Floating License Server with Server Based Repositories

[EA_enthusiast]

Hello, EA experts,

I posted a question a couple of weeks ago on how to get multiple users to collaborate on the same model concurrently. Eve advised that the recommended approach is to host a server that both can access.

https://sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/16.1/the_model_repository/settingupdatabasemodelfile.html

My questions are:
1- We started moving towards purchasing floating licenses. Can we have a Floating License Server with the server that we will use to host the repositories? I could not find this information in the EA documentation. The documentation I came across only describes how the Floating License Server works with the Pro Cloud Server.
https://sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/16.1/the_model_repository/procloud_keys.html

2- My understanding is that the server we intend to host can also be hosted on the cloud, i.e., it does not have to be on promise. Correct?

Thank you!

[Geert Bellekens]

There are currently two floating license servers:

- The classic one (a service that needs to be running on a server)
- The one included in PCS

You can host the license server on the same server that hosts the database. (you don't actually need a database server if you use something like Azure SQL)
I guess you can host both on a cloud server as well, as long as the firewalls are correctly configured.

Geert

[EA_enthusiast]

Thanks a lot, Geert, for your response. I really appreciate it.

Can you point me to the documentation that I can share with our IT folks to go through this process?

[Geert Bellekens]

Can you point me to the documentation that I can share with our IT folks to go through this process?

Not really, but the search usually gets me there...

Geert

[EA_enthusiast]

Thank you, Geert.

I could not find this information in the documentation. I would appreciate it if someone from the community or SparxSystems team could point me to the process for hosting the database on a server and hosting a license server on the same server. 

[Eve]

- The one included in PCS

Also "a service that needs to be running on a server". It's the same service used to host a model though, so you only need one service.

I would appreciate it if someone from the community or SparxSystems team could point me to the process for hosting the database on a server and hosting a license server on the same server. 

• Install PCS
• Set up a model (using the web interface)
• Set up EA licenses (using the web interface)

[EA_enthusiast]

Hello, Eve,

Thank you for your response.

It seems that the links you provided are for setting up PCS. I am looking for the steps for hosting the model/database on our own server on Azure (not through PCS).

I would appreciate your help in pointing me in the right direction.

Thank you!

[Eve]

I would appreciate your help in pointing me in the right direction.

PCS is the right direction. You want a license server, it should be PCS. No-one should be setting up a new installation with a keystore file on a shared drive, the same for the legacy service.

You want a model hosted, yes it's possible to do it via a direct database connection. I would still recommend using PCS. Among other reasons because then you don't need to give your end users access to the database itself.

https://sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/16.1/the_model_repository/upsizingtosqlserver.html

Just to be clear. You don't need the paid version of PCS. The base version is sufficient for the two use cases you have described. And yes, it can be installed on-premise or on a managed server. (If it's not on-premise though, ensure it's running at a minimum on the same data center as your database server.)

[BobM]

As Eve mentioned: Among other reasons include:
- Easy to do maintenance on the database server (simply stop the PCS service and you don't need to continuously kick users who "forgot" there was supposed to be a maintenance going on)
- Access to PCS logging
- Easy to set up multiple models using procloud server
- Relatively easy to maintain (updating PCS is easy)

That first one should be enough to convince your systems team to set this up.

[EA_enthusiast]

Thank you, Eve and Bob. So, the recommended path in my situation is to follow the below steps to set up a PCS on a Windows-based virtual server on AWS or Azure.

https://sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/16.1/the_model_repository/cloud_server_installation.html

I am curious to ask. Given that PCS is the recommended approach, why "Server Based Repositories" is still offered as one of the options?

https://sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/16.1/the_model_repository/settingupdatabasemodelfile.html

Is there a side-by-side comparison for both options somewhere?

[Geert Bellekens]

PCS is not a replacement for your repository (database), it provides a possible access path to your database over http(s), as well serving as license server.

Geert

[BobM]

There is a topic where all the links on how to set up your repositories are present

https://sparxsystems.com/forums/smf/index.php/topic,48175.0.html

[EA_enthusiast]

Thank you, Geert and BobM, for the clarifications.

What I understood is that there's only one option (or at least a recommended option) to have multiple team members collaborate on the same model concurrently and at the same time manage the floating licenses, that is through PCS. Is that correct? 

[BobM]

What I understood is that there's only one option (or at least a recommended option) to have multiple team members collaborate on the same model concurrently and at the same time manage the floating licenses, that is through PCS. Is that correct?

There is only one recommended option to handle floating licences (using PCS)
In addition it advised to connect to your databases using PCS, over using the direct connection from the clients using a SQLuser

[EA_enthusiast]

Thank you, BobM. I really appreciate the additional clarification.