This Client Server article is republished in its entirety from 2008 for reference purposes.
By Alex Jackson, Technical Support Analyst 01 October 2009 Modified: 24 November 2009
The latest version of SELECTserver has elevated this important product to a higher level of functionality, making it easier to monitor client-side licensing and allowing the most efficient use of computer-aided design software.
With traditional features such as Client Access Restrictions, Usage Reports, and License Management and new features such as Custom Activation Groups, Reports by Custom Activation Groups, and Time Zone Settings per Site, SELECTserver offers much more comprehensive features in the 08.11 series. By upgrading to the latest version of SELECTserver users gain huge benefits without additional costs.
SELECTserver provides organizations with an ability to maximize license utilization and minimize the burden of administration through the use of pooled and trust licensing. For more information please visit the SELECTserver FAQ on Be Communities.
Pooled licensing is the primary reason users choose SELECTserver. License pooling allows any user access rather than assigning licenses to individual computers. Therefore, all licenses can be used by the entire team more of the time, leading to much higher utilization rates and a greater return on investment.
Subscribing organizations report that in a pooled license scenario, each license is used by up to 1.5 employees, further increasing the return. Usage reports typically show that an organization with 150 users will consume just 100 pooled licenses of any one product type.
This latest release introduces trust licensing, which records product sessions on the desktop and compiles pooled-license utilization reports on the server. This enables CIOs and IT directors to balance their technology portfolio and provide optimum license coverage for their organizations. With trust licensing, disconnected users need only connect to SELECTserver once every 30 days to be granted Bentley software rights.
The SELECTserver Gateway Service manages pre-XM applications, such as MicroStation V8 2004 Edition or MicroStation/J. It emulates the pre-XM SELECTserver and allows pre-XM products to communicate with the new SELECTserver.
The difference is the SELECTserver Gateway machine does not have its own license file, but must communicate with SELECTserver to proxy licenses on behalf of pre-XM applications. The SELECTserver Gateway Service must communicate at least once with a SELECTserver to pull down, or cache, license information before it will serve licenses to clients.
Like other XM Edition and V8i applications, the SELECTserver Gateway Service must also communicate with the SELECTserver at least once every 30 days. This is necessary for the SELECTserver to collect usage logs from pre-XM applications, and for the SELECTserver Gateway Service to download any new licenses from the SELECTserver. Failing to connect to SELECTserver at least once in a 30-day period will cause it to stop serving licenses.
Additionally, pre-XM Edition clients still require a continuous (heartbeat) connection to the SELECTserver Gateway Service in order to operate normally. Lastly, the SELECTserver Gateway Service monitors usage information among pre-XM clients and periodically uploads the log data to the SELECTserver, just as an XM Edition or V8i application would.
The benefits of upgrading include the ability to accurately track license usage throughout an organization without multiple SELECTserver installations. In addition, with trust licensing, Bentley product users are no longer disallowed a license when time-sensitive and mission-critical work need to be completed. These are just a few reasons to upgrade to the latest version of SELECTserver.
For information regarding Bentley SELECTserver, visit the Licensing Technotes and FAQs on Be Communities, and the Selectserver product page.
For information on the differences between SELECTserver V8 and the most recent generation of SELECTserver and licensing, please visit the SELECTserver FAQ on Be Communities.
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