How the Network License Manager redistributes licenses when required.
License cascading is a process by which network licenses are automatically switched or substituted by the NLM according to a hierarchy of value. It occurs in order to distribute licenses most efficiently among a group of users, subject to the limitation that licenses can be upgraded but not downgraded. The basic principles are that lower-cost licenses are used when possible, and higher-cost licenses are used only when required, such as when a user is running two or more suite products, or when all the lower-cost licenses are in use.
The NLM surveys license usage every two minutes; if possible, it redistributes licenses among users, and takes back licenses that have been unused for longer than the allowed idle time, or timeout period.
License cascading is most effective in a large user group when the NLM has a pool of different license types available for distribution. For example, if the pool includes product-specific licenses for several products, some licenses for a standard suite, and some licenses for an ultimate suite, the NLM has many options for efficient license management. It can assign single-product licenses as individual products start up, replace these with a suite license if a user runs multiple products, and upgrade a standard suite license to an ultimate one if a user invokes an advanced operation that requires a product from the ultimate suite.
The order in which network licenses cascade from a product to a suite, and then to a higher value suite is known as the cascading sequence. This sequence is set by product groups, and can vary somewhat for each product release. For more information, see the Services & Support topic Understanding Cascade Licensing for Autodesk Products. If you experience problems with products failing to start or failing to share licenses, your CascadeInfo.cas file may have been corrupted. This can happen during a power failure. To resolve the problem, see the Services & Support topic Corrupt CascadeInfo.cas file results in failure of cascading functionality.