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 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 EMS (Entitlement Management System)
Sentinel 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.
Sentinel EMS Customer Portal
The Sentinel EMS Customer Portal is a Web portal that your customer can access to
The customer logs in to the Customer Portal by providing
•Online activation is completely automatic and activates the license on the local machine.
•Offline activation enables the customer to activate the license manually on the same machine or on a different 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:
>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 EMS.
For information on using the Master Wizard to introduce a Vendor key, see the Sentinel LDK Installation Guide.