Within the Licensing system used by Leica Geosystems to manage software licenses, the Floating Licenses can be shared across multiple client workstations within the same local network. The Spider Software Suite uses floating licenses for all applications.
Floating licenses are managed by a Local License Server running on your local network. This Local License Server manages the license pool and controls that the number of simultaneously used licenses does not exceed the total number of purchased licenses.
The Local License Server can be installed on any physical server in your network and runs as a Windows service in the background. The Local License Server can manage the licenses for one or more Leica Geosystems software products.
For the initial installation of the Local License Server and activation of licenses an Internet connection is required to the Leica Geosystems License Server. Once the Local License Server is installed and the licenses are activated, this Internet connection is no longer required. For activating additionally purchased software options or software maintenance as contained in the Customer Care Packages (CCPs) the Internet connection needs to be established again.
In case your local network is split into a LAN and DMZ section, we recommend installing the Local License Server in the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) part. Floating licenses on the Local License Server are managed via a separate License Management Tool, the License Administrator Server.
The Entitlement ID is the key to initial license activation as well as for re-ordering additional software options or CCPs. The Entitlement ID consists of 25 alphanumeric characters separated by dashes, for example:
Entitlement ID: 00101-64466-00014-03624-4C34F
The Entitlement ID can be found on the Invoice and on the Delivery Note of the purchased software product. In addition, it can also be found in a separate Entitlement Certificate, on paper or in digital form.
The Entitlement ID for a software product never changes and therefore these documents should be kept carefully.
Within Spider Business Center different types of licenses are utilized. They differentiate by the time they are valid for. The following table gives an overview:
| License type | Description |
|---|---|
| Spider Web Application Basic | Valid for an unlimited time. The standard customer license. |
| Demo | Valid for limited time. Available to Leica Geosystems sales representatives for demonstration purpose. |
| Evaluation | Valid for a limited time. Available to end customers for evaluation of unknown software options. |
| Training | Valid for a limited time. Available to Leica Geosystems sales representatives for training purpose. |
| SmartNet | Valid for an unlimited time. Special license type for Leica SmartNet only. |
The Leica Spider Software Suite uses the floating license model which means licenses can be shared across different PCs within the same network.
Leica Spider Web Applications encompass all web-server-based software components. The components are integrated but currently still separated into two individual software brands: Spider Business Center (SBC) and Leica Spider Web.
Both brands share the same "Spider Web Applications Basic License" and differentiate by the necessary "Leica Spider Web Applications License Options".
The Spider Business Center provides authentication and authorization infrastructure for all Spider Suite services. This includes the real time services provided by Leica GNSS Spider and the post processing services provided by Leica Spider Web.
Leica Spider Web provides site management infrastructure for Spider Web Services. It is a software for the convenient presentation of a GNSS network and GNSS data over the Internet.
As Murphy’s law states: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”, the Software Licensing technology might fail at some time during the continuous operation of the Spider suite software. Spider suite components are prepared for such a scenario, too.
In case the connection to Local License Server is broken, but successful check of features was possible in the past a grace period of maximum 7 days within 30 days will be granted.
This period will ensure SBC is working in a mode of normal operation to bridge network, hardware downtime etc. No new licensed features can be activated during the grace period. The time should be used to fix the issue. During the grace period repeated notifications will alarm the operator via E-Mail. The hours spent in grace period will be accumulated within 30 days until the maximum of 7 days is reached.
If this maximum is reached for any licenced feature, grace period elapses and the whole software application will stop operating. Access to SBC data is no more possible and all rover access authorization will be refused. After 30 days of successful operation, another 7 days long grace period will be granted.
A lock symbol on the top status bar indicates the state of the software licensing by its colour.