Altair: License Manager

| Model | Description | Use Case | |-------|-------------|-----------| | | Licenses are shared from a pool; a user checks out a license when launching a product and returns it upon exit. | Standard for most commercial and academic environments. | | Named User (Token-based) | Licenses are assigned to specific user IDs; usage may be limited to a single machine or allow roaming. | Small teams, remote workers, or where usage tracking per individual is required. | | Units Licensing System | Instead of product-specific licenses, users purchase “Altair Units.” Each product consumes a defined number of units per hour/minute. | HPC clouds, elastic compute, and pay-per-use models. | | Home/Educational | Time-limited, feature-restricted licenses for non-commercial use. | Students, personal learning. | | Cloud/HPC Gateway | Licensing for cloud instances or job schedulers (e.g., PBS Pro, Slurm) with burst capacity. | High-throughput simulation, on-demand scaling. |

This paper provides a comprehensive technical overview of the Altair License Manager, the proprietary software licensing utility developed by Altair Engineering to govern the usage of its simulation, high-performance computing (HPC), and data analytics software. As engineering software represents a significant capital investment, the mechanism by which these assets are managed is critical to organizational workflow efficiency. This document explores the architectural underpinnings of the system, the transition from legacy FLEXnet implementations to the modern Altair Licensing architecture, administration best practices, and strategies for license harvesting and optimization. altair license manager