Introduction

Sentinel EMS is a web-based solution that provides a centralized interface for license and entitlement management functions. Sentinel EMS provides several REST API endpoints to work with resources such as namespace, license models, memory files, features, products, customers, entitlements, and activations.

The Getting Started Guide to REST API:

>Introduces the resources - namespaces, license models, memory files, features, products, customers, entitlements, and activations.

>Provides a scenario where the user will provide authentication information and create resources required by the scenario.

>Discusses the prerequisites for the scenario.

>Provides the sample JSON input for each step to fulfill the defined scenario.

The activities described in this document are typically performed by different users:

>An administrator creates a namespace. If the administrator wants to prevent users in one namespace (division or region) from being able to view or edit products in another namespace, the administrator can create multiple namespaces for multiple users.

> A product manager creates features and associates license models with them. In case of Sentinel LDK, the product manager also creates memory files, if required.

>The administrator creates products and associates features and memory files (applicable only for Sentinel LDK) with them.

>The fulfillment team generates entitlements for the products.

>A customer activates products using the entitlement details.

NOTE   Sentinel EMS provides a pre-defined administrative User (admin). After installing Sentinel EMS, the admin first needs to log on to the portal using his User ID and password.

Following are some definitions that are used in this document.

Namespace

Namespace acts as a logical partition for your EMS workspace. If you have different product lines, you can maintain a different namespace for each and define multiple products in each namespace. Namespaces are mutually exclusive and thus product managers cannot pick features from different namespaces and bundle them into a product.

NOTE   In Sentinel LDK, namespaces are known as batch codes. Namespaces are provided by Thales and represent your company's unique vendor code. When you order Sentinel protection keys from Thales, you specify your namespace (batch code), which is both written to the keys before dispatch and printed on the outside of each Sentinel HL key. The namespace for Sentinel protection keys with a demo vendor code is DEMOMA.

License Model

A license model is a combination of various attributes that define how and when a product is sold to an end user. Each license model defines the conditions that control the use of a feature in a product. For example, you can allow the feature usage for a specific duration, restrict the usage to a specific machine, control the number of times the feature can be used, and so on.

You can choose from a variety of predefined license models. To retrieve the list of available license models, perform the following steps:

1. Use the Search Enforcements endpoint to retrieve a list of all available enforcements. From the response, copy the ID of the required enforcement.

2.Use the Search License Models endpoint with the enforcement ID copied in the step above. The response contains names and IDs of all available license models.

Features

A feature is a distinct functionality of a software application that can be independently licensed. Features are the basic building blocks of a product. You can bundle one or more features into a product according to your product monetization model. This provides your customers the flexibility to purchase only those features and capabilities of your product that they actually need. A feature is not a saleable entity, and it needs to be part of a product.

In Sentinel EMS, a feature may be an entire application, a module or a specific functionality such as Print, Save, or Draw. Features are combined to form products. License models are defined for each feature in a product.

Memory

NOTE   Memory files are relevant only for Sentinel LDK.

A memory file is a data file that is used for storing strings in a product key. You might use memory files to migrate existing license data to Sentinel EMS, store login credentials for an application, or store homegrown license data, for example. You can set memory data when creating or editing a memory file, or when associating a memory file with a product.

Products

A product is a salable entity that contains one or more bundled features and memory files. A product can be a software application, hardware, or a service that you can sell or license according to your licensing plan.

Entitlement

An entitlement defines the rights of an end user to use a software package or service. An entitlement is an order for products that contains details of the products, details of users who can use products, and the duration for which the order is valid. The end user can activate the entitlement, which generates a license to use the software according to the defined terms. Each entitlement is identified by a unique identifier. The products associated with an entitlement are identified by unique product keys.

Activation

Product activation refers to the method by which the machine-specific lock code is used to generate a license specific to the machine. The license code ensures that the product can be used only on the machine for which the license has been generated.