License Roaming

An N-seat floating licenses (new to Analytica release 4.2) allows anyone in your group to run Analytica, as long as no more than N people are running it at any given moment. To run Analytica from a floating license, your computer must be able to communicate with the Reprise License Manager (RLM) server, which manages the license, so it can check out the license while Analytica is running. However, if you take your notebook computer with you on a business trip, it won't be able to communicate with your license server, and thus, you'll need to make use of License Roamimg.

'License roaming checks out a license to your computer for a specified period of time, during which that license may be used on your computer even if the RLM server is not accessible from your computer. Thus, if you are going on a business trip, you might roam the license for 7 days, meaning it belongs to you for the next 7 days. While you are roaming a license, that seat is not available for use by other people.

When you return to the office, you could release (unroam) the license, thus returning it to the floating pool to be available to others. Alternatively, you might extend the roaming period -- for example, if there are still 2 roaming days remaining, you might extend that to 7 again.

When do I need to roam a license?

There are two reasons to roam a license. The most common is because you will be removing your notebook computer from the office where it can't communicate with the license server, so you need to roam the license to take it with you. A second reason is to roam is to "hog" a floating license at a critical time, so someone else isn't using it when you need it.

Roaming only make sense if you are using a license managed by an Reprise License Manager (RLM) server -- if you are using an individual license, there is no need to worry about roaming. You can tell which you have by looking at the Update license... dialog off Analytica's Help menu. If the checkbox to use an RLM server is checked, then your license is managed and you will need to roam the license before leaving the office.

Your company's IT manager can configure permissions for which users or computers are able to roam a license. In most cases, if your IT manager has not configured restrictions on roaming, then if you can use Analytica on the license, you can roam it. Lumina usually distributes Analytica and its RLM-based licenses with permissions to roam; however, in certain special circumstances, Lumina may distribute Analyica licenses that do not allow roaming.

How to roam a license

First, you must roam a license before you leave on your trip. To obtain a roamed license, your computer will need to communicate with the RLM server. After it is roamed, then you can remove your computer from your office.

There are two methods to roam an Analytica license. One utilizes an Analytica command line option. The other uses the RLM_ROAM environment variable. If you use Reprise licenses with other products, you may already be used to the RLM_ROAM method, but otherwise, I think the command line option is the more convenient. I recommend setting up some shortcuts on your start menu with the roaming options that you like to use, and I'll describe how to do that here.

You can run Analytica from a command line as follows:

 Analytica.exe /roam:7

When you do this, Analytica starts up and roams its license for the next 7 days. If you were already roaming the license and had roaming days still remaining, this will extend the roaming time to expire in 7 days.

When you return from your trip, you can return the license to the pool by running:

 Analytica.exe /roam:-1

This resets the roaming status, so that when you close Analytica, the license is returned to the managed pool of floating licenses.

When you run Analytica without the /roam option (or with /roam:0), it continues using a roamed license but does not extend the roaming period.

If you are a notebook computer user, who will make use of roaming, I recommend setting up two new shortcuts on your start menu. Place these in the Start→Programs&arr;Analytica 4.2 menu:

• Roam Analytica → runs: Analytica.exe /roam:7
• Unroam Analytica → runs: Analytica.exe /roam:-1

From the start menu, you'll now have three ways to run Analytica. You'll only use the roam option just prior to leaving on your trip, and the unroam shortcut once when you return. You can, of course, specify however many days you'd like (instead of the 7 days demonstrated here).