IDEA Network – working with Aladdin Monitor

A previous technical article discussed installing the License Manager part of the IDEA 2002 Network Edition. Following up on that theme, in this article we discuss working with a useful associated application called Aladdin Monitor.

Monitoring Licenses

Included with the “monitoring computer” installation is application that allows the user or IT department to see which workstations are using IDEA and are therefore in contact with the license management software at any time.

This program is found by clicking on the Start button, selecting Programs, then Aladdin, then Monitor and finally AKS Monitor.

On opening, you will be presented with a fairly blank dialog screen save for a few menu items and an “explorer” area to the left. Within the “explorer” area will be a folder marked “NetHASP LM”, clicking on this folder displays an icon (see right) bearing the serial number of the “key” and the name of the monitoring computer.

Clicking on the “workstation”     icon will show some information about the “monitoring computer” in the main part of the screen. The name of the “monitoring computer“ is again displayed along with which version of NetHASP License Manager is installed, the IP address of the “monitoring computer” and the IPX address of the “monitoring computer” . The “LM type” shows which version of the HASP driver is installed HASP driver and there are checkboxes showing which communication protocols are loaded.

This information includes the number of users currently running IDEA (Current Stations), the maximum number of licenses available (Maximum Stations) and the number of application Activations Left (for installations of IDEA this should always be unlimited.

Below this information, is another table listing details of each workstation currently in communication with the License Manager over the network. The “Login ID” show the IP address of the computer connected, the “Host Name” is the name of the computer running IDEA, the protocol being used, and finally, the Timeout shows how long in seconds before the connection is automatically cut. This last item is a safeguard against licenses being tied up by idle computers – if a connection is in place for more than eight hours the connection is broken by the monitoring computer. This will not cause any work to be lost but it will ensure that all the available licenses can be used and that licenses are not “tied up” when a user inadvertently leaves a workstation on with IDEA running on it.

All of this information can be used if problems are encountered when trying to start IDEA. It could be that there is some kind of conflict of communication protocols or that IDEA is still open on a workstation but the user is not actively using it.

If the License Manger software is being run as a “service” on a WinNT, 2000 or XP computer, the Aladdin Monitor can be used to stop the service. This has the effect of preventing any further use of IDEA on connected workstations and stopping any new “log-ons”. This is done by clicking on the Services menu then selecting “HASP” followed by “Stop NetHASP LM service”, there is also an option to restart the service. If users are working with IDEA when the service is ceased should not lose any work, they will just be prevented from starting any new tasks or opening any databases within IDEA.

The Aladdin Monitor is normally installed on the “monitoring computer” but can also be installed to any other workstation with access to the same network. This can allow a user to view the information about connected workstations without having to actively use the server (if this is the monitoring computer) or have IDEA installed on the workstation itself.

Using IDEA

At the workstation level, IDEA 2002 Network will perform exactly like a single user installation, all of IDEA’s processing is carried out at the local level and it is often best to store data locally as well at least while files are being manipulated. Having said that, there is no reason why data cannot be stored centrally and worked with by a number of users – the only potential drawback is the impact this might have on the speed of the tests and tasks carried out.