys/Licence management’ function?

[Aaron B]

Can I use this same SQL DB as the floating licence store (I want to use something more robust than a desktop machine)? If so, can I easily populate it with licence keys during the installation process?

Yes.  The Keystore Service can be installed along side other applications.

Is the administration of the licence store (monitoring usage etc.) done only from the machine from which the installation was driven?

The Keystore Manager component can be installed onto other machines to remotely administer the key store service.  On your desktop machine, run the Keystore Service installer, but choose to only install the Keystore Manager component.

If I want to alternate between using a floating licence and a previously issued fixed licence (see point earlier regarding this) is that easily done using the ‘Help/Register and Manage licence keys/Licence management’ function?

If you still own fixed license keys - Yes.  You can "remove" a floating license key from the License Management dialog and paste in your fixed license if needed.  If you have upgraded all your fixed keys to floating licenses however, then your old fixed license keys should no longer be used.

[Stoppy]

Hi Andy,

I used floating license setup in my last organisation and we had no issues with the items you raised.

We did come accross one problem when we decommission the physical server and it became a Virtual Machine in our farm.

My investigation led me here at the time:
http://www.sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/9.3/license_management/keystore_troubleshooting.html

Specific to item no 2 - Error reading Key Store file:
(Key File has been moved)

I am not sure what the solution was but our Enterprise Administrator contacted sparx who provided a solution.

Regards,

Stoppy  

[Aaron B]

The "Key File has been moved" error occurs when copying the existing key store to a new physical drive (or to a VM in your case).  The key file is locked to the location it is created.  If you wish to migrate licenses to a new server, you need to follow the same installation process again on the new server to create a new key store and re-enter your license keys.

This was mainly a problem with the older file-based key store system and is not as common in environments where the newer Keystore Service (SSKS) method is used.

[Doug Blake]

The transfer of a static to a floating licence is really easy (in the UK) and my supplier even managed to sync the expiry times of the maintenace contract so I only have a single contract to manage.