Borrowing licenses

I have a question regarding the use of floating licenses on a network
USB dongle and borrowing. For us borrowing licenses to other machines
is a fital issue. According to our VAR borrowing could be done for an
unlimited time frame. So if one of our employees need a license for 3
months this should be possible. So we handed in our serial dongles for
one USB network dongle. And guess what we can only borrow for 30 days.
And thats not the only issue. When we borrow a license to one of our
notebooks and the user logs in to another domain the licenses are not
available. Can anyone please clarify some issues regarding the above
because our VAR does not know the in's and out's regarding borrowing.

 

You can only limit borrowing within the set max. The absolute max
limit is set by the license file and is currently 30 days. (In 2005 it
was only 10) You can then limit it to less than 30 days by entering a
line similar to the line below

MAX_BORROW_HOURS solidworks 48

that would limit it to 2 days.
I suppose it may be possible to ask your VAR to request a license file
that would allow a longer time but it is possible that SolidWorks
decided that 30 days would be the hard fast max for some reason in
which case you are going to have to live with 30 days and submit an
enhancement request to extend it further.

As far as loosing the license when logging into another domain? I
suppose it is possible if the license file is tied to a user registry
because logging into another domain would be concidered a different
user. But I can't say for certain.

Regards,

 

What if you use a negative integer?

 

I would say that the 30 day limitation is probably not going to change
without a lot of wrangling since it seems to be programmed into the
software. But the fact that you can't login when on a different domain
when you are entitled to is an issue worth pursuing. It should have
been obvious to SW that the act of borrowing a floating license to a
mobile computing system (aka laptop) implies the possibility of being
logged in on other domains, whether it be Starbucks or a customer site.
And I thought the license was tied to the NIC, not the user anyway.

 

Thank you for you're replies.

We also came across something else, it seems that if you installed
Solid Works 2005 and 2006 on the same notebook, and you borrow the
license with SW 2005 you cannot use this borrowed license with SW 2006
and vice versa. This off course with the same user and even in the same
domain. We are trying to resolve these issues with a VPN connection. I
will keep you informed

TOP schreef:

 

I think SW license states that you have to unload previous versions of
software to use newer versions. I can see a 2005 license not working on
2006 for obvious reasons, but vice versa is another thing. Must
upgrade, must upgrade.

Tot ziens.

 

LOL, The flexLM options reader will call you stupid and skip over the
value. =^)

 

Probably. But sometimes programmers are rather stupid <G>. You tested it?
Just curious.

 

I tested other incorrect values such as values beyond the max and they
just get skipped over and not read into the log.

 

OK I tested it and it doesn't skip it it outputs this into the log
9:25:42 (SW_D) Invalid MAX_BORROW_HOURS value (-50) specified for
feature solidworks

In Otherwords "Stupid how am I going to make a user owe me hours"

All in good fun =^)

Regards,
Corey

 

But does it run <g>?

Tried OS control string codes too?

One of my programs can be set to run in the future at a specified time & date.
But if it's a year or more in the future the user will be asked for the
largest known (at the time I wrote the program) prime number first <G>.
Unless their answer is correct it will not allow the 1 year + option.

 

Someplace there may be an environment variable or string that sets
that max ....

 

I just had a look in our SNL license file, and there is a line that
says;

"BORROW=720"

which equates to 30 days (30*24 hours = 720 hours)

As it's in the license file, I would think that only SW could change
that.

In the FlexLM user manual, there is reference to an options file card
called MAX_BORROW_HOURS, but this can only be set up to the maximum
period defined in the license file - in this case 30 days. I can't see
any other options that would extend the borrow period either.

Enhacement request perhaps?

Martin

 

Doh, just looked back as saw Corey's post which pretty much says what I
just posted......

Must be Friday......

 

Sounds like FlexLM is not so limited and that the limit may be being
set by SW .....
One might wonder how the two communicate & when ... but don't do
anything illegal.

 

Cliff,

I have the flexLM book and the variable IS embeded in the license file.
I am not guessing at this. The testing I did was simply to verify the
functionality. I also tried to edit the license file manually just to
see what happens and the license won't load at all then because they
become invalid.

Corey

 

The license manager will then run properly except that the MAX time
will not be user specified it will be specified by the max on license
file which is the absolute max unless solidworks makes a change in the
future.

 

FlexLM might read license files on execution or license files might
be executed by the application (SW in this case) which might set
a system variable. I don't know ....

 

Cliff,

Are you looking for an explaination how a license server works.

First off. Currently SolidWorks has 2 types of licensing. Stand
Alone, and NetWork.

As of 2006
Stand Alone seats verify a proper license by comparing a 16 Digit
Serial Number to a (8?) Digit Registration Code Which is different
depending on the package purchased (Office Professional... Etc.) This
needs no contact with any server and generates it's own license file
which runs as a separate process and which contains all the information
relating to what addin's you are entitled to use and SolidWorks
verifies it's existance.

NetWork seats on the other hand cannot create their own license file
and rely on a License Server (SolidNetWork License Manager AKA SNL
Manager, which uses flexLM technology ) to manage the available pool of
license files. When a client seat which doesn't have a regcode is
activated it first calls the SNL Manager, and requests a license file
(The file being requested is by all rights the same as the one created
by the standalone seat). Then when the user closes SolidWorks the
license file is sent back to the SNL Manager and added back to the pool
of available licenses. (this setup requires a dongle and a license
file which is provided by SolidWorks and has information for every
product you purchase directly from SolidWorks with exception of Cosmos
Designer for now.

That being said the options we are talking about are options on the SNL
manager and not on a client machine. The license file we are talking
about in this thread is not the license file that is sent to the Client
machines it is the License File that is read by the SNL Manager.

Clear as mud?

Corey