Private Server Licenses - Examining Usage
Contents
From the Licensing Dialog
From the Security Dialog
License Activity Log
Log Information
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 ac
tually 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 Licensing dialog, you can view usage information for all licenses served by the Private License Server.
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.
Observe, at a glance, who is using a license, directly from the Security dialog.
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 Lo
g Settings dialog. Access this dialog by clicking the Logging button, in the Licensing dialog.
Setting up real-time logging of license usage.
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 regio
n 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 r
egion 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 "GroupNa
me", license activation code "ActivationCode" for product named "PrivateServerLicense
Name"
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.
Example license usage log.