Licensing

To determine the licensing requirements for a Plant SCADA system, you firstly need to consider the roles assigned to your runtime computers. Roles are used to define how a computer will function within a runtime system. There are four options:

• Server

• Control client

• View-only client

• Standalone HMI (a system on a single computer with no networking).

A role is specified for a computer using the Computer Role page of the Setup Wizard, or via the Citect.ini parameter [Client]ComputerRole.

The computer roles align with the different license types that are supported by Plant SCADA. When licenses are allocated at runtime, it is the role that determines the type of license a computer will attempt to retrieve. This process also takes into account the following:

• A server license also provides authorization for a single control client license.

• A computer running as a server only needs one license, even if it is running multiple server processes.

  Note: Every runtime computer includes a client process that manages license acquisitions. If you shut down the client process, licensing will stop working for all other local processes.

This means you need to consider the following before you implement the licensing for a Plant SCADA system.

• The number of computers that are assigned to each role in your runtime system.

• The number of licenses you have for each computer type.

• Where the licenses will be stored.

• How the licenses will be retrieved by each computer.

This will largely be determined by the licensing technology you use; AVEVA Enterprise Licensing (software based) or Sentinel Licensing (USB keys).

Note: You cannot run both licensing systems on the same Plant SCADA computer.

• AVEVA™ Enterprise Licensing

  The AVEVA Enterprise Licensing system is a common platform solution that allows you to manage AVEVA Enterprise Software product licenses.

  The system is comprised of a browser-based License Manager and a License Server that allow you to share and deliver licenses for your installed AVEVA applications. This distributed architecture provides the following benefits:

  • Centralized license management.

  • Increase license security through the use of activated licenses.

  • Flexible topologies for any size system.

    You can use Plant SCADA Studio to launch Enterprise License Manager from any installed location within your Plant SCADA system. See Launch Enterprise License Manager from Plant SCADA Studio.

    Note: The AVEVA Enterprise Licensing system is required for Industrial Graphics applications.

    For more information, see AVEVA™ Enterprise Licensing.

• Sentinel Licensing (using USB keys)

  Sentinel Licensing is a legacy licensing solution for Plant SCADA. It uses physical USB keys that plug in to each computer in your Plant SCADA system. The USB key contains details of your user license, such as its type and I/O point count.

  When a USB key is detected on a computer, all of the available licenses are loaded into runtime. Any additional licenses that are not used by the local computer are then made available to other computers. This is enabled via a floating license mechanism that allows server computers to allocate licenses to clients.

  You are occasionally required to update your Sentinel keys, for example, when you upgrade to a new version of Plant SCADA. To do this, you need to retrieve an authorization code from AVEVA's online License Generator. See Update a Sentinel Key with CiUSAFE.

In both cases, Plant SCADA uses a Dynamic Point Count to determine if your system is operating within the limitations of your license agreement. This process tallies the number of I/O device addresses being used by the runtime system.

A point limit is allocated to each type of license included in your license agreement.

If required, you can specify how many points will be required by a particular computer (see Specify the Required Point Count for a Computer).

Note: With the release Plant SCADA 2023, Schneider Electric's Floating License Manager is no longer supported. Existing users of the Floating License Manager will need to reconfigure their system to use AVEVA Enterprise Licensing.

See Also

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