Major Components of the Vendor Suite

Sentinel License Development Kit (Sentinel LDK) Vendor Suite contains many modules, tools, and APIs that assist you to manage the protection and licensing of your application. This section provides an overview of the most significant items in the Vendor Suite.

Sentinel LDK Envelope and Sentinel Licensing API

Sentinel LDK Envelope is a tool that wraps your application in a protective shield. This shield ensures that:

>The application is protected against disassembly and reverse engineering. Your intellectual property is protected.

>The protected application cannot run unless a suitable Sentinel protection key can be accessed by the application.

An application that has been protected by Sentinel LDK Envelope can contain the Data File Protection module to automatically encrypt data files to disk and to read them back. You can use the Sentinel LDK Data Protection utility to pre-encrypt data files for use with the protected application.

You can use Sentinel Licensing API to provide enhanced protection for your application and to enable the licensing of specific Features in the application.

Sentinel LDK Data Protection Utility

Sentinel LDK Data Protection utility is a tool that can do either of the following:

>Protect data files with encryption. A protected data file can only be accessed by an application that has been protected with Sentinel LDK Envelope and that possesses the required encryption key.

>Protect data files with encryption and licensing. A protected data file can be accessed:

• only by an application that has been protected with Sentinel LDK Envelope AND

•only when the end user has the required license on a protection key.

Sentinel LDK ToolBox

Sentinel LDK ToolBox is an interactive application that enables software developers to learn about the following Sentinel APIs:

>Sentinel Licensing API

>Sentinel License Generation API

>Sentinel Admin API

In ToolBox, software developers can execute API functions, observe the behavior of the functions, and then copy the relevant source code into their own applications.

Admin Control Center

Sentinel Admin Control Center is a customizable, web-based, end-user utility that enables centralized administration of Sentinel License Managers and Sentinel protection keys.

Sentinel RUS (Remote Update System)

Sentinel RUS utility is an advanced tool that enables you to perform secure, remote updating of the license and memory data of Sentinel protection keys after they have been deployed on the end user’s computer.

Sentinel LDK-EMS (Entitlement Management System)

Sentinel LDK-EMS is a web-based graphical application that is used to perform a range of functions required to manage the licensing, distribution, and maintenance of protected applications and data files.

You can use Sentinel LDK-EMS Web Services to perform the same functions programmatically. This enables you to integrate the EMS functionality into your own back end infrastructure.

Sentinel License Generation API

For software vendors who prefer to use their own ERP back-ends, Sentinel License Generation API provides access to the power and flexibility of Sentinel protection keys without the need to install the full Sentinel LDK-EMS system. You can use Sentinel LDK ToolBox to examine the API functions, create license templates, and to generate protection keys.

Sentinel LDK-EMS Customer Portal

The Sentinel LDK-EMS Customer Portal is a Web portal that your customer can access to:

>use the online Product activation mechanism. This mechanism enables a customer to:

•convert a trialware version of your protected application or data file (an unlocked trialware Product) to a fully-licensed version (a Locked Product).

•directly activate a Locked Product.

The end users activate the relevant version using a unique Product Key that they receive from you after completing the required commercial transaction to purchase a license for the application. In either case, your investment against software piracy is protected.

 The customer logs in to the Customer Portal by providing a Product Key. The customer completes a registration form (if you require this) and then chooses the method to activate the Product.

•Online activation is completely automatic and activates the license on the local machine.

•Offline activation enables the customer to download a utility that can be used to activate the license manually on the same machine or on a different machine.

The Sentinel LDK tutorials leads you through the complete process: define a Feature in Sentinel LDK-EMS, define Products, enter an order, generate a product key, and finally convert the trialware to a Locked Product using the Customer Portal.

>use the online update mechanism. This mechanism enables a customer to automatically apply all outstanding updates from the vendor to all the protection keys located on the customer's machine.

Master Wizard

You use the Sentinel LDK Master Wizard tool to introduce one of your Vendor keys to Sentinel LDK. This process performs the following:

>Registers your Batch Code in Sentinel LDK-EMS. This is required so that Sentinel LDK-EMS will recognize the Batch Code and perform actions for that Batch Code.

>Downloads vendor-specific APIs and the vendor library from Thales servers. These are generated individually for each Batch Code and are used by Sentinel LDK Envelope and Licensing API to implement license enforcement.

>Downloads Run-time Environment (RTE) installers from Thales servers and customize them on your machine. The Master Wizard customizes the installers by embedding your vendor library and the server address for Sentinel LDK-EMS.

For information on using the Master Wizard to introduce a Vendor key, see the Sentinel LDK Installation Guide.