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Windchill 11.1 - the new Licensing functionality

adeshmukh-2
12-Amethyst

Windchill 11.1 - the new Licensing functionality

Hi All,

I guess you heard already about the new Windchill 11.1 License Management functionality introduced with 11.1 F000.

 

A HUB ( https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article?n=CS277240 )article is created to place all the related information.

 

I hope this helps to get started with the Licensing.

 

Thanks,

Amit

29 REPLIES 29

Thanks for the info.

Marco
BenLoosli
23-Emerald II
(To:adeshmukh-2)

One thing I noticed is that Windchill will need to be on the internet and contact PTC license server every 6 hours for license verification. Please tell me I misread this as our Windchill is not and NEVER will be connected to the internet to communicate with PTC servers.

 

RandyJones
19-Tanzanite
(To:BenLoosli)


@BenLoosli wrote:

One thing I noticed is that Windchill will need to be on the internet and contact PTC license server every 6 hours for license verification. Please tell me I misread this as our Windchill is not and NEVER will be connected to the internet to communicate with PTC servers.

 


The document mentions an Offline Mode:

"Use this mode when your Windchill instance operates in offline mode or unable to communicate with PTC backend system."

 

I wonder what it takes to switch from "Online Mode" to "Offline Mode".

For us with Windchill on the internet the "Online Mode" sounds like an "accident waiting to happen". For example if one's WAN connection goes down 6 hrs is a extremely optimistic repair time. Or what happens if PTC's Backend has issues or connectivity issues. The 6 hour grace period should be more on the order of 6 days.

jbailey
17-Peridot
(To:BenLoosli)

IT looks like it will connect and validate every 24 hours, with a 6 hour grace period.

 

That being said, I agree.  If you are buying a subscription license (or you own perpetual), it shouldn't have to validate every 24 hours.  IF they would use an out of the box license management tool like FlexLM, they could easily just have the license expire when the contract is over instead of validating

Hi Ben,

 

When you install a fresh version of WIndchill 11.1,  a 6 hours of the grace period will be given to you to install the new license. If you can not then Windchill will automatically shutdown itself in 6 hours.

 

There are two mechanisms with which a license file can be aquired

1.Online Mode: By connecting to PTC server, you can directly acquire the license 

2.Offline Mode : A license file can be downloaded from PTC website and installed on the Windchill server which is not connected to internet.

 

If you are connected to internet, every 24 hours Windchill will communicate with PTC license server to check if there are any changes made to the  existing Licenses.

 

Let me know if this helps. 

BenLoosli
23-Emerald II
(To:adeshmukh-2)

That does help.

I do not understand the need to validate a license with PTC servers every 24 hours. Please explain the rational behind this?

If everyone just loads the Windchill Licensing as offline, then there are no validation checks and my system will run until I do an upgrade to Windchill 12 and need a new license.

jbailey
17-Peridot
(To:BenLoosli)

I agree 100%.  Especially with subscriptions..  You buy a license, the license is valid for a time period.  It should only have to validate a license on the import of a new license into the license management tool...

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:BenLoosli)

It checks for changes every 24 hours, but it will not shut down as long as it still has a valid license.  The 24 hour check for changes (or lack thereof) should have no impact on the system staying operational as long as there is at least one valid license.  In the case of perpetual licenses, this means it should stay running forever, even if it can never contact PTC again.

 

One thing I noticed when testing this out - the PTC tool that issues licenses seems to be having some problem sending out mixed licenses.  We have both perpetual and subscription licenses but the license file only included the perpetual ones.  I have a case open but no solution yet.

This is part of the strategy that has been implemented for the smart connected product. The scheduler will only check if there are any modifications done on the PTC side and help the System Administrator save his efforts for updating the licenses.

 

For Offline licenses, when you get a license file from PTC , it will have expiration information and you will need get another file once it gets expired. The compliance notifications are added to New Windchill to notify the administrator as time comes closer to expiry.

I have determined that in most cases, both PTC and Windchill are not "smart" and therefore should never be connected...

Vincent-Kulak
13-Aquamarine
(To:jbailey)

@jbailey You made my day Smiley Very Happy

 

@adeshmukh-2 License cost increase ?

I try.  I think there is so much promise and PTC keeps shooting themselves in the foot on delivering the promise.   I had a call yesterday with a Tier 2 Windchill guy.  We solved my problem based on an article around something that was a problem in Windchill 10.1/ 10.2.  He was like "I cant believe we haven't fixed this yet" 

DaveEngel
5-Regular Member
(To:adeshmukh-2)

Sounds like this Manual/Offline mode is what you would want if your Windchill server has no Internet connection?

Yes, that is the option if you are on secure environment and not connected to internet.

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:adeshmukh-2)

For all who are following this thread, it does not appear that PTC currently has a solution for test users, administrators, or service accounts.  The Windchill legal agreement requires one license per individual (real person) but Windchill 11.1 is requiring one license per logon (or username).  Those are two very different things.  In the current implementation you would need to buy extra licenses for test users, service accounts, and possibly even administrators, even though this is legally not required.  I've had a case open with tech support for almost a month now and I'm still waiting for a solution.  I will update this thread once I know more.

Marco_Tosin
21-Topaz I
(To:TomU)

Thanks a lot for your update.

 

Marco
jbailey
17-Peridot
(To:TomU)

We have a case open as well. Our suggestion was providing a way to tie accounts together, where someone who has multiple account access (for test or administrative purposes) can make a selection to “use windchill as” another login. For us, it’s more important for admin purposes. Especially since we are not allowed to have multiple smart cards at NASA.
TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:jbailey)

My preference would be to use email addresses as the unique identifier.  Then multiple logons could be created per person but all still share the same email address.  Unfortunately using the same email address for multiple users breaks Windchill when creating new products or libraries.  (Similar to CS168305)

DaveEngel
5-Regular Member
(To:TomU)

I agree, I have multiple administrators with multiple accounts, sometimes we have to make test accounts on the fly to test various functions etc.  It is difficult to test some workflows without multiple accounts.

adeshmukh-2
12-Amethyst
(To:TomU)

Hi Tom,

 

I was looking for new enhancements and a new feature is being added which sort of covers this question: License Exclusion Group is a new enhancement, however, the documentation is not available yet as they are still working on it. They are considering this test user scenario where you can add users to a group and it will not consume any licenses.

I will share more details, once I the documentation is available.

 

I know internal name of the release for which this is going to be introduced but not sure if it will be Windchill 11.1 or 12.0.

 

 

Regards,

Amit

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:TomU)

After more than three months I finally have an answer:

 

"There is no change in policy with respect to multiple logins associated with a person and with respect to license exclusion group; there will be more information as 11.1 M010 is released, but it will be an Out Of The Box license group which the admin can make a member of other license groups and the count of users that belong to the license exclusion group will not count against the purchased quantity."

 

This information will be included in the Windchill 11.1 M010 documentation currently scheduled for release in June of 2018.

Avalo
12-Amethyst
(To:adeshmukh-2)

Hi,

 

i dont understand the module licenses.

We use WIndchill PDMLink with the MPMLink Module.

If i have a license for a Manufacturing BOM Manager i also Need a licese for the MPMLink Module per user?

Same with the PDMLink module licenses... if i have users with Contributor license i need also a PDMLink Module license?

bmüller
13-Aquamarine
(To:Avalo)

Hi,

 

so finally we don't have to argue with management why we should buy enough licenses for windchill 😄

 

If we have now heavy user licenses, will they be converted to PTC Navigate Author  + Windchill MCAD DM I?

IN our WC 11.0 M030 Setup PTC Mechanical Design II License has less rights than PTC Mechanical Design I License ? Is there any comparison chart of all license features?

 

I think it's very nice that PTC provides a lot of information and active contribution in community. But for me as non-native English speaker the video sounds like a recorded Skype call with bad internet connection. More quality would be nice.

If you go on Site --> Profiles (or Org --> Profiles) and select Information button, you can see all actions granted to that profile.

Marco
bmüller
13-Aquamarine
(To:Marco_Tosin)

yes, but a compassion chart would be nice. Some table where you can see the differences.

 

e.g. PTC Mechanical Design II License differs by one line to PTC Mechanical Design I License (at least in WC 11.0M030)

 

 

The high-level overview of the chart would be updated to knowledge base document shortly about what capabilities have been given to different roles. Refer to https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article?n=CS277240 for more information.

The high-level overview of the chart would be updated to knowledge base document shortly about what capabilities have been given to different roles. Refer to https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article?n=CS277240 for more information.

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:bmüller)


If we have now heavy user licenses, will they be converted to PTC Navigate Author  + Windchill MCAD DM I?

 


Just to clarify, existing licenses will not be converted.  Both light and heavy user licenses fall under the license group name PTC PDMLink Module License and license feature name ptc_pdmlink_named.  There is no practical difference in the functionality available to light and heavy users.  The distinction is a legal one based on what departments they work in.  (See Licensing Basis Table)

 

Now I'm sure you could work with PTC to convert these licenses to something else if you wanted to, but it won't happen automatically and doing so will probably cost you more money in the long run (annual subscription fees.)

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