Forum Discussion

steve_mcclung's avatar
steve_mcclung
Occasional Contributor
9 years ago

TestComplete License Manager Installation

I was going to install the License Manager on our virtual server until I found out I cannot do this for Floating Licenses.  I was going to install TestComplete on 5 workstations and identify the VM a...
  • joseph_michaud's avatar
    joseph_michaud
    9 years ago

    While you can run a License Manager on a VM, the constraints imposed by the licensing system make using a VM worse than using a physical machine if you can't control how the VM is managed.  If you have the choice of using a physical machine, take it.

     

    As for using the same machine to run TestComplete and serve licenses,.... yes, you can do that.  In fact, you have the same license server bits already installed as part of the TestComplete installation.  (The License Manager installation is just a repackaging of only the license server bits and pretty interface, and no TestComplete bits.)

debruey's avatar
debruey
New Contributor

joseph_michaud can you expand on the comment "While you can run a License Manager on a VM, the constraints imposed by the licensing system make using a VM worse than using a physical machine if you can't control how the VM is managed."? 

 

Are you saying that it will work to install TEstComplete license manager on (say) an Azure VM, with floating-license TestExecute running on VMs, as long as I have good control over the content and life of those VMs? What is the downside of doing so? Is the point that VMs are traditionally transient machines, and tearing down/setting up VMs for license servers becomes a problem?

 

Thanks. 

Don

 

joseph_michaud's avatar
joseph_michaud
Moderator
6 years ago

It is not the lifetime and content of the VMs that matter.  It is the physical machine on which the License Manager VM runs that matters.  The licensing system as we are using it unfortunately depends on some aspects of the machine (ie CPU type) that are not virtualized.  In the end, this ties the licensing system to the underlying physical host on which the License Manager VM runs.  If you can't control your License Manager VM in the VM environment, then you don't know which physical host your VM is running on.

 

If you're running your License Manager VM in a cluster of identical physical hosts... no problem.  If your License Manager VM doesn't move from its physical host... no problem.  But if your License Manager VM is wandering about, running on non-identical physical machines... problem.  The licenses will be invalidated when the License Manager VM runs on a different physical host.

 

If you can control your VM environment, you can mitigate the problem by 'pinning' the VM to run on the same physical host.  This works well in most cases.

 

Remember: this is only a problem for the License Manager VM (serving the licenses).  It is not an issue for the VMs simply running TestComplete or TestExecute (which aren't serving licenses).  (And this is only a problem for the License Manager on VMs.  The licensing system uses different criteria to judge machine integrity for physical machines.)

  • debruey's avatar
    debruey
    New Contributor
    6 years ago

    Thanks for the clarification. It helps to understand the issues so I can work with my network team on the right solution for the license server. 

     

    Don