We added floating licenses to GeoExpress a couple of versions ago to give customers more flexibility, but many customers aren’t aware of what floating licenses are or how they work. This Q & A addresses the most common questions we get about floating licenses.

What is a floating license?

A floating license is a license that moves around among the members of your organization as needed. It’s a means of enabling a user on a networked computer to lease or “check out” a GeoExpress license for the period of time they are working. When they quit GeoExpress, the license is returned to the license server and becomes available for another user.

What’s the benefit of using floating licenses? I need to tell my boss what the benefit would be.

Try this on the boss: “Using floating licenses makes for very efficient use of our organization’s software license budget.” Rather than purchase licenses for every single person in your outfit that might possibly need to use GeoExpress at some point, you can buy licenses for just the number of people who are likely to need to use the software concurrently. If that weren’t enough, floating licenses also take a load off your IT administrator, who no longer has to go to each computer to run GeoExpress and write down a locking code. With floating licenses the licenses for all your organization’s copies of GeoExpress can be managed centrally.

Which editions of GeoExpress can we use a floating license with?

Floating licenses can be used with GeoExpress Tools, GeoExpress Standard and GeoExpress Unlimited editions.

GeoExpress Remote Edition is one of those, right?

No. GeoExpress Remote Edition is its own edition and floating licenses don’t work with it. If you’ve got GeoExpress Remote Edition you‘ll need a remote license. Contact your LizardTech representative to get one.

So, how does a floating license work? How do I check one out?

When you run GeoExpress, the software “looks for” a license on the network and if one is available, you’re off to the races. You don’t have to DO anything. It all happens automatically and invisibly. In fact, users at an unfamiliar workstation running GeoExpress with a floating license checked out on the network would not necessarily know they weren’t using a local license. Users generally won’t even have to think about how their software is licensed.

You said “if one is available”. Why would a license NOT be available, and what happens then?

The license server only distributes as many licenses as your organization has purchased. After all your licenses have been assigned, the license server waits for a license to be checked back in before it allows any more to be checked out. If this happens, the next user that runs GeoExpress gets a message alerting them that all the licenses are in use, and they’ll have to wait for the next available license.

What’s a license server? It sounds expensive.

Generally speaking, any computer on your network can be a license server. You just have to install the license server software on it. The license server software costs you nothing. It’s provided for you on the GeoExpress installation disk.

As a user just trying to run GeoExpress, do I have to know which computer on the network is a license server?

No. GeoExpress automatically searches out the nearest license server on your network. However, if you wish you can tell the software where on the network you would prefer it to look by specifying a license server.

Can I also specify that I’d prefer a NITF-enabled license if one is available?

Did we pay you to ask that? Why, yes. Yes, you can.

Where do I do all this specifying about licenses and license servers?

Choose Floating Licenses from the Options menu on GeoExpress’ menu bar. A dialog box appears where you can specify a license server and whether you’d prefer a NITF license.  

With floating licenses, does GeoExpress still get installed on a local computer?

Yes. GeoExpress is still installed on individual workstations, but the workstations do not have individual licenses. The license server stores all the licenses and keeps track of them.