BarTender's Printer-Based Licensing Grace Period
Overview
It is not uncommon to exceed your maximum allowable printer license count for legitimate reasons. For example, suppose that you brought 10 new printers into a printing operation that was already running close to its maximum allowable printer count. You wouldn’t want to have print jobs denied just because you disconnected old printers that you no longer needed (or that had failed) and then started using new printers.
For this reason, BarTender provides a limited-use, 30-day grace period that allows you to temporarily exceed your licensed printer count so that you can continue business operations while you complete any printer upgrades or purchase a BarTender license that allows you to use more printers.
This article will further explain how BarTender's built-in licensing grace period works and the limitations it's subject to.
Applicable to
BarTender 2019 and later
Printer-Based Licensing
Information
Initiation of the 30-Day Grace Period
When the 30-day grace period is initiated, the status is displayed in Administration Console on both the Licensing page and the License Setup page.
The Licensing page in Administration Console displays a yellow status indicator for the license that is in the grace period. When you point to the status indicator, a status message indicates that your license is in a printer overuse state (meaning that the printer limit has been exceeded) and shows the number of days that you have to resolve the problem.
The Licenses tab on the License Setup page in Administration Console displays a status message indicating your license is in a printer overuse state and shows the number of days you have to resolve the problem.
We strongly recommend that you configure the Alert Setup feature to send an email message for license violations so that you receive prompt notification of the printer overuse status. You can configure the Alert Setup feature by using the Alert Setup page in Administration Console.
if the Alert Setup feature is correctly configured, an email message is sent that notifies an IT manager or other recipient of the license violation. Follow-up email messages are sent one time per day until the issue is resolved.
Expiration of the 30-Day Grace Period
If a full 30 days elapse without the printer-limit license violation being resolved, the grace period expires. When this occurs, the status is displayed in Administration Console on both the Licensing page and the License Setup page.
The Licensing page in Administration Console displays a yellow status indicator for the license that has the expired grace period. When you point to the status indicator, a status message indicates that your license is in a printer overuse state and that the grace period is expired.
The Licenses tab on the License Setup page in Administration Console displays a status message that indicates that your license is in a printer overuse state and that the grace period is expired.
BarTender then begins to deny print jobs, starting with print jobs that are sent to the printers that are listed on the used-printers list that have the oldest value for the Last Used field. You continue to have access to the full number of printers that your BarTender printer license allows, but you can print to only the printers that were used most recently. By denying print jobs to the least active printers, BarTender progressively returns your license to its allowed printer count.
Suspension of the 30-Day Grace Period
To prevent misuse of the 30-day grace period, BarTender might suspend the availability of the grace period when it detects repeated printer-limit license violations. When you exceed your printer limit and BarTender suspends the 30-day grace period, you can continue to print to the printers that already exist for your license, but print jobs that are sent to the printers that exceed your license will be rejected.
If you find that your business processes repeatedly present a printer-limit violation, and if you cannot revise your processes, we recommend that you purchase additional printer licenses so that you can avoid disruptions to printing.
For more information about best practices for your printing environment, please refer to our error 1401 article linked below in the More Information section.
Additional Resources
Error 1401: You Have Exceeded Your Maximum Number of Licensed Printers