Software Based Licensing

Licenses are controlled in NEXUS through a software license key and occasional communication with a License Server. The NEXUS application contacts the software license server using the standard HTTPS protocol. All information is encrypted in transit between your computer and the NEXUS License Server.

Validate the Software Based License

  1. Launch NEXUS.

  2. When you connect to the database the first time, you will be prompted to enter the license key. This brings up the dialog under Database ‣ Properties ‣ License.

  3. Enter the license key that was provided by Wood.

  4. Click on Request License.

    _images/general.deployment.license_authenticating.png

  5. NEXUS communicates with the NEXUS License Server via the internet and exchanges license information associated with your implementation including:

  • Server Name

  • Database Name

  • License type

  • Number of licenses available to your organisation

  • [GRACE PERIOD] in days. Usually this is set to 30 days.

  1. This information is then stored (encrypted) in the database, and is shown in the dialog:

    _images/general.deployment.license.authenticated.png

Subsequent License Validations

Each time a user launches the NEXUS application, it will contact the NEXUS License Server to validate the license stored in the database against the license issued from the server. Upon successful connection and validation, the grace period is re-set.

If NEXUS is unable to contact the NEXUS License Server for some reason (external Internet connection is not available, for example), then NEXUS will still run providing the license has been validated within the grace period.

Note

If nobody launches NEXUS for more days than the grace period, the next time NEXUS is launched, it will contact the NEXUS License Server to validate and reset the grace period.

Named Users

If you are using Named Users licensing, a Named Users section will appear at the bottom of the Database Properties dialog. In this case, select the relevant row and click the Assignment button to assign a NEXUS IC license to at least one user. Users who are not selected will get a message saying that they are not authorised. This includes the user account that you are logged in under when you set up this license.

Re-authentication

The only circumstances under which re-authentication is required is when the database name OR the database server name is changed.

Note

Your license validation is tied to your database server name. If the database server name changes, the license will show as invalid. This can happen if you have two different client executables (NEXUS IC, IC-Inspection, etc.) connecting to the same server under different names. For example, one might be connecting to a server named “.” while the other is connecting to a server named “127.0.0.1” or “localhost” or “192.168.0.1” or “databaseservername”. If this happens, ensure that all clients are using the same database server name, and validate the license again.

Offshore Use

Software licensing is designed with offshore use in mind. Note the following:

  • If you plan to use NEXUS IC in an offshore area without internet connectivity, it is important to connect a single workstation to the internet before leaving the internet range. You can do this by hot-spotting it to a mobile phone. After connecting to the internet, start NEXUS IC on that workstation to validate the license. This will ensure that you have your full grace period. If you expect to be without internet access for more than the grace period, please contact support@nexusic.com, and we can temporarily increase your grace period.

  • While backing up your database from one server and restoring it to another, you will be asked to re-validate the license. To do this, you will need to connect a workstation to the internet temporarily. This usually happens during mobilisation, but may also occur in case of catastrophic failure of the primary database server. Please note that complete failure of a database server is rare.