Redundant license servers

[Anonymous]

Is there any way to get this to work on separate subnets?

If not, that leaves the distributed server as our only option, and that isn't very practical for our environment.

We have a main office with roughly 30-40 CAD users, although normal usage stays between 20-30.

However, we have 11 CAD users in our branch office.

We have 42 licenses total so I would have to split it up 31 and 11 and this could potentially cause problems.

There is of course the option to purchase more licenses to cover the overhead, but that isn't really the goal.

The main reason we need to have the licenses available on separate servers is in case our WAN link goes down, which does happen more often than we would like. This is also south florida, so we're approaching hurricane season and that hit us pretty hard last year causing a lot of downtime and lost billing.

Is there any other way to set this up other than splitting licenses?

[Anonymous]

I don't see how redundant servers would solve your specific problem. It's
more if one server goes down, not the WAN link.
If the WAN goes down you should be able to request a temporary license from
Autodesk pretty quick.

--
Best Regards, Jimmy Bergmark
CAD and Database Developer Manager at www.pharmadule-emtunga.com
Blog: http://jtbworld.blogspot.com
JTB FlexReport (FLEXnet / FLEXlm report tool) -
http://www.jtbworld.com/jtbflexreport
SmartPurger (Purges automatically) - http://www.jtbworld.com/smartpurger.htm
or download some freeware at http://www.jtbworld.com
More on AutoCAD 2006 and 2007
http://www.jtbworld.com/autocad2006.htm
http://www.jtbworld.com/autocad2007.htm


wrote in message news:5175961@discussion.autodesk.com...
Is there any way to get this to work on separate subnets?

If not, that leaves the distributed server as our only option, and that
isn't very practical for our environment.

We have a main office with roughly 30-40 CAD users, although normal usage
stays between 20-30.

However, we have 11 CAD users in our branch office.

We have 42 licenses total so I would have to split it up 31 and 11 and this
could potentially cause problems.

There is of course the option to purchase more licenses to cover the
overhead, but that isn't really the goal.

The main reason we need to have the licenses available on separate servers
is in case our WAN link goes down, which does happen more often than we
would like. This is also south florida, so we're approaching hurricane
season and that hit us pretty hard last year causing a lot of downtime and
lost billing.

Is there any other way to set this up other than splitting licenses?

[Anonymous]

Well, we were thinking along the lines of having two servers in the branch office and one in the main, therefore if the WAN went down, essentially the main office server would be 'down' according to those two servers, they would continue licensing for the branch office, and the one at the main office would continue licensing for this office. Although obviously the two separate subnets is a problem to begin with.

But perhaps we're not looking at the redudant servers option in the correct way.

We don't have an IT person in the branch office, so it would require travel time in order to request a temporary license from the server. Not to mention to set up the emergency outbound connection in that office, as they currently access the internet through the WAN.

[Anonymous]

You need at least two servers up and running to get the licenses using
redundant servers.
http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2005/11/autocad_network.html
http://www.autodesk.fr/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=2893785&linkID=2475323

--
Best Regards, Jimmy Bergmark
CAD and Database Developer Manager at www.pharmadule-emtunga.com
Blog: http://jtbworld.blogspot.com
JTB FlexReport (FLEXnet / FLEXlm report tool) -
http://www.jtbworld.com/jtbflexreport
SmartPurger (Purges automatically) - http://www.jtbworld.com/smartpurger.htm
or download some freeware at http://www.jtbworld.com
More on AutoCAD 2006 and 2007
http://www.jtbworld.com/autocad2006.htm
http://www.jtbworld.com/autocad2007.htm


wrote in message news:5176051@discussion.autodesk.com...
Well, we were thinking along the lines of having two servers in the branch
office and one in the main, therefore if the WAN went down, essentially the
main office server would be 'down' according to those two servers, they
would continue licensing for the branch office, and the one at the main
office would continue licensing for this office. Although obviously the two
separate subnets is a problem to begin with.

But perhaps we're not looking at the redudant servers option in the correct
way.

We don't have an IT person in the branch office, so it would require travel
time in order to request a temporary license from the server. Not to mention
to set up the emergency outbound connection in that office, as they
currently access the internet through the WAN.

[Anonymous]

So then distributed is basically our only option for the WAN issues.

That's what I pretty much figured but they wanted me to check.

If this is what they want, then if licensing becomes a problem, we'll just have to purchase more.

The billable hours saved are more than worth the cost anyway.

[Anonymous]

Try to find the correct balance between the offices and make sure to use
TIMEOUT set at 15 minutes.
Monitor the license usage with for example JTB FlexReport that will help you
keep down your costs and find out how many licenses you actually need at
each location.

--
Best Regards, Jimmy Bergmark
CAD and Database Developer Manager at www.pharmadule-emtunga.com
Blog: http://jtbworld.blogspot.com
JTB FlexReport (FLEXnet / FLEXlm report tool) -
http://www.jtbworld.com/jtbflexreport
SmartPurger (Purges automatically) - http://www.jtbworld.com/smartpurger.htm
or download some freeware at http://www.jtbworld.com
More on AutoCAD 2006 and 2007
http://www.jtbworld.com/autocad2006.htm
http://www.jtbworld.com/autocad2007.htm


wrote in message news:5176095@discussion.autodesk.com...
So then distributed is basically our only option for the WAN issues.

That's what I pretty much figured but they wanted me to check.

If this is what they want, then if licensing becomes a problem, we'll just
have to purchase more.

The billable hours saved are more than worth the cost anyway.

[Anonymous]

ewells wrote:
> Not to mention to set up the emergency outbound connection
> in that office, as they currently access the internet
> through the WAN.

If this is an option, you may want to set it up so that they could VPN
into your main office over the emergency link to connect to the license
server.

It should be possible to make the swap from the leased line to an
ADSL/Cable connection fairly simple and document/label it clearly enough
that a trusted user at the remote site could make the change without
direct IT supervision.

Jason

[Anonymous]

Well the backup connection in the branch office is actually in the situation that we lose all connectivity here, or something happens to this office, so they wouldn't need to use a VPN, but rather just be able to work standalone from that office.

[Anonymous]

In article <5175961@discussion.autodesk.com>, ewells <> says...
> Is there any way to get this to work on separate subnets?
>
> If not, that leaves the distributed server as our only option, and that isn=
> 't very practical for our environment.
>
> We have a main office with roughly 30-40 CAD users, although normal usage s=
> tays between 20-30.
>
> However, we have 11 CAD users in our branch office.
>
> We have 42 licenses total so I would have to split it up 31 and 11 and this=
> could potentially cause problems.
>
> There is of course the option to purchase more licenses to cover the overhe=
> ad, but that isn't really the goal.
>
> The main reason we need to have the licenses available on separate servers =
> is in case our WAN link goes down, which does happen more often than we wou=
> ld like. This is also south florida, so we're approaching hurricane season =
> and that hit us pretty hard last year causing a lot of downtime and lost bi=
> lling.
>
> Is there any other way to set this up other than splitting licenses?


Redundant servers only work for a location that can access any 2 of the
3 servers. Any location that can't access at least 2 of the servers will
go down.

I'd recommemnd a distributed setup. That's what we have here. If the
link goes down, each location is limited to only the licenses on their
server.

However if the link is up, you can have the clients configured to search
multiple servers. We only have 6 licenses on our Texas server. If those
are all used up and a 7th user in texas tries to start AutoCAD, it get's
pulled through the netwrok from our Minnesota office. Works the other
way to. As long as the connecxtion is up between the two offices, the
total number of licenses in both locations are completely available at
either location.

We even have the clients configured to look for a 3rd, non-existent
server so if one of our servers goes down, we can get a different server
up and running quickly. The Network License Activation Utility will then
let us get a new license bound to the new servers. LAst time our server
guys reorganized our servers and forced us to move out license server,
we had it moved in less than 1/2 hour.

--
Darren J. Young
CAD/CAM Systems Developer

Cold Spring Granite Company
202 South Third Avenue
Cold Spring, Minnesota 56320

Email: dyoung@coldspringgranite.com