Reserve licenses when multiple MES systems are deployed

If you have multiple MES deployments (that is, multiple MES databases) and are managing their product licenses through one License Server, you can use the Reservation feature to reserve features for a particular deployment. Although this is possible, it is recommended to use separate license servers for each when possible.

Using the Reservation feature through one License Server requires that there be two or more license counts available. So, for example, if the license server has both a 10‑count Performance license and a 100‑count Performance license installed, it is possible to reserve the 10‑count license for a development/test server and the 100‑count license for a Production server.

When configuring reservations, only reserve the functional features (MES Operations Functional Entities, MES Performance Functional Entities, and MES Quality Functional Entities). The production entities and inventory entities are automatically calculated from the functional features acquired and do not require separate reservations. You can also reserve middleware instances but note that they are acquired by node name and must be reserved by the node name. If there is no concern about running out of middleware instances, then there is no reason to reserve them.

Reservations can be released.

While reserving licenses is possible, it does cause the system to behave slightly different with releasing feature counts. Since middleware instances share licenses and only the last middleware to shut down will release its feature counts, there will be features indicating they are still in use even after all systems are shut down. As an example: Two reservations are made for MESDB A and MESDB B. A middleware for MESDB A starts and acquires its feature counts and then a middleware for MESDB B starts and acquires its features counts. The License Manager shows the two different devices and the licenses acquired. The middleware for MESDB A shuts down but sees that there is still a remaining middleware license in use and does not release its feature counts. The middleware for MESDB B shuts down and, being the last middleware, releases its licenses. The licenses from MESDB A still remain and would show in use even though there are no middleware instances running. In general, this will not cause a problem as the next time a middleware from MESDB A starts, it will get the same licenses that it had previously.

Reserve MES features for a MES server

1. On the Device Reservation tab, click Add Device.

   The Add Device dialog appears.

   

2. In the Device Name field, enter the device name as the MES server name and the MES database name with an underscore (_) character between them.

   The server name cannot contain any special characters that are not allowed in the naming of Windows files and directories.

3. For each feature to be reserved for this device, select the feature and enter the count to be reserved In the Count column.

4. Click Add.