Floating licenses
Introduction to IDA floating licenses
Floating licenses allow organizations with multiple IDA users to install IDA across many different machines while limiting the number of concurrent IDA active sessions. One floating license (or one floating license seat, if multiple seats are available) permits one concurrent use of IDA Pro. The licenses are managed by a Hex-Rays license server.
To use floating licenses, IDA needs to maintain a permanent connection to your organization's license server, but you can borrow licenses to work offline.
Users don't need to store license files locally on their machines while using floating licenses.
Core concepts
One server, different IDA licenses
You can have several IDA Pro licenses available on the same license server, each with a different set of decompilers assigned. You can switch between those licenses depending on your needs (e.g. the architeture of the file you're working on).
Seats and seat allocation
A "seat" represents an active session of IDA for the user+machine pair. If your IDA Pro license has 3 seats available, it means that up to 3 different users or machines can run IDA at the same time. When you open IDA, the License Manager displays all available licenses and their number of seats. One seat is taken (checked out) from the pool when you start working with a file in IDA. When you close IDA, the seat is released back to the pool for others to use.
When you run multiple instances of IDA on the same computer, only one seat is used up from the license pool on the server.
License check-out
Checking out the license allows the user to work with IDA (maintaining an active IDA session), while keeping a connection to the license server. IDA Pro checks out a license when launched and returns it when closed.
License borrowing
Borrowing allows the user to check out the license for a fixed period and work offline (without connection to the license server). At the end of the borrow period, the license is released automatically by the server and returned to the common license pool.
Activation, installation and setup
What steps are required to enable floating licenses?
Admin level:
Activate your license server license and your IDA instance at My Hex-Rays Portal. Download your license files locally, as well as the server installer -> check Licensing Guide
Install and set up your license server -> see Admin Guide.
Install IDA Pro on your workstations -> read how to install IDA
Provide your users with a license server hostname
User level:
Run IDA on your machine and check out one of the available license to start working
How to check out a license?
Connect to the network where your license server is available and run IDA.
Navigate to Help -> License manager.
In the License manager dialog, select the option Use floating license server and then type the license server hostname provided by your administrator. Click Connect (1).
Check out one of the licenses: select a license visible under the available licenses list and click OK (2). You can continue working with IDA now.
When you exit IDA, the license will be automatically checked in (returned to the server) and becomes free to use for another user/session.
Offline usage and license borrowing
Floating licenses can function in air-gapped environments, as long as the license server is placed inside that isolated network. This setup is ideal for users working on-site in a specific physical location. For offsite use, you must borrow a license in advance to access it offline or in a different, remote location.
How to borrow a license?
Borrow a license to temporarily "check it out" and use IDA without connection to the license server for a fixed period of time.
If your selected IDA license has multiple seats available, borrowing the license temporarily check-out only one of the available seats.
Connect workstation to the network with your license server. Run IDA and go to Help -> License manager.
In the License manager dialog, right click on the selected license to open a context menu and click Borrow license....
In the Borrow or return a license dialog, specify the borrow period end date and click OK.
You should see the confirmation dialog that the license was successfully borrowed, as well as info in the Output window.
Right now, you can disconnect with the server and work offline.
Once borrowed, the license remain checked out. That means it stays unavailable for others until the end of the borrow period or explicit manual return.
Returning a borrowed license early
Normally, there is no need to return the borrowed license explicitly as it will be returned to the server pool automatically at the end of the borrow period. However, you can return a borrowed license earlier than its declared end date to free it up for other users.
Reconnect to the network with your license server.
Go to Help -> License manager.
In the License manager dialog, right-click on the selected license to open a context menu and click Return license.
In the Output window, you should see the notification about successfully returned IDA license.
You can seamlessly continue your work after returning a borrowed license, as it will automatically be checked out for online use from the server in the background.
Key notes:
Borrowing reduces the number of available floating license seats.
After the borrowing period ends, the license automatically returns to the server.
Be mindful of the borrowing duration, as it locks that license/seat for the entire period, even if you no longer need it.
You can return the license manually before the fixed period but only while connected to the network with the license server.
FAQ
How can I know who's occupying the seats?
If all seats are occupied, regular users cannot directly see who is using them. To get details about active users, your administrator can use the lsadm tool shipped with the server.
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