Dynamic access to VLM licences

[InTest]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to use the VLM in such a way that users/computers can dynamically access an licence once it is not being used?

E.g. We have 17 Labview base development licences and only 13 are being used at the moment. Can the VLM be set up so that a new user (whose details have previously been added to the VLM) can open and run Labview if a licence is free, rather than the administrator having to manually assign a licence to the new user/computer each time?

Thanks!

[Daklu]

Only if your license agreement includes shared licenses.  IIRC shared licenses are more expensive than static licenses, though I don't remember the cost difference.  What we've done in the past is have static licenses for the regular developers and a handful (2-3) shared licenses for those who only use LV on occassion.  We had ~20 people on the shared license and as long as the licenses were not all in use (uncommon) they could start up and use LV whenever they wanted.

[InTest]

Do you mean concurrent licences? As far as I know they're 3 times as a expensive as a standard licence!

[StefanA]

I think he does.

With concurrent licenses you can either have managed licensed and add more users to a license then the available seats or you can use umanaged concurrent licenses. In this case everybody who connects to the server and requests a license does get one.

The price for concurrent licenses is depending on the product but at least twice as much as a normal license.

Stefan

[InTest]

Thanks Stefan. I think there may be a way around this if I can upgrade the VLM to 3.0 (from 2.1) - there seems to be some sort of 'group' feature that allows users to access a pool of licences.

[rpursley8]

I don't think it does.

[InTest]

So what does the 'group' feature do?

[minnellac]

I think the group feature lets you assign users to a specific group. Then, it is possible to associate 1 or more concurrent seats to a group. This way you can manage access a little better than allowing a free for all. For example, maybe there is a developer group and a testing group. The testing group has only ponyed up the money for a single concurrent seat. The developer's group manager doesn't want to share all the seats he has purchased with the other group (even though it make the most sense from the company point-of-view). Any similarity to actual events is purely coincidental--this is fiction

The concurrent licenses seem expensive, but really, it's a very good deal. If you have 13 standalone user licenses, but only 3 people are using them all the time, you might be able to serve the other twenty people who want occasional access with just 3 concurrent seats (example numbers only). Also, management is much easier from the adminstrator's point-of-view. Transferring licenses between users is a hassle (and it's only allowed 4 times per year, I think). With concurrent licenses, everyone can install the sofware without worrying about who has what license.

[InTest]

So the group function only really works with concurrent licences?

Incidentally, has anyone ever gotten the following macro to work? I tried it earlier, on a rather large usage file, but kept getting various VB debug errors (usually error 1004)

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/C17F973322C1729F8625775B00530692?OpenDocument

It seems to work with files with just a few lines in it but breaks down with larger files.

[Kyle_M]

InTest,

It sounds like you may have a good situation for downsizing the total seat count and replacing a few seats with the flexible, concurrent licenses for people who may be interested in trying things out, but wont be full time developers. Might be able to either save some cost, or gain some flexability for similar costs.  Ive sent you a private message regarding this.

Regards,

Kyle Mozdzyn

Applications Engineering

National Instruments