Server context#

The ServerContext class drives the licensing logic a server starts with.

The server context is composed of the following information:

context_type, a LicensingContextType class object that defines whether DPF capabilities requiring a license checkout are allowed.
xml_path, which sets DPF default operator capabilities.

For more information, see the AvailableServerContexts class and DPF XML files.

Two main licensing context type capabilities are available:

Premium: This default context allows DPF to perform license checkouts, making licensed DPF operators available.
Entry: This context does not allow DPF to perform any license checkout, meaning that licensed DPF operators fail.

For the operator list for each licensing context type, see Operators. The Premium operators reference includes licensed DPF operators. The Entry operators reference only includes unlicensed DPF operators.

Change server context from Entry to Premium#

Once a DPF Server is started in Entry context, it can be upgraded to the Premium context:

from ansys.dpf import core as dpf
# start a server with entry capabilities
server = dpf.start_local_server(
    context=dpf.AvailableServerContexts.entry
)
print(server.context)

Server Context of type LicensingContextType.entry with no xml path

# apply a premium context on the server
server.apply_context(dpf.AvailableServerContexts.premium)
print(server.context)

Server Context of type LicensingContextType.premium with no xml path

Change the default server context#

The default context for the server is Premium. You can change the context using the ANSYS_DPF_SERVER_CONTEXT environment variable. For more information, see the :module: <ansys.dpf.core.server_context> module). You can also change the server context with this code:

from ansys.dpf import core as dpf
dpf.set_default_server_context(dpf.AvailableServerContexts.entry)
print(dpf.server_context.SERVER_CONTEXT)

Server Context of type LicensingContextType.entry with no xml path

Warning

As starting an InProcess server means linking the DPF binaries to your current Python process, you cannot start a new InProcess server. Thus, if your local InProcess server is already Premium, you cannot set it back as Entry. InProcess being the default server type, the proper commands to work as Entry should be set at the start of your script.

Release history#

The Entry server context is available in server version 6.0 (Ansys 2023 R2) and later.

With a server version earlier than 6.0, Premium is the default server context and all Premium Operators are available, depending only on their release date.