Question QI-005:

How does ADINA program licensing work?

Answer:

For ADINA 9.9 and later versions, licensing is described at Bentley Communities - ADINA Licensing and Tiers. The answer below only applies to ADINA 9.8.2 and earlier versions, which are no longer available for purchase.

The ADINA programs can be used with either a node-locked license or a floating license. The options available are:
  • Node-Locked License (Any User)
  • Floating License (Industry)
  • Floating License (Educational)

A node-locked license allows ADINA to be run only on the licensed computer; i.e., the license is tied to a single computer. The node-locked license fee is based on the number of processors (cores) that the user wants to use to run an ADINA job on the computer. The most common and basic node-locked license allows up to four processors (cores) for each job.

The main advantage of a node-locked license is that there is no restriction on the number of ADINA jobs running on the licensed computer. This type of license is most often used by a single person on a single computer.

A floating license allows ADINA to be run on any computer (Unix/Linux or Windows) attached to a network with one of the computers acting as the ADINA license server. The license server machine can be an ordinary PC or workstation running Unix/Linux or the Windows operating system.

The main advantage of a floating license is that the ADINA license copies can "float" across to any computer on the network. This type of license is most suitable when there are several ADINA users who need to run ADINA on different computers.

The ADINA floating license is issued for Industry users or University users.

Floating License (Industry)

Pricing for industry floating licenses is based on the number of copies of each program module and the number of processors (cores) that the user wants to run for each copy. Each license copy of a program module allows the user to run a session of the program module on any computer attached to the ADINA license server computer.

For example, if a customer licenses 2 copies of ADINA, 1 copy of ADINA-F, and 2 copies of AUI, then at any one time, the sum of all the ADINA programs running on all the computers on the network cannot exceed 2 ADINA jobs, 1 ADINA-F job and 2 AUI sessions.

Note that an ADINA-FSI job uses 1 copy of ADINA and 1 copy of ADINA-F. Similarly, an ADINA-TMC job uses 1 copy of ADINA and 1 copy of ADINA-T.

Floating License (Educational)

A special educational license is available for the use of ADINA for research and teaching in the Universities. This special floating license allows an unlimited number of users, on up to 5 user-defined IP subnets, to run ADINA throughout the University.

License Installation

More details about ADINA license installation can be found at the following pages.

Windows Systems

• Node-Locked License          • Floating License

Unix/Linux Systems

• Node-Locked License          • Floating License