P4 Server Licensing
P4 Server can either be operated in licensed or unlicensed mode.
Trial Licensing
Without a P4 Server license there is a limit to both the number of users and the number of clients (workspaces):
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For Helix releases 2016.1 and later, without a valid license, the versioning service limits itself to either 5 users and 20 client workspaces (and unlimited files), or to an unlimited number of users and workspaces (but with a limit of 1,000 files);
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Versions of the helix server prior to 2016.1 support the so called 20/20 usage allowance: 20 users and 20 client workspaces (and unlimited files), or an unlimited number of users and workspaces (but with a limit of 1,000 files).
Unlicensed mode can be used to evaluate P4 Server (or if the team is small enough use it indefinitely).
Note that to transfer between unlicensed and licensed mode it is necessary to restart the perforce server process. Once in licensed mode it is not necessary to restart the server when a license file is updated.
Production Licensing
With a P4 Server license file, perforce is simply licensed per user. Any licensed user can create as many clients (workspaces) as they wish, operate on as many servers as they want, etc. The sole restriction is the number of users.
Note there is no extra cost to operate replication servers.
P4 Server User Types
Note there are several user types in P4 Server that have different licensing implications.
- Standard users are the typical user type will access to the full range of P4 Server functionality, each of these users take a single P4 Server license
- Operator users are limited to performing administrative functions, they do not consume a P4 Server license
- Service users are the agents that facilitate inter-server communication in distributed environments. They can run a limited set of commands relevant to this role, and do not consume a P4 Server license.
Please see the P4 Server Versioning Engine Administrator Guide for more information on the various user types and the commands they can run.