AgilePoint BPMS (5.0 R2 or Lower) Concurrent User License FAQ

What is a Concurrent User License?

In the AgilePoint Concurrent User License model (sometimes called a Floating License model), only the active AgilePoint users are counted against the number of purchased license seats. The number of active users is defined as the number of user sessions on the AgilePoint Server at a given time.

What is a concurrent user license seat?

The number of concurrent license users in your license equals your number of license seats. Your total license seats represents the maximum number of users who can connect to and consume the AgilePoint NX platform service at one time.

What is an AgilePoint NX user session (for license purposes)?

Typically, a user session refers to the presence of a user on a specific application. AgilePoint goes above and beyond this typical approach to define the user session in a way that brings more value to our customers. In AgilePoint NX, a user session means the presence of an authenticated user who can access AgilePoint NX from multiple applications on multiple devices at the same time.

Once a user (or set of user credentials, as in an API call) authenticates to AgilePoint NX, the user's session is allocated a user license seat that lasts a minimum of 5 minutes, unless the user actively logs off in less than 5 minutes. If the user continues interacting with AgilePoint NX before the user session expires, the user session is renewed and consumes a user license seat. If the user does not interact with the AgilePoint NX system after 5 minutes, the user session expires, and the license seat becomes free for another user. If the user interacts with AgilePoint NX again after the user session expires, a new user session is renewed with a user license seat automatically.

An AgilePoint NX user session applies to a user identity, no matter how many applications, browser sessions, or devices he uses to access AgilePoint NX. For example, if a user is developing an application in the App Builder in the AgilePoint NX Portal in one browser window and completing a task on his mobile app at the same time, this counts as only 1 user session, and requires only 1 license seat.

AgilePoint NX user sessions are only applied to applications that connect to the AgilePoint NX system. No user session is established when the AgilePoint Server engine executes a process, so no license seat is allocated for this action. A license seat is allocated when a process activity facilitates a user action that requires a user session, such as approval on an eForm or the AgilePoint NX Salesforce App, or any external web application or service that communicates with AgilePoint NX using authentication credentials.

What events trigger an AgilePoint NX user session renewal and allocate a user license seat?

The following list provides examples of events that initiate or renew a user session and allocate a license seat. This is not a complete list:

Click a button in the AgilePoint NX Portal, the AgilePoint NX Salesforce or SharePoint App, or a mobile app that accesses the AgilePoint NX system.
Open a task from the Task List in the Portal, SharePoint App, Salesforce App, or a mobile app.
Submit an AgilePoint NX task from any client application.
eForm lookups to SharePoint, Salesforce, Active Directory, database, or other data source.

What if...?

The following are some common questions our customers ask about AgilePoint NX license policies based on specific scenarios.

What if I am working with the AgilePoint NX Portal, and I get called away for a meeting. Then I come back and start working again. Does my user session continue the whole time? When I return, do I need to sign in again?

If you are working with AgilePoint NX, and you leave, your user session expires after 5 minutes of inactivity, and your license seat associated with the session is released. However, when you return, you do not need to sign in again, as long as you did not sign out. Once you start working again, your credentials token is passed to AgilePoint Server behind the scenes, and a new user session is renewed and allocates a license seat.

What if it is a peak time of day, such as early morning, when everyone signs in around the same time. Will there be a limit to the number of authentications allowed based on the concurrent users?

During peak times, users will be able to sign in, even if the concurrent license seats are temporarily exceeded. However, the system administrator will receive a warning notification e-mail, and users may experience reduced performance while the license seats are exceeded.

What if I have an AgilePoint NX application open in more than one browser window — for example, if I am designing two different applications at the same time?

As long as you are logged in with the same user identity (user name), you only use 1 user session/license seat, regardless of the number of windows or devices where you are using the AgilePoint NX software.

What if I have a form that uses a third-party technology, like Java, and does not interact with AgilePoint NX with lookups until the user submits the form. Does the form use a license seat?

The form submission would be an authentication event and requires a user session and a license seat. However, this form would not otherwise use an AgilePoint user session or seat.

What AgilePoint Releases Support the Concurrent User License?

The Concurrent User License is available for AgilePoint v5.0 and higher.

How Can I Estimate My Number of Users for an AgilePoint Concurrent User License?

Use the following calculation to estimate the number of users you will require under the AgilePoint Concurrent User License. Note that this is a basic estimate to be used as a general guideline intended as a starting point. You can use your own estimating scheme if desired.

[total number of AgilePoint users] * [average number of hours per day each user will be actively using AgilePoint] / [number of hours per work day] = [number of required floating license seats]

Example:

200 total AgilePoint users * 2 hours average usage per user per day / 8 hours per work day = 50 floating user license seats

Can I reserve license seats for specific users?

In AgilePoint v5.0 R2 SP1 and higher you can reserve license seats for specific users. When a license seat is reserved, the user's license seat is removed from the pool of shared licenses, and the user session never expires unless the user logs out. This is typically used for frequent or high value AgilePoint users who need uninterrupted access to the system.

How is the AgilePoint Concurrent User License model different from a traditional session connection license model?

AgilePoint Concurrent User License Model is different from a traditional session connection license model in the following ways.

Characteristic	Traditional Session Connection License	Concurrent User License	Comments
Uses a dedicated TCP/IP allocation	Yes, such as a database connection	No	This is important for scalability.
Requires system resource (e.g., memory) allocation to maintain session state at server side	Yes, through database connection or ASP.NET.	No	This is important for performance and memory allocation.
Counts the same user on multiple connections on different machines, browser sessions, or mobile or desktop applications as multiple sessions	Yes	No	Example: A project manager accesses AgilePoint on her laptop, and then goes to a meeting using her mobile device for a presentation. The same user session is used, as long as she logs on using the same user account.
Blended license (support for a combination of named users and floating users)	No	Yes	Example: A company buys 10 floating licenses, but the CEO and CIO may want dedicated licenses so they can access system 24/7. The rest of the users share the remaining 8 licenses as floating.

How can I monitor my actual number of active user sessions once the system is up and running?

To monitor your actual number of user sessions, query the AgilePoint database to analyze your maximum number of users in a day, and the frequency with which that maximum is reached. The AgilePoint system refreshes the user session count every 5 minutes. A record is generated each time the maximum number of license seats is reached.

To monitor your license usage, run the following query against the AgilePoint Database:

select DATE_OCCURRED, OBJECT_INFO, DESCRIPTION as WARNING from WF_AUDIT_TRAILS where CATEGORY=7 order by DATE_OCCURRED desc

The results look like the following. L=n represents the maximum number of floating license seats. A=n represents the number of active user sessions.

DATE_OCCURRED

OBJECT_INFO

WARNING

2010-05-10 17:34:40.027

L=2,A=3

The maximum number of concurrent users allowed by your AgilePoint License Agreement is 2, but your actual n ….

2010-05-10 17:29:04.400

L=2,A=2

NULL

In addition, you can run the query in Microsoft Excel to create graphs that will enable you to track your usage over time. In Excel, create the following view:

CREATE VIEW WFV_FLOATING_SESSIONS as select DATE_OCCURRED as [TIME],CONVERT(INT, RIGHT(OBJECT_INFO, LEN(OBJECT_INFO) - CHARINDEX('A=',OBJECT_INFO) - 1)) as ACTIVATED_SESSIONS, DESCRIPTION as WARNING from WF_AUDIT_TRAILS where CATEGORY=7

Then create the following query:

select * from WFV_FLOATING_SESSIONS

TIME

ACTIVATED_SESSIONS

WARNING

2010-05-10 17:34:40.027

The maximum number of concurrent users allowed by your AgilePoint License Agreement is 2, but your actual n ….

2010-05-10 17:29:04.400

NULL

How can I purchase additional license seats?

To increase your Concurrent User License capacity, contact AgilePoint Sales.