Private Server Licenses - Configuring Usage

Main article: Using a Private Server License

Once a Private Server license has been added to a Private License Server, it is typically configured with respect to its usage – which users, or defined groups of users, can access and use it. All such configuration is performed in the Security dialog. Access this dialog by selecting the license you wish to configure – in the License Usage region of the Licensing dialog – and clicking the Configure button.

By default there is a single group called All Users, with one user added. The user name is set to the wildcard character *, which means any user on the network is a valid member of this group. If you intend to control which users have access, or to assign your users to groups, remove this user.
 

Managing Users

A User is a computer name on your network. The dialog provides controls for adding new users, editing the names of users and removing users, as required. If you want to set up specific usage rights for a Private Server license, rather than offer the license to everyone on the network, then you will need to add and manage the specific users that you want to give access to that license.

Adding a New User Directly

This is the direct method of user addition. Right-click within the right-hand region of the Security dialog and choose Add New User from the pop-up menu that appears. The Add User dialog will appear, where you can directly type the name of the user (computer name) to be added.
 

Each new user will appear as a distinct row entry within the currently focused group (where multiple groups exist), with an empty checkbox appearing in the field to the right. This checkbox is used to monitor/report whether the user is currently using an instance (or seat) of the available license.

Adding a New User via Search

The left-hand region of the Security dialog provides a listing of all detected local area networks. Expand the relevant network to which the required users are connected and search for their particular computer names. Once found, select, drag and drop into the required group in the right-hand side of the dialog (where such specific groups exist) or into the default All Users group.

Editing/Removing Users

To change the name of a user after it has been added, simply click inside the area for the user's name and edit as required. Alternatively, select the user entry, right-click and choose Edit User Name from the context menu.

To remove a user, simply select the entry for that user, right-click and choose Remove User From Group from the context menu.

Managing Groups

Dividing your users into groups is an optional feature. It allows you to divide the total pool of seats supported by a license, into smaller sets. Typically you would create groups to ensure that there are always a suitable number of license seats available in the various departments that are using the software. You can also ensure that specific users always have access to the software by including them in a group that has the same number of license seats allocated as the number or users in that group.

Creating Groups

To create a new group, right-click anywhere within the right-hand region of the Security dialog and choose Add Group from the pop-up menu that appears. The Add Group dialog will open, where you can define the name for the new group.
 

Editing/Removing Groups

To change the name of a group after it has been created, simply click inside the area for the group's name and edit as required. Alternatively, select the group entry, right-click and choose Edit Group from the context menu.

To remove a group, simply select the entry for that group, right-click and choose Remove Group from the context menu. All users currently added to the group will be deleted also.

Assigning a User to a Group

A user can be assigned to a group in one of the following ways:

• Right-click on the group entry and choose Add New User from the context menu (see Adding a New User Directly).

• Search for the required user in the left-hand side of the Security dialog and drag and drop onto the group name entry in the right-hand side of the dialog (see Adding a New User via Search).

• Drag and drop the required user from the default All Users group, or another defined group, into the required group.

For methods two and three in the list, multiple users can be moved into or between groups using the multi-select features (Ctrl+click and Shift+click).

Allocating Seats of a License by Group

License summary information for the Private Server license being configured, is displayed at the bottom of the group/user definition area.

This information can be summarized as follows:

• Checked out licenses – the number of seats of the license that are currently being used by users.

• Assigned licenses – the number of seats of the license that have been assigned over the various groups (where they exist). When you first access the Security dialog to configure a license, the maximum number of seats will, by default, be assigned to the All Users group.

• Total licenses – the total number of simultaneous users allowed for the current Private Server license (i.e. the number of seats of the license).

Once the users have been assigned to their respective group(s), the next step is to enter the number of simultaneous users allowed for each group or, put another way, the number of seats of the license allocated for use by each group. This is done by entering a number adjacent to each group name. This is illustrated in the following example image.

In this case, the total number of seats supported by the license (simultaneous users) is 5. These seats have been divided over four specific groups:

• Communications Group (1)

• Embedded Engineering Group (1)

• FPGA Design Group (1)

• PCB Design (2)

 
If the number of Assigned license seats is greater than the Total number of seats supported by the license, the summary information will be displayed in Red and a warning dialog will appear (upon clicking OK) alerting you to the fact that your license is "over-allocated".

If the number of Assigned license seats is less than the Total number of seats supported by the license, the summary information will be displayed in Green and a warning dialog will appear (upon clicking OK) alerting you to the fact that your license is "under-allocated".

Providing User Access to Multiple Private Server Licenses

A single Private License Server can be used to license multiple instances of Altium Designer. A range of licensing options are available for Altium Designer, each offering a subset of capabilities targeted towards specific members of design teams:

• Custom Board Implementation

• Custom Board Front-End Design

• Viewer Edition license

A Private License Server can be configured to provide any combination of these licensing options.

When assigning seats of a license to users, use the groups feature to control which users have access to one or multiple licensing options. This is achieved by adding the same group and user when configuring different Private Server licenses. The following image demonstrates this situation.

The user FPGADES2 in the FPGA Design group has been added in the assignment configuration for both the Altium Designer Custom Board Front-End Design and Altium Designer Custom Board Implementation Private Server licenses. Looking closely at the assignments made, this user is always guaranteed access to both licensing options.