Managing Access to Standalone and Network Licenses

A network license is Product license that supports concurrency. A network license is typically located on a machine that is different from the machine where the protected application executes.

The following terms are used in this section:

license server machine	A machine on which a network license is located. This machine also contains the Run-time Time Environment. The Sentinel LDK License Manager service must be active on this machine at all times. Multiple license server machines may exist in a network.
client machine	A machine on which a protected application executes.

When a protected application is launched, the License Manager on the client machine initiates a search for a protection key that contains an appropriate Product license. (The client machine may contain more than one License Manager. For more information, see Selection of the License Manager By the Protected Application.)

The customer can configure the way the client machine locates the appropriate license. For example:

>The customer can configure the License Manager on the client machine or license server machines so that if no license is found locally, the License Manager on the client machine can expand the search to include license server machines in the same network.

>The customer may want to minimize the time required for a protected application to locate a network license. This can be done by configuring the License Manager on each client machine to access a specific license server machine.

>An organization may want to set up two or more license server machines in their network and control which end user machines can access each license server machine.

Configuration of the search for a network license can be accomplished using either client-side configuration or license server-side configuration (or any combination of the two).

NOTE The scope of the search by a protected application for a Product license on a protection key may be limited by the following additional considerations:

>The Protection Key Search Mode specified for the protected application in Sentinel LDK Envelope may limit the search to the local machine or to remote machines only.

>The Locking Type specified for the protected application in Sentinel LDK Envelope may limit the search to specific types of protection keys.

>If the Sentinel Licensing API is used in the protected application to log into a specific Feature in a protection key, the login scope may apply a variety of parameters that limit the search for the protection key.

The explanations in this section are based on the assumption that the parameters above are configured to include widest possible scope of protection keys.

Client-side Configuration

NOTE When using client-side configuration, you must also configure the Admin LM on the license server machine to allow remote access from client machines. In Admin Control Center on the license server machine, select the configuration parameter Allow Access From Remote Clients.

Use one of the following techniques to configure client machines:

>Use Admin Control Center (if available) on a client machine:

Access the Configuring Access to Remote License Managers tab on the Configuration page. Select the Allow Access to Remote Licenses option, and use the other parameters on the screen to specify how the client machine should search for remote licenses.

To repeat the configuration on multiple client machines, see Working Directly With License Manager Configuration Files.

>Use Admin API on a client machine:

Use the ContextNewScope() function to establish a context to the Integrated/External LM (or to the Admin LM, if available). Configure which license server machines the client machine should access in order to locate a license for the protected application. Use the <serveraddr> tag for this purpose.

To repeat the configuration on multiple client machines, see Working Directly With License Manager Configuration Files.

>Manually configure the client machine

You can use a text editor to create a Licensing Manager configuration file manually (or copy an existing one). Indicate which license server machines the client machine should access in order to locate a license for the protected application.

For more information, see Working Directly With License Manager Configuration Files.

License Server-side Configuration

NOTE When using license server-side configuration, you must also configure the Admin LM on the client machine to search for remote licenses on license server machines. In Admin Control Center on the client machine, select the configuration parameter Allow Access to Remote Licenses.

Use either Admin Control Center or Admin API to configure license server machines.

To use Admin Control Center:

Use Admin Control Center on each license server machine to do one or both of the following:

>Access the Configuring Access From Remote Clients tab on the Configuration page. Select the Allow Access from Remote Clients option. In the Access Restrictions field, specify restrictions that limit which remote machines can access the local Sentinel License Manager to consume licenses.

>Access the Configuring User Settings tab on the Configuration page. In the User Restrictions field, specify which users, which machines, or which user–machine pairs can access licenses on the license server machine.

To repeat the configuration on multiple license server machines, see Working Directly With License Manager Configuration Files.

To use Admin API:

On each license server machine:

1.Use the ContextNewScope() function to establish a context to the Admin LM.

2.Configure the Admin LM:

a.Use the <access_restriction> tag to allow or deny access from specific client machines or subnets.

b.Use the <user_restrictions> tag to specify which users, which machines, or which user+machine pairs can access the license server machine.

To repeat the configuration on multiple license server machines, see Working Directly With License Manager Configuration Files.