Fortress Server for Offline Deployment

QuadSpinner’s Fortress Server is a locally deployable, self-hosted floating license solution designed for secure enterprise and offline environments. It enables centralized license allocation on a private network without relying on external activation services.

When to use Fortress

Use Fortress when you need one or more of the following:

• Offline / air-gapped deployment (no internet access permitted)
• Centralized floating licensing across multiple workstations
• Enterprise-controlled security (local-only access, internal auditing, restricted endpoints)
• Lab / classroom environments where seats must be managed centrally

If you only need a single-machine offline license (non-floating), use an Offline Activation File instead (see the License Types page).

Key concepts

• Fortress Server: The service that manages license allocation and session tracking.
• Tenant: An administrative grouping used to separate license pools (for example by team, project, or department).
• Workstation license file (floating.lic): A small file placed on each client machine that tells Gaea which server to contact and which floating key to use.
• Session / token: A server-side record representing an active workstation allocation.
• Heartbeat + grace period: Clients periodically confirm activity; a grace window prevents momentary network interruptions from immediately releasing a license.

How it works

1. An admin deploys Fortress on a machine reachable by client workstations (LAN/VPN).
2. The admin creates a workstation license file using the Fortress Console.
3. The workstation receives that file as floating.lic in the Gaea Data Folder (see Paths and Storage).
4. When Gaea starts, it reads floating.lic, contacts Fortress, and requests a session.
5. While Gaea is running, it sends periodic heartbeats to keep the session active.
6. If heartbeats stop beyond the grace period, the session is released automatically.

What gets installed

A typical deployment includes:

• Fortress Server (service/daemon)
• Fortress Console (admin UI/CLI used to create license files and manage allocations)
• Workstation configuration (distribution of floating.lic)

Quick start

1. Install and start Fortress Server on a LAN-accessible machine.
2. Confirm bind/interface:
   • Ensure the server is listening on the NIC/IP that clients will reach (not loopback-only).
3. Allow inbound network access on the configured port:
   • Create OS firewall rules as needed.
4. In the Fortress Console, create a Tenant (if required by your setup).
5. Use Create License File to generate a workstation file.
6. Copy the generated file to each workstation’s Gaea Data Folder and rename it to floating.lic
7. Launch Gaea on a workstation and verify an allocation appears in View Allocations.

See Assign Licenses for the step-by-step walkthrough and screenshots.

Networking and ports

• Workstations must be able to reach the server at host:port specified in floating.lic.
• DNS is optional; you can use a raw IP.
• Multi-NIC servers are supported, but mis-binding is a common setup issue.

Use Network Diagnostics to validate bind, DNS, and connectivity:

• See the Network Diagnostics page (and the screenshot flow) for expected outcomes and common fixes.

Security notes

• Fortress is intended for trusted internal networks.
• Restrict access to the server port to known subnets where possible.
• Treat floating.lic as a deployment credential:
  • Distribute via standard IT tooling (MDM, GPO, software deployment, secure share).
  • Avoid posting it in shared/public locations.

Related pages

• Assign Licenses (Assign Licenses / Create floating.lic / Manage allocations)
• Paths and Storage (File locations for floating.lic, token.lic, logs, etc.)
• Network Diagnostics (Diagnosing reachability, DNS, bind/interface issues)