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OI Licencing

Does anyone have any whitepaper or other documentation that is a decent discussion of how OI allocates its licences?

Ill keep it brief for now but we have a client saying they cannot log on the number of users their OEngine.DLL is clearly licenced for.

We have a tool that looks at users in SYSLOGINS. I seemingly can validate that number on Windows Server with the number of Network sessions (Connections to OEngine.dll file) + Terminal sessions with OInsight.exe process.

They have some web stuff happening as well. EServer.cfg is configured to use Max 3 Engines (so 3 licences as best I know how that works).

Is there any OI Tool to show the used licence level status (and better yet, what they are allocated to)?

Comments

  • As far as tracking down 'status', if you are running the Universal Driver, you should have access to the LH Service Manager tool that Revelation provides. This will show you how many active sessions there are, and which machines/workstations are currently connected. It also shows you which workstation is locking which records (at a snapshot in time).

    I know there was a bug in the past where if you closed OI, it 'looked' like it closed, but it wasn't closed all the way. You had to task kill it in the task manager. I've seen sometimes where if OI doesn't close properly and remains running in this manner that it will still take up a user license. I've also seen where users accidentally launch multiple copies of the application, and would have more than one session of OI running without knowing it, sitting on a login screen or something. That would also take up more than one license. Sometimes it takes having everyone log out, look at the LH Manager and see who is still in even though they think they are out.
  • @FrankTomeo
    Why did I know you were going to bring up the UD ;-)

    For reasons I still dont fully understand, we only have 1 client (that I am aware of) that is running their UD. None of our others were installed with it, including the client in question.

    Maybe @DonBakke remembers conversations he had with my esteem predecessor as to his reasonings?

    This bug you speak of, existing bug or a since-squashed bug? This Client is running OI 9.4.6.

    I have seen the symptons you noted of but most of our clients are not running the latest 9 OI yet (some still seem to be in the world of 9.3.x ...). Our response in the past has been as you suggested but this Client does not like having to regularly do that (they are a 24 hour business with no down time)

    UD driver looks to be next tool to use.
    Any advantage you see making them pay for the 5 series UD for OI 9 a opposed to the 4.7.2 included ?

  • @opto_will
    >>UD driver looks to be next tool to use.
    Be very aware that in some cases that I am aware of, the UD can slow the performance (albeit UD is better data integrity) and if getting client to pay and performance drops....well!!!!
  • @BarryStevens

    Thanks for the tip.

    That may be part of the past reasoning. We have some performance issues with one of our applications so maybe we historically weren't willing to potentially introduce further performance issues...
  • @Opto_Will

    I was always under the impression that your esteemed predecessor simply didn't understand the need for the UD and thus got along without it. However, I made it very clear this was dangerous and unsupported.

    As Barry noted, there can be a performance hit, but this is par for the course because of the overhead that a network traffic manager imposes. I would argue, however, that this is mostly a problem for those who have been "flying without a parachute" for a long time and have gotten overly used to the performance of local mode access. For people who have always used a network product, the performance feels normal.
  • @DonBakke

    That impression tracks too ;-)
    So it seems the recommendation is to make UD a must for future installs.

    I will have to dust off the UD documentation I saw somewhere a while back to get a clearer understanding of the install requriements.

    Any advantage in the 5 series UD over the 4 (that is worth making a client pay for)?
  • The UD 5 did not introduce any performance benefits. It added support for:
    • VSS integration for better backups while running live.
    • Encryption over the wire.
    • Auto-recovery if OI disconnects from the server.
    I have yet to see the auto-recovery feature work. Encryption over the wire is probably not of much interest to you. If anything, the VSS integration is the biggest selling point, but your mileage (or kilometers) may vary.
  • @DonBakke.

    You are right. Points 1 and 3 would be the selling points. I can think of a few clients with complaints of dropouts that might like 3, but only if it works!
  • Just responding to the performance issue. I have been asking if anyone has a performance test routine that all developers can use to compare different installations. The test routine would be in a separate folder and in the Global account. If such a test would exist, developers can then stop looking for answers, modify OI setup or contact IT support for further investigation.
  • I am very aware of your request (especially from Revelation) for such a tool. While I think something could be developed that would provide some value, I would also want to caution against heavy reliance upon this tool. Applications and their databases will vary, and your setup can be very different - and thus require different optimization strategies - than other setups. Why not write your own routine? You know best what kind of performance stress testing would provide meaningful data.
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