Licensing

CADMATIC License Server handles allocating of licenses to CADMATIC eShare. Licenses can be either named licenses or floating licenses. The eShare server monitors license usage and availability, and eShare system administrator can customize license distribution in the web server configuration.

General licensing mechanism

The licensing mechanism of CADMATIC eShare allows one user to have a single active session at a time. Within an active session, a user can be running a maximum of two devices or clients. For example:

  • One eShare browser instance in one computer. (The browser can display eShare data in multiple tabs.)

  • One eGo application.

If the user opens eShare in a second device or in another browser, the previously opened session is terminated.

If the license server is reset and license usage information is lost, for example because an administrator releases all licenses or the license server is rebooted, the eShare server tries to re-establish the previous situation by allocating licenses to users as needed.

Named licenses

When named licenses are used, a new eShare user automatically gets a user license and can log in to the system. If a license cannot be allocated the system deactivates the user account. See User deactivation.

Normally users can remain logged in and keep holding the license as long as needed. However, eShare performs regular status checks, and if more users have a license than the license server allows the system starts deactivating non-administrative user accounts, in reverse alphabetical order. If deactivating all normal users does not release enough licenses the server starts deactivating system administrators.

Floating licenses

When floating licenses are used, creating a new eShare user does not yet allocate a license to that user. When the user logs in the eShare server requests a license from the license server, and when the user closes the browser or application, the license is returned to the license pool, becoming available to other users.

If all licenses are already in use when a user tries to log in, the following happens:

  • If the user trying to log in is a normal user, the login attempt fails.

  • If the user trying to log in is a system administrator, a list of active users is displayed for selecting which user's session to terminate. The list also shows when each user was last seen and last active in eShare. Last seen means that the user had eShare open and last active means that the user did something actively in eShare.

User deactivation

System administrators can deactivate users if needed, as described in CADMATIC eShare Administration Guide.

There can also be situations where eShare server automatically deactivates users. This can happen for example if system administrator replaces the license file and there are fewer user licenses than before, or if administrator releases all licenses and starts a new eShare server instance.

When the eShare server deactivates a user who is currently using the system, the user is prompted that their session has been terminated or that license is not available. Database transactions that the user had already initiated are completed, but any unsaved data that the user might have entered in the user interface is lost.

License configuration in the web server

The following web server parameters affect licensing. These parameters can be configured by editing the settings in the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager application as described in Configuring application settings.