Pooled Vs. Named User Licensing
Most Bentley offerings (when covered under a maintenance agreement) have pooled "floating" licenses. Pooled licensing is a software licensing approach in which a limited number of licenses for a software application are shared among a larger number of users. Licenses are made available to any user when needed rather than being permanently assigned to individual users.
Unlike pooled licenses, named user licenses are considered assigned to a single user. Bentley's Passport and Visa license offerings are "named user" licenses. You do not / cannot manually assign (or un-assign) these licenses to / from specific users. If a user has consumed a license during the quarter, it is considered assigned ("named") to them.
- You cannot set up license alerting for these applications.
Practitioner (Virtuoso) licenses are "named user" licenses by nature (practitioner licenses have to be assigned to a user before they can be used). Practitioner Licenses can be re-assigned, but are locked for 30 days after every assignment.
- Practitioner license usage is not counted towards peak usage calculations. You can set up license alerting for these applications if they appear under your contract type.
Usage Interval
The Usage Interval is the period of time that is looked at in regard to determining peak application usage and varies by contract type -
- For Select or Open Access users using Bentley CONNECT SELECTservices (Bentley hosted licensing) daily usage is recorded based on 10 Minute intervals [based on calendar hour, I.E. 1:00-1:09, 1:10-1:19, 1:20-1:29 etc.].
- For Select or Open Access users using a deployed license server, daily usage is recorded on 1 Hour intervals [by calendar hour, I.E. 1:00-1:59, 2:00-2:59, 3:00-3:59 etc.].
- For ELS or E365, the usage interval is a calendar day; For these offerings, billing is based on unique users per product, per day (of the calendar quarter).
- For named user licenses (passports and visas, but excluding practitioner licenses), the usage interval is a quarter. If a user has consumed a license during the quarter, it is considered assigned ("named") to them.
Usage is determined by counting the total number of unique machines that access an application during each 10-minute interval throughout the day. The highest number of machines accessing an application during any one 10-minute interval during the quarter is the peak usage. Intervals are based on the GMT time zone.
The first partial interval of software usage is not counted. As shown in the example below, counting begins in the second interval of use (not in the #2 interval). Each interval thereafter where the device is in use, is counted.
Usage Calculation based on 10 Minute Usage Interval
In the above example, there are three machines accessing Bentley applications. We see usage occurring at the same time on all three machines during the #4 interval. If this hour were to be representative of the machines’ overall usage for the month, the “peak” would be three machines, assuming machines accessed the same application (license).
In the above example:
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On machine 1 an application was started between 9:00 and 9:10, and ended between 9:50 and 10:00.
Usage for Machine 1 will be recorded in the usage reports with "Interval start" as 09:10 (since the first interval is removed) and with "Interval end" as 9:50 (since usage ended before 10:00).
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On machine 2 an application was started between 9:20 and 9:30, and ended between 9:40 and 09:50.
Usage for Machine 2 will be recorded with "Interval start" as 09:30 and with "Interval end" as 09:40.
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On machine 3 an application was started between 9:20 and 9:30, and ended between 9:30 and 09:40.
Usage for Machine 3 will be recorded with "Interval start" as 09:30 and with "Interval end" also as 09:30.
Note that despite overall usage on Machine 3 may be less than 10 minutes, the usage was recorded in two different intervals (#3 and #4), hence after the first usage interval (#3) is disregarded, the following interval (#4) is counted. In such scenario the "Interval start" and "Interval end" are recorded with the same time, yet there is 10-minute usage recorded.
NOTE:
- If a product was used (started and ended) within any one interval only i.e. between 9:12 - 9:16 AM, then usage reports will not display any usage because the first usage interval is removed.
- Checked out licenses record 24/7 usage of the application until the license has been checked in. For more details about checkouts, see: License Checkouts
- For SELECT or Open Access users using a deployed license server, daily usage is recorded on 1 Hour intervals - by calendar hour, i.e. 1:00-1:59, 2:00-2:59, 3:00-3:59 etc..
Passport and Visa Usage Calculation
Recap -
- Passports and Visas are named user licenses and are not poolable.
- The usage interval is a quarter.
Every time a new user logs usage of a Passport or Visa license in the current quarter, their usage is aggregated with the other Passports and Visas licenses for that quarter. Subsequently, they are able to use those licenses as often as needed for the remainder of the quarter.
FAQ
Which programs are impacted by this calculation method?
This calculation method is now used for all SELECT and Cloud Service Subscription term licenses. Usage for the Enterprise License Subscription (ELS) is calculated by the calendar day.
How can I take advantage of 10-minute intervals?
To take advantage of the 10-minute interval, organizations must utilize either the Subscription Entitlement Service or a hosted SELECTserver. Organizations utilizing a locally deployed SELECTserver will have peak usage determined by the
calendar-hour interval.
How is usage recorded for legacy applications?
Legacy applications, which were replaced / consolidated with newer applications (that incorporated the functionality of the legacy applications they replace), record usage as their corresponding replacement application.
Can I use more licenses than I have on one computer at the same time?
Simultaneous use of both - multiple instances and different versions of your license on the same computer will record the use of only one license (valid for Hosted and SES licensing, but not Deployed).
See Also
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