THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE APPLIES TO:

• EFT™, v7.3 - v8.0.5.7

QUESTION

How do Accelerate and scClient Licensing Work?

ANSWER

​If you upgrade an EFT with Acceleration already registered, Acceleration will continue to work as before; however, you will not be able to activate this feature on new installations. 

The Accelerate module is licensed per EFT server (or clustered node) as flat, single license fee, and on the number of concurrent scClient sessions on a per client access license (CAL) basis.

• The EFT server Accelerate license fee unlocks the ability to connect and authenticate with the scClient utility.
• Each authenticated scClient can consume anywhere between (1) to six (6) sessions, depending on how many files are being transferred in parallel.
• Customers should purchase the number of licenses that matches the number of concurrent transfers desired, irrespective of the number of scClients in use at any given moment.
• For clustered environments, each node is licensed independently, as licenses are not shared between nodes in the cluster (more below).

Example Scenario (stand-alone server)

As an EFT administrator, I want to provide scClient to three of my end users so they can transfer files. How many licenses do I need?

Since each scClient can potentially consume up to six licenses at a time, you would need an Accelerate server license, and should consider purchasing a 20 CAL license count (3 x 6 = 18). If you purchased less than 20 CALs, for example a 10 CAL, and if all three end users connected at the same time and transferred a large number of files in parallel, one or more end users will encounter an “out of licenses” message. If the users rarely connect at the same time or rarely transfer many files at once, then risk is minimized and thus a smaller license count may suffice.

Example Scenario (two node cluster)

As an EFT administrator, I want to provide scClient to three of my end users so they can transfer files to my active-active, load-balanced cluster. How many licenses do I need?

Clustered nodes do not share licensing information. As such, the same logic as above should apply. First, you will need a per-server license of Accelerate. Next, you should consider a 20 CAL for each node. Otherwise you run the risk of all three end users connecting to the same node, even though the load-balancer is distributing connections in a round-robin fashion (as the scClient end users could connect at slightly different intervals and just so happen to all three be routed to the same node). Purchasing a 10 CAL per node (20 total) would be insufficient as even two scClients connected at once two a given node would exhaust all available licenses.

I purchased a 50 CAL license. How many scClients can connect?

It depends on how many parallel transfers are conducted by each authenticated scClient. Since each scClient can consume up to six licenses, you can support 8 fully engaged scClients (6x8=48) clients with a seventh scClient transferring a couple of files while experiencing “license count exceeded” error messages for queued up files. Other connected scClients would be unable to transfer until licenses became available due to completed sessions conducted by other users. In a clustered environment, you should consider applying a 50 CAL license on each node, as there are no guarantees as to which route the scClient will take when it hits the load balancer.

Notes:

• EFT is limited to a maximum of 64 concurrent sessions and thus licenses, per node.
• During the trial period, you are allowed up to 5 concurrent scClient sessions (a single scClient transferring multiple files can potentially use up all five licenses)
• Upon activating the server node you unlock a single client CAL, which is additive to whatever CAL pack you purchase.

Activating the Licenses

1. In EFT Enterprise, activate DMZ Gateway and the Accelerate module.
2. Install a license file in the DMZ Gateway installation directory.
3. Provide to your Globalscape point of contact the Listening IP for Acceleration defined in the DMZ Gateway administration interface.



4. In return, you will receive two files derived from the supplied IP address:
• DeiLicense.dat
• FastImpl.dll
5. On the DMZ Gateway computer, stop the DMZ Gateway server service.
6. In the \lib folder of the DMZ Gateway installation folder (e.g., C:\Program Files\GlobalSCAPE\DMZ Gateway\lib), replace the file FastImpl.dll with a new version provided by Globalscape.
7. In the \conf folder of the DMZ Gateway installation folder (e.g., C:\Program Files\GlobalSCAPE\DMZ Gateway\conf), paste your license file (e.g., DeiLicense.dat).
8. Start the DMZ Gateway server service.
• DMZ Gateway will log the attempted registration and record its success or failure.
• Registration is maintained upon upgrade or repair.
• If the DMZ Gateway's host IP changes, you will need to request a new FastImpl.dll from Globalscape.