Vault Users

[Anonymous]

Is there any way to view who is logged onto vault. We have 4 licenses and 5 users. This is not a problem because we never use CAD all at the same time. There’s always someone in a CAM packages for example. But when people log off vault still says there’s not enough licenses, Is there any way to view who’s using the licences in vault? I have full admin rights on vault.

Cheers

Chris

[olearya · Accepted solution]

Hey Chris,

The ADMS log records user log in and log out interaction, which you can track back through to see who is logged on and there is limited information available in the flexlm console as to the number of licenses in use.

Hope this helps,

[igee]

Hello Allan,

1. We need to give our clients and construction teams (non-autodesk users) web-based access to view and add pdf files in our planning vault.  Are we required to purchace vault professional licences for each of them?

2. I want my non-autodesk personnel to access our planning vault to share files from applications other than autodesk products and MS Office through a LAN connection (local access). What type of licence should I purchase for them? or can Vault basic work for them?

3. I have a quantity surveyor who needs to access dwg files from our planning vault (local access). He use an autocad viewer to view drawings and to measure. What type of vault licence must he have?

Regards,

Leon

[olearya]

Hi Leon,

A few explanations - bare with me 🙂

In terms of "license types" all Autodesk Vault licensing is concurrent - this means we license Vault via a network licenses that set the maximum number of users permitted to access Vault at the same time. Furthermore users cannot mix Server and Client installations - this means that if your server is Autodesk Vault Professional, only Autodesk Vault Professional clients are able to connect (You cannot connect to a Professional server with Vault Basic clients).

In terms of external parties, from the Autodesk Vault lic agreement we make the following user definition:

For this product, “Personnel” in the License and Services Agreement shall mean Licensee’s individual employees and Licensee’s consultants, contractors, customers, agents and others with whom Licensee conducts business for whom Licensee has purchased a license to Licensed Materials who Access the Licensed Materials only for Licensee’s benefit or as part of Licensee’s project.

So, if desired you can purchase licenses and provide access to external parties via VPN or some other method, there are some further definitions around the licensing behavior and VPN in the EULA which may be worth reading through. 

Note that for users requiring read only access to the data in your Vault - Autodesk Vault Professional does provide a read only web client that will allow access without consuming a license.

Finally - Autodesk does provide a lower cost license "Autodesk Vault Office" that permits non-CAD users read-write Web Client access to Vault Professional along with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Ppt) add-ins.  It may be worthwhile speaking to your Autodesk Partner about this license for some of your users, as I mention this license does not give the user a full thick client but they can check out and check in single Office documents / pdf etc via a webclient.

Hope this helps.

[igee]

Thank you Allan, your explanations helps a lot!

A few more questions though:

1. Can the vault administrator set an automatic timeout on each login?

2. Can the vault administrator force a logout?

3. Is Vault Office access available ONLY via Web-client or can Local Office users also access the vault through a LAN/VPN connection?

Regards,

Leon

[olearya]

Hi Leon,

No problems:

1. No, there is a default timeout period set for all licenses but this timeout is based on inactivity @20 minutes

2. No, not really, restarting the license manager will release licenses momentarily freeing them up for others to access but that's about it.

3. Note that all clients connect to the Vault server - in this way there is no difference between the Web Client or Thick Client - users require secure access to your server either way regardless of where they are.

Cheers,

[cbenner]

Allen,

One other point I might add is that if you are using ECO's, the timeout is almost nullified.  20 minutes of inactivity will automatically log out a user, but the ECO system pings your server every few minutes looking for updates, so no lisense ever has a chance to be inactive for 20 minutes.  Something I read about a few weeks ago, and may have no bearing here at all... but I thought it was worth noting.

[Anonymous]

Can a vault administrator change the timeout period for 'all users', getting it to time out faster as a whole?