Working from Home with KeyLAB


In these challenging times when COVID-19 is imposing significant disruptions to day to day activities and affecting normal business flow of our much-valued users and employees, we at Bentley are mindfully committed to ensuring a smooth transition of work from the office to a remote location or home. Our innovative software and services are all geared for working from home or remote locations and do not impose the need to be in an office set-up. To help facilitate this, we have written the following article to help keep you up and running with our software.

https://vimeo.com/400277655

Which software does this article relate to?

This article refers to the following products;

Note : This is for the desktop versions of KeyLAB that are from the Pre-Bentley acquisition methods of licensing, also known as Safenet, Hardware locked (HWL) or HASP versions of the software.

What is needed to access KeyLAB?

In normal circumstances, our users access KeyLAB through machines within their office network setup. These being either through a standalone licence and database, or a network licence and database, or even a combination of the above. With a number of our users accessing the software from home, we would first of all strongly recommend that a laptop or similar machine is sourced from the workplace that is setup with a VPN that can connect to the office environment. It is also possible to connect to a machine in the office through a remote desktop connection and then continue to use the software as normal. This will still require a VPN connection to the network that hosts the SQL server.

Desktop Installation

Download the required installer.

Before running the installer please ensure that you have one of the supported operating systems (and required Service Pack installed on your machine).

Important Note: During the installation process you may be prompted to restart your machine following the installation of each of the Microsoft prerequisites. Following a restart the installation process should automatically resume. Please note depending on your Windows User Account Control (UAC) settings you may also be prompted to elevate to a System Administrator and may be prompted to enter an Administrator username and password.

Which version of the software do I need?

Please note that KeyLAB works on a version upgrade system for the database and the local client. Therefore, the version of the software that you need, also needs to match the version that the database is currently upgraded to. Users will be offered the chance to upgrade the database to match the version of their KeyLAB if they are on a later version then the current database version. We strongly recommend that this process is not completed without further thought and consideration as this will mean that the rest of the users that connect to that database will also need to update to that version.

The correct version of the software can be downloaded from the links below.

Where do I get the installers for the software?

Installation files for our non-Connect Edtion desktop software can still be downloaded from our Keynetix Assist website at the following locations;

Connecting a desktop machine to a network licence

Please note, this will require a connection through to the licence server, either through a direct connection, or through a VPN.

When KeyLAB is started from a machine that hasn't got a current valid licence, you will be prompted to enter a licence location. Simply enter the name of the server hosting the licence file for KeyLAB to then attempt to use the licences from that licence server.

Troubleshooting a connection to the licence server

If you are having trouble after setting up a connection through to the licence server, it is first imperative to ensure that your machine can connect through to the licence server. You can do this by running the following test;

Open a Web Browser (such as Chrome or Firefox), and go to the following location;

(Where <MY-LICENCE-SERVER> would be replaced by your server name. e.g.

A message should appear stating that the page is either forbidden (such as in the screenshot below), or you may get access to the licence server admin panel.If an error appears saying something along the lines of unable to communicate with host or a timeout, then there is an underlying network problem, and your IT needs to ensure port 1947 is allowed over the VPN.

If you still require further assistance, please see the 'I still need further help....' section below.

Connecting to an existing KeyLAB Database

If you are connecting to a network SQL server then you must follow the steps below.

Please note, this will require a connection through to the database server, either through a direct connection, or through a VPN.

A new installation can be linked to an existing KeyLAB2 system from Connection | Connect.

Click Add and define the required details:

Once defined, the new connection is then listed in the Connect view.

From here the connections can be managed. Note that it is possible to use this interface to connect to a different database.

Accessing Product documentation

We are currently in the process of migrating our help documentation from our old Keynetix Assist website to this Wiki within Bentley Communities. For now, all help can still be found at : http://assist.keynetix.com/Content/Home.htm

I still need further help....

If you still require further help, then please ensure to contact our support team by raising a service request or emailing our support team at support.gim@bentley.com. If you are having issues with licencing – please contact support by raising a service request and we can provide guidance and potentially arrange the issue of temporary local licences.

Important notice about use of Bentley applications in virtual environments - click here