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Disponible en español: ¿Qué licencia esta siendo utilizada? (6.x/7.x)
Disponível em português: Múltiplas Licenças - Qual será utilizada? (6.x/7.x)
Applies to: All 6.x/7.x releases, standalone and Concurrent Network client
I have more than one license, possibly even mixed between network client, activated standalone, and trial. How does the software decide which license to use?
In general, each application—@RISK, Evolver, NeuralTools, PrecisionTree, StatTools, TopRank—remembers which license you used last, and tries to reuse it the next time you run that same application. That seems like a simple idea, but in particular situations the rule can work out in surprising ways. This article explains how a Palisade application decides which license to use each time.
The key concept is the "license to use". Each application remembers the license to use, and tries to use the same license that it used last time. If you go into License Manager » Select License and pick a different license, the application remembers the new license to use for you only, not for anyone else who might log in to the same computer.
Each application remembers this separately, so different components of the DecisionTools Suite can use different licenses.
But what about the first time I run @RISK? There's no "license to use" in my user profile, because I've never run the application, so how does @RISK know which license to use?
Each application actually has two "license to use" settings, one at the machine level and one at the user level. The application uses whichever one was set more recently.
The machine-level license to use is set at install time, and the user-level license to use is set at run time. Details:
The installer for a standalone license presents a Customer Information screen, and sets the machine-level license to use depending on your selection. If you select "I am upgrading" on the Customer Information screen, the installer doesn't change the license to use.
The installer for a Concurrent Network client sets the machine-level license to use to "Network:", which tells the client software to get a license dynamically from servers listed in the System Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node\FLEXlm License Manager\PALISADE_LICENSE_FILE. (Omit WOW6432Node in 32-bit Windows.)
The installer for a course license or a textbook license sets the machine-level license to use to that license.
License Manager in each application sets the user-level license to use, when you click OK in Select License or when you activate a license. If you select or activate a DecisionTools Suite license, License Manager sets the user-level license to use for all products in the Suite.
When you deactivate a license in License Manager, the license to use is not changed, so the next time you run the application License Manager will appear and prompt you to select or activate a license.
Technical detail: Licenses activated during install are remembered in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE in the System Registry, but licenses activated or selected in License Manager are remembered only in HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
If I have a DecisionTools Suite license and an @RISK license, or @RISK Industrial and @RISK Professional licenses, what determines which one is used the first time I run @RISK?
(@RISK is just an example here. All the same rules apply to Evolver, NeuralTools, PrecisionTree, and StatTools. TopRank requires a DecisionTools Suite license.)
The first time you run @RISK, when no user-level license to use has been set, @RISK looks for an available license depending on which installer was run most recently. If the latest or only install was the DecisionTools Suite, then @RISK will try, in order, to use a DecisionTools Industrial license, DecisionTools Professional, @RISK Industrial, @RISK Professional, and @RISK Standard. If the latest or only install was @RISK, then @RISK will try first for an @RISK license and then for a DecisionTools Suite license. Whichever one it finds, it records that as the user-level license to use and will use the same one next time you run @RISK.
When you run a Concurrent Network client version of @RISK for the first time, it goes through the same process if it was set up to use just one license server. If it was set up with multiple license servers, then it looks on all available servers for each type of license, before moving on to look on all available servers for the next type of license. Whichever one it finds, it records the license type but not the specific server in the user-level license to use.
Then @RISK can use a DecisionTools Suite license?
@RISK can use a DecisionTools Suite license, even if only @RISK is installed and not the whole Suite. If the Suite is installed, and you have an @RISK license, you can use @RISK on that license but the other components of the Suite can't use the @RISK license.
This gives you a lot of flexibility. For example, you might have an activated license of @RISK but decide to install the DecisionTools Suite as a trial, or on a short-term training license. Via License Manager » Select License, you can use your activated @RISK license but run the other components of the Suite on your trial or training license.
Concurrent Network "seats" for the DecisionTools Suite are not divisible. If you have a one-user Concurrent Network license, two people can't use the Suite at the same time, whether they're using the same component or different components. If you have a two-user Concurrent Network license, two people can use the Suite at the same time, but they are taking both "seats" between them, whether they're using the same component or different components.
What if the license I was using becomes unavailable—it expires, or it's a Concurrent Network license and all seats happen to be taken? Is there automatic failover if another license is available?
In a Concurrent Network client, the software will automatically fail over to any unexpired license for the same product and edition, if one exists on any server listed in PALISADE_LICENSE_FILE (above), but it won't automatically use license for a different product or edition on any server. In the latter case, the user can still click Select License in License Manager to see if any suitable licenses are available.
For other license types, there's no automatic failover. The software will tell you that the license is no longer usable. In License Manager, you can then click Select License and select the other license. The application will remember that choice next time.
Can you give some examples?
You have DecisionTools Suite Professional (activated) and you install a trial of @RISK Industrial (trial). Whenever you run Evolver, NeuralTools, PrecisionTree, StatTools, or TopRank, it will continue to use the DecisionTools Suite Professional license. The next time you run @RISK, you will get the Industrial trial license, but you can switch to the activated Professional license by clicking Help » License Manager » Select License.
You have @RISK (activated), and you install a DecisionTools Suite Industrial trial. Whenever you run any application in the Suite, including @RISK, it will use the DecisionTools Suite Industrial trial license. If you are preparing a presentation and want to avoid the Trial watermarks in your graphs, you can switch @RISK to the activated license by clicking Help » License Manager » Select License. After that, @RISK will continue to use the activated license, but the other components will use the trial license.
You install @RISK without activating it, so all user profiles are running on a trial license. Later, you activate the software. @RISK remembers to use the activated license for you, but it still remembers the trial for another user who previously ran on the trial license. That user can select the activated license via Select License in License Manager. See One User Doesn't Get the Activated License.
A Concurrent Network client of the DecisionTools Suite was installed on your computer, and you launch @RISK. Your company's license server has an @RISK Industrial license and a DecisionTools Suite Professional license. Since the last product installed was the Suite, @RISK uses the DecisionTools Suite Professional license. However, you can open License Manager » Select License and select the @RISK Industrial license, and @RISK will remember your selection the next time.
Your company has two license servers, A and B, and the Evolver install on your computer is set up to use both of them in that order. A has a Concurrent Network license for the DecisionTools Suite Professional, and B has Evolver Industrial. The first you run Evolver, even though server A is listed first Evolver will use the Evolver Industrial license from server B, because the software tries to choose a license that matches exactly what was installed.
You are a university IT administrator, and you install standalone copies of the DecisionTools Suite in your computer lab, with the course license. A year later, you place the next year's license on all the lab computers. Each student who tries to run gets a message that no license is available, and must use Select License to elect the new license. (This happens because the license to use is separately stored for each user. To override the old setting for all users, you must reinstall the software with the new license, or use the System Registry edit shown in Changing Standalone Workstation to Concurrent Client.)
Last edited: 2015-07-30