Floating Licensing Question

[CleverCoder]

Hi All,

We are about to purchase EA with MDG link and have a few questions that are VERY pressing (for purchasing decisions). Since I can't get support on the phone, this is a liast ditch effort..

1. At what point is a license checked in and out with MDG link? (In other words, if our devs keep Visual Studio open all day, does clicking on the Enterprise Architect tab / window checkout a license, or do we have to exit visual studio?) We want to get 5 floaters among 15 devs, but we rarely exit visual studio. I'd hate to know that 1-off tasks cause our license pool to fill up.
1. Does using an MDG license require an EA license if it's only used during integration? (I'm assuming yes)
2. Is an EA license checked out when MDG link is in use (in other words, does the use of an MDG link license imply the use of an EA license?)

Thank you to ANYONE who can answer!!!

-Sean

[«Midnight»]

I really don't know, but these questions are quite interesting.

Unfortunately I don't currently use floating EA licenses or MDG Link. Still, perhaps I can point you in the right direction.

First, send an email to Sparx Marketing. [I don't know their address, but it's on the Sparx site someplace.]

Second, remember that people in the Land of AUS believe that the weekend has already started, and that the weather is nice. [We in the frozen North know that these assertions are highly suspect.]

Meanwhile...

AFAIK - and I stand to be corrected on this - there is no equivalent to a floating license for MDG Link. I gather you are aware of that, and would have MDG Link installed on each (participating) developer's system. The issue is whether having MDG Link active requires EA to 'turn on' every time VS is used, regardless of whether the developer needs to use EA during this session.

Have you attempted to run your scenario with the evaluation products? I don't know if the MDG Link evaluation puts up a dialog when you run VS, or if it needs to 'touch' EA to do so. Hopefully MDG Link won't foul the experiment though.

It might be worthwhile seeing if the EA evaluation product pops up it's 'which version do you want to use today' dialog when you start VS. If EA does not do so, and if you can use VS unhindered (without invoking MDG Link) then it's very likely that you are in the clear.

David

[CleverCoder]

Thanks for the reply!!  I actually did some testing, and there were a couple issues:
- evaluation version of EA doesn't simulate anything surrounding licensing, except an "upgrade key". No option to setup a 'shared license'
- MDG link has the "Continue Trial" or "Enterlicense".. again, not very useful

And, the MDG link poduct does seem to have a floating license version: http://www.sparxsystems.com/products/mdg_integrate_purchase.html

Unfortunately, the details are lacking..

Thanks again for the help!
-Sean

[«Midnight»]

Thanks for the reply!!  I actually did some testing, and there were a couple issues:
- evaluation version of EA doesn't simulate anything surrounding licensing, except an "upgrade key". No option to setup a 'shared license'
- MDG link has the "Continue Trial" or "Enterlicense".. again, not very useful

And, the MDG link poduct does seem to have a floating license version: http://www.sparxsystems.com/products/mdg_integrate_purchase.html

Unfortunately, the details are lacking..

Thanks again for the help!
-Sean

I just now noticed the floating MDG license. And yes, there's very little detail.

Meanwhile, did EA produce the "upgrade key" dialog when you started VS, or did it remain silent through the VS session? [Assuming you did not not invoke MDG link.]

David

[KP]

First, send an email to Sparx Marketing. [I don't know their address, but it's on the Sparx site someplace.]

[email protected]

Second, remember that people in the Land of AUS believe that the weekend has already started, and that the weather is nice. [We in the frozen North know that these assertions are highly suspect.]

Rain, rain and more rain this weekend. Did anyone see which way my driveway went? :-/

[CleverCoder]

Floating licence.. sad.  It appears that it's not quite what I was hoping for. Here was their response:

"... When using MDG Integration for Visual Studio, the license is not automatically released again until Visual Studio is closed.  This is because MDG Integration requires a running background instance of EA.exe in order to operate, which does not close until the Visual Studio IDE is closed."

This begs the question, what good is a floating license?  Maybe they can change it to have a license checked out only when a diagram is loaded... (I have done some work against DTE and DTE2 for Visual Studio automation. It IS possible to detect this situation)

Thanks for all the help though!
-Sean

[«Midnight»]

This begs the question, what good is a floating license?  Maybe they can change it to have a license checked out only when a diagram is loaded... (I have done some work against DTE and DTE2 for Visual Studio automation. It IS possible to detect this situation)

Well, you could assign the license pair (EA and MDG) to a developer during a project or two, then shift the pair to someone else later. It all depends on your shop configuration, how you do projects, and (most importantly) whether you use EA and MDG for some projects and not (at all) for others.

You'd have to experiment a bit to see if MDG needed to be removed from the VS side when neither license was assigned. Perhaps MDG would argue when VS was started or something. I've not tried this at all, so really couldn't say.

David

[CleverCoder]

Lucky for Sparx. Looks like we're gonna sink and buy 13 or so individual licenses for both. The floating license model just doesn't seem flexible enough in a real world situation.. (You know, the one where a developer runs Visual Studio all day)

Thanks for the help!

[«Midnight»]

Lucky for Sparx. Looks like we're gonna sink and buy 13 or so individual licenses for both. The floating license model just doesn't seem flexible enough in a real world situation.. (You know, the one where a developer runs Visual Studio all day)

Thanks for the help!

Yeah, I know just where you're at.

Fortunately the price points for EA are quite reasonable, given the general industry situation.

David