Incrementing the number of FL leases

Hi,

We are testing TurboFloat with a customer and I'd like to have some clarification regarding how to increment the number of leases.

The basic test installed the FL server with a product key that allowed only one lease. The test worked - only one workstation out of 8 could access the application at once. The next step was to increment the number of seats to two and see if only two workstations would be able to access the application at once. I thought it would have been as simple as changing the number of leases from one to two in LimeLM and we would be in business. It turns out that it is not that simple. We tried to stop and re-start the server. Again, the lease is not recognized.

What do we have to do to have the new number of leases recognized? Do we actually have to de-activate and re-activate the FL server?

Thanks!

The TurboFloat Server instances aren't continually pinging the LimeLM activation servers (for many reasons). That's why the TFS instance doesn't immediately know about your changes.

The next time the TurboFloat Server contacts the activation servers the new leases will be available. Or, you (or the customer) can do this immediately by stopping the TFS instance, then calling the TFS instances with the -a parameter to re-activate (and thus get the new custom license fields & floating license limit):

TurboFloatServer.exe -a

Does that make sense?

But calling with the "-a" parameter will throw an exception if the product key is already activated, no? The product key would need to be de-activated in LimeLM. Futher to that, from tests and the doc, activation must occur before the server is installed.

So basically the server would need to be completely uninstalled, the key re-activated and the server re-installed to make that work?

Or make the days_between to 1 and wait for a day. The default 90 days is way too long for such scenario.

Another question then. If the config file gets changed (for ex. days_between changed from default to 1) and the server restarted. Will the change in the config be applied right away, i.e. is the FL server going to ping LimeLM in 1 day?

But calling with the "-a" parameter will throw an exception if the product key is already activated, no?

No:

If you've already activated and you want to re-activate, then you don't need to pass a new product key. You can just call TurboFloat Server with the "-a" commandline argument:

TurboFloatServer.exe -a
Futher to that, from tests and the doc, activation must occur before the server is installed.

No, you can install and activate in any order. However if you're going to install first then you should use the -delaystart commandline option (because the TFS instance won't be able to start until you've activated it).

So basically the server would need to be completely uninstalled, the key re-activated and the server re-installed to make that work?

No, like I said:

  1. Stop the TFS instance (if it's installed as a service, then stop the Windows Service).
  2. Use the -a commanline argument to re-activate.
  3. Start the TFS instance.

That's it. Nothing special is needed. No need to uninstall or deactivate.

Or make the days_between to 1 and wait for a day. The default 90 days is way too long for such scenario.

It's a trade-off (90 vs. 1). But this is beside the point to your question. That is, let's say a customer has bought a product key with 50 "floating slots". Then, a month later, they want to buy 50 more floating slots for that same server. You edit the product key to allow 100 floating slots (either manually or from your order form checkout process using the web API).

The customer expects to get these new floating license slots immediately -- not in 90 days, not in 1 day. The only way for that to happen is for them to stop the TFS instance, re-activate using -a, then start the TFS instance again. That's how they get the server-side changes immediately.

Does that make sense?

Another question then. If the config file gets changed (for ex. days_between changed from default to 1) and the server restarted. Will the change in the config be applied right away, i.e. is the FL server going to ping LimeLM in 1 day?

Yes:

The configuration file is only loaded at the start of TurboFloat Server. If you make any changes to the configuration file while the TurboFloat Server is running they'll be ignored until the next time the TurboFloat Server is started.

Ok I'll advise the customer to try that. Thanks for the clarifications!

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