On-Demand Licensing of Altium NEXUS

Created: Juli 16, 2020 | Updated: April 22, 2021 | Applies to versions: 3.2 and 4

Now reading version 3.2. For the latest, read: On-Demand Licensing of Altium NEXUS for version 5

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This documentation page references Altium NEXUS/NEXUS Client (part of the deployed NEXUS solution), which has been discontinued. All your PCB design, data management and collaboration needs can now be delivered by Altium Designer and a connected Altium 365 Workspace. Check out the FAQs page for more information.

Altium NEXUS's On-Demand licensing offers you global floating license capability - within the geographic scope of your license and the conditions set out in the EULA - without the need to implement your own dedicated server. The system provides a flexible, streamlined approach to licensing, allowing you to obtain a license in a matter of mouse clicks, when and where you want it - the true essence of an on-demand system.

To further increase its flexibility, an On-Demand license can be used in two different ways, or 'modes' - On-Demand or Roaming. The choice of how you use your On-Demand license will come down to personal preference, and the way in which you work.

For On-Demand licensing, a range of license usage monitoring and reporting features are available that can be used to audit how your licenses are used within your organization. These features are available, for an Administrator for your Altium Account, from the Reports page of the Altium Dashboard.

Signing In

Before you can access and use an On-Demand license, you must first sign in to your Altium account through the secure Altium portal - remember, On-Demand licensing is administered by an Altium managed server. For convenience, controls for account access are presented at the top of the License Management view (accessed by clicking on the control at the top-right of the design space and choosing the Licenses command from the menu). Click the Sign in link to access the Sign In dialog. Use this dialog to enter your AltiumLive Account Credentials and click OK.

When you sign in to your account, you do so through an Altium Portal. On the Altium side, a portal is simply a secure connection through to a specific Altium Account Management Server.

Sign In Options

Third-party Sign-in

Providing more flexibility in how you can connect to the Altium 365 Platform, Altium NEXUS offers popular third-party AltiumLive sign-in options. To link an alternative sign-in option to your account, click the desired connection (Google^® shown here) and sign in to that service if required. Enter your existing AltiumLive credentials on the following page to establish the third-party link to your account.

Confirmation of the account linkage can be seen in your Altium Account, which also serves to remove the association if necessary (Unlink).

Single Sign On

To enhance compatibility with existing company systems, you can sign in to Altium NEXUS using your organization's Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication system. Along with the benefits of increased security and more efficient IT user access management, the application of SSO schemes provides the convenience of signing in to Altium software using the same set of credentials that apply to your company-wide systems and services.

The Altium NEXUS SSO sign-in capability supports the SSO infrastructure embedded in the AltiumLive account management application. With authentication communications based on the standardized Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML 2.0), the system establishes authorized identities from your company's nominated Identity Provider (IdP) – for example Okta, OneLogin, etc. The SSO sign-in interface for your company, if not already in place, is usually based on a template or example provided by the IdP – this instigates the SAML-based authentication assertion exchanges and provides access to company services.

Outside of Altium NEXUS, you can establish an SSO session by signing in to AltiumLive directly.
Your company's Altium Account is configured for SSO interaction by an account Administrator in the Authentication page of the Altium Dashboard. This backend configuration system allows account administrators to establish, test, enable and disable the SSO capability for company users.
► See the SSO Setup page for configuration information and IdP integration examples.

Account Management

The Connection, Sign in and portal Server details are all available on the System - Account Management page of the Preferences dialog. This page can be quickly accessed by clicking the Account Preferences link in the License Management view. Alternatively, access the Preferences dialog (click on the control at the top-right of the design space) and browse to the page within the System folder.

Manage connection and sign-in credentials as part of your Altium NEXUS preferences.

License Availability

Once signed in, the Available Licenses region of the page will automatically present the specific licenses - On-Demand and Standalone - available to you for use.

All purchased licenses associated with your account and that are allocated to you for use will be presented here. This includes Altium NEXUS licenses and any licensing associated with certain paid/licensed extension-delivered functionality.

In the example image below, On-Demand licenses that are available for the currently signed-in user are listed.

Only those licenses that are available to you will be listed in the Available Licenses region.

For each On-Demand license, the following information is presented:

Product Name - what is being licensed. The name typically reflects a feature set and release.
Activation Code - the activation code for the license.
Used - reflects not only whether a seat of the license is in use on your installation of Altium NEXUS, but also who else is using a seat of the license (where the license is multi-seat) and in which mode they are using that seat. Another person using a seat in On-Demand or Roaming modes will display In Use and Roaming respectively.
Assigned Seat Count - the total number of seats available on the license and how many of those seats are currently in use.
Expiry - the date at which the license will no longer be considered valid.
Status - the current state of the license. This entry can be one of the following states:
- OK - license is in-date and seat allocation has not been exceeded.
- Expired - license expiry date has been reached.
- No seats left - license is still OK, but all seats are currently being used.
Subscription Status - details if the license is covered by subscription, or if the subscription has expired.

Click on the arrow (

) symbol to the left of a license entry in the grid to expand that license, providing details of individual seat usage - who is using a seat of the license, in which mode they are using their seat, and the expiry date for their seat (especially pertinent when using the seat in Roaming mode).

Mode of License Use

With flexibility in mind, On-Demand licensing has been defined to operate in two distinct modes, detailed in the following sections.

On-Demand

This is the simplest (and quickest) mode of use for an On-Demand license - the perceived default mode if you will. In this mode, a seat of an On-Demand license is acquired by any client computer, only while you are signed in to your account. When you sign out, the seat is released so that another user can acquire it.

To use a seat of an available On-Demand license in this mode, simply click on the license in the grid, then click on the Use link in the area below the grid, as shown below.

You can also take advantage of an On-Demand license's Auto-Leasing feature, which forces Altium NEXUS to automatically lease (use) the license when it becomes available. From Altium NEXUS's License Management view the normal process of choosing the license from the list and selecting Use is performed automatically. For more information, see Altium Dashboard - Managing Licenses.

Select the required license then click Use.

With a license in use, the following changes will occur:

The Used field for the license will change to Used by me.
The Assigned Seat Count field for the license will update to reflect another seat of that license taken.
The 'banner' for the Available Licenses region will change from Available Licenses - Unlicensed to Available Licenses - Licensed to <AccountName>. License subscription valid to <SubscriptionExpiryDate>. - reflecting the account to which the license is associated, and the expiry of the current subscription associated with and purchased for that license.
The text in the lower-left of the region will also update to reflect your license usage.

The Available Licenses region will update to reflect your use of a seat of the selected license in On-Demand mode.

To release your license, simply select the license in the grid and click on the Release link, in the area below the grid. Warning text will appear, alerting you to the fact that you are not using a valid license, and prompting you to select and use a license from the grid. When using a license in this mode, you can also force-release a seat from another computer (see Releasing a License Remotely).

Roaming

In this mode, a seat of an On-Demand license is acquired for a specified time. You do not need to remain signed in to your account to use the license in this mode - you can sign out and work offline, in essence roaming freely with your license seat.

To use a seat of an available On-Demand license in this mode, click on the license in the grid then click on the Roam link in the area below the grid. The Retain License dialog will appear in which you can define how many days and/or hours you want to roam with the seat.

The maximum time that you can roam with an On-Demand license in this mode is the life of the actual license itself. This is particularly relevant to timed licenses.

If you are roaming with a seat of an On-Demand license and the roaming period elapses, use of that seat will stop with no grace period.

With a license in use, the following changes will occur:

The Used field for the license will change to Roaming with me.
The Assigned Seat Count field for the license will update to reflect another seat of that license taken.
The 'banner' for the Available Licenses region will change from Available Licenses - Unlicensed to Available Licenses - Licensed to <AccountName>. License subscription valid to <SubscriptionExpiryDate>. - reflecting the account to which the license is associated, and the expiry of the current subscription associated with and purchased for that license.
The text in the lower-left of the region will also update to reflect your license usage.

Click on the arrow (

) symbol to the left of the license entry in the grid to see details of the seat usage level, and confirm the defined roaming period in the Expiry column.

The only time you need to sign in to your account when using a seat of a license in this mode is when you either want to release the license or extend the roaming period. The latter is performed by selecting the license entry in the grid and clicking again on the Roam option. Then adjust the roaming period as required, using the Retain License dialog.

As with On-Demand mode, release of a license that is being roamed is performed by signing in, selecting the license in the grid then clicking on the Release link, in the area below the grid. Warning text will appear, alerting you to the fact that you are not using a valid license, and prompting you to select and use a license from the grid. When using a license in this mode, you can also force-release a seat from another computer (see Releasing a License Remotely).

Working Offline

Of the two On-Demand licensing modes, it is the Roaming mode that enables you to take the license and work offline. When you sign out, the grid in the Available Licenses region of the License Management page will change from showing the available On-Demand licenses to showing the On-Demand - Offline license that you are currently using (roaming with). You will not see any Assigned Seat Count information while working offline, nor will you see any expanded grid details showing other users (for seats taken from a multi-seat license).

You can of course sign in to your account at any time while using your On-Demand license in the Roaming mode, but the ability to roam offline is there when you need it.

Releasing a License Remotely

It is possible to force-release a seat on a license that is being used in either On-Demand or Roaming modes. For example, if you forget to release your seat at work when you leave for the day, you can release it from your home computer then use the open seat at home. The extent of your 'release powers' depends on whether or not you have administrative rights to your licenses:

Have Administrative Rights - you can remotely release a seat used by any user. The seat they are using will be released and they will lose the license.
No Administrative Rights - you can only release a seat that you are using (on another computer). The seat will be available again.

To release a license:

Select the license to be released, in the Available Licenses grid. For a multi-seat license, expand the parent license, then select the entry for the specific seat that is currently in use.
Click the Release link below the grid, or right-click and choose the Release command from the context menu. What happens next depends on the mode in which the released license is being used:
1. On-Demand - a dialog will appear asking for confirmation to proceed with the release. Click Yes to force-release the seat.
2. Roaming - the Altium Honor Code dialog will appear. The dialog essentially asks for your promise, under the Altium Honor Code, that you will not use, or allow others to use, the roaming license on that other computer after its release. Read the text in the dialog carefully and, if you promise to honor the terms as stated - both in the dialog and the EULA - type "I Agree" in the available field. Then click the Release button to proceed with the release.

From the remote user perspective, if you are Roaming and your license has been released remotely, then you will not notice anything until you sign in. If you are currently using the license in On-Demand mode (or if you sign in while Roaming), then at some point in the next 20 minutes, a warning dialog will appear alerting you to the fact that your license has been released remotely, and by whom, and asking you to use another license to continue using Altium NEXUS. You will then have a further 20 minutes 'grace' use of the license, during which time you should select and use another license. After this time has elapsed, a second warning dialog will open, and use of the 'released' license will cease. Note that if using the license in On-Demand mode, and you sign out and back in again, the license will be released directly, with no grace periods.

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