Floating Licenses

Information on floating licenses has moved to our admin guides and will soon be removed entirely from Support articles.  Please see the new locations here: 

https://docs.posit.co/floating-license-servers.html

and in the admin guides linked below.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need floating licensing?

Probably not. By default, Posit products come with support for activating with license files and license keys. Floating licenses require additional setup and are only recommended if traditional licenses are not working with your architecture. Historically, floating licensing was used in environments where servers often shut down without deactivating the license. This scenario was most common with ephemeral backends such as Docker containers which go up and down frequently. Now we send license files by default and these are best suited for ephemeral and containerized environments (e.g. Docker, Kubernetes).

How does floating licensing work?

With floating licensing, professional Posit product servers lease a license from a persistent micro-server. The micro-server manages the license itself, and leases on that license can be acquired and released by the Posit product servers as needed.  If a Posit product server is shut down without releasing its license lease, a new Posit product server can acquire that lease after it has expired, or is manually released.

How do I use floating licensing? 

To use floating licensing:

1. Setup a persistent micro-server. The server can be small (1 core, 2 GB RAM).
   
   
2. Download the appropriate floating license server.
   
   
3. Follow instructions in the admin guides (linked below) to install the floating license micro-server
4. Activate the floating license on the floating license server (see admin guide links below)
5. Enable floating licensing in the product configurations and point the product at the license server (see links below)
   Posit Connect 
   Posit Package Manager  
   Posit Workbench 
   Shiny Server Pro
   
   
6. Ensure that the Posit product servers can reach the license server to acquire license leases. If your license server is behind a firewall, you may need to open the appropriate port on the license server; see the administration guides linked above for details.

Do I need a special license key to use floating licensing?

Yes.  A standard TurboActivate key will need to be switched to floating type (TurboFloat).  Please contact support@posit.co with questions.

Does floating licensing change how many instances I can use?

No. Floating licensing does not change how many servers or containers can be active at one time. 

Does floating licensing work offline?

Yes. Floating licensing does not replace traditional offline licenses. Both traditional and floating licenses can be activated offline. The Posit product instances will need network access to the licensing server.