The additional options for a Concurrent Policy revealed by the triangle button in the Scope & Action pane pane of a Policy Details Window let you split license allocation among several "Pools" (Groups of Users or Computers) each with a License Limit and Scope specified. For example, you might want to assign a certain number of licenses for exclusive use within a particular computer lab. If use in the lab is only needed at specific times on certain days, you can schedule this exclusive lab restriction so that it applies only to the scheduled time while leaving a different allocation for all Unscheduled Times.
For example, based on a defined Group of lab computers, you could restrict some Photoshop licenses to a pool for exclusive use in the lab from 2:30 to 3:30 on Wednesday afternoons. For other Unscheduled Times, all licenses would be available for use anywhere.
Note: If too many licenses are already in use when a lab schedule takes effect, then KeyServer may have to reclaim a license from an outside user - this is only done if actual demand in the lab requires it. The oldest outside user will experience a "please save your work and quit" message. Like the "Reclaim License" message that the admin can send explicitly to a particular user (from the Connected Clients Window), unsaved work in an open document is never put at risk. The schedule feature of a custom policy is the one case where a new license allocation takes precedence over an existing allocation and therefore an existing allocation may have to be reclaimed.
Scope & Action pane UI for a Custom Policy
When the expansion triangle on the right hand side of the Scope & Action pane is clicked for a Concurrent policy, the pane is expanded and a new section is added, exposing the options for Custom Pools and Schedules.
- The first item is a drop down menu labeled Limits for: - the default value is Unscheduled Times, meaning that the restrictions displayed will apply any time that there is not a schedule defined. By default, there are no schedules, so Unscheduled Times is equivalent to all the time. The pools shown below the drop down reflect pools configured for the selected schedule.
- Below the drop down menu is the list of pools. Pools essentially divide a single policy into multiple parts. Each pool can have a group scope, a concurrent use limit, and can have two options set (see below). Right-click in the white space of the list box (below unrestricted) in order to create additional pools.
example of a custom policy configuration
- Selecting a pool lets you edit the options for the pool, to the right of the pools list.
- The Group field lets you type in a group scope, or you can drag a group object onto the group icon next to the field.
- The Limit field is where you specify the Limit for the pool. You can type a number, or leave the field blank for Unlimited.
- The Timeout field lets you set a timeout for license usage. If you set a value here the timeout counter starts when the license is granted and the license is reclaimed when the timeout is reached. If you want the license to be automatically checked out again in cases where no one is queued for a license when the timeout is reached, set the Auto-extend checkbox (in the Options pane). This timer sets a limit on the total usage time, as opposed to the settings in the Idle pane, which let you configure a timer that limits the time a license can be idle (all controlled programs are put in the background) before being reclaimed.
- Can be used on the Network and Can be used as Portable key are the only two ways a license can be used - so at least one of them should be checked for each license pool. When there is just one license pool (by default: Unrestricted), the "Can be used as Portable key" checkbox will be dimmed and simply reflect the setting from the Portable pane (see below): a non-zero value in Time limit for portable keys will enable portable use, a zero or "never" value will disable portable use. When you are configuring a custom license with multiple pools and the Time limit in the Portable pane is non-zero, then portability can be selectively applied to just some of the pools by clicking the Can be used as Portable key checkbox on or off.
- Note that a custom license must be used if ANY of the advanced options are needed, but it is not necessary to use them all at once.
- Example 1: you may want to make a policy only available in Lab A during the week, but available to anyone on the weekend.
- Example 2: you may want to make a policy portable only, without imposing any group restriction.
- Example 3: you may want to set a timeout for a policy, without imposing any group restriction.
- Example 4: you may want to divide up a policy so that 10 copies can be used in Lab A and 10 copies can be used in Lab B, but in reports, usage in either lab is seen under a single policy line, rather than two.
Add Schedule / Remove Schedule
When configuring Schedules and Pools, the default time scope includes all Unscheduled Times. The drop down menu lets you view and configure license allocation for any scheduled time that has been defined. This menu also lets you add or remove schedules using a sub-dialog. The name of a schedule reflects the days of the week when it applies, as indicated by check boxes. Each schedule can specify only a single time segment for all of its days.
Add Schedules dialog
When you select Add Schedule, you will get a dialog like the one picture above. The schedule which is currently in effect is listed in bold with an arrow next to it. The placeholder for the new schedule is at the end of the list, and its name changes as you edit the Times and Days. The time segments defined in different schedules cannot overlap (unless one schedule is entirely contained within another, e.g. Wednesday 10AM-11AM inside of Weekdays 9AM-12PM). If the new schedule overlaps, the interface will highlight in red and refuse to save an overlapping time definition. If it is necessary to specify more than one time segment, you will have to create more than one schedule (as in the various Wednesday schedules above). Once a schedule has been defined and saved it will be added to the drop down menu. You can edit the pools and license allocation parameters for a schedule at any time, but to change the time scope you must remove the schedule and add a new one.