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How does Heirloom's licensing work?

Heirloom Computing uses an innovative, server based licensing system in order to enable access to products.

The advantage of managing the license specifics on the server side is that the client side remains a very simple file allowing for easy moving of licenses between machines and also enables simple deployment of applications.

Server based licensing also allows a support representative to make changes to clients licenses, the number of machines a product can be run on ,for example without requiring changes on the client machine(s). A simple help desk request can be made and the representative can adjust licensing parameters without further involvement from a customer.

In order to better understand how the licensing works, when support requests may be needed and what to expect as licenses are moved around machines the following describes in more detail how Heirloom Computing's server based licensing works.

 

Initial install

When you first download and install a product you will be provided with a license file for that product. You may request further copies of this file using the product portal https://paas.heirloomcomputing.comat  and a new file will be emailed to you.

This license file contains your email address and subscription id (created when you first register). This license file should be placed in your home directory (typical C:\users\<user name> on windows). For further information on license file locations you should see specific product documentation.

 This license file will have various information written to it as you use products on that machine. This information is used to allow the product to determine how often to check the license with the server, what machines you are running the product on and other metrics specific to the product. 

The license file should not be manually modified unless requested to do so by a support representative. Unwarranted modification will invalidate your license and prevent a product from executing.

  

How a license is checked

The license file is modified as you run products. A product will send various details about the machine you are running on back to the license server in order to validate your license. 

The license server will confirm the product is licensed, and also various other information including when the product should next check it's license. 

This is important if you need to be disconnected from a network for a length of time - Heirloom support can modify your license to allow a longer period between checks if required.

Information like the MAC address and IP address of the machine is used and most products allow for 2 MAC addresses and 255 IP Addresses by default. 

This means you can connect via 2 different network devices when checking a license. If more devices are required (3G connection for example) a support representative can enable that for you.

Typically a license is only checked when the product first starts, but this can vary by product. 

For example a license check is performed when Eclipse first starts and when the runtime is first executed. By default a license is checked every 24 hours.

If a network connection is not available when required a product may provide you with a grace period, allowing you a certain number of hours to continue running before requiring a connection.

This is on a per product basis and you may be required to connect immediately before you can continue to run the product.

There may be circumstances when you need a license for a machine that is never connected to the internet. Heirloom Computing's licensing supports this mode of operation and more details can be found here: https://heirloomcomputing.zendesk.com/entries/23253811-Command-Line-Interface#proxychecker.

Licenses can be checked from the command line if required. Instructions for that can be found in the link above and the JAR file for doing that can be downloaded from here: https://downloads.heirloomcomputing.com/licensing/HCILicensing.jar

 License files should not be shared between team members or copied to additional machines without consulting a support representative first. We can configure licenses to work in this way as required but because the license server allows the first X connections (2 by default) and then refuses others you may find you have locked your machine out from using the product because other machines have requested a license first.

 

Licensing logs

By logging into the Heirloom Dashboard you can see a log of activity associated with your various licenses.

  • Log into paas.heirloomcomputing.com and click the 'Dashboard' link on the right.
  • Right click the whitespace and select 'Show Licenses'.
  • Each license can be seen here including it's expiry date.
  • By right clicking the license and choosing 'Show license history' a date order list of license transactions can be seen including where licenses have be refused for various reasons.

yourlichist.png

 

Usage scenarios

 

You use a single laptop to develop and test on, using both ethernet and wifi connections

A standard license will cover this usage. You are only using 2 MAC addresses and 2 IP addresses. As long as the machine has a connection to the internet when a check is made each day, the license will be enabled for another 24hour period.

 

You use a single machine to develop on and another to test on.

 A standard license will likely cover this usage. You are only using 2 MAC addresses and 2 IP addresses. You would place a copy of the license file on each machine

As long as the machines have a connection to the internet when a check is made each day, the license will be enabled for another 24hour period.

NOTE if these machines use more than one network connection each (IE they use wifi and ethernet) you will need to contact support in order to extend the number of available MAC and IP addresses.

 

You travel with a machine but only use ethernet and or wifi.

 A standard license will cover this usage. You are only using 2 MAC addresses and 2 IP addresses. 

As long as the machine has a connection to the internet when a check is made each day, the license will be enabled for another 24hour period.

Because the MAC address of your network devices do not change, even when the IP address does it will not require extra MAC addresses added to your license.

 

You travel with a machine and use a 3G connection in addition to ethernet and wifi

 You will need to contact support in order to add an additional MAC address to your license. The 3G connector is a new network device and therefore a new MAC address.

 

 

 

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