New License App and high side instances

[avillanueva]

We do not current allow our servers to phone home so we are ok with download license files and manually uploading them (12.0.2) for Windchill. Will there be any issues operating multiple production instances (high side and low side) with the new license app? Its the same user base across both instances so previously, this was compliance to the named user license model. 

[Jaime_Lee]

Hi, Antonio!

John is reviewing your forum post!  Thank you for your question!

Best,

Jaime Lee

[JGENTHNER]

The new Manage Licensing app currently manages Production license allocation and limits up to the amount purchased. This works for most customers. A workaround is required for customers whose registered users jump between multiple instances or where one user may have multiple identities.

Option 1: Go to each license host to assign at least 1 license for desired products. Then edit host info and enable the uncapped option for 180 days. We encourage labeling the host to reference "SHARED" or "REGISTERED USERS" and help us identify the use case.

Option 2: Setup a single Production licensing host with the full license allocation. Then clone additional hosts as Non-production, adding a “PROD” label to indicate production use.

As done previously, Customer Admins must continue to track registered users and ensure that the number of users accessing the software does not exceed the amount purchased.

If you'd like assistance with the setup, you may continue to open cases with our Licensing Support team via My PTC Assistance and selecting the option for License Management.

[avillanueva]

Option 2 does not work since we already have them running. I assume this was meant for cloning to create a test environment? These were installed as distinct installs with different data. So I do not think that works.

Option 1 appears to be a work around and as described with the uncapped license feature, this was meant to be a transition feature. Is PTC allowing customers to repeatedly use the uncapped option every 180 days? If the goal is make sure that customer's only use licenses to the amount they have purchased, using the work around to essentially have unlimited licenses is contradictory.  Why wasn't scenarios like mine thought of when the new license app was developed and rolled out? Will it be supported in the future so we do not have to rely on 180 day cycle updates?

[JGENTHNER]

Hi @avillanueva,

A few considerations:

• PTC was not saving your prior license host or device configurations, so when you do need to generate a license at time of renewal or with an amendment, you will need to create the host configuration to generate a new license file. In the prior application, you had to do this each time. In the new application, you should only have to create once and then modify accordingly throughout the lifecyle of changes that could occur.
• Cloning as I referenced above is a practice of copying the product configurations so you only need to perform the license allocation once. As you work through the cloning steps, you will be prompted for a new host name and the ability to change the device ID.
• Cloning is available when creating a Non-production host; in the future, we're looking at opportunities to expand that to Production hosts as well.
• Creating a Non-production host is a temporary workaround for being able to reuse your entire license allocation across servers in instances where your Registered Users are moving between Production instances. Non-production hosts will not count against the allocation numbers, which allows the reuse of licenses up to the amount purchased. We are working on a resolution so that you do not need to classify these servers as Non-production in the future.

We are working to address a better solution for multiple production instances that share Registered Users to the full amount. For most of our customers, there was a desire to have PTC provide better tracking of product allocations and to aid situations where one purchase or population of product licenses may need to be split across divisions, departments, or the like, for a different set of users. Tracking of the allocations is useful in these scenarios.

If needed, we have Licensing Support team members available to assist with your setup. Please open a case through My PTC Assistant and select License Management. The team is happy to assist to make the transition smoother while our tools continue to evolve to support all products and all scenarios.