Windchill 11.1 licenses

[BenLoosli]

I am trying to connect Creo7 to Windchill 11.1 and get an error from the Server Management window in Creo.

Insufficient Windchill license to Windchill Server, <server>, connection to <server> is refused.

I have added my license with a download from PTC.com for my licenses.

What step am I missing in this poorly documented process.

[TomU]

You have to assign users to the license groups.

[TomU]

If the users are already assigned to other groups, and everyone in the group needs the same license type, then you can just add those other groups directly to the license groups.  I did this by adding certain Active Directory groups to the Windchill license groups.  It makes license management much easier for me.  Now when new users are created by I.T. they are automatically assigned to the appropriate Windchill license based on the A.D. groups they are added to.

[TomU]

Make sure they are in one of the licenses mentioned in this article:  https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS282719

[BenLoosli]

Not on AD, yet. That will happen when we go to 12.x.

I will be assigning my base Creo users to the PTC Author and Mechanical Design 1.

Other users who don't use CAD will be in the Author group.

Related question.

I have downloaded and installed the license file on my Windchill server, but when I log into Windchill, I still get a License Alert banner message? Is this normal or what additional configuration is needed to eliminate the banner.

This is with Windchill 11.1 M020 CPS20.

The upgrade testing has been good, so production upgrade and Creo 7 will be the end of this week.

[TomU]

You should be able to clear the notification.  Go to the third tab on the License Management page.

[RandyJones]

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@BenLoosli wrote:

Related question.

I have downloaded and installed the license file on my Windchill server, but when I log into Windchill, I still get a License Alert banner message? Is this normal or what additional configuration is needed to eliminate the banner.

This is with Windchill 11.1 M020 CPS20.

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From the "License Management" window, go to the "LIcense Notifications" tab, select the Notification(s) and remove them from the table.

This is "normal" behavior in that every time you get a License Alert you have to remove it from this table.

[BenLoosli]

New issue.

I need to remove the licenses from my test server and install them on my production system. How do I remove the licenses before I delete the Windchill instance on the test system?

How do I return the licenses to PTC so I can obtain a new license for my production system?

How do I divide the number of Windchill licenses between my 3 production servers? I do not want all licenses issued to 1 Windchill server.

[ScottMorris]

No need to remove from non-PROD systems. We use the same license file for all our WC systems; 2 non-PROD and 1 PROD

Working with same license file on all systems makes it easy to do the license group configuration on non-PROD and then push to PROD

We also turn off the direct connection to PTC to stop the yellow banners and prevent any unwanted changes in our license file from being pushed from PTC.

[TomU]

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@BenLoosli wrote:

How do I divide the number of Windchill licenses between my 3 production servers? I do not want all licenses issued to 1 Windchill server.

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Not possible.  All servers will have all licenses.  Licenses are based on customer number, not Windchill system.  The only way to split them is to use a completely different customer number for the other Windchill servers.  This isn't necessary though since license usage is based on unique user name.  It doesn't matter which Windchill system a user connects to, or how many of them, it still only counts as one license usage (legally to PTC) even though it may look like separate license uses on each of the different Windchill systems.

[TomU · Accepted solution]

References:

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS325969

• Licensing is important on the Production System, where users should be entitled and the limit should be taken into account
• For Dev/Test/QA systems, the only difference is that if the instance is cloned/rehosted, it will have the same Host-ID and the same license file can be used (practical)
• If Windchill is installed from scratch, it will have a different Host-ID, and then a new license file will have to be generated from the support website (takes 5-10 minutes at most)
• Unless hosted in PTC cloud, there is no limit of Dev/Test/QA Systems

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS277468

How will Windchill Licensing work for test, development and production environments?

• Entitled to the same licenses as Production, for Test and Development environments
• Issued License Keys for both landscapes
• Distribute those licenses across as many environments as needed
  • Will be limited to purchase count  

Is any limitation imposed on a maximum number of servers that can be setup?

• There is no limitation to the number of servers that can be set up
  • Example: Test and Development
• Note each Windchill instance will require its own license file  

How does Licensing work with rehosting scenarios?

• The rehost process will take care of the GUID or HostID for licensing purposes
• Not required to create a new GUID as the trusted storage will remain the same

Can a license key be assigned to multiple servers?

• PTC will issue license keys for each type of landscape - the respective license key should be used per environment

On how many environments can we deploy our licenses?

• As many environments as needed:
  • Limited to the number of purchased end-user licenses
    • The Windchill license model is based on users and not servers
    • There are no limits to the number of servers you can stand-up, but a Windchill server will require at least one valid user license to run