Microsoft Dynamics NAV – Perpetual Licensing

Dynamics NAV Perpetual Licensing

With Perpetual Licensing, you license the software with permanent usage rights. So, you can use the licensed version of the software for as long as you choose. Perpetual Licensing might be for you if you prefer an upfront investment or if you want to manage the solution internally, and will run the software on your premises (or, subject to license mobility rights, have it hosted by a third party Infrastructure-as-a-Service [IaaS][/IaaS] provider acting as your agent).

Perpetual Licensing

With Perpetual Licensing, you license the desired solution functionality and access to that functionality is secured by licensing access licenses.

Licensing the Solution Functionality under Perpetual Licensing

It is now easy for small and mid-sized businesses to quickly and affordably get started with Perpetual Licensing. The Starter Pack gives customers all application setup utilities, provides usage rights to core Financials and Distribution functionalities, plus includes the first three Full Concurrent CALs. You need only one Starter Pack license per ERP Solution deployment – even if your installation is deployed over multiple servers, as long as you own those servers and that they are in the same physical location. For many organisations, the Starter Pack is the only Microsoft Dynamics license component they will need.

Deploying Your Self-Managed Solution in an IaaS Environment

If you have an active enhancement plan, you have the licensing flexibility you need to manage your own solution, but deploy it in an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) environment, such a Microsoft Azure. Through the License Mobility rights included with your enhancement plan, you may reassign your ERP solution licenses to:

  • Any servers running physical operating system environments (OSEs) or virtual OSEs dedicated to you and located within the same Server Farm as often as needed, or
  • From one Server Farm to another, but not on a short-term basis (i.e., not within 90 days of the last assignment).

Microsoft Dynamics NAV may be deployed in a multitenant environment where, by definition, the OSE is not dedicated to you. In such case, you are required to install your license key in the tenant database. Please note that this exception to the License Mobility requirement that the OSE be dedicated to you only applies to the Microsoft Dynamics NAV software and not to any of the other Microsoft components required for your ERP solution to run.

Also, please note that SQL Server Runtime Use licenses, offered in Order Central, do not qualify for License Mobility rights. So, if you are deploying your ERP solution in an IaaS environment, you will be required to license SQL through other licensing programs.

‘Server Farm’ means a single data center or two data centers each physically located:

  • In a time zone that is within four hours of the local time zone of the other (Co-ordinated Universal Time (UTC) and not DST), and/or
  • Within the European Union (EU) and/or European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

Licensing User Access under Perpetual Licensing

Under Perpetual Licensing, you license Full access to the solution with Full Concurrent CALs and Limited access to the solution with Limited Concurrent CALs. When assigning security rights to users, the system administrator will designate each user as a full user or a limited user.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV contains two concurrency ‘counters’ – one for Full Users and another one for Limited Users – to help you make sure that the number of users concurrently logged into the solution does not exceed your licensed number of Full and Limited Concurrent CALs. When a user attempts to log in, they will automatically be routed through the appropriate counter based on their assigned user type. If the maximum number of licensed concurrent users has already been reached, the user will not be able to log in until someone logs out.

Note: When a Full User accesses a session using web services, the session is ‘locked’ to that user for a minimum of two hours, after which time, if the user has logged out, the session becomes available to other users. For Limited Users, the session is tied to that user for a minimum of 15 minutes. The user may release the locked session at any time by logging into the solution through any of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV clients and logging out. At that time, the application will release all sessions tied to that user.

Please note that users accessing the application indirectly, such as through a third party application, require to be licensed with and consume the appropriate CAL type, even if those users are not directly logging into the ERP solution. The responsibility for ensuring proper concurrency usage falls to the third party application provider.

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