Licensing of Reliance 4

In order to be fully functional, each of the software modules making up Reliance requires a license. The license is stored in the so-called license key. There are two kinds of license key:


  • Hardware key
  • Software key

A hardware key (dongle) is a small device containing license information. It is available as LPT (parallel) and USB, each of them to be plugged into the respective port of a computer. A hardware key is portable between computers. It requires
a device driver to be installed before it can be used. The price of a hardware key is included in the license price. The required type of hardware key (LPT or USB) should be specified when a license is ordered. A hardware key with a Reliance 4 license can also be used with earlier versions of Reliance.


A software key is a special file containing license information and information about the computer it is intended for. As
a result, a software key cannot be used on another computer (it is not portable between computers). A software key with
a Reliance 4 license cannot be used with earlier versions of Reliance (earlier versions of Reliance do not support using
a software key).


If the development environment or the runtime software is run without a license key (or the license is not found in the key), it acts as the so-called trial version, which is limited to 25 data points but has no time limit. The trial version is intended to be used only for the purpose of testing and evaluation.


  • The trial version of the development environment includes all the features of the Desktop version.
  • The trial version of Reliance Server and Reliance Control Server can be used as a data server for one thin client only. Other features are not limited.
  • The trial version of the runtime software cannot be used as the runtime environment for a real application at the end-user site and it is protected against such usage.

The license for thin clients is part of the license key purchased for the data server (Reliance Server or Reliance Control Server) and determines the maximum number of clients that can concurrently be connected to the data server. The number of thin clients required should be specified when the license for the data server is ordered. A thin client is not limited as for the number of data points.


The license for communication drivers is part of the license key purchased for the runtime software. The price of the license differs based on the type of device for which the driver is designed but does not depend on the number of data points. The license for communication drivers should be ordered along with the license for the runtime software.


A license key purchased for Reliance Design Desktop also contains the license for Reliance View and Reliance Control with the same number of data points. The runtime license is intended to be used only for the purpose of testing and debugging applications by a systems integrator. It cannot be used for the runtime software running permanently at the end-user site.


A license key purchased for Reliance Design Enterprise also contains the license for Reliance View, Reliance Control, Reliance Server, and Reliance Control Server with the same number of data points and the license for 3 thin clients. The runtime license is intended to be used only for the purpose of testing and debugging applications by a systems integrator. It cannot be used for the runtime software running permanently at the end-user site.


A Reliance 4 license can be used for all versions 4.x.x (4.8.0, 4.8.1, etc.) and all older versions (e.g., 3.7.7).



Data points

The size of a visualization project is one of the main factors affecting the price of the licenses needed for the development environment and the runtime software. The size is determined by the number of data points, which depends on the number and data type of tags defined in the project:


  • Each tag of a simple data type (e.g., Bool, Byte, Word, String) and of type DataBlock uses one data point.
  • Each array-type tag uses one or more data points. If the array's element count is less than or equal to five, the tag uses one data point. Otherwise, the number of data points is equal to the element count divided by five (the result is rounded in the direction of zero to the nearest integer).

    Examples:
    A 2-element array-type tag uses 1 data point.
    An 8-element array-type tag uses 1 data point.
    A 100-element array-type tag uses 20 data points.

  • One tag of type IRC* does not use any data points; every additional IRC-type tag uses a thousand data points.
  • Tags defined within the System device (private internal tags) do not use any data points.

The number of data points does not depend on the number of visualization windows, number and type of used components, etc. The license for the development environment and the runtime software needed for a visualization project may differ as for the number of data points (in some cases, the runtime software does not use all tags defined in a project). To view the number of data points used in a project (both in total and separately for each computer), open the project in the development environment and choose the Project > Information command.



Upgrading a license key

A purchased license key can later be upgraded. Thus, it is possible to additionally increase the number of data points, increase the number of thin clients, extend the functionality of the licensed module (e.g., upgrading the version of Reliance Design from Desktop to Enterprise or upgrading the version of Reliance View to Reliance Control), change the type of licensed module (e.g., upgrading from Reliance Control to Reliance Control Server), or add a license for additional modules (e.g., communication drivers). The price of upgrading a license key is determined as the difference between the price of the new and the original license.


* IRC = Individual Room Control. Tags of type IRC can be defined within devices of type Tecoreg. IRC-type tags are intended for reading/writing data from/to room control modules manufactured by Teco. Each IRC-type tag corresponds to one communication module TR101, which can serve up to 32 room control modules (TR111, TR112, TR141).


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