For concurrent-use license users, each seat acquired from the server permits three instances of the program to be opened simultaneously on the client computer. If a fourth instance of the program is opened, an additional seat will be acquired from the server. This will continue for every three instances that are opened on the same client computer until no more seats are available. Any additional seats acquired are returned to the server as soon as the additional instances are closed.
For single user license users, there is no limit to the number of instances of the program that can be opened simultaneously on the computer.
Updated February 2022
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2 comments
Hello,
The three instances must be on a single computer, not spread across multiple computers. Whether Surfer is opened through the UI, or being called through Scripter or a different language doesn't make a difference. - just whether the Surfer application is run or not. One thing to be aware of is that some scripts may open multiple instances of Surfer while being run, and the user may not be immediately aware of this. In this case, it may cause more than one license to be pulled from the server depending on how many times Surfer is opened. This restriction was added was to prevent abuse of the concurrent license under certain use cases.
Thanks,
Justine
Does it matter how the instance is started? I am seeing users using concurrent-use licenses but the three instances rule described above does not seem to be working. What we are seeing is that every time Surfer is opened it seems to use one of the licenses available. This has lead to other users seeing that all of the licenses are being used.
Would it matter if the instance was activated through VBA, C++, or other automation method? As it is possible that the user might have a instance of Surfer active then run a script that opens a second instance of surfer.
Why was this restriction added to the concurrent-use licenses but not the single-user licenses?
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