Detaching Licenses - Overview

This topic describes the concept of detaching licenses from a network license on an SL AdminMode key.

Sentinel LDK enables you to detach a license (a network seat) from an SL AdminMode key with concurrency and attach the seat to your local machine for a limited time. This “detached license” enables you to work with the protected application even though your machine has no connection to the SL license. When it is detached, the license is deducted from the pool of available networks seats on the SL key. When the detached license expires, it automatically returns to the pool of network seats on the SL key and is disabled on your machine.

Detaching licenses is supported for Windows, Linux, and macOs machines.

A license for a protected application can only be detached if:

1.The product license has been configured to allow detaching licenses.

2.Detaching of licenses has been enabled for the License Manager on the machine where the SL key is located.

A license can be detached in one of two manners:

>On-Demand Detach

You can manually detach a license from an SL key and attach it to your machine for a specified number of days. This is useful if you want to work with a protected application and expect to be disconnected from your company’s network for an extended period.

A license can be detached using either of these methods:

•Online – You can connect from your machine to the machine where the SL key is located and detach a license. The license is immediately attached to your machine.

•Offline – On the machine where the SL key is located, an administrator can generate an H2R file that contains a detached license. The administrator transfers the file to the recipient. The recipient applies the H2R file on their machine.

NOTE When detaching a license, you can specify that the detached license contain one or more concurrent seats. For more information, see Detaching Licenses With Concurrency.

>Automatic Detach

When you start to work with a protected application, a license is automatically detached from the SL key and attached to your machine. The license is valid for the number of hours (referred to as the duration period) specified by the Allowed Offline Duration parameter in the License Manager. (The duration period is set using Admin Control Center or Sentinel Admin API.) This enables you to continue working even if your machine loses its connection to the SL key.

After half of the duration period has elapsed and the application was in use (even for a brief time), the License Manager attempts to connect to the SL key on the license server machine.

•If a connection is found, the detached license is renewed for the duration period. This process repeats as long as the application was in use as least part of the time.

•If a connection is not found, the License Manager continue to check the connection until a connection is found (and the detached license is renewed) or until the detached license expires.

Thus, the license expires and is returned to the SL key at the end of the duration period if either of the following is true:

•The License Manager was not able to connect to the license server machine during the second half of the duration period.

•The protected application was not in use during the last duration period.

The use of automatic detach reduces the load on the license server machine because the License Manager attempts to connect to the SL key on the license server machine less often.

NOTE Since the application must be in use at least at the beginning of the initial duration period, the License Manager attempts to renew the duration period after half the duration period has elapsed. Therefore, if the renewal is successful, the duration of the initial detached license is 1.5 times the Allowed Offline Duration value.

For example, given the following scenario:

1.The Allowed Offline Duration value is 2 hours.

2.A user starts the protected application at 13:00 and a license is detached for 2 hours.

3.The user stops using the application at 13:02.

4.The License Manager determines that the application was in use after 13:00 (for 2 minutes). Therefore, the License Manager attempts to communicate with the license server machine starting at 14:00 to renew the detached license.

•If the renewal attempt succeeds, the license is extended to 16:00.

•If the renewal attempt fails, the license expires at 15:00.