PhotoModeler Network Floating Licensing
A Network Floating License allows multiple users to share one or more licenses in a pool.
A group of PhotoModeler users can share a pool of available licenses without requiring a separate individual license for each user. Network floating licenses are available for PhotoModeler Standard and Premium as permanent licenses. A single installation on a computer is called a ‘seat’.
To determine how many seats are required in your network floating license you first determine the maximum number of people who will need to use PhotoModeler at the same time, which represents the number of “concurrent sessions”. For example, you may have 10 people that use PhotoModeler but only a maximum of 3 ever use it concurrently. You would then need to purchase a 3-seat floating license. In this example, if there are 3 copies of PhotoModeler open on the network and a fourth person tries to run PhotoModeler, he/she will get a warning message saying there are insufficient licenses at this time. Note: If a user has multiple sessions of PhotoModeler open on a single PC, then each of these sessions uses one of the available network licenses.
Note that our license agreement does not normally allow installation on a virtual machine, but if VM use is needed, then the network floating license is a solution.
System Requirements
Each PC on the network, that is to run a PhotoModeler floating license, must first meet the program’s basic system requirements. In addition, each computer must be able to access a Network Share (a disk folder on a central Windows computer set up to be publicly shared so all computers on the network can read and write files contained within) over a LAN (*see note below).
PhotoModeler is installed on each user’s computer and the licenses are obtained from the Network Share folder (a small and rapid communication). This is done using Windows file-sharing protocols. For remote offices that do not have access to the folder on the LAN, a continuous VPN will be needed so a UNC path can be specified in the remote PhotoModeler client such as \\computerName\PMLicensesFolder\.
Please note there are specific computer and network requirements for a successful networking floating installation. A shared folder on a Windows computer (not a NAS and not a cloud drive (like Google, OneDrive, DropBox, etc.)) with read/write access by each client computer, and accessed by a UNC path (\\machine\folder) is required for license coordination. All clients must use the same UNC path. For a full set of requirements and install instructions please contact sales@photomodeler.com.
Pricing
Network floating license seats sell at approximately a 40% premium over the normal stand-alone license prices to account for the additional flexibility and benefit (eg. with the above example instead of needing 10 stand-alone licenses only 3 floating seats are needed, or a savings of 55%).