AnywhereUSB/14
We have about 18-20 Win 7 PCs on our network. Each as a program installed that requires a key to run. We have about 18 floating license dongles. When the dongles are plugged into the computers themselves, the software will look for available(unused) licenses on the network. So computer 1 could be using the license dongle on computer 5 or whatever. I want to use the AnywhereUSB as a primary location for all of these dongles. I am not sure how to set this up. Can all the computers connect to the anywhereusb and use the first available license?
Hi David,
I don’t have the answer but the basis of the question I asked the other day was very similar: http://www.digi.com/support/forum/44802/sample-scripts-to-demonstrate-the-api-for-anywhereusb
My post hasn’t been answered as yet, but just wanted to comment here so that it’s flagged and I can combine the answers to achieve what I’m looking for.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Hello,
Are you saying that all of these dongles are identical pieces of hardware, all for the same software (software protection)?
What exactly do you mean by floating? I haven’t heard that term before. Do the dongles always remain connected to these computers, or are you saying that they might get swapped with other dongles/computers?
Is your goal simply to physically move these USB dongles, i.e. to a server room / server closet?
FYI, AnywhereUSBs function the same as standard USB hubs, except for 2 major exceptions:
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They connect to Windows-based computers through the network instead of a USB cable. This allows USB devices to be much further away from the computer(s).
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With certain model AnywhereUSBs that have the MHC (Multi-Host Connection) feature, the USB ports can be split up, so that different computers can connect to certain USB ports. Note that USB ports/devices cannot be shared - in other words, multiple computers cannot be connected to the same USB port(s) at the same point in time.
So these dongles are license dongles for the same software (software protection). Each of them is a license for a certain piece of software. Right now, there is one plugged into each computer, minus a couple. It uses Sentinel Protection Driver by Safenet. What this does is allow another computer on the network to use a license dongle on another computer. So it is like one big license pool. If computer A doesn’t have a license, it will use the license dongle plugged into Computer B, etc. That is what I meant by floating.
I want to use the anywhereusb to move all the dongles to one place.
I hope my answers make sense. Ive tried connecting all the usb ports to one computer and hoped the software protection would use see all the licenses on that one computer, but that didn’t seem to work.
I guess I could assign each computer to a usb port, but I am not sure that will work either.
Any ideas would be helpful, if you have any other questions, let me know.
Thank you
An AnywhereUSB should work well for this application. You’ll need a model that has the MHC feature - either the AnywhereUSB/5 M or AnywhereUSB/14. The 5 M has 5 USB ports and the 14 has 14 USB ports.
The exact models you need just depends on how many USB devices you want to use. Two AnywhereUSB/14 units sitting on your network would provide 28 USB ports, so that would support up to 28 USB devices (dongles in your case). An AnywhereUSB/14 and AnywhereUSB/5 M would provide support for 19 USB devices.
You would just need to configure the mapping AnywhereUSB(s) appropriate for your environment then install the AnywhereUSB software on those computers, and connect them to the AnywhereUSB (the respective ports, which are referred to by Group numbers).
Have a look at the AnywhereUSB Quick Start Guide, which should give you a better idea of the required setup:
http://ftp1.digi.com/support/documentation/AnywhereUSB_Quick_Start_Guide_10302014.pdf
As far as the protected software is concerned, it should not need to be re-configured, since Windows would recognize those dongles as if they were connected the way they currently are. This is the design of the AnywhereUSB, to be transparent in that aspect. This also assumes that your computers are running Windows (the AnywhereUSB driver is Windows only).