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Concurrent License Manager

BMC FootPrints Service Core supports both fixed and concurrent (floating) licenses for Agents.  A fixed license allows one named user to log into BMC FootPrints Service Core with a specific ID and password.  A concurrent license can be used by an unlimited number of people, but only one can use a particular concurrent license instance at a time.  Each user sharing a concurrent license has their own unique ID and password, but can only log in if a concurrent license is free.

To make this clearer, if five concurrent licenses are purchased and thirty people are sharing those licenses, only five users can be logged in at one time.  When a sixth user tries to log in, the sixth user receives a message stating that there are no available licenses.  When one of the five logged in users finally logs out of BMC FootPrints Service Core, a license is freed. 

This type of license is useful for casual users of BMC FootPrints Service Core or users working opposing shifts. This license is not appropriate for users who require access to BMC FootPrints Service Core at all times.  As the concurrent license costs approximately 2.5 times as much as a fixed license, at least three users must share a concurrent license to make it cost-effective. 

Other aspects of the concurrent licensing:

• Can be purchased by contacting your BMC sales representative.
• A site can contain mixed fixed and concurrent licenses.
• While an unlimited number of concurrent licenses can be purchased, at least three fixed Agent licenses must also be purchased (i.e., the BMC FootPrints Service Core Starter Pack).  This allows at least three users (including at least one System Administrator) to have access to BMC FootPrints Service Core at all times.
• Concurrent licenses can be used by Agents and Workspace Administrators, including users assigned custom roles.  They cannot be used by System Administrators, who must use fixed licenses.
• The Customer license is not affected by concurrent licenses.  The unlimited Customer license continues to be appropriate for employee and external customers who need limited access to BMC FootPrints Service Core (to submit and track their own issues and to search the Knowledge Base).
• Once you are licensed for concurrent users, the choice to make an Agent or Workspace Administrator a concurrent or fixed user is available on the Add Agent and Edit Agent pages.  You can only make as many fixed users as the number of fixed licenses available.  An unlimited number of concurrent users can be created.
• Concurrent Agent and Workspace Administrators can be members of multiple Workspaces and are identical to fixed users in all other ways (with the exception of accessing BMC FootPrints Service Core based on there being an available license).
• Concurrent users should be encouraged to log out and free licenses for other users.
• When a concurrent user closes the browser without logging out of BMC FootPrints Service Core, the license is freed within fifteen minutes.
• When a concurrent user remains logged into BMC FootPrints Service Core, but does not perform any actions, the license is freed within one hour.
• If all licenses are being used and the System Administrator needs to free up licenses, a Reset License Manager function is available under Administration | System | License.  If this function is used, all Agents and other Administrators (fixed and concurrent) in the system are logged out immediately.  The System Administrator performing the action and customers are not affected.  This feature should only be used when necessary, as users may lose their work.
• For customers who switch from fixed licenses to a smaller number of concurrent licenses, all Agents are changed automatically to concurrent users when the new license is installed.  You can manually update any additional Agent or administrator users to match the correct number of fixed licenses purchased on the Edit Agent screen.

Note

A system log is kept to record each time a concurrent user attempts to log in to BMC FootPrints Service Core and is denied because no concurrent licenses are available. This log can be viewed on the BMC FootPrints Service Core server by reading the file c:\FootprintsServiceCore\etc\debugging\loginErrors.txt.