Named Users and Devices
There are three basic types of Named User licenses: Directory Named Users, Repository Named Users, and Named Devices. All three types of licenses may be full or retrieval with Laserfiche Rio; Laserfiche Avante only allows retrieval connections via the Public Portal license. See Full and Retrieval Connections for more information.
- A Directory Named User license is assigned to a Windows Account or LDAP user. It can be used to connect to any Laserfiche Server or repository at your installation. For example, if the Windows user DOMAIN/JSmith has been allocated a Directory Named User license and the site has two repositories, he can use that single allocated license to log in to either repository.
- A Repository Named User license is assigned to a Laserfiche user. It is specific to a single user in a single repository, and is not shared between repositories, because the user object to which it is assigned only exists in one repository. For example, if the Laserfiche user JDoe is present on two repositories, and you want that user to be able to log in to both, you will need to allocate two Repository Named User licenses, one for each repository.
- A Named Device license is tied to a particular computer; any user may log in from that computer, but the license will not be available when accessing the repository from any other computer. Like Directory Named User licenses, Named Devices are not specific to a single repository. For example, if you have a scan station that will be used by multiple scanner operators to scan into two different repositories, you can allocate one Named Device license to that scan station for access to both. Note that Named Device licenses cannot be used with the Laserfiche web client, WebLink, or Web Administration Console.
Important: Directory Named Users and Named Devices are licensed for access to any repository at your installation. However, licensing does not bypass security; a user must still be granted access to a repository to be able to log in to it and view its contents.
Note: Laserfiche Rio and Laserfiche Avante installations that include Laserfiche WebLink will also use a fourth license type: Public Portal licenses, which allow for anonymous access via WebLink. See Public Portal Licenses for more information.
All three types of licenses are allocated from the same pool of Named User licenses. For instance, if you have 100 Named User licenses at your site, you can allocate them to any combination of Directory Named Users, Repository Named Users, and Named Devices that you want. You can also reallocate them as needed. For instance, you could remove a Named Device license from a particular computer and then grant it as a Directory Named User license to a Windows account. However, read-only and read-write licenses have separate license pools.
Because Named User licensing is designated per user or device, each user who should have access to the repository must be associated with a Named User license. When possible, we strongly recommend using Directory Named Users with Windows or LDAP accounts. This gives you more flexibility in license allocation, as you do not need to specify a particular repository for the license. In addition, it allows you to take advantage of the other benefits of using Windows or LDAP accounts with Laserfiche. See Benefits of Domain and Directory Accounts for more information.
Alternately, if a particular computer will be used by several people but only one at a time—for instance, if you have a scan station that may be operated by any of several scanner operators—that computer can be set up as a Named Device. This would license your scanner operators to log in to any repository at your installation from that scan station, but would not allow them to log in from another computer (unless that computer was also allocated a Named Device license).
Because they are specific to an individual repository and cannot be shared across your installation, Repository Named User licenses have less flexibility than Directory Named User licenses.
Each Named User license has up to four simultaneous connections per Laserfiche Server associated with it. This means that a user could have the Laserfiche Windows client, Administration Console, and Workflow Designer all open at the same time. This is true regardless of whether they are logging in using a Directory Named User license, a Repository Named User license, or a Named Device license.
If you are using Laserfiche Avante, you will allocate all Directory Named Users, Repository Named Users and Named Devices in the desktop or Web Administration Console. See Administering Named Users with Laserfiche Avante for more information. If you are using Laserfiche Rio, you will allocate all Directory Named Users and all Named Devices, as well as Public Portal licenses, using the License Manager, and you will also specify the number of Repository Named Users per Server in the License Manager. You will need to allocate the Repository Named Users to specific Laserfiche users using the desktop or Web Administration Console. See Administering Named Users with Laserfiche Rio for more information.
Note: Some users and connection do not require a named user license. The FTSUSER$ connection (used by the Laserfiche Full-Text Search service) and the WFUSER$ connection (used by Workflow) will never require or use a named user license. In addition, the user used by Workflow 8.0.1 or later, Import Agent 8.1 or later, and Quick Fields Agent to connect to the Laserfiche Server do not require named user licenses. Audit Trail will also not use a named user license when retrieving audit data.
For more information on a specific licensing topic, return to the licensing home page.