Virtualization

RLM provides capabilities to enable and/or restrict the usage of both applications and license servers in virtual environments.

By default, RLM allows applications to run in virtual environments. Also, by default, RLM does not allow license servers to run in virtual environments.

You can restrict application usage in virtual environments by using the “disable=vm” keyword in the license. See Disable Computing Environments for more information.

RLM’s default behavior regarding running servers on VMs is designed to prevent accidental/uninformed/unintended use of them. It’s not that we actively discourage the practice - it’s more that we want you to think about your policy regarding VMs so you make an informed decision. The problem of course is that it is trivial to clone a VM image, hostid and all, and run multiple copies of it in an enterprise, thus gaining multiple sets of licenses if a license server runs there.

Control over whether license servers run in a virtual environment is in two places - you set the default in rlm_isv_config.c with the rlm_isv_cfg_set_enable_vm() call. If the second parameter is 0 (the default), then your servers will not operate in virtual environments. If it is set to any non-zero value, your servers will all run on virtual machines.

If you want to enable license servers for only certain trusted customers, you can leave the default in rlm_isv_config.c set to disable servers on VMs, and issue an rlm_server_enable_vm license for the individual machine for which you want to enable. So, for example, the following license would enable a license server (where the license is valid) to run on a virtual machine through the end of 2025:

LICENSE ISVNAME rlm_server_enable_vm 1.0 31-dec-2025 1 sig=xxx

Note

The rlm_server_enable_vm license will not be visible in status requests, or in rlm_products() calls.

Note

RLM treats Docker containers on non-Windows systems the same as virtual machines.