- Multiple license servers across an organization can complicate software license management and administration.
- Centralizing license management helps administrators untangle fragmented license-server environments and reduce manual effort.
- Open iT CLIMS provides centralized license integration and management to simplify control of distributed license servers.
Simplifying License Management through Centralization puts IT, engineering, and software asset management leaders in enterprise software environments at the center of a software management question amid software portfolio growth, with the Open iT article saying centralizing license management helps administrators untangle fragmented license-server environments and reduce manual effort and adding that centralizing license management helps administrators untangle fragmented license-server environments and reduce manual effort.
In this era of rapid technology advancement, software vendors are increasingly leaning towards selling software with a compatible license manager and/or server to properly manage and control the usage of software licenses.
Some ISVs commonly propose the use of FLEXlm or Flex License Manager. Some would recommend Reprise License Manager (RLM) or X-formation License Manager (LM-X).
And some others have developed their own license management system, such as Dassault Systèmes License Server (DSLS) which is compatible for Dassault Systèmes software.
This growing reliance on license managers/servers have resulted in an increase of available license management systems that support many different kinds of engineering and other technical software applications from a variety of software vendors.
Because different software applications may require the use of different license servers, each with its own set of toolkits and features, many companies face the difficult task of managing and monitoring their software license usage and consolidating usage data from many different sources.
Some license servers have their own web interface and dashboards for overviews of license utilization.
Toolkits include utilities in triggering license manager commands, such as start, stop, or restart. When the number of different license servers increases, the complexity of managing software licenses also increases.
If administrators can manage and control all license servers across the enterprise in just one single interface, then they will be able to manage and optimize the use of expensive engineering applications more effectively.
An advanced system that provides administrators a centralized portal for the administration and management of all license files and license servers across the organization would be an advantage for companies that face the challenge of managing multiple license servers.
This advanced license management system should be able to connect to each of the license server and collect details and information, including the number of license servers on various platforms (Windows or Unix) and the features and packages included in each server.
License file changes are very crucial for a license server. Invalid or incorrect changes can break a production setup.
An effective centralized license management solution should offer a license and options file management tool that includes syntax checking to avoid applying invalid changes in the license file.
Moreover, it should have version control or changes tracking system to monitor various changes in the license and options file.
Since different license managers support various commands ̶ including start, stop, and restart ̶ to manipulate the license servers, a centralized license management tool should support a remote trigger of these commands pointing to a specific license server.
However, such a powerful solution should offer a role-based access and management on its web interface.
This is to limit the access and capabilities of certain users to make sure that they would only have access to tools and information to which they should have access.
For example, some users can only view LM-X license server details, while some can view DSLS details and can make changes to specific license files. Not only is this important for confidentiality, it also helps in preventing invalid actions to the license servers.
Open iT® Centralized License Integration and Management System (CLIMS™) supports these features and more! It includes a centralized view and provides a convenient way of managing various license managers within the organization on a single web interface. It supports various license managers, such as FLEXlm, RLM, DSLS, and LM-X. Moreover, CLIMS can be installed on premise or in the Cloud.
Software license management is essential for companies and organizations using technical software licenses.
Although different license servers within the same organization may complicate the effective management of software licenses, powerful solutions like Open iT CLIMS can untangle and simplify these complexities.
Learn more about Open iT CLIMS and the complete Open iT experience! Let us guide you through your engineering software management and optimization journey.
