Add new functionality to License Manager - Usage & Analysis Tools

8900
49
03-22-2010 03:33 PM
Status: Under Consideration
Labels (1)
SanjayLala1
New Contributor II
Add posibility to see and account for the use of the licenses  at License Manager in terms of how many licenses , for how long and by whom are used.
Usefull to monitor use of licenses, in order to dimension number and level of Desktop licenses need in organization.
49 Comments
WendyFlynn
Great idea.  Please include.
RayMontgomery
I agree with the comments about this being absurd not to be able to see which users are using what licenses.  This WAS available at 9.x, and for some unfathomable reason was removed, a REALLY bad idea.  I want to see username, all licenses they are using, and the date/time they were checked out.
JackSettelmaier
I would love the ability to have the usage log "summarizable" by users, machine, total time seat/extension has been used over X amount of time.
SteveGoldman
The key functionality on this would be twofold:
1. Who is using what right now. This is needed when you are out of licenses and need to figure out who to go talk to to see if they are really currently using it.
2. Usage logging to see numbers of licenses in use over time (core products and extensions). Configurable time schedule (hourly, or at specific times during the day, etc). Ideally with a graphing or data export function, and a max usage report over a time period. This would allow us to know how often we're hitting our limit, if we have too many licenses, etc.
PeterHannah1
This should be a basic function included in the ESRI package.  I am constantly needing to view whose tying up the limited number of ArcInfo, ArcEditor or ArcView  licenses we have in our organization.  Instead, we use an executable not supported by ESRI that has limited functionality.
GelcysWilliams
I whole-heartedly agree! The old log analyzer someone wrote for v9 did some of this but no one has rewritten the log analyzer so I had to get a developer to help make something for our reporting purposes internally. With the need to keep track of use of enterprise license usage, I had really hoped ESRI could provide these tools.

I came across your post looking for solutions for the last suggestion you had - I have a user that has decided to open arcgis on a desktop and laptop despite agreeing not to - going to read through the options file limits but I don't think there's an easy answer to that one...
AndrewQuee

My organisation does this through some custom software:

  1. lmstat the licence server and grep the curent licence use text on-demand
  2. Tomcat application to present above via intranet web page
  3. Alternatively encode as XML for
  4. Python XML reader that fires every ten minutes of the work day and records a sequential log of usage in monthly CSV files
  5. CSV is converted to XLS, stripping nonessential data, can concatenate user activity into periods
  6. Import XLS into Oracle tables for analysis and reporting

There are any number of commerical solutions for checking usage and analysis, this is just what we came up with that used what we had and didn't require any additional expenditure.

Edit:

We have now retired the above contraption in favour of OpenLM.

AnjaSeckel
We use PLTS Defense Mapping and PLTS Production Mapping as floating licence. Around 15 persons have installed this software and only 3 licences are available at our organisation. The problem is that PLTS is switched on automatically at clients, but often the users don't need this software. It is the last saved session of ArcMap or ArcCatalog. Another person needs this software urgently, but no licences are available. Now this person has to speek with 10 or more persons, whether they have switched on PLTS. If this has no success the person has to speek with the IT-section. The IT-Section looks in the ArcGIS License Manager to find out which person use PLTS. This happens every day. Sometimes the person which is responsible for licences is out of office and we can't do our work. That is why we are also very interested in this capability.
MichaelRoss
I'd like to see % idle, too.  A lot of users will open ArcMap first thing in the morning and then "squat" on it - leaving it open all day just in case they need it.
GelcysWilliams
I've been asking for a tool like this for years - there was something a user built but has been unusable after 9.x.  I've had someone inhouse help to build something to show usage by day, unique names of users, unique users by license level, denied users - all to be picked by a date range.  Concurrent licensing should offer these tools so we can monitor our usage if not before - then definitely in the light of enterprise licensing so you can determine how many you really need.  I can't wait for this to be integrated!!