This is the simplest license server configuration and is the one that most companies start with. As stated earlier, the hardware and software requirements for a license server are fairly modest. Memory and CPU usage is small (although it is affected by the number of clients using the server), and the only disk space requirements are for the FLEXlm™ utilities and the log files (which can get quite large). The main requirement is that every client workstation that needs access to an Alchemy CATALYST license should be able to access the license server with low latency (low delay) and high availability.

If communications between the server and client are disrupted, the Alchemy CATALYST license will time out after a period and Alchemy CATALYST will revert to evaluation mode. The licensing software is designed to compensate for brief periods of downtime, but if communications are not restored in time, then Alchemy CATALYST warns the user that it has lost contact with the license server.

In this scenario, all Alchemy product licenses are centralised on a single server. Alchemy CATALYST is then installed on an unlimited number of client machines across your organization. When Alchemy CATALYST is launched, the Alchemy NETWORK License Manager will issue a license to the client machine. Once Alchemy CATALYST is closed down on the client, the license is automatically released back to the license server. This effectively 'floats' your license across every machine in your organization.

If you do not want to share licenses between groups of users, then you can set up multiple Single License Servers for each group. The main disadvantage with this method is that you cannot share licenses between servers. Even if the licenses on server A are not being used, users on server B cannot access them (which may be acceptable, especially if the groups of users are on separate budgets). An advantage to this setup is that the failure of one server will not affect licenses on the other servers. If you want to share licenses between servers, then your best option is the next configuration: Distributed License Servers.