Overview of Licensing

The Desigo CC software requires a valid license to run.

License Management Utility License Types

The Desigo CC software licenses are managed by the License Management Utility (LMU), which supports the following licensing types:

Trusted Store Licensing

A license is stored in a trusted store file. The licensing library (FNP) ensures that the file cannot be manipulated (such as, copied to another machine). The licenses stored in a trusted store can be returned and (re-)activated on other machines.

In Trusted Store Licensing, any modifications on the target machine (where the trusted store file is stored) might result in broken binding with the consequence that the licenses in the trusted store become untrusted. This especially might happen in virtual environments.

The trusted store license can be activated using Entitlement ID or Activation ID, either using the online or offline activation workflow.

Certificate Licensing

Used to for a dongle certificate.

During the activation process, when the certificate file is created, the license is bound to the key asset. The key asset can either be a physical dongle or a Trusted Platform Module chip of (newer) Windows computers. Whereas the certificate file can be copied multiple times, the physical key asset is the valuable asset for this licensing type.

The dongle certificate can be easily handled, but cannot be manipulated (such as, copied to another machine).

No license protection is required as for the physical key asset. If this asset fails, the license is lost and the manual license return workflow must be performed.

On client side, there are two types of certificate-based licensing:

Server-based certificates
Local certificates

Online Licensing

An online license is issued as a simple certificate file.

Online Licensing:

Allows for flexible use, no longer bound to a dedicated machine or physical key asset.
Supports the disaster recovery workflow.
Requires an internet connection to the LMS backend server. The LMS client retrieves every day a new license token from the LMS server. Desigo CC system failure will occur after 5 minutes that the internet connection to the LMS backend server is interrupted.

A token for the online license must be requested considering that the license is valid and usable on the client.

The Desigo CC online token is valid for 5 days.
Once this token expires, the Desigo CC license switches from Normal Mode to Demo Mode.

Desigo CC Software License

Typically, the Desigo CC software license is stored on the Desigo CC server.

Generally, a valid customer license includes:

A set of license features to cover the hardware configuration of the system and the site, such as the number of client stations or field points.
A set of option license features to enable additional or extended Desigo CC functionality, such as assisted treatment or reactions. See License Options.

Depending on the license found on the server, the Desigo CC clients may run in the following ways:

If a valid and sufficient license is found, the Desigo CC client will run normally, with full functionality. See Normal License Mode.
If no valid license is found, the Desigo CC client can only run for 30 minutes. See Demo License Mode.
If there is a valid license but it is not sufficient (for example, it does not cover all the field points configured in the project) then the Desigo CC client can operate for a maximum of 30 days. See Courtesy License Mode.
There is also a special site-configuration session license that is used in conjunction with a dongle to initially set up and configure the project. See Engineering Mode License.

Desigo CC License Check

On Desigo CC startup and at 5-minute intervals afterwards, the Desigo CC server carries out an automatic check on the installed license features and counts the following:

Desigo CC installed clients, Windows app clients, and Flex clients. If a client disconnects from the server (because it is manually shut down, or owing to a malfunction), the count decreases.
Physical objects in scan, such as Desigo CC data points, and third-party objects (for example, SCADA data points). These objects are grouped by disciplines (physical/logical objects). Every physical/logical object is represented by the corresponding data point in the database. Out of scan objects are not counted.

This check determines whether Desigo CC can run normally (Normal Mode) or under special restricted license modes (Demo Mode or Courtesy Mode).