Installing JetBrains IDEs on classroom computers

Calculating the number of licenses needed

Classroom licenses are typically assigned per seat. When the IDE starts, it requests a license from your Floating License Server or License Vault, regardless of whether the IDE starts on a physical computer or a virtual machine.

When the IDE stops running, it releases the license, making it available to others. If the IDE crashes or the computer powers off abruptly, the license is automatically released after 20 minutes.

With per-seat licensing, you need a license for each user working simultaneously. The number of licenses usually matches the number of students who will use the IDEs at the same time during exams or labs, and it typically does not exceed the total number of classroom computers.

For example, if you have 200 computers and only up to 180 students will ever use JetBrains IDEs at the same time, you will need 180 licenses even if you have 1,500 students in total.

When planning, it may make sense to add a 10–20% reserve to your license request to account for unexpected circumstances. You should not need to request significant reserves (of 200%, for example).

Requesting licenses and receiving confirmation from JetBrains

To request classroom licenses, simply fill out and submit this online form.

Use this form only if you are a teacher or a school IT staff member. Classroom license requests from students are not accepted. JetBrains will send the request confirmation and the license certificates to the email you provided in the request form.

Setting up licensing

Before installing your IDEs, you have to choose a license distribution option: Floating License Server or License Vault. The comparison table below provides details to help you make this choice. If you serve multiple groups of users with different requirements, you may want to consider a more complex setup with a combination of multiple license distribution sources.

If you choose License Vault, follow these instructions to set it up. IMPORTANT: By default, License Vault expects each user running an IDE to have their own JetBrains Account, linked to an email address assigned by the school. Instead of default authentication, you can configure custom authentication using your current authentication service, such as Google OAuth, Active Directory, Microsoft Account, or other similar service. Pay special attention to the License Vault URL provided when setup is complete; you’ll need it at the next step.

If you choose Floating License Server, follow this guide to install it on a computer in your network. Pay special attention to the Floating License Server URL provided when setup is complete, you’ll need it at the next step. You can then assign your classroom licenses to the Floating License Server by following these instructions.

Verifying that your Floating License Server or License Vault URL works

Once you already have a JetBrains IDE installed on a computer in your computer network, you can verify that your Floating License Server or your License Vault is working correctly simply by providing its URL in the Help | Register | License Server menu item in the IDE. If this activates the IDE, everything is set up properly.

Deploying IDEs

JetBrains IDEs do not support deployment via .msi. Most mass-deployment solutions, such as PDQ, Microsoft Intune, Automox, Opsi, and others, support non-interactive (silent) installation.

Since silent installation is similar for all JetBrains IDEs, you can refer to the command line options used for installing PyCharm regardless of the IDE you are installing. Make sure the JETBRAINS_LICENSE_SERVER environment variable in the installed system for all users points persistently to the URL of your Floating License Server or License Vault.

For example, if your locally installed license server is run on a host fls.university.edu at port 8080, the environment variable must be set to all deployed systems as follows: JETBRAINS_LICENSE_SERVER="https://fls.university.edu:8080".