Enforcement of named user licensing

Note:

This topic only applies to 10.2.1 and later versions.

In order to activate the Portal for ArcGIS software, you must use an Esri-provided authorization file. The number of named users that you can add to your portal is limited by this authorization file. If the maximum number of named users registered to your portal exceeds your license entitlement, you are no longer in compliance with the license.

Throughout the documentation, within the portal website, and ArcGIS applications, named users are typically referred to as ArcGIS organizational accounts or members of the ArcGIS organization.

In Portal for ArcGIS 10.2.1 and later releases, the software enforces the named user licensing model by:

• Preventing your portal from accepting more ArcGIS organizational accounts than licensed for.
• Disabling all members in the user and publisher roles access to the portal website if the portal already has more members than licensed for.

Note:

When upgrading Portal for ArcGIS 10.2.1 to 10.2.2, the setting that enables or disables automatic account creation is not preserved; automatic account creation is disabled after upgrading. This is unintended behavior and will be addressed in a future software release. If you enabled automatic account creation at 10.2.1, you can resolve this issue by immediately re-enabling the setting after upgrading to 10.2.2. For full instructions, see Automatic registration of enterprise accounts.

You can determine the number of members your portal is licensed for and the current number of registered members by logging in to the portal website as an administrator and accessing the My Organization page. This is useful for monitoring portal membership and assessing if your organization should consider increasing the membership capacity of your portal deployment.

While the number of members allowed in the organization is limited by your authorization file, an unlimited number of users can make use of your portal without being members of it. To understand the added privileges and functionality that accessing a portal as a member of the ArcGIS organization provides, see Understanding access privileges.

Note:

Since named user licensing was not enforced in Portal for ArcGIS 10.2, you may already have more ArcGIS organizational accounts registered in your portal than allowed by your authorization file. After you upgrade to 10.2.2, you must do one of the following:

• Obtain a new authorization file from Esri with the sufficient number of named users and authorize Portal for ArcGIS again.
• Remove members from your portal to reduce the total number of named users to the maximum allowed by your authorization file. You can remove individual members from the portal using the portal website or remove them in bulk using a command line utility. See Removing members for full instructions.

If you are not in compliance with your licensing, the following will occur:

• Accessing the portal website with an account that has administrative privileges displays a software authorization error message stating that number of registered members in the portal exceeds the maximum number that the portal has been licensed for. The number of current members and the maximum number of members allowed are displayed in the error message. This error message will be displayed each time the portal website is accessed by an administrator.

• Accessing the portal website, the portal directory, and the portal through ArcGIS for Desktop with a member account that has user or publisher privileges displays a sign in error message stating that the member cannot sign in to the portal because of a software authorization error. The member is directed to contact the portal administrator for assistance. The member will not be permitted to access the portal until the software authorization error is resolved.

• New member accounts cannot be created through the portal website or the portal directory. If a user attempts to create a member account, an error message displays stating that the account could not be created because of a software authorization error. The user is directed to contact the portal administrator for assistance.