About Configuring and Activating Server Licenses

If you are working in a large production environment, it is possible to obtain server licenses. Server licenses are licenses with a set amount of seats and which are activated on a dedicated license server. Client workstations in the same site can then connect to the license server to activate the product. You can have as many workstations running the product simultaneously as your server license has seats.

There are two types of server licenses: floating and borrowable.

  • With floating server licenses, the license is always on the server. When a client launches a product, the product borrows a license from the server on the fly, and returns it when the product is closed. Clients must remain connected to the license server to be able to use the product.
  • With borrowable server licenses, the license is initially activated on the server, and then clients can manually borrow seats from this server using License Wizard. Each seat is borrowed for a limited amount of days. When a seat is borrowed by a client, the license is actually stored on that client's machine. Hence, they do not need to remain connected to the license server. Once the borrowed license reaches its time limit, it is returned to the server.

Setting up a license server is relatively easy. It consists of three basic steps, all of which can be performed with a few button clicks in License Wizard

  • Activating the server license on the license server.
  • Installing the license server service.
  • Connecting clients to the server.

If the license server has a firewall enabled, it is likely to block clients from accessing the server. To circumvent this, you will either need to disable the firewall on the license server, or configure it to make exceptions for the license server service. The steps to do this are explained in this section.

The following sections will provide steps on how to configure license server and clients by using the License Wizard graphical user interface as well as by using a command line, when possible. Hence, you can configure license servers and its clients on headless machines, with scripts or through network terminals.

IMPORTANT A server license, which is a license for any Toon Boom product that is installed on a license server and used by license client in the network, is not to be confused with a license for Harmony Server, which is a license that allows you to use Harmony to create or connect to a [Product Name] database server and work on scenes over the network. Harmony Server can be a local license or a server license. This section is specifically about server licenses for any Toon Boom product.