[UW-GIS-L] Do we need a new system for serving licenses?

[David Finlayson]

I am wondering if the UW needs a more robust system for serving 
licenses. Right now we depend on volunteers. Obviously, computers open 
to the net are subject to attack, so volunteer machines are vulnerable 
(as SDE has apparently become). Furthermore, while most of the people 
who serve licenses are fairly good about managing the licenses servers, 
it can be tricky to get all the network details right. For example, when 
I had broad band through comcast, I was able to check out a UW license 
for Arc without a UW IP address!! That was nice for when I was at home, 
but probably illegal.

Maybe we can gather together a couple of older computers and set them up 
to serve licenses? With a little support, we could kill two birds with 
one stone: (1) a redundant license server pool, (2) a central go-to 
point for properly configured licenses, software updates, etc. I don't 
know how many clients we have on campus, but maybe a $5/seat annual 
service fee would be enough to hire a maintainer and pay for supporting 
costs.

If a system like that worked, maybe it could be expanded to support an 
sde server for the campus with all of the attendant complexity managed 
by a small staff of specialists and the cost diffused over the community.

Food for thought.

David


Luke Rogers wrote:

>Hello All,
>
>SDE is back up and serving licenses for Both Arc 8.x and Arc 9 as well as
>ERDAS Imagine. It looks as though it weathered the storm but if I see
>anything funny I'll be shutting it down again.
>
>-Luke
>
>******************************************************
>       Luke Rogers, Rural Technology Initiative
>   Senior Geographic Information Research Scientist
>  Box 352100 | Seattle WA, 98195 | Tel:(206)543-7418
> lwrogers at u.washington.edu | http://www.ruraltech.org
>University of Washington - College of Forest Resources
>******************************************************
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-- 
David Finlayson
Marine Geology & Geophysics
School of Oceanography
Box 357940
University of Washington
Seattle, WA  98195-7940
USA

Office: Marine Sciences Building, Room 112
Phone: (206) 616-9407
Web: http://students.washington.edu/dfinlays