What are Floating Licenses?
As the name suggests, Floating Licenses 'float' from user to user as they start and stop the
various software products. A license for the product is only required while a user has the
software running, once the product is shutdown the license is available for another user to make use of.
Advantages of Floating Licenses
- more efficient use of licenses (thereby allowing a smaller number of licenses to be purchased)
- automated and centralized management of licenses
- with the Floating Licenses Server and Keystore Service, Keystores can be configured to allocate license keys for a period of time thereby allowing Enterprise Architect to used when offsite
Floating Licence Products
Most Enterprise Architect and add-in products developed by Sparx Systems, can be purchased as floating licenses. Floating licenses are suitable for companies who wish to automate the management of Enterprise Architect registration keys, because they can be administered in a single, centralized repository (or 'Store').
Sparx Systems products support the following types of 'Stores':
- Floating License Server - is a component of Pro Cloud Server application that runs as a Windows service
- Keystore Service - a server based application that runs as a Windows service
- File Based - a simply file place on a network share
Floating License Server
The Floating License Server (FLS) is a integrated component of the Pro Cloud Server and runs whenever the Pro Cloud Server is running. The main advantage of the Floating License Server (over the other store types) is that all communications are performed over HTTPS, thereby ensuring all licensing information is transmitted securely.
The Pro Cloud Server is a supporting product to Enterprise Architect and is available to licensed users of Enterprise Architect. It can be downloaded from Pro Cloud Server download page.
All aspects of the Floating License Server can be configured using the supplied Configuration Client:
The Floating License Server supports a configurable level of logging and messages are written to the standard Pro Cloud Server log files. With the use of some filtering these log messages can form the basis of reports containing floating license usage statistics. Additional security measures, such as password protected access to your store and domain authentication, are also supported by the FLS.
More information about installing and using the Floating License Server is available in the User Guide.
Common questions asked about floating licenses and Enterprise Architect are answered on our FAQ page.
Keystore Service
The Keystore Service is a separately installed product, available to licensed users of Enterprise Architect and can be downloaded from the registered users section of the Sparx Systems Website.
Note: while the Keystore is still available for download, all further development on this product has ceased. The Floating License Server is now the actively development product.
The Keystore Service provisions floating license keys by interacting with Enterprise Architect instances via a network protocol. The Keystore Service supports detailed logging and auditing of floating license usage, which may be used as the basis for reports containing usage statistics. Additional security measures, such as password protected access to your keystore and domain authentication, are also supported by the service. More information about installing and using the Keystore Service is available from the User Guide (pdf document).
To quickly and easily step through the process of installing and running the Sparx Systems Keystore Service, please review the Visual Quick Start Guide.
Note: Earlier versions of Enterprise Architect supported a file-based keystore, which was hosted on a network share and directly accessed by users. While this approach is still supported by the Keystore application for legacy installations, it is recommended to use the more robust service-based approach instead. The Keystore Service User Guide describes the file-based approach and how to migrate a file-based keystore to the new service-based keystore.
Common questions asked about floating licenses and Enterprise Architect are answered on our FAQ page.
System requirements for Sparx Systems Keystore Service
Enterprise Architect, version 8 or later
10 MB Disk Space
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista,
Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008. (32 bit and 64 bit operating systems supported*)
File Based
A File base Keystore is the simplest Keystore solution, and was the first option that Sparx Systems provided when floating licenses were introduced. All that is required is a network shared for the Keystore file to be saved to. All Enterprise Architect users will need read/write access to the network share, so that license keys can be checked out (when starting) and then returned back once finished.