Q100047: License roaming: How to use a floating and teams licenses off your network

Jake

Updated : July 31, 2024 07:48

Created : February 10, 2016 23:16

SUMMARY

Normally, RLM floating licenses can only be used when your machine is on the same network as the license server. However, RLM licensing can have roaming functionality where a license is checked out for a number of days so a machine can be taken off the network / offline and continue to use the application. This functionality needs to be enabled by the software vendor in each application.

Foundry are now adding license roaming to our applications and issuing roaming enabled floating licenses. It is currently available for Modo (in version 12.2v2 and later) and Nuke (12.2v1 and later), we are looking into adding it to other applications.

NOTE: Roaming will only be enabled if ALL of your floating licenses for the application are roaming enabled. If you have a mixture of roaming and non-roaming licenses for the application then roaming from the server is disabled. Please raise a Support ticket if you have any questions.

Roaming is also supported in our teams licensing, more information on this can be found here:
Q100282: What is individual login-based licensing and which products is it available for?
Q100608: How to roam a Modo/Nuke/Mari license from a RLM license server or Team Login Organisation

HOW TO ROAM A LICENSE

The controls to roam a license are available on the application's Licensing window when you are using a roaming enabled license. The license will be returned to the server or organisation when the roam expires or you can return it early by reconnecting to the network/internet and using the Return Roam button on the application licensing window. You cannot cancel or return a roam from the server or organisation itself.

Detailed instructions for each of our roaming enabled applications is available in the following articles:

NOTE: You can only run roaming enabled versions when offline, you cannot roam a license then run an older non-roaming version offline.

You can see if any licenses are roamed from the RLM server via these steps: Q100211: How to check which licenses are available from an RLM server

HOW TO CONTROL ROAMING BEHAVIOUR WITH RLM FLOATING LICENSES

By default, all rlm floating roaming enabled licenses could be roamed from the server by any user or machine on the network running a compatible application.

You can control access to license roaming on your server by adding the commands below in the "foundry.opt" options file. Information in how to use and edit the options file is in Q100107: How to reserve licenses for different users or machines.

You can limit how long licenses can be roamed for with "ROAM_MAX_DAYS num product". For example, to limit roaming of Modo licenses to 20 days you would add

ROAM_MAX_DAYS 20 modo_i
You can limit the number of licenses that can be roamed with "ROAM_MAX_COUNT num product". For example, if you have 20 NukeX licenses but want to allow up to 5 of them to be roamed at any one time you would add

ROAM_MAX_COUNT 5 nuke_i
ROAM_MAX_COUNT 5 nukex_i
You can restrict license roaming to only specified users or machines with "INCLUDEALL_ROAM user|host|group|host_group|internet|internet_group|project who. If you wanted to only make license roaming available for a group of 4 users you need to create a group and then add the command to just include them like the following

GROUP bugs john paul george richard
INCLUDEALL_ROAM group bugs
You can prevent named users or machines from being able to roam licenses with "EXCLUDEALL_ROAM user|host|group|host_group|internet|internet_group|project who". If you wanted to prevent a set of machines from being able to roam licenses you first create a HOST_GROUP and then add the EXCLUDEALL_ROAM line like the following

HOST_GROUP temp_workstations temp_vfx01 temp_vfx02 temp_vfx03 temp_vfx04
EXCLUDEALL_ROAM host_group temp_workstations

FURTHER HELP

If you are still experiencing difficulties please create a support ticket to let us know the exact issue encountered and the troubleshooting steps that have been taken.
For more information on how to open a support request, please refer to this article:Q100064: How to raise a support ticket

SUMMARY

HOW TO ROAM A LICENSE

HOW TO CONTROL ROAMING BEHAVIOUR WITH RLM FLOATING LICENSES

FURTHER HELP

FURTHER READING