Licenses
On the Licenses page, Global Administrators and App Administrators can:
- Use AD Sync to manage group permissions
- Use AD Sync to manage licenses ( App Admins cannot do this)
- Activate licenses
- View license details
- Assign licenses
- Revoke licenses
- Transfer licenses
Activate licenses
After the initial Evolve installation, you will need to activate your license (or installation). If you have an activation code, follow the steps below. If you do not have an activation code, please contact Winshuttle Support.
For more information on Winshuttle licenses, please visit the License Definitions and the License Restrictions pages.
If you are upgrading from Evolve 20.0 or Evolve 20.1 to Evolve 20.2, and want to deactivate your 20.0 or 20.1 activation code, contact Winshuttle Support and request that they reset the activation code. Support will reset the activation code from Connect, and deactivate it from the Evolve side
You can activate licenses using online or offline activation.
Online activation
- Click the Licenses menu, and then click on the Activate tab.
- Under Licensing Info, select the Online radio button in the Select Activation Type field.
- Enter the Activation code in the Activation Code field.
- Select an administrator in the Administrator field and enter a description in the corresponding field.
- Click Activate. A message confirms that the license has been activated successfully. All licenses in that code will be assigned to the administrator selected in the Administrator field.
Offline activation
Although the machine being activated does not need to be connected to the Internet, you will need Internet access from another machine to download the .lic file.
- Click the Licenses menu, and then click on the Activate tab.
- Under Licensing Info, select the Offline radio button in the Select Activation Type field.
- Enter the Activation code in the Activation Code field.
- Select an administrator in the Administrator field.
- Under License File Options, select the radio button that reads I need to get my license. A URL and encrypted activation code will populate.
- On a PC with Internet access, open the URL received.
- In the Offline Activation Code box, copy and paste the encrypted Activation code. This will download a file with an .lic extension. Save it to a temporary location.
- Under License File Options, select the radio button that reads I have my license file.
- Browse to the license file (.lic) that was downloaded in step 7.
- Click Activate.
Active Directory Sync Feature (AD Sync)
Key elements:
- Dynamic assignment of license type and group to AD Groups.
- Lower licenses are automatically removed once higher licenses are assigned.
- Manual assignment of licenses is allowed (for exceptions to the normal scenario).
- Users are not deleted when a license is revoked; only the licenses are removed.
Global Admins can manage licenses and group permissions with AD Sync. App Admins, however, can manage only group permissions with AD Sync.
The AD Sync feature should not be used to automate license reassignments; this would amount to pooled licensing, which is not allowed for named-user licenses (please see License Restrictions for more information).
The AD Sync feature is supported with Windows, SAML and OAuth Authentication.
For AD Groups with 300 or more users, jobs run in the background (Background mode). For AD Groups with less than 300 users, jobs run in the foreground.
AD Sync: Manage users and licenses
Global Admins can manage Evolve license assignment or revocation automatically using an AD Group. Adding or removing a user from an AD Group also automatically assigns or revokes the user license. AD Sync should not be used to reassign licenses; please see License Restrictions for more information.
Winshuttle licenses are named-user licenses and cannot be used as pooled licenses. Two named-user license moves per quarter per maintenance year are allowed. As you use the AD Sync feature, please ensure that licenses are not reassigned more than twice per quarter and that you observe Winshuttle license restrictions. Please see License Restrictions for more information.
| Manage users and licenses - Details |
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| You can set one or multiple AD Groups for a license module. |
| One AD Group cannot be set on more than one license module. |
| Adding a new AD Group to a license module immediately synchronizes the AD Group; synchronization occurs upon clicking Save. |
| Removing an AD Group from a license module immediately synchronizes this license module. The remove action syncs the complete module for all remaining groups – not just for the removed group. This maintains consistency; the system retains the license for users who exist in other AD Groups that are defined in this license module. |
| Manually synchronizing a license module will run the sync process immediately for this license module - for all AD Groups added to it. |
| Synchronizing can be scheduled using the application scheduler feature. In addition, this job will sync all license modules and their respective added AD Groups. |
AD Group user: license sync
| AD Group user: license sync - Details |
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| A license must be available for a license module. This is necessary for a license to be assigned. |
| In identifying the next available license, AD Sync does not take into account the license 'admin/bucket' concept. It is not recommended to use AD Sync with the license 'admin/bucket' feature. |
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A user is automatically added to an application’s users if that user does not already exist in the app. This is not User Profile Sync so “AD Group Sync” will not update the user details if the user already exists in application. New users will also get email notifications (for example, a summary notification will be sent for user updates such as license changes or roles changes). |
| The AD Groups Sync feature adds user automatically to Evolve or Studio Manager if their AD Groups are added to any license module - even when the licenses are not available in the application. |
| The Background AD Sync feature picks up the AD Group of a license module in order of highest-to-lowest priority. For example, it will sync AD Groups for “Studio Developer Perpetual," followed by those for “Studio Developer Subscription." |
| The AD Group Sync for a license module first syncs all the AD Group users with the application (all missing users are created and saved in application). When the user sync execution is complete, AD Sync runs the licensing sync. |
| A user will never be deleted from the Evolve application through the use of the AD Sync feature. (Removing a user from an AD Group will never result in that user being deleted from the application users.) |
| Upon use of AD Sync, you will receive a notification only if your license details were changed. |
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If a user's AD Group exists in more than one license module, only the higher license will be assigned to the user. And, if a lower license has already been assigned by AD Sync, this lower license will be revoked before a higher license is assigned. A higher license must be available; otherwise, the lower license will not be revoked. |
| To Remove or Add users to AD Groups: AD Sync updates Evolve with all additions to and removals from an AD Group. The updates are made when any of the following three actions are taken: “Sync Job," “Manual sync action,” or “User log-in as per log-in implementation." |
| Licenses manually assigned by the license admin (assigned without the use of AD Sync) cannot be revoked through the use of the AD Sync feature. |
| If a lower license has been manually assigned to a user and if that user also qualifies for a higher license module, the higher license will also be assigned to them. The user will have two licenses: one assigned manually, and one assigned through AD Sync. |
| If a higher license has been manually assigned to a user and if that user also qualifies for a lower license module, AD Sync will not assign the lower license to that user. The existing higher-license manual assignment means AD Sync will not subsequently assign a lower license to this user. |
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For all licenses manually revoked by the license admin (for licenses either manually assigned or assigned via AD Sync): The user can have their license assigned again via AD Sync (either through a Sync Job or through a manual sync) if their AD Group exists in the license module. (Admins can immediately revoke licenses in uncommon scenarios; however, the recommendation is to update the AD Group with this user.) |
| If the AD Group for a deleted user is mapped to any license module, that user will be added back in to Evolve via AD Sync (either through Sync Job or a manual sync). Therefore, to delete a user from Evolve, we recommended removing them from the AD Group. |
| Adding an empty AD Group is a valid use case. Whenever a user is assigned to an empty AD Group, the user is synced with Evolve in the same way the user would be with a Sync Job or a manual sync action. |
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License module order of priority, listed from highest to lowest priority: Studio Developer Perpetual Studio Developer Subscription Studio Runner Perpetual Studio Runner Subscription Standard User Perpetual Standard User Subscription Note:
Developer Perpetual and Developer Subscription are two separate license modules. A Studio Developer Subscription license (lower priority) will not be assigned to a user if they have already been assigned a Studio Developer Perpetual license (higher priority). |
Add AD Groups for license sync
To add an AD Group for license sync:
- Go to the Admin App Licenses page.
- On the Manage tab, select the license modules you want to add to the AD Group by clicking the three dots in the Actions column of each license module.
- Select the Assign AD Groups option.
- In the panel that opens, provide the AD Group name and domain. You can also use Lookup AD Group to search for the AD Groups.
- Once the group is located or added, click Save. You will receive a message confirming that the group has been added successfully.
Remove AD Groups for license sync
To remove an AD Group for license sync:
- Go to the Admin App Licenses page.
- On the Manage tab, select the license modules you want to remove from the AD Group by clicking the three dots in the Actions column of each license module.
- Select the Revoke AD Groups option.
- In the panel that opens, select the AD Group you want to remove and click Revoke.
- Once the group is revoked, click Save. You will receive a message confirming that the group has been added successfully.
Sync AD Groups action from the Licenses page
To manually sync AD Groups:
- Go to the Licenses page of Admin app.
- On the Manage tab, select the license modules for which you want to sync AD Groups by clicking the three dots in the Actions column of each license module.
- Select Sync AD Groups option.
- This schedules an AD Sync job. You will receive a message confirming that the AD Sync job has been scheduled.
View license details
You can view the following information on the Manage Licenses tab:
- Total number of licenses according to the License Module and the License Type
- Total number of licenses available according to the License Module and the License Type
You can view the following license details on the Assignment tab:
- Creation date
- Expiration dates
- Maintenance validity date
- License status
- License module
- License type
- License administrator
- User to whom the license has been assigned
Assign licenses
A license is connected to a user, and not to a computer. Licenses are portable in that they can be transferred between users. Please see License Restrictions for further information.
If you are using the AD Sync feature for license assignment, we do not recommend the use of the manual license assignment feature. AD Sync will not work for manually assigned licenses; they must be tracked and managed by the administrator.
To assign licenses:
- Click the Licenses menu, and then click on the Assignment.
- Select a license and then click Assign under the Actions column.
- On the Assign License to User window, select a user.
- Click Assign. A message confirms that the license has been assigned successfully.
Reassign licenses
To reassign licenses:
- Click the Licenses menu, and then click on the Assignment.
- Select a license and then click Reassign under the Actions column.
- On the Reassign to Another User window, select a user.
- Click Save. A message will confirm that the license has been reassigned successfully.
Revoke licenses
To revoke licenses:
- Click the Licenses menu, and then click on the Assignment.
- Select a license and then click Revoke - at the top of the page.
- On the Revoke License window, select a user.
- Click Save. A message will confirm that the license has been revoked successfully.
Transfer licenses
All administrators (Global Admins and App Admins) have their own license bucket; they are the "administrators" of the licenses in their bucket.
They can assign licenses only to users from their bucket. If they have assigned all the licenses that were in their bucket, their bucket is 'empty' and they are no longer able to assign licenses (even if other admins have licenses remaining in their buckets). Licenses can, though, be transferred between administrators. For example, if Admin1 has no licenses in their bucket, they can request a license from Admin2. If Admin2 has one available, they can transfer the license from their bucket to Admin1's bucket.
Notes: If you are using the AD Sync feature for license assignment, we do not recommend the use of the manual license assignment feature. AD Sync will not work for manually assigned licenses; they must be tracked and managed by the administrator.
If you use the AD Sync feature to assign licenses, licenses are assigned to users at random (license administrators are not considered).
To transfer licenses:
- Click the Licenses menu, and then click the Transfer tab.
- Select a license and then click Transfer - at the top of the page.
- On the Transfer Licenses window, select a user.
- Click Transfer. A message will confirm that the license has been transferred successfully.