License Exclusion

[BenLoosli]

Version: Windchill 12.0

Use Case: Wcadmin account removed from all license groups except License Exclusion per CS329469.

Description:

After removing the wcadmin account from all groups except License Exclusion, I cannot open files in Creo. System says user is not authorized. I had to add wcadmin back to the PTC Windchill Advanced and PTC Creo Data Management and Visualization licenses to work in Creo. When I did, it used one of each of those licenses. What does the License Exclusion really do for an account like wcadmin?

[avillanueva]

There are a number of similar posts related to this. The license exclusion already should apply to the Administrators group so adding it again might cause a conflict. My wcadmin is just in the Administrators group. However my CAD worker publishing user is in Administrators and has Creo and Advanced licenses.

[joe_morton · Accepted solution]

You have to add the License Exclusion Group to each license you want the members of the group to have access to. So basically:

• License Group 1
  • License Exclusion Group
    • Member 1
    • Member 2
• License Group 2
  • License Exclusion Group
    • Member 1
    • Member 2

The members in the License Exclusion Groups are not counted against the License Group. The big annoyance you'll quickly notice is that ALL the members of the License Exclusion Group will have the same license access. You can't set up a Test User with one license and a different Test User with a different license at the same time.

[BenLoosli]

I created the License Exclusion group at the site level and added wcadmin to it.

Then I added the License Exclusion group to the PTC Windchill Advanced and PTC Creo Data Management and Visualization licenses.

That works fine, thanks.

I removed the wcadmin from being the account used for CreoView publshing and set up a new account for publishing only. I guess to keep within license terms with PTC, this user should not be in the License Exclusion group. Only use the License Exclusion group for the wcadmin account and all others, even other accounts with the administrators group, are using actual licenses.

[TomU]

No, do not add wcadmin to any license group, including the license exclusion group.  Doing so will mess up stuff.  Yes, this limitation will prevent wcadmin from being able to open Creo (or any workgroup manager) connected to Windchill.  This is a limitation of how the licensing model is currently designed.  I disagree with it, and I've tried to get it changed, but so far, no luck.  For publishing, just create a separate user (pubadmin, etc.).  Add this new user to the license exclusion group and then configure publishing to use this account instead of wcadmin.  Any other administrator accounts you create (at site level, org level, etc.) can go in the license exclusion group, just not wcadmin.

[BenLoosli]

So I should have the following set up:

wcadmin - admin user (no licenses assigned)

PTC Windchill Advanced

     MyAdminAccount

     License Exclusion

          Publishing - User for doing Creo View publishing

     Engineering Designers

          Designer 1

          Designer 2.....Designer X

PTC Creo Data Management and Visualization 

     MyAdminAccount

     License Exclusion

          Publishing - User for doing Creo View publishing

     Engineering Designers

          Designer 1

          Designer 2.....Designer X