Setting up a licences server allows the sharing of floating licences between multiple machines.

To get your server up and running you need to:

put some floating licences files into a directory of your choice
copy the server component onto your machine (using BimSens standard installer)
install the server's windows service
start the service

Installing and Starting the Server

To install a BimSens licences server you need to tick the corresponding option when running the regular installer, this copies the server components onto the machine.

When the installation completes you'll have the option to run the server configuration assistant, or you can run it manually from the installation directory (the default directory is C:\Program Files (x86)\BimSens\Server\BimSensLicencesServer.exe). The server configuration assistant will allow you to configure and install the Windows Service that will manage licences.

ADMIN RIGHTS REQUIRED
	The Server Configuration Assistant requires the user to have Administrator rights on the computer

In the configuration assistant, under Server Address, specify an address for the service distributing the licences, for instance http://localhost:8000/MyBimSensServer. This address is valid on the local computer and the assistant gives you the corresponding address that remote users can connect to in order to obtain a licence.
Choose a Lease Check interval which defines the interval in minutes between checks for dead lease by the server
Choose a Maximum Lease Duration which defines how long a licence can be borrowed for, and
Specify the folder where the server should load licences from (the licences must be floating licences)
Click Install to install the service.

SETTING THE RIGHT VALUE FOR LEASE CHECK
	BimSens renews the lease before it expires as needed for the user, setting a value too high for the Lease Duration can result in locked licences for longer periods of time; conversely, setting a value too low can negatively impact the user experience by renewing lease too often. Keep the default value and only change it if you experience one of these problems.

Once the installation is complete, click Start to initiate the service.

If the service fails to install or start correctly, details about the error that occurred are available in the Windows Application Event log, with the Source BimSensLicencesServer.

Auditing Licences Status

You can see the current status of every licence using the Licences Status dialogue by clicking the link View Licences Status.

For each licence type:

under Leases, the Licences Status dialogue shows how many licences are available, in use and how many leases have been negotiated since last restart
under Diagnostic, the dialogue shows if users have been denied licences, and if any licences are expired or not activated. You can export the history log of all leases by clicking the Download Log link

If there are no licences at all in any category, you may have provided an invalid or empty directory to look for licences.

You can click the Refresh button at any time to refresh the statuses. If you added new licences to the directory, activated them or renewed them, you need to restart the server which can be done by clicking the button... Restart.

In addition to the custom licence log, BimSens server logs various event in the windows application event log, such as server statuses, failure, or when users do dodgy things like borrowing more than one licence from the same machine.

Restarting the Server

If the server becomes non responsive, or if you have locked licences that are not being released, you can restart the server. From the Service Settings dialogue simply click Stop then Start, or Restart directly. The server can also be restarted from the Licences Status dialogue if needed.

Note that restarting the server will terminate all active leases. Users with active leases will not have their session terminated immediately but if the server is not restarted, or if there is no more licence available of the required type when BimSens tries to renegotiate the licence with the server, they will be given a short period of time to save their work and exit.

Uninstalling the Server

To uninstall the server, start the configuration assistant as explained above, and click Uninstall. Note that this uninstall the service, but does not delete licences nor remove the server components.

To remove the server components you need to uninstall BimSens itself.

BimSens Licences Server uses the library 'LiSens' to manage licences. This component is never uninstalled automatically as it can be used by other applications. To uninstall it manually, go to the LiSens installation directory, and run the uninstaller for the version you want to remove.