Private Server Licenses - Examining Usage
Main article: Using a Private Server License
Having installed your Private License Server, activated/added the required Private Server licenses and configured how those licenses are to be used, it is only natural to want to be able to examine how those 'served' licenses are actually being used. Such interrogation can aid in honing the configuration of license usage, allowing you to modify seat assignments based on actual license use, rather than perceived use.
As an example, consider a Comms Engineering team, the configured group of which has access to four seats of a license. Examination over time reveals that the team are only ever using two of those seats, which would be better assigned to other users, or groups of users, who perhaps have access to less seats than they need!
On the server side, current license usage can be checked in a number of ways.
From the Licensing Dialog
The current license usage can be checked in the Licensing dialog. In the License Usage section of the dialog, click the plus (+) symbol to the left of a license entry in the grid to expand that license, providing details of who is currently using that license. The User Count field gives a summary of how many of the total available seats of the license are currently being used.
From the Security Dialog
You can also examine the current license usage in the Security dialog. Select the license of interest in the License Usage region of the Licensing dialog and click the Configure button – in the subsequent Security dialog, those users currently using an instance of that license will have a tick displayed in their associated check box.
License Activity Log
Further, more detailed examination of license usage can be made by creating an activity log, allowing you to see just how the licenses provided by the Private License Server are being used. The logging feature is enabled from the Log Settings dialog. Access this dialog by clicking the Logging button, in the Licensing dialog.
You can specify where you would like the log to be created. By default, logs will be stored at the following location:
\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local Settings\Application Data\AltiumSecurityService
The log is not one continuous file, but rather a set of files. Log files are created on a weekly basis, starting on a Monday. As part of the feature, you can specify the time period over which you wish to keep the log files. By default, this is set to 5 weeks. Files will be kept up to the specified time period, after which time the oldest file will be deleted before the next file is created.
Log Information
Information is written to the log file when:
- A user 'takes' a license, by selecting the relevant Private Server license entry in the Available Licenses region of the My Account page (DXP»My Account) and clicking the Use selected license option.
- A user 'releases' a license, by selecting the relevant Private Server license entry in the Available Licenses region of the My Account page and clicking the Release selected license option.
When a license is 'taken' for use, the information written to the log consists of two entries, appearing in the format:
Date Time | "UserName" on computer "ComputerName" trying to check-out, license activation code "ActivationCode" for product named "PrivateServerLicenseName"
Date Time | "UserName" on computer "ComputerName" check-out completed, group "GroupName", license activation code "ActivationCode" for product named "PrivateServerLicenseName"
where,
UserName is the person's computer log-in name (e.g. Joe.Bloggs).
ComputerName is the name of the computer, as seen on the network (e.g. JoeTest).
ActivationCode is the 8 character activation code associated to the Private Server license (e.g. ABCD-WXYZ).
PrivateServerLicenseName is the name or role of the license, as displayed in the Available Licenses region of the My Account page (e.g. Altium Designer Custom Board Implementation, Summer 09).
GroupName is the name of a specific group configured for the Private Server license, to which the user has been added (e.g. PCB Design)
When a user 'releases' a license they are using, the information written to the log consists of a further two entries, appearing in the format:
Date Time | "UserName" on computer "ComputerName" trying to check-in, license activation code "ActivationCode" for product named "PrivateServerLicenseName"
Date Time | "UserName" on computer "ComputerName" check-in completed, license activation code "ActivationCode" for product named "PrivateServerLicenseName"
The following image shows an example of the usage information recorded in a log. For the purposes of this illustration, spaces have been inserted to separate log entry pairings and the real activation codes have been replaced by the entry CODE-HERE.