License Alerting can help you to prevent term license consumption. However, configuring license alerting does not guarantee that you will not consume a term license.
There are multiple "collision scenarios" that can still trigger a term license after alerts have been configured.
Some applications may experience delayed license release after closing; Although the application is closed, the actual stop of license usage (and therefore the availability of the license for use on a different workstation) may be delayed up to five minutes. This does not affect validity of a license alert.
If the expectation is that you can close an application on a workstation and immediately open the application on a different Workstation, you may get a license alert due to the delay in license release.
The easiest thing to do in these cases is to wait a minute or two after you get an alert, and try opening the application again. If you happen to be an administrator or co-administrator, you can check real-time usage reporting under Subscription Analytics, and verify current usage - https://reporting.bentley.com/reports/realtime
When the alert configuration is changed, the changes have to propagate to all of the policy files. A policy file is a file that resides on each user's machine. Various pieces of information are stored in this policy file and one of them is alert configuration. If the machine is signed into Connection Client, the file will automatically be updated
- When the user signs into Connection Client
- Every four hours after that
If the machine is not signed into Connection Client, the file can remain out of date for up to seven days before software authentication will be denied.
This means that after alerts are configured, it can take up to four hours for all machines signed into Connection Client to pick up this new alerting policy, or seven days if the user is not signed in. For example, at 8 AM, Microstation is configured to alert after five licenses are consumed. At 10 AM, a sixth user tries to open Microstation. If the user's policy file hasn't been refreshed in the past two hours, the user will not receive the alert.
How can I speed up the alert synchronization?
If you do not want to wait for the synchronization cycle, you can encourage users to manually refresh their policy file before opening a Bentley application. To manually refresh a policy file, the user needs to
1. Be logged into Connection Client
2. Open the Bentley Licensing Tool
3. Click Tools > Refresh Policy
Refreshing the policy file only takes a few seconds.
Bentley uses a system which keeps track of how many licenses are in use per product. When a new user opens the product, the service checks this list. If this new usage exceeds the threshold, an alert will be sent. For example,
- You have 5 standard licenses.
- You have the alert threshold set to 5.
- There are currently 4 users.
- A fifth user opens the product.
- No alert is sent.
- A sixth user opens the product.
- An alert is sent.
However, if two users open the product within a few seconds of each other, the list will be checked for each user almost simultaneously. The list is not aware that there is another service checking it at the same time. This means that in the scenario above, it's possible for the sixth user to not receive an alert, and a term license will be consumed.
How can I reduce simultaneous startup times?
Set the alert threshold to one below the number of licenses you own. If you have five standard licenses, set the alert threshold to four. This would require there to be three simultaneous product startups to consume a term license. This still does not entirely prevent a term license from being consumed, but it is less likely for there to be three simultaneous startups than two.
By default, every Bentley application may be used in Offline mode. This means that the user may activate Bentley applications without being connected to the Internet/not signed in to CONNECTION Client. If the user is offline, the machine is not communicating with the alerting service. This means that it is not aware a license is being consumed and it does not contribute to the configured alert threshold, even though a license is being used.
How can I reduce offline usage?
For each application, you may disable offline usage. To do this
1. Navigate to Licensing Alerting in Entitlement / License Management.
2. Click on the application you need to disable offline usage for.
3. Check the checkbox underneath Offline Usage, which is near the bottom left of the page
If this is checked, then users must have an internet connection and be signed into the Connection Client to use Bentley applications. If User sign in is required, users that do not have an internet connection will not be able to start their Bentley applications. Even if an admin unchecks this box, they will still not be able to start the application until the machine has connected to the internet to synchronize with the new policy. In this scenario, the only way for an offline user to start their Bentley application is if an admin creates a checkout and walks the policy file over to the user's machine.
User will see the below pop up
If offline usage has been explicitly disabled and an Internet connection is lost sometime after a product has been opened, the user will be alerted after three minutes of failed attempts to reestablish a connection. To avoid data loss, the alert advises the user to save work and close the product as soon as possible but does not force the product to close. Offline usage is then logged with a special ProductionOfflineDisabled status until the product is closed. It is imperative users heed this alert since such usage cannot be detected by our Usage Alerting Service.
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