Glossary

Aggregated Usage Data Usage data that has been processed through the Data Engine (DE) and to extract relevant and valuable information from raw data.
Auth Token

Auth token contains an access token which is used to authenticate the APIs communicating with RMS Cloud License Manager. Refer to Authorization (Auth) Tokens for details.

Batch Code

A Sentinel LDK term.

Unique character string that represents a Vendor Code. The Batch Code is used in defining features, products and orders in Sentinel EMS. The Batch Code is the used by Sentinel EMS for the name of the namespace. It is also used for ordering Sentinel protection keys. With Sentinel HL keys, the Batch Code is printed on the Sentinel HL key label.

Contact: Administrator Type A customer contact with higher privileges who can also generate registration token and/or terminate active users using the Customer Portal. This may be required in the scenarios when software vendor allows customers to perform activations and manage license sessions on their end instead of the vendor managing them.
Contact: Standard Type Same as Contact.
Contacts

A contact is an individual who serves as the single point of communication for an entitlement. You create contacts for customers and then generate entitlements for them. All emails related to an entitlement are sent to the specified contact.

A contact can also be created independent of a customer. Therefore, a contact may or may not belong to a customer.

Copy Protection

Prevent reproduction, distribution and unauthorized use of your licenses, product, and its features.

Customer Portal

A web portal in Sentinel EMS that your customers access to activate the licenses for their products.

Customers

Organization for which an entitlement is created. A customer can have multiple contacts.

Data Engine (DE) A Thales component used for aggregation of usage data.
Development Environment

The development environment is provided for testing purpose, prior to moving to production. For Sentinel EMS trials, only the development environment URL is provided.

Device Collectively refers to all types of computers, phones, and other devices.
Enforcement Technology

The licensing technology that controls and secures the vendor's application, such as Sentinel RMS and Sentinel LDK.

Entitlement

Refers to the rights of an end user to use a software package. It includes information, such as who can use the software features and in what manner.

Entitlement Activation

The entitlement is activated in Sentinel EMS to generate licenses for the customer.

Entitlement Lifecycle

The series of changes in the state of an entitlement, from creation and activation through upgrading, renewing and revoking.

Introducing Vendor Code

A Sentinel LDK term.

When you subscribe to Sentinel LDK, you receive a special Developer USB key that you attach to your machine when protecting applications. This key contains your confidential Vendor Codes. Upon receipt of the key and after each software upgrade, you run a wizard that "introduces" your key to Sentinel LDK. Introduction performs several tasks, including, downloading vendor-specific APIs libraries, extracting your Vendor Code and saving it to a file.

IP Protection

Intellectual Property Protection. Preventing the loss of proprietary information and intellectual property that may occur if a hacker is able to use reverse-engineering against your software.

License

A license is a legal entity that grants rights and imposes restrictions on the use of software. It is a string of encrypted characters that encapsulate the various licensing attributes.

License Manager

A program that centrally manages the licenses in a network. For example, RMS License Manager.

The License Managers of Sentinel LDK and Sentinel RMS are not same and have different technical specifications and capabilities.

Licensed Application

A general term used to refer to the software licensed using Sentinel enforcements such as Sentinel RMS and Sentinel LDK. Licensing means your customers using the software according to the terms agreed upon in the license agreement. See also: Protected Application.

Line Item

Once a product or product suite is associated with the entitlements, it can be referred to as a line item. Various business operations like activation, revocation, recharge, and renew are performed on a line item.

Locking Code

A Sentinel RMS term.

A 16-byte long readable string that identifies a computer. The locking code is made up of characteristics of a computer that can be used for fingerprinting the computer. These can be the standard system characteristics (such as, the host name or IP address) or hardware-based characteristics (such as, the Computer ID Key) or any custom criteria of your choice (such as, the display card).

Machine Registration

Also known as Fingerprint Registration.

The host (RMS License Manager or a standalone machine) is registered against a customer’s entitlement in SCC by using Sentinel EMS. For registration purposes, the host’s fingerprint (a unique identification code) is extracted by using the RMS licensing API. This host is referred to as an SCC client node. The machine registration step is required only if this step is defined as mandatory during the entitlement creation.

Memory

A Sentinel LDK term.

Location in the Sentinel protection keys for keeping vendor-defined data (for example: passwords, values used by the software) in read-only and read/write manners.

On-premises Deployment

A Sentinel RMS term.

Licenses are served from Sentinel EMS directly to an end user’s environment, without SCC involvement. The licensed application is deployed within the end user’s environment. Once licenses are delivered on-premises, the end user owns them.

Product Key

A string that is generated by Sentinel EMS and supplied to the end user for activation or updates.

Production Environment

The production environment is provided for serving entitlements to real customers.

Protected Application

A Sentinel LDK term.

The term used to denote a vendor's application that has been protected using Sentinel LDK against anti-debugging and reverse-engineering. The application is also protected against unauthorized usage and copying by the application of licensing requirements to the code.

This term is used to specifically highlight the safety aspect of using enforcement technologies so that hackers do not get access to your application code, whereas licensing is more about legitimate use and compliance.

Sentinel LDK offers both protection and licensing measures for your software. Hence, wherever the term protected application is used, it represents your applications that are both protected and licensed using Sentinel LDK. See also: Licensed Application.

Raw Usage Data

Usage data that is a jumbled mixture of different information and has not been run through the Data Engine (DE) and thus is not aggregated.

Registration Token Registration token is a means to generate the auth token. For details refer to: RMS Cloud LM REST API—Basic Concepts.
RUS Utility

An end user utility for performing secure, remote updates of the license and memory data of Sentinel protection keys after they have been deployed on the end user’s computer.

Sentinel Admin Control Center

A Web-based utility for centralized administration of licenses on the end user's site.

Sentinel LDK Envelope

A Sentinel LDK protection tool. It automatically wraps the vendor's application in a protective shield and validates the licensing terms—offers ease of use, short time-to-delivery, and anti reverse-engineering features such as file encryption and anti-debugging. It is suitable for protecting compiled executables and DLLs.

Sentinel HL Keys

The hardware-based protection and licensing component of Sentinel LDK. One of the Sentinel protection key types. Refer to the Sentinel LDK documentation for the types of Sentinel HL Keys distributed.

Sentinel Licensing API

A Sentinel LDK protection tool. This requires embedding the Sentinel Licensing API calls in the software code. This protection method offers maximum flexibility, and compatibility with a wide variety of development tools and operating systems.

Sentinel Protection Keys

Sentinel HL keys and Sentinel SL keys.

Sentinel SL Keys

Virtual, software-based keys that reside in the secure storage of a specific computer. Sentinel SL keys provide the same functionality as Sentinel HL keys, without requiring physical distribution.

Software Monetization

Adoption of any variety of measures a software company takes—such as packaging, control, management, and monitoring—in order to increase the profitability of their intellectual property.

Tenant Host Address URL of the Thales-managed services received in Sentinel order emails.
Unified API

A Sentinel RMS term.

The licensing API introduced since the RMS v9.0.0 release as an alternative set of functions for implementing licensing in your applications. Prior to version 9.0.0, developers used the traditional API (such as VLSinitialize, VLS_REQUEST, VLS_UPDATE, VLS_RELEASE, etc.) for performing licensing operations (such as requesting, updating, and releasing a license). The Unified API eventually will replace all Traditional (VLS) API-based implementations.

Vendor Code

A unique vendor-specific code assigned by Thales to the vendor to enable access to the vendor's Sentinel LDK protection keys.

Vendors

Refers to the software vendors.