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Cradle from 3SL, the complete Model Based Systems Engineering Toolsuite, specialising in requirements management, requirements capture, model based systems engineering and for systems engineering software, support and consultancy, the logical choice: Cradle from 3SL.

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Cradle Licences

Licences can be purchased individually, in bulk or as site or corporate licence deals.

There are two types of licence:

  • Connection licences which permit connection to the CDS. This is one of:
    • Read-write (RW) - provides the basic ability to browse, create, modify and delete information in the database, subject to the project's own access rules
    • Read-only (RO) - provides the basic ability to browse information in the database, subject to the project's own access rules
    • Named User (NU) provides the basic ability to browse, create, modify and delete information in the database, subject to the project's own access rules to specific UNIX or Linux or Windows usernames specified in the named_users file.
    • Application Programming Interface (API) - used by user-defined external applications written with the Cradle API
  • Module licences which provide access to specific licensed functionality within a tool

Conceptually a connection licence is always needed to permit access to the CDS, once this has been granted a tool licence may also be needed to access particular functionality.

Licences are floating as they can be accessed from anywhere in the network. Licences are dynamic as they are released as soon as you stop using the tool. Licences are configured by a security code.

Module Licences

There are two types of Cradle module licence: flag licences and counter licences.

Flag licences make functionality available to all read-write users of Cradle clients. Counter licences define the maximum number of simultaneous users of a particular Cradle feature or capability.

Flag licences are made available as soon as the session is started. Counter licences are consumed whilst an associated operation is performed and released once completed.

A counter licence is used when a user starts a tool configured with counter licences. The licence is released when the user closes that tool, or (for system modelling) the last session of the tool. The Cradle Database Server (CDS) is queried when a tool starts to see if the licence is available. If so, the tool will start, otherwise an error is shown reporting no licences of that type are available.

The Cradle module licences are:

Licence
UI Name
Type
Description
REQ Requirements Management Counter Ability to create, update and delete requirements.
SYS System Modelling Counter Ability to create, update, delete events, diagrams, data definitions and specifications. You can also run the model-related tools - Consistency Checker, Animator and Comparator.

Note: Hierarchy Diagrams (HIDs) are not classed as diagrams for licensing purposes.
OO Object Oriented Modelling Flag Ability to access the OO-related model information.
SWE Software Engineering Counter Ability to run the Code Generator and Reverse Engineering tool.
MET Metrics Counter Ability to create and run metrics.
WEBP Web Publisher Counter Ability to run the Web Publisher.
WEBA Web Access Counter This is the maximum number of simultaneous users of the Web Access module. Each web browser connecting to the Cradle Web Server (CWS) causes the CWS to communicate with the CDS to consume as most one of these licences. The licence is consumed when the CWS connects to the CDS on behalf of the web browser, and is released when the web browser disconnects from the CWS when the user logs-out, or when the user is forcibly logged out.
DOC Document Generation Counter The maximum number of simultaneous users of document generation tools, i.e. Document Publisher.
PERF Performance Modelling Counter With this licence you can run the Performance Modelling tool. This licence is also needed to create, update or delete performance related data (environments, conditions, threads, etc).
GATE Requirements Traceability Counter With this licence you can access Cradle Gateway. Cradle Gateway is a requirements traceability solution that links your development and verification documents with formal requirements stored in documents and databases.
DASH Dasboard Counter With this licence you have the ability to open a Dashboard related UI control in any Cradle component.

Connection Licences

There are three types of connection licence:

Licence
UI Name
Type
Description
RW connect Read Write Connection Counter Needed to create, update or delete anything in the database.
RO connect Read Only Connection Counter Read-only users cannot create, modify, or delete items in a database. Read-only users do not consume tool licences when they use any part of Cradle.
NU Named User Counter Needed to create, update or delete anything in the database where a specific user is specifiedin the named_users file.
API connect Application Programming Interface Counter Needed to create, update or delete anything in the database via the API.

The Security Code contains separate totals for each type of connection licence. Connection licences are used when applications connect to the CDS. A user can choose to be a read-only or read-write user, or can be forced to be read-only or read-write by the Cradle User Configuration File (UCF).

It is the number of connection licences in a Security Code that dictates the number of users who can login to projects simultaneously, not the module licences. The number of connection licences given to a system is calculated as the total number of counter module licences in a Cradle system. This means that a Cradle system is always supplied with enough connection licences to allow one login for every module licence. That is, 3SL supplies enough connection licences so that the module licences can be shared between the maximum possible number of people.

API connection licences are only used by end-user applications that use the Cradle API to access Cradle project databases. Each such application consumes an API connection licence as soon as it successfully connects to the CDS. This licence remains in use until the application ends.

3SL is pleased to announce that our new Cradle release, Cradle-6.3, introduced a new type of concurrent licensing into Cradle, called named user licensing. This is also in Cradle-6.4.

Previously, all Cradle licences were concurrent user and completely unlocked. This meant that any user could access any Cradle licence (subject to the Module Access Rights that may had been set up in the user’s Cradle user profile) from any computer that could connect to the Cradle Database Server (CDS).

The new named user licensing mechanism introduces a restriction that the licence is locked to a specific Windows or UNIX/Linux username. The licences are still accessible from any computer that can access the CDS. Named user licences are effectively an alternative to the read-write connection licences.

This mechanism allows customers to purchase Cradle modules that are locked to one or more specific users. So in Cradle-6.3, Cradle-6.4 and Cradle 6.5 you will be able to purchase the existing concurrent user licences of the Cradle modules:

  • Cradle-PDM, product data management
  • Cradle-REQ, requirements management
  • Cradle-SYS, system modelling
  • Cradle-PERF, performance assessment
  • Cradle-SWE, software engineering
  • Cradle-WEBP, web publisher
  • Cradle-MET, metrics
  • Cradle-DOC, document generation
  • Cradle-GATE, requirements traceability
  • Cradle-DASH, Dashboard

and you will also be able to purchase named user licences for these modules.

Named user licences are cheaper than concurrent user licences! Contact 3SL for more details by clicking here.

The details of the new named user licensing mechanism are:

  1. A named user licence is a licence that is locked to a specific UNIX or Linux or Windows username
  2. Named user and concurrent user licences can be combined in the same Cradle system
  3. The named users’ usernames will be encoded into a named_users file that will be sent by 3SL by e-mail. The file contains the Cradle version number, the Host ID (used by the CDS) and the usernames, and is encrypted. The named_users file will be held on the Cradle installation on the server in UNIX/Linux systems as the file:
  4. $CRADLEHOME/admin/named_users
  5. and on Windows systems it will be the file:
  6. %CRADLEHOME%\admin\named_users
  7. The named_users file will be installed manually by the system administrator into the above directory. Until the named_users file is installed in this way, named user licences will not be available.
  8. A user whose UNIX, Linux or Windows username (as appropriate) appears in the named_users file will consume a named user licence when he/she logs-in to Cradle as a read-write user. A named user will never use a RW connection licence, even if such licences are available when he/she logs-in. Similarly, a user whose UNIX, Linux or Windows username (as appropriate) does not appear in the named_users file will consume a RW licence when he/she logs into Cradle as a read-write user and will never use a named user licence.
  9. Named user licensing WILL NOT be available for web-UIs accessed by Cradle-WEBA licences, they only apply to non-web-UIs (such as WorkBench) and to utilities (such as c_io)
  10. A user who is named in the named_users file will consume one named user licence each time that he/she logs in to Cradle. So if multiple named user licences are available, then a named user who logs-in more than once will consume multiple named user licences.
  11. A company can change the set of named users free of charge once per maintenance period or whenever they purchase new named user licences. Any other changes to the named user file will be charged.

    12.  

    Note: > 256 simultaneous users are supported.

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