Where does Sparx EA store the connection to the PCS floating license store?

[Eve]

Having to access the registry to change the keystore location, is not necessary and should be done via the Sparx EA user interface.

Which is the normal circumstance for any newly installed copy of EA. The first time EA loads it prompts for the license. Part of that interface allows selecting a keystore to retrieve the license from.

The subject of this thread (at least prior to the last 2 posts) has instead been about changing it outside of the user interface. EA's API requires a valid license to work, so an API to change this isn't going to help. If you can't change the registry, then you pretty much need to use the UI.

If there is an error that is preventing the license management dialog from showing when starting EA, I'm not sure you've described that. I would expect that dialog to show after the error you have described. Personally, I can easily create a situation from my home pc can't connect to our keystore service and EA does prompt me to connect to another one.

If that doesn't happen for you, then submitting that as a bug report seems appropriate.

[Modesto Vega]

[SNIP]
The subject of this thread (at least prior to the last 2 posts) has instead been about changing it outside of the user interface. EA's API requires a valid license to work, so an API to change this isn't going to help. If you can't change the registry, then you pretty much need to use the UI.

I don't think the subject of the thread has changed. The user interface does not behave as expected.

To summarise, after a copy of Sparx EA has been installed and properly configured

• Sparx always behaves as if it had been newly installed if it cannot find a key (or the keystore).
• If the copy of Sparx EA was configured to use a file based keystore and the keystore is no longer available, it is not possible to change the license store location through the user interface because it keeps complaining it cannot find a network path (presumably the location of the original keystore).

Lastly, if using floating licenses, Sparx EA always behaves as if it was newly installed if

• it cannot access the location of the license store, and
• presumably, the last used key has expired.

I will submit a bug report.

[Geert Bellekens]

file based keystore

Ah, that's going to be your problem. File based keystores are known to have serious issues and considered to be deprecated (by me at least) since a decade or so.

Maybe Sparx should simply disable the thing instead of dragging all this historical garbage into the future.

Geert

[Modesto Vega]

[SNIP]
Maybe Sparx should simply disable the thing instead of dragging all this historical garbage into the future.

I don't disagree but  the problem is that, if you want floating licenses, you need PCS. PCS is not cheap and not easy to install/configure and troubleshoot in a complex corporate environment. Also the PCS vs/and Prolaborate message from Sparx Systems is unclear.

[Geert Bellekens]

[SNIP]
Maybe Sparx should simply disable the thing instead of dragging all this historical garbage into the future.

I don't disagree but  the problem is that, if you want floating licenses, you need PCS. PCS is not cheap and not easy to install/configure and troubleshoot in a complex corporate environment. Also the PCS vs/and Prolaborate message from Sparx Systems is unclear.

You can still use the "standard" license server. That is a service you can install on any server. This doesn't have the downsides of the file based license server.

Geert

[Modesto Vega]

If you mean the Keystore Service, it has not been updated since 2016. Does it support IPv6? I have a vague recollection of having read something in this forum saying it does not, which is the reason why we did not install it on an interim basis while we were sorting out all the PCS installation and configuration issues we run into.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

If you mean the Keystore Service, it has not been updated since 2016. Does it support IPv6? I have a vague recollection of having read something in this forum saying it does not, which is the reason why we did not install it on an interim basis while we were sorting out all the PCS installation and configuration issues we run into.

I believe we are using the PCS-based Licence Server without having to install full PCS.  We access it via HTTP.

I may be wrong as our infrastructure group set it up.

Paolo

[Geert Bellekens]

If you mean the Keystore Service, it has not been updated since 2016. Does it support IPv6? I have a vague recollection of having read something in this forum saying it does not, which is the reason why we did not install it on an interim basis while we were sorting out all the PCS installation and configuration issues we run into.

About the IPv6 compatibility, yes that might be an problem, not sure. I haven't had any issues with that yet.
But it is anyway a lot better than the file based keystore.

BTW I'm not sure if you need to pay for PCS if it's only used to serve licenses and connect to your models.
IIRC there are a few free options as well.

Geert

[Geert Bellekens]

Yep, I remembered correctly
The unlicensed (free) version supports repository connections and license server.

https://sparxsystems.com/products/procloudserver/compare-editions.html

If you want to use things like webEA or Prolaborate you have to use a paying license.

Geert

[Modesto Vega]

From memory, the unlicensed version requires a direct database connection between Sparx EA and the database repository - i.e., an unlicensed version of PCS cannot write data to a database repository. The comparison page does a few linguistic contortions with the word repository by differentiating between "repositories" and "pro repositories". AFIK, a "pro repository" is a repository to which PCS can write data to.

But we are going seriously off-topic now (although happy to continue).

[Geert Bellekens]

From memory, the unlicensed version requires a direct database connection between Sparx EA and the database repository - i.e., an unlicensed version of PCS cannot write data to a database repository. The comparison page does a few linguistic contortions with the word repository by differentiating between "repositories" and "pro repositories". AFIK, a "pro repository" is a repository to which PCS can write data to.

But we are going seriously off-topic now (although happy to continue).

I don't think that's wat it means; the main goal of PCS is to provide a access path to a database.
Having a direct database connection defeats the whole point of PCS.

Geert

[Paolo F Cantoni]

From memory, the unlicensed version requires a direct database connection between Sparx EA and the database repository - i.e., an unlicensed version of PCS cannot write data to a database repository. The comparison page does a few linguistic contortions with the word repository by differentiating between "repositories" and "pro repositories". AFIK, a "pro repository" is a repository to which PCS can write data to.

But we are going seriously off-topic now (although happy to continue).

Our floating licence store runs on one of our specifically licence servers. There is no connection with any other Sparx related artifact.  It just controls the issued licences.

Paoloo

[Modesto Vega]

[SNIP]the main goal of PCS is to provide a access path to a database.
Having a direct database connection defeats the whole point of PCS.

Geert

Agreed on both counts, but this requires a paid version (Token, Team Server or Enterprise Server). But are you sure that an unlicensed version of PCS can be used to create content - i.e., write to the database?

[Geert Bellekens]

Yes, Unlicensed supports unlimited number of repositories, and all repository types.

There is no mention of "read-only" modus anywhere.

The "Pro Repository" feature is required for WebEA, Prolaborate and integrations such as Jira or ServiceNow

Geert