License Server Administration for Multiple Software Providers

Note: In this article we will refer to software publisher as an ISV (Independent Software Vendor).

Standard Setup (recommended)

A single RLM License Server is able to manage floating licenses issued by multiple ISVs.  You will want to run the highest version of RLM provided to you by your ISV, or you can download the latest version of RLM from our website.

 

On the server running RLM, you will want to create a single folder in which to contain all of your server files:

• The RLM server executable or binary
• The ISV server (usually the ISV-name.set)
• All license files provided by your ISVs, usually with a .lic file extension
• Any server utilities such as rlmstat

You can then manually run RLM, or setup RLM to run as a service.
 

Advantages:

• Only a single RLM port need be managed. If a new ISV server is added with a new port, the single copy of RLM adds this port to the list of ports it listens to.
• A single web interface is used for all publishers/ISV servers.
• No client-side changes need to be made for any publisher.
• Simple, straightforward method to add a new publisher/ISV server, when the time comes.

 

Disadvantages:

• You must be sure to always select the newest version of RLM (rlm.exe) and the utilities that any of your publishers use.

 

Advanced Setup

You may need to run multiple RLM servers on a single compute host. This usually is only required if your ISV is providing an ISV server that requires a specific version of RLM to operate (usually ISV-name.exe or an ISV-name binary).
 
You will need to modify the ports for at least one of the RLM servers since you can’t have multiple processes binding to the same computer ports. You can read more about RLM Server ports in this KB article. You will also need to change the port number your client application uses to connect to the RLM license server; you’ll want to ask your ISV how to do this for their application.

 

Advantages:

• Conceptually simple

 

Disadvantages:

• The two RLM client connection ports and web server ports will have to be managed so that they don’t collide.
• Users of the RLM web interface will have to remember which port number goes with which.
  • For v16.o+ servers, a single user account will only be able to log into one web interface at a time.
• The default RLM client port numbers as established by the publishers will need to be changed, for at least 1 publisher.