What is Altium Infrastructure Server? #
Altium Infrastructure Server is a free tool from Altium for companies that run Altium software on many workstations. It runs on a Windows PC on your network and does four jobs:
- Manages users and roles.
- Handles client sessions and LDAP sync with your company directory.
- Runs the Private License Service (PLS), which gets licenses, hands them out and tracks them.
- Runs the Network Installation Service, which packages Altium installers and pushes them across the network.
License managers care about the third job. The PLS lets Altium Designer pull licenses from a server you control, so engineering workstations can stay offline. The AIS doesn’t store design data. Altium keeps that in Altium 365 Workspace and Altium On-Prem Enterprise Server.
Which license types does Altium Infrastructure Server support? #
Altium Designer’s licensing system has three license types, and only one runs through the AIS.
- On-Demand: Altium’s cloud server hands out a seat while the user is signed in to an Altium account.
- Standalone: a license file (.alf) on each machine. No server involved.
- Private Server: your own license service hands out seats over your network. That’s the AIS.
You load licenses onto the AIS by importing .alf files, or the server pulls them from Altium’s online portal and converts them into private licenses. It serves Altium Designer licenses, Altium server licenses, and the Client Access Licenses (CALs) that let users connect to those servers.
How seats move #
A seat is leased to a workstation while the software uses it. It goes back to the pool when the client disconnects cleanly. If it doesn’t, the seat stays leased until a timeout you set, in hours, runs out.
You assign each license to roles, and a workstation sees only the licenses its roles allow. You can also cap the seats per role. New licenses go to “All Users” unless you change that.
Roaming lends a seat to a laptop for a set time. You choose the maximum, and “0” means no limit, though a term license still ends on its expiry date. When the roaming time runs out, the seat stops. No grace period.
Admins can force a seat back. They can get alerts when a set share of seats is leased or when a lease request is rejected. Reports on the License Manager page filter by license, role, user and time period, and export to CSV.
Which Altium applications use Altium Infrastructure Server? #
The AIS doesn’t serve other vendors’ software, so your simulation and CAD tools keep their own license managers.
| Altium product | What it draws from the AIS | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Altium Designer 16.0 and later | A Private Server license seat | The main use |
| Altium NEXUS 1.0 and later | A Private Server license seat | Discontinued. Altium now delivers its features through Altium Designer and an Altium 365 Workspace. |
| Altium On-Prem Enterprise Server and other Altium servers | A server license and CALs, when the server is set to use an external PLS | The server can stay offline |
| The AIS itself | A server license and a CAL | Loaded from .alf files or Altium’s portal |
How Open iT supports your work with Altium Infrastructure Server #
For Altium, Open iT’s LicenseAnalyzer sees what the license server hands out: who holds which Altium license, on which machine, and when.
Once data flows, you can see:
- who used Altium, on which host, and for how long
- hourly use, and the peak number of concurrent users
- use by configured user group, with department reporting where users have been mapped to departments
- live used and free seats in Open iT’s License Monitor
Compare measured peak concurrency over a representative reporting period with the seat count on your Altium contract. A persistent gap can indicate capacity worth reviewing at renewal. The AIS reports cover Altium alone. Open iT stores the collected history centrally and supports comparable analysis for other supported license managers.
FAQ #
What is Altium Infrastructure Server used for?
It’s a free, on-premises server from Altium that hands out Altium software licenses over your network and deploys Altium installers. Workstations can run Altium Designer without contacting Altium’s cloud license service.
What is the default login for Altium Infrastructure Server?
Altium’s documentation gives admin / admin as the default sign-in. Change it after you first sign in.
Which ports does Altium Infrastructure Server use?
By default, 9780 for HTTP, 9785 for HTTPS, 9790 for the Synchronization Service and 9791 for the LDAP Service. If a port is taken, the installer picks the next free one.
Why does Altium Designer find no available licenses on the server?
One possible cause is that every seat available to your role is already leased. The explanation can also depend on license assignment and server configuration. Seats roamed to laptops and leases left open after an unclean disconnect are common reasons, and the second kind stays held until the timeout runs out. An admin can force a seat back and set alerts for when seats run low.
Find the Altium seats you pay for and don’t use #
You already run the server that holds the data. Open iT connects to its API with a few configuration commands and starts reading seat use every five minutes. Book a demo and we’ll show you Altium peak use against your seat count, next to the rest of your engineering licenses.
