Rapise Floating Licenses Now Available

18-Jan-2022 by Adam Sandman Product News

As we announced back in June 2021, there have been plans to provide our Rapise test automation platform with a new floating license option, in addition to the fixed licensing system that we've had since the launch of the product. Well the big day has arrived - we are pleased to announce that you can now purchase Rapise floating licenses as part of your existing Spira subscription, with both monthly and annual options.

How Do I Purchase Floating Licenses?

Unlike fixed licenses which are purchased from our website as a standalone purchase, Rapise uses our Spira test management platform to manage its floating licenses. So you will need to first login to Customer Portal on our website. From here, you need to locate your SpiraTest, SpiraTeam or SpiraPlan cloud subscription and click the [Customize] button:

Customer area showing Spira cloud subscriptions

(If you are not using the cloud version of Spira, then unfortunately at this time you cannot use floating licenses)

Once you click on the Customize button you can choose the number of Rapise floating licenses you want to purchase:

Rapise subscription addons selection

If you have a monthly Spira subscription, the Rapise floating licenses will also be charged monthly, whereas if you have an annual Spira subscription, then the Rapise floating licenses will similarly be part of the annual renewal. Once you have completed the purchase of the floating licenses, you will see a new Rapise subscription add-on in your Customer Area homepage:

Rapise subscription add-on pending

It will be initially in the 'Pending' status while our cloud servers complete the task of updating your Spira instance with the number of Rapise licenses. Once that task is completed, you will get an email letting you know, and the status will change to Active.

Rapise subscription add-on active

How Do I Manage Rapise Floating Licenses?

Once the subscription add-on has been provisioned, you will see a new menu entry in the System Administration: Integration section of your Spira instance:

Rapise floating licenses admin entry in Spira

When you click on this link you will see how many Rapise floating licenses are available as well as how many are currently in use (initially the list will be empty):

Rapise floating licenses admin screen in Spira

You can now connect Rapise to your Spira instance to use the new floating licenses.

How Do I Use Floating Licenses in Rapise?

Now that you have floating licenses available, when you connect Rapise to Spira as you would normally to start writing tests:

Spira connection dialog in Rapise

Rapise automatically requests a floating license from Spira and will use that license until Rapise is closed or an administrator clicks the [End Session] button in Spira:

Rapise floating licenses screen in Spira with one in use

The advantage of the floating licenses is that you can have all your computers install Rapise and they will only use a license when Rapise is active, vs. having to purchase a fixed license for a machine regardless of whether that machine is actually using the license. In addition, it lets you purchase Rapise licenses monthly bundled with your existing Spira subscription.

What About Fixed Licenses?

The existing fixed license activation system is not impacted by the new floating licenses. For on-premise Spira customers or customers that don't use Spira, you won't be able to use the new floating license system, so you will need to continue to use fixed licenses.

The fixed licenses work by having an activation code generated from our website that you enter into Rapise. Rapise then contacts our website to get authorization and if successful, will activate the license on Rapise and associate it with the unique ID of your computer. To move the license, you need to first deactivate the license and then a new activation code will be available on our website for use on the new machine.

This process is explained here: https://rapisedoc.inflectra.com/Manuals/Rapise_Installation_Guide/#2-activating-rapise