---
title: Cap seats on a schedule
description: Use reservations in OpenLM Platform to cap the seats OpenLM LicOps hands out on each license server during set hours, so batch jobs leave room.
product: OpenLM Platform
---

When batch jobs and people share the same license servers, the jobs can take every seat while engineers are at their desks. A *reservation* stops that: during the hours you choose, LicOps hands out no more than a set number of seats on each server, and leaves the rest alone. Outside those hours, the jobs can use everything.

A reservation covers one vendor and one or more of its features, and holds a schedule of periods. Each period sets, for each server you list, the most seats LicOps can hand out there.

:::note[What a reservation caps]

While a period is in force, LicOps never admits more than **Maximum seats** on a server, and nothing on a server that is **Blocked during this period**.

:::

**Reserved seats** are saved with the reservation, but LicOps does not hold them on the license server, so users who check out without going through LicOps can still take them. To keep seats free for those users, set **Maximum seats** below the server's total.

## Create a reservation

To create a reservation:

1. In OpenLM Platform, select **Navigation**, then **LicOps Configuration** under **Licenses and Features**.
2. Select **Rules**, then **New Reservation**.
3. Under **Pool**, select the **Vendor**, then one or more **Features**. LicOps saves one reservation for each feature, all sharing the schedule you set here. A feature can have only one reservation.
4. Under **Schedule**, set **Period 1**:
   - Turn on **Applies all day, every day** for a limit that never lapses, or set **From** and **To** for a time window. A window such as 8 AM to 6 PM applies every day. A window such as 6 PM to 8 AM runs past midnight.
   - In **Servers not in the list**, select **No limit** to leave other servers alone, or **Blocked during this period** to stop LicOps handing out this feature on them at all while the period is in force.
   - Select **+ Add server** for each server you want to cap, and set its **Maximum seats**: the most seats of this feature LicOps hands out on that server during the period. **Maximum seats** is at least `1` and no more than the server's licensed seats. **Reserved seats** is saved with the reservation: `0` or more, and no more than **Maximum seats**. LicOps does not hold these seats on the license server.
5. (Optional) To add another time window, select **+ Add period**. Periods cannot overlap.
6. Select **Save rule**.

To check which period is in force, read **Currently active**. It uses your computer's clock. LicOps itself decides by the clock of the machine it runs on, which can differ. See [Make the schedule follow your time zone](#make-the-schedule-follow-your-time-zone).

The following screenshot shows a reservation with a daytime and an evening period.

*A reservation with a daytime and an evening period. Currently active shows the period in force at your computer's local time.*

The reservation appears in the **Rules** list with your admission rules, with the action **Reserve seats per server for time periods**. To change or remove it, select it there.

## What happens during a period

LicOps checks the schedule every minute. When a period starts, its limits apply to new requests from then on. When it ends, the limits lift, or the next period's limits take over. The following table lists what LicOps does in each situation:

| Situation | What LicOps does |
| --- | --- |
| A listed server is below its **Maximum seats** | Admits as usual. |
| A listed server has reached its **Maximum seats** | Places new requests on other servers in the pool. |
| A server not in the list, with **No limit** | Admits as usual. |
| A server not in the list, with **Blocked during this period** | Places nothing on it for these features. |
| Every server that has a free seat is capped or blocked | Denies the request with `ConstraintBlocked`. |

**Maximum seats** counts only the seats LicOps hands out. Seats that users check out directly from the license server do not count toward it, although they still reduce the server's free seats.

A period starting does not take seats back. If more jobs than the new maximum are already running on a server, they keep their seats, and LicOps admits no new ones there until enough of them end.

A reservation works alongside your admission rules. A rule decides where LicOps places a seat. The reservation decides whether a server still has room under its cap.

## Make the schedule follow your time zone

LicOps reads the time of day from the machine it runs on. In Docker, containers run in UTC unless you give them a time zone, so a period you meant as 8 AM local time can start hours early or late. Add your time zone to the `routerapi` environment:

```yaml
      - TZ=Europe/Berlin
```

Then recreate the container with `docker compose up -d routerapi`. The same applies to the **time of day** condition in admission rules.

## See which limits are in force

To see each server's caps next to its seat counts, read the availability report:

```bash
curl http://localhost:8100/api/v1/admission-controller/availability
```

Each server lists its `constraints`, with the cap as `limit`, where `9223372036854775807` means no cap is in force, the seats LicOps holds under it as `held`, and what is left as `headroom`. A server with free seats and no headroom is the reason a request was denied with `ConstraintBlocked`. See [Operate OpenLM LicOps](https://www.openlm.com/documentation/cloud/deployment-operations/licops/operations#find-out-why-a-request-was-denied).