THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE APPLIES TO:

• EFT v7.2.1 and later

DISCUSSION

In this article, we explain how Workspaces licensing works for internal, external, and guest users, and how invited guests use Workspaces licenses. This applies to all guest accounts, including those invited from EFT Outlook Add-in, Send Portal, and Drop-Off portal. 

Licenses are purchased per number of Workspaces owners, not the number of Workspaces created. There is no limit to the number of Workspaces each owner may create. During the EFT 30-day trial, you can have up to 100 Workspaces owners PER SITE. You can allow or deny Workspaces creation to specific users on the Settings Template or user account's Connections tab. The number of Workspaces licenses available on the EFT Site appears on the Site's General tab:

Licensing Workspaces

In v7.4.13 and later: Your Workspaces license includes unlimited Workspaces.  

In v7.4.11 and earlier: If you purchase (for example) a 25-seat license, 25 users can create Workspaces.

• If you are using an EFT version prior to v7.4.7, you should disallow the creation of Workspaces on Guest accounts to ensure that Workspaces license are available for internal users. This applies all guest accounts, including those created when using the Drop-Off portal.
• In v7.4.7 and later, the ability to create Workspaces is disabled by default on the Guest Users Settings Template. Disabling creation of Workspaces on Guest Users ensures that Workspaces licenses are available for internal users. On the Connections tab, you can disable or enable the creation of Workspaces on the Guest Users Settings Template for all Guest accounts or on each Guest account individually. This applies all guest accounts, including those created when using the Drop-Off portal.
• After a guest has been invited to join a Workspace and has created an account and logged in, the guest account will appear (if so configured) in the Guest Users Settings Template. In EFT versions prior to 7.4.7, this account will consume a Workspaces license until you disallow the creation of Workspaces on that account or in the Settings Template. This applies all guest accounts, including those created when using the Drop-Off portal.

Workspaces are viewed and created in the Web Transfer Client (WTC); therefore, if a user does not have access to the Web Transfer Client, the user cannot create or access a shared Workspace. 

Transactional Workspaces (via EFT Outlook Add-In)

A Transactional Workspaces is a Workspace that results from sending a file for pick up from the EFT Outlook Add-In or anyone sending files to internal users in the Drop-Off portal.

• If you are using an EFT version prior to 7.4.7, you should disallow the creation of Workspaces on Guest accounts to ensure that Workspaces licenses are available for internal users. This applies all guest accounts, including those created when using the Drop-Off portal.

A Workspaces license is consumed for each Drop-off portal message no matter how many recipients the message has. A license is not consumed on replies. A license is not consumed on Send Portal messages. You can avoid Workspaces licenses being consumed by the Drop-off portal by disabling the Drop-off portal. It is not enabled by default. When someone uses the drop-off portal, that "someone" becomes a "Workspaces owner." This is because behind the scenes, a temporary, anonymous account is created to host the Workspace, thus consuming a license (assigned to that account). Once the space expires, the anonymous account is also removed, and the license is released to the pool.

The recipient only has download permission on the file(s) received. Transactional Workspace participants cannot see each other and cannot subscribe to notifications.

A Transactional Workspace is different from normal Workspaces in that:

• Accepts anonymous access, if the administrator allows it and the owner/sender chooses.

• In the VFS, unregistered users will have an exclamation point on the anonymous-access folder. 

• Grants permission to download only

• Can't have participants added after creation

• Owner will have little power over it once created (but EFT Admins can delete it)

• Participants can't see each other and can't subscribe to notifications (although owner/sender can)

• Is represented in the EFT administration interface VFS tab using the Subject line and the sender's username

• Is represented differently in the WTC

• Content gets deleted when it expires

• Is more likely to have a shorter maximum expiration period than regular Workspaces

• Supports self-expiring, single-use file links, which are not supported in regular Workspaces

What if I have an Active-Active cluster? What if I have an Active-Passive cluster? What if I have a Disaster Recovery site running EFT?

Typically, an Active-Passive cluster is setup in the same data center, with failover from primary to standby, using a shared configuration. In that case, a single license is needed because the “accounts” are the same across both servers, just like with Active-Active clusters.

If you have two separate data centers, then you have a primary site and a backup site, with configuration COPIED (synchronized) from primary to backup. In that case, you would need TWO licenses. One for the primary location, and the other for the disaster recovery site.