Caché System Administration Guide - InterSystems Documentation

Managing Caché Licensing
positive acknowledgements in response to instance updates. The individual instances then allow new
logins.
4.4 Identifying Users
The Caché licensing system attempts to identify distinct users and to allocate one license unit per user.
A user is identified by a license user ID, which can be an IP address, a username, a CSP session ID,
or some other identifier depending on how the user connects.
Multiple processes started by or for a single user share a license unit up to a maximum limit of processes
per user. The $System.License.MaxConnections() method returns the maximum value (maxconn)
for the current implementation.
Set maxconn=$System.License.MaxConnections()
Write "Maximum connections = ",maxconn
If the number of processes exceeds this maximum, a transition occurs and Caché begins allocating
one license unit per process for that user ID. The system presumes that if more than maxconn connections
are associated with a user ID, multiple users are accessing Caché through an intermediary, (for example,
a firewall system) so additional license units are required. Therefore, when the (maxconn + 1) process
starts, the number of license units allocated to that user ID changes from one to (maxconn + 1). Processes
started by the Job command are allocated against the process limit of the user ID invoking the Job
command.
Once the number of connections drops back under the maximum, the number of license units consumed
is not set back to 1. Each connection continues to consume one license unit. You have to close all
connections of a user ID before that user can start up to the maximum connections using one license
unit again.
InterSystems expects that most applications are moving to identify their users by name, eliminating
problems associated with using a default user ID based on client IP address, CSP session ID, or other
connection-derived user ID.
For example, when firewall or terminal server software is used, Caché cannot differentiate among
connecting users, so it falls back on the maximum-connection transition rule. Using mixed connections,
such as CSP and Caché Direct, from the same client also makes it impossible to count users appropriately
using automatic ID creation.
When the username serves as the license identifier, these problems disappear. The importance of
accurate user identification is expected to grow as organizations implement new access and audit
requirements. Using the user identity to control license compliance is a natural corollary to this trend.
This section covers the following topics:
• License Logins
60 Caché System Administration Guide