1

Effectively Managing Global Engineering Licenses

Kimberley A. DillmanIT Solution Architect – EngineeringDelphi Corporationemail: Kimberley.A.Dillman@delphi.com

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 2

Delphi Overview and Vision

Leading global supplier of mobile electronics and transportation systems, including powertrain, safety, steering, thermal, and controls & security systems, electrical/electronic architecture, and in-car entertainment and communication technologies

Ranked 92 on the 2008 Fortune 500 company list

Global manufacturing footprint Strategically located to support our customers

Advanced technology and OE quality parts and service Automotive Independent aftermarket, consumer electronics businesses, medical,

commercial vehicles or other adjacent-market businesses

Vision Be Recognized By Our Customers As Their Best Supplier!

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 3

Overview

Introduction

The basic concepts of “licensing”

Managing the license files

Monitoring the license availability

Tracking historical usage

Analyzing capacity

Contract compliance

Cost of usage

Summary

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 4

Introduction

As the lead time for product design drastically decreases, the need for the use of computer-aided engineering tools, especially for simulation and analysis, rapidly increases to meet these new deadlines

Computer-generated models and simulations increase the quality and accuracy of the designs and reduce the overall design cycle time

These tools can be very expensive

The deployment and usage of these tools needs to be accurately tracked and managed to make the most efficient use of these assets

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 5

The Basic Concepts of “Licensing” - Diagram

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 6

The Basic Concepts of “Licensing” (1 of 2)

Enabling the Application

License server processes

License file

Log files

Application client

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 7

The Basic Concepts of “Licensing” (2 of 2)

Managing the Application

Managing the license files

Monitoring the license availability

Tracking historical usage

Analyzing capacity

Contract compliance

Cost of usage

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 8

Managing the License Files – Why?

Revision Control

History of license file revisions

Recording the differences

Accuracy

What was added?

What was removed?

What changed?

Testing

Verifying the changes

Implementation

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 9

Managing the License Files – What?

License File Attributes

Vendor name

Daemon names

Server names

Revision date (effective date)

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 10

Managing the License Files – What?

Feature Attributes

Name

Type (Increment, feature, etc.)

Expiration date

Quantity

Version

BORROW allowed? (and default time length)

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 11

Managing the License Files – How?

Database

Store the key fields from the license file

Record revision date for the license file

Parser Scripts

Used to extract key fields from the license file to be imported into the database

Reports

Vendor’s files that are “tracked”

Revisions of license files available for each vendor

Differences between license files (add/delete/change)

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 12

Managing the License Files – Ex. 1

Vendor License File Revision Report:

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 13

Managing the License Files – Ex. 2

Vendor License File Comparison Report:

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 14

Monitoring the License Availability - Why?

Detect Potential Problems or Outages

Prevent outages

Minimize down time due to outages

Monitor Usage Near Capacity

Detect and monitor periods of high usage

Identify very long running jobs

Additional compute resources needed?

Hung job or license?

Detect usage of large quantities of licenses by individual users

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 15

Monitoring the License Availability - What?

Are licenses available?

Are we nearing capacity?

Who is using the licenses?

How long?

How many?

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 16

Monitoring the License Availability - How?

Scheduled Jobs

Use license manager specific utilities to gather status information from the license server

Extract important information from the status output

Monitor

Send out emails if server appears to be “in trouble”

Send out emails if:

Near capacity

Excessive job run time

User has excessive licenses

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 17

Monitoring the License Availability – Ex. 1

Server Exception Report:

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 18

Monitoring the License Availability – Ex. 2

User Overuse Exception Report:

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 19

Tracking Historical Usage – Why?

Analysis of current usage issues

Analysis of capacity

Current

Future

Analysis for compliance to vendor contracts

Overdraft pool usage

Usage by location

Determine usage cost

Internal cost allocation

Relative tool cost

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 20

Tracking Historical Usage – What?

Users

Host and/or IP address

Features

Type of use

License quantities

Job time

Start

End

Client software version

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 21

Tracking Historical Usage – How?

Logs

License server records usage data

Database

Store key fields from usage data

Store additional user info

Store additional vendor info

Parse scripts

Extract data from text logs

Dump raw data from encrypted logs

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 22

Tracking Historical Usage – How?

Stored Procedures

Import data extracted with parser scripts into database

Manipulate raw data into form necessary for required reports

Provide calculations necessary for reports

Reports

Generate reports based on type of report required and format

Excel

PDF

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 23

Tracking Historical Usage – Diagram

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 24

Analyzing Capacity – Why?

Determine if new users can be supported with existing capacity

Determine reasons for denials and/or problems with license access

Determine usage efficiency of existing capacity for renewals

Predict future capacity needs based on analysis of current usage patterns and history

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 25

Analyzing Capacity – What?

Denials

Maximum concurrent usage (overall)

Maximum concurrent usage (user)

Length of job

Usage hours

Division

Location

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 26

Analyzing Capacity – How?

Denial reports

Reason for denial

Time period

High water mark

By time period

By user and/or division

Usage efficiency

By time period

By user and/or division

Usage summary

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 27

Analyzing Capacity – Ex. 1

Denial Report:

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 28

Analyzing Capacity – Ex. 2

High Water Mark Report - Monthly:

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 29

Analyzing Capacity – Ex. 3

High Water Mark Report - Daily:

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 30

Analyzing Capacity – Ex. 3

Usage Efficiency Report:

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 31

Contract Compliance – Why?

Provide vendor with usage information by location for their internal purposes

Distribution of support costs

Provide vendor with usage information by feature for their internal purposes

Distribution of support costs

Proof of compliance with license serving restrictions

site / regional / global

Overdraft pool usage frequency

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 32

Contract Compliance – What?

User’s location

Used feature

Length of time feature was used

Quantity of licenses used

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 33

Contract Compliance – How?

Total usage by location

Total usage by location and feature

High water mark

Usage efficiency

High water mark by location

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 34

Contract Compliance – Ex. 1

Vendor Usage Summary Report:

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 35

Allocating Cost of Usage – Why?

To allow fair distribution of total cost re-allocation internally

To compare vendor usage cost at various locations

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 36

Allocating Cost of Usage – What?

User’s location

Used feature

Length of time feature was used

Quantity of licenses used

Relative cost of feature (weighting factor)

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 37

Allocating Cost of Usage – How?

Total usage report spreadsheet

Division

Location

User

Feature (optional)

Time period

Duration hours and percentage of total vendor usage

Tokenized hours and percentage of total vendor usage

Weighted hours and percentage of total vendor usage

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 38

Summary

To effectively manage global engineering licenses, it is important to understand the following: what you have, where it is being used, who is using it, and how much it costs

The only way to understand it is to analyze it

The only way to analyze it is to track it

It is also important to monitor the availability of what you have. It is not cost effective nor productive to have resources frequently “unavailable” when required

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 39

Delphi Lessons Learned (1 of 3)

Each vendor may choose to implement the same license manager in a different way

Feature-based, token-based, or mixed

Many features for each “product”

“Duplicate” usage by host, display, and/or user

Analyzing the data and reports requires technical knowledge of how the vendor actually implements the license manager and licenses within their applications

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 40

Delphi Lessons Learned (2 of 3)

Different license managers require different methods to extract the usage data, however, most license managers log the same basic data so a common storage and reporting system can be used with a little “creative” thinking and design

The level of “accuracy” of license reporting needed can vary by application and this may determine the tools used for reporting

Whether or not a license should be shared globally usually depends on how that license is used (i.e. when, where, and for how long)

Managing Global Engineering Licenses Kimberley Dillman – Delphi 6/5/2008 41

Delphi Lessons Learned (3 of 3)

CAD license “usage models” can be very different than CAE license “usage models” due to the nature of software, the user, and the way it is used

There are various ways to provide license “redundancy” using the mechanisms built in to the current license managers, however, they all appear to have drawbacks. Providing a “failover” mechanism for the entire license pool is preferable when allowed by the vendor

42

Questions?