Licensing Model please help me Travis?

[Dazzman]

Our current setup is that we have an NLM server servicing AutoCAD and ACA we are now in the process of migrating some of our AutoCAD’s onto Building Design Suite Premium.

I understand that the additional products will call a license from the Suite license but what determines where AutoCAD or ACA would get a license from?

Is there a way to restrict the Suite core products AutoCAD/ACA to call from its pool of licenses or am I missing something obvious?

Would an option be to have a secondary NLM server to only service the Suite products?

As always any help would be appreciated.

With thanks.

[TravisNave]

The built-in cascade will determine where the license is pulled from.  With the new suites, this has become somewhat more confusing.  We've had some success ensuring that the AutoCAD licenses are set above the BDS licenses.  In any case, you could restrict license availability with an adskflex.opt options file.  I would not recommend having two NLM servers as that will cause you more problems than it is worth. 

What I would do is simply combine your licenses as you normally would and place your ACAD and ACA licenses at the top.  Then watch how the NLM behaves when licenses are checked out.  If you find out that ACAD clients are pulling BDS when ACAD is available, we can make some changes together to redirect the NLM to do as you wish. 

Just let me know.

Edit:  I do want to add that to properly combine the single ACAD and Suite licenses, you will need to have them both created on the same date.  Otherwise the new license will supersede the old one. 

[DarrenP]

i agree with travis there were some problems with the new 2012 suites

most of the problems were solved by putting the suites at the bottom and everything else at the top

unless this was Civil 3d 2012 & Infrastructure suite 2012 in this case there is a hotfix to fix the cascading bug

[Dazzman]

Thanks for that I now see why you would want to structure the license file but I have one further question on it if I have the following

4 AutoCAD NLM Licenses

4 ACA NLM Licenses

4 Building Design Suite Premium License

All Generated on the same day and I do a Perform Status Enquiry how many AutoCAD and ACA licenses will I see as being available?

Will the Suite ACAD/ACA Licenses get added to the generic count?

Once again thanks for the help.

[DarrenP]

not it won't get counted you should see 4 acd, 4 aca, 4 bdsp

[Dazzman]

Ok that makes sense.

So now for the next question how does the AutoCAD or ACA installed through the BDSP deployment determine where to call a license from, what stops the BSDP installed AutoCAD from calling from the AutoCAD pool not the BDSP one?

As yet I haven’t seen the makeup of the BSDP license as we are waiting for it to be approved by Autodesk.

Thanks again.

[TravisNave]

Nothing stops it.  It will pull the first available.  Your BDS AutoCAD could just as easily pull from an available ACAD as much as an ACAD pulls from a BDS. That's just the way cascading works.  If you find that you are pulling licenses from suites you don't want, then we can probably come up with an Options file solution for you.  Once you get it all set up and working, you'll know your needs better. 

[Dazzman]

Again thanks for all the help.

Basically what I will be trying to do is make sure that a certain number of systems always have access to the BDSP licenses so that they can cross over from Revit Architecture and AutoCAD during the next project.

So if I amend my current options file and deny this group access to the AutoCAD license using its product id 85730ACD_2012_0F and then do it in reverse for the other systems and deny them access to BDSP using its id it should do what I want?

Hopefully this would be the way to go?

Thanks.

[TravisNave]

Rather, you might consider making two defined groups of users/hosts and INCLUDE them in the packages of their respective suites.  That would implicitely deny access to the other suite.  I would think if you excluded the AutoCAD feature itself, you would fail to get a license from either. 

[Dazzman]

Thank you for that I will give it a go when I get the license files up and running.

[Dazzman]

Just got the license file it makes interesting reading its added the autocad license count to the BDSP but not for ACAD 2012?

If I need to make sure that the BDSP machines only access that license for ACAD do I just need to include them to that feature in the opt file?

--------
Status
--------
Flexible License Manager status on Thu 7/28/2011 16:46

[Detecting lmgrd processes...]
License server status: 27000@########
    License file(s) on ########: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Network License Manager\License\CAD.lic:

  cadgylic: license server UP (MASTER) v11.9

Vendor daemon status (on ########):

  adskflex: UP v11.9
Feature usage info:

Users of 64300ACD_F:  (Total of 40 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of PLIST:  (Total of 1 license issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 65300ARCHDESK_F:  (Total of 8 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 70100MAXDES_F:  (Total of 3 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85787BDSPRM_F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 66300ARDES_F:  (Total of 2 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85841ARDES_2012_0F:  (Total of 2 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85683ARDES_2011_0F:  (Total of 2 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 72600ARDES_2010_0F:  (Total of 2 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 61300ARDES_2009_0F:  (Total of 2 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85787BDSPRM_2012_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85536ACD_2011_0F:  (Total of 46 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85652BDSPRM_2011_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85503MAXDES_2011_0F:  (Total of 9 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85561ARCHDESK_2011_0F:  (Total of 14 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85595STRDET_2011_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85562BLDSYS_2011_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85607SHOWCASE_2011_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85615ALSK_2011_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85587REVIT_2011_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85543REVITST_2011_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85541RVTMPB_2011_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 71200ACD_2010_0F:  (Total of 46 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 83900MBXPRO_2010_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 82200STRDET_2010_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 73000BLDSYS_2010_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 72200ARCHDESK_2010_0F:  (Total of 14 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 70000MAXDES_2010_0F:  (Total of 9 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 74100REVIT_2010_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 73900REVITST_2010_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 73800RVTMPJ_2010_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 82400RVTMPB_2010_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 57600ACD_2009_0F:  (Total of 46 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 59900BLDSYS_2009_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 60100ARCHDESK_2009_0F:  (Total of 14 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 612003DSMAX_2009_0F:  (Total of 9 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 62100REVIT_2009_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 62200REVITST_2009_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 67800RVTMPJ_2009_0F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85700MAXDES_2012_0F:  (Total of 3 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85731ARCHDESK_2012_0F:  (Total of 8 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

Users of 85730ACD_2012_0F:  (Total of 40 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

[TravisNave]

Yeah, that actually looks right.  What you have is your combined 40 of ACAD Subscription with your 6 of BDSP.  What that will do is combine the Previous use correctly.  Thus all of your ACAD 2009-2011 will show 46.  Your 2012 will still show the 40 and combine properly with the 6 for BDSP.  Thus 2012 still has a total pool of 46, just between two different cascades. 

What you might try is EXCLUDE on the options for the BDSP machines for the 64300ACD_F feature. My thought on that is that it will only allow the use for the BDSP access, giving them only 6 seats available.  Is that what you are wanting? 

[Dazzman]

That's what I'm hoping for I will test it next week once again thanks for all of your help.

[Dazzman]

I've had a bit of a play with this and what I need to do is grant full access to BDSP for 6 systems and deny access to it for the other 50.

I know that I could exclude the 50 system but thought I would try it the other way and exclude the 6 from accessing ACAD, ACA and MAX licenses using

EXCLUDE 70100MAXDES_F HOST_GROUP GY
EXCLUDE 65300ARCHDESK_F HOST_GROUP GY
EXCLUDE 64300ACD_F HOST_GROUP GY

Doing it this way I came up with the following results

Loaded up MAX 2012 and the license file reported

Users of 85787BDSPRM_F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 1 license in use)

  "85787BDSPRM_F" v1.000, vendor: adskflex
  floating license

    Darren TECHV32-01 TECHV32-01 (v1.000) (cadgylic/27000 2010), start Wed 8/3 12:47

Closed it down checked the license to make sure it went back.

Loaded up ACA 2012 and the license file reported

Users of 85787BDSPRM_F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 1 license in use)

  "85787BDSPRM_F" v1.000, vendor: adskflex
  floating license

    Darren TECHV32-01 TECHV32-01 (v1.000) (cadgylic/27000 2011), start Wed 8/3 12:49

Again closed it down checked the license to make sure it went back.

Loaded up ACAD 2012 and the license file reported

System reports Error [0.0.0]

The loaded up 2011 closed it then 2010 closed it then 2009 and they all worked reporting.

Users of 85787BDSPRM_F:  (Total of 6 licenses issued;  Total of 1 license in use)

  "85787BDSPRM_F" v1.000, vendor: adskflex
  floating license

    Darren TECHV32-01 TECHV32-01 (v1.000) (cadgylic/27000 2011), start Wed 8/3 12:55

So any ideas as to why only ACAD 2012 refuses to work but ACA and MAX cascade into the BDSP pool when they are excluded?

Or is it just me?

Thanks.

[TravisNave]

This is a great case study, btw.

I assume your host_group GY includes your computer, TECHV32-01, and that you also have included GROUPCASEINSENSITIVE ON as an enabled option. 

If you remove the EXCLUDE on your 64300ACD_F, does AutoCAD 2012 launch as appropriate?  If not, it might be a cascadeinfo.cas issue.  Delete it, see if it works. 

What if then you tried a MAX 0 64300ACD_F HOST_GROUP GY?  That would not exclude AutoCAD, but ensure that you can't get any licenses from that pool.  That might force a cascade? 

I really enjoy this one... 

[Dazzman]

I can confirm the setting from the options file are

GROUPCASEINSENSITIVE ON
HOST_GROUP GY techv32-01 tech764-01

Playing with the exclusions I get

EXCLUDE 64300ACD_F HOST_GROUP GY

AutoCAD splash Error [0.0.0] with AutoCAD 2012  (2011,2010 and 2009 pool from the BDSP license)

# EXCLUDE 64300ACD_F HOST_GROUP GY

Users of 64300ACD_F:  (Total of 40 licenses issued;  Total of 22 licenses in use)

  "64300ACD_F" v1.000, vendor: adskflex
  floating license

    Darren TECHV32-01 TECHV32-01 (v1.000) (cadgylic/27000 7502), start Thu 8/4 12:16

The system gets a license from the main product group license.

MAX 0 64300ACD_F HOST_GROUP GY

AutoCAD splash Error [-5.414.0] with AutoCAD 2012  (2011,2010 and 2009 pool from the BDSP license)

That's it so far any thing else I could try or is it just a feature of the new license setup?

[TravisNave]

No, it's good testing. The cascading is working for the previous releases. It still could just be as simple as a corrupt cascadeinfo.cas file. Have you tried deleting it on your client machine and trying to launch 2012 again?

I would suspect that if you remove your ACD_F feature altogether from your .LIC file that you'd still get a -5 on 2012. I don't think it's cascading properly. Leads me to the cascadeinfo.cas file.

So far you seem to be doing everything right.

[Dazzman]

I have deleted the cascadeinfo.cas file and still get Error[0.0.0] on the AutoCAD 2012 splash screen and because it doesn't run the file is not recreated.

ACA 2012 still runs fine and recreates the file so I deleted it again and ran ACAD 2012 still get the error.

So close and yet so far?

[TravisNave]

I hear ya. I'm on mobile and driving, so bear with me.

Remove your exclude and delete the cascadeinfo.cas file again. Allow AutoCAD 2012 to recreate it successfully. Make sure it works. Add the exclude again and see if the failure remains.

[Dazzman]

I deleted the cascadeinfo.cas file ran AutoCAD 2012 so it created a clean file.

Set the exclusion ran it again Error[0.0.0] (ACA 2012 still runs ok and pools from the BDSP license)

Removed the exclusion and it runs pooling from the main license.

Just to make sure I did it on a live production system and that does the same thing so its not the environment I'm working in.

I take it Autodesk would have tested this all out before letting us mere mortals get hold of it