Licenses determine how many agents, administrators and wallboards myContactCenter can use at the same time, and with which functions. They belong to the server: each server has its own licenses, including a standby server.
How licenses are counted
Licenses apply to concurrent use. They are not permanently assigned to anyone: whoever logs in takes the licenses they need and releases them again when logging off. An agent, for example, takes one license for each channel they are qualified for, plus one for each function their profile allows. If no license is free at the moment, the next person gets one as soon as one becomes free. If the number of licenses decreases, those who got a license last lose theirs first.
There are two ways of licensing:
- Purchased licenses. You buy licenses and enter the license keys in the license manager. Without activation, purchased keys are valid for 30 days; after that, they must be activated. Evaluation keys are valid until their end date, without activation.
- Pay-by-Use. You rent licenses. Instead of keys, you enter limits for how many licenses per feature can be used at the same time; the activation is valid for a limited period. See Pay-by-Use.
The activation determines which way applies.
Features, packages and profiles
Every function that requires a license is a feature, for example Agent: Answering e-mails or Administration: Base key. Packages combine several features, for example Package: Agent Premium. Instead of individual features, you can also license by profiles: Profile Voice, Profile Omnichannel and Profile Supervisor each cover everything an agent of that kind needs. With licensing by profiles, the server, the Administration, wallboards, scheduled reports, SNMP and most alarms do not need licenses of their own. Which profile an agent takes is set by their agent profile under License Profile.
All features and packages are listed under Features and packages.
The license manager
Licenses on the ribbon opens the license manager of the selected server, with the title Licensing and the name of the server. Main administrators can also reach it via License manager in the server configuration. Licenses can also be used if login has failed because of missing licenses — this lets you enter keys before the rest of the Administration is available.
Which tabs the license manager shows depends on the type of licensing:
| Tab | Purchased licenses | Pay-by-Use |
|---|---|---|
| Features — features and keys, see Entering license keys | ✓ | |
| extended Warranty — software maintenance, see Extended warranty | ✓ | |
| Limits — see Pay-by-Use | ✓ | |
| Activation — see Activation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Web Proxy — see Web Proxy | ✓ | ✓ |
If something is wrong with the licenses, the information area reports under Licenses what needs to be done when you open the license manager, for example Activation of new applied license keys or Activation after hardware has changed significantly.
If a license is missing
| Affected | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Server | Without Server: Base key, the server does not accept connections from agents, Routing Services and wallboards and logs off agents who are logged in. The Administration remains reachable. |
| Administration | Each logged-in administrator takes an Administration: Base key. If none is free, login fails with No free licenses, logoff now. The Reporting module only appears with Administration: Reporting. |
| Agent | If an agent receives no license at all when logging in, they are logged off with No license. If only a single license is missing, the corresponding qualification or function remains switched off for this login, without notice to the agent. |
| Wallboard | The Wallboard removes elements without a license and reports The following licenses are missing:. Without Wallboard: Use multiple displays, it only shows the first display. |
| Scheduled reports, alarms | They do not run; their state is No license. |
| SNMP | Monitoring via SNMP only runs with a license. |
If the number of licenses changes, this takes effect immediately, even for agents who are logged in.
Licenses for the standby server
A standby server has a license database of its own and needs its own standby licenses. Each key applies to only one server type: only the master accepts master keys, only the standby accepts standby keys. Each server is also activated separately.
The Dispatcher continuously compares whether master and standby have the same number of licenses for each feature. If they differ, switching over to the standby is blocked; the navigation pane then shows [Master -> ?]. If this changes, the information area reports Standby licensing with Standby licensing OK or Wrong licensing.
Messages
| Message | Where | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| No free licenses, logoff now. | Login dialog | No license is free for your login. |
| Please check your licenses | Information area, after login | Something is wrong with the licenses. Open the license manager; the information area then names the cause. |
| Deactivation occurs in … day(s) | Information area, after login | A grace period is running, see Grace periods. After it, the licenses concerned no longer count. |
| Licensing issues | Status of services | as above, with the remaining time |
| Wrong licensing | Information area | Master and standby do not have the same licenses. |