5. Licensing Vortex

This section describes how to install a license file for a Vortex product and how to use the license manager.

Vortex uses Reprise License Manager (RLM) to manage licenses.

The licensing software is automatically installed on the host machine as part of the Vortex distribution. The software consists of two parts:

  • Vortex binary files, which are installed in <Vortex_Install_Dir>/bin where <Vortex_Install_Dir> is the directory where Vortex is installed
  • License files which determine the terms of the license. These will be supplied by ADLINK Technology Limited.

ADLINK Technology Limited supplies a Vortex license file, license.lic. This file is not included in the software distribution, but is sent separately by ADLINK Technology Limited.

5.1. Development and Deployment Licenses

Development licenses for Vortex Device products (Enterprise, Caf&eacute, Web and Lite) are provided on a ‘per user’ basis. This means that each developer using the product requires a separate valid license to use the product. Vortex is physically licensed for development purposes.

Vortex Cloud, Vortex Fog and Gateway are also physically licensed, and each product requires a valid deployment license to use it in an operational or a production environment.

5.2. Installing the License File

Copy the license file to <Vortex_Install_Dir>/license/license.lic where <Vortex_Install_Dir> is the directory where Vortex is installed, on the machine that will run the license manager. This is the recommended location for the license file but you can put the file in any location that can be accessed by the license manager rlm.

Vortex products will additionally search the following hierarchy for their license file:

On Unix platforms:

  • ADLINK_LICENSE environment variable
  • prismtech_LICENSE environment variable
  • RLM_LICENSE environment variable
  • <Vortex_Install_Dir>/Tools/VortexInsight/<version>/etc
  • <Vortex_Install_Dir>/license
  • /$HOME/etc
  • /etc

On Windows platforms:

  • ADLINK_LICENSE environment variable
  • prismtech_LICENSE environment variable
  • RLM_LICENSE environment variable
  • <Vortex_Install_Dir>/Tools/VortexInsight/<version>/etc
  • <Vortex_Install_Dir>/license
  • %HOMEPATH%etc

The environment variables RLM_LICENSE and prismtech_LICENSE must be set to the full path and filename of the license file. (Note that either variable can be used; there is no need to set both.) For example:

prismtech_LICENSE=/my/lic/dir/license.lic

If licenses are distributed between multiple license files, the RLM_LICENSE or prismtech_LICENSE variable can be set to point to the directory which contains the license files.

5.3. Running the License Manager Daemon

It is only necessary to run the License Manager Daemon for floating or counted licenses. In this case, the license manager must be running before Vortex can be used. The license manager software is responsible for allocating licenses to developers and for ensuring that the allowed number of concurrent licenses is not exceeded. For node-locked licenses, as is the case with all evaluation licenses, then it is not necessary to run the License Manager Daemon but the RLM_LICENSE or prismtech_LICENSE variable must be set to the correct license file location. To run the license manager, use the following command:

rlm -c <location>

where <location> is the full path and filename of the license file. If licenses are distributed between multiple files, <location> should be the path to the directory that contains the license files.

The rlm command will start the PrismTech vendor daemon prismtech, which controls the licensing of the Vortex software.

To obtain a license for Vortex from a License Manager Daemon that is running on a different machine, set either the RLM_LICENSE or prismtech_LICENSE environment variable to point to the License Manager Daemon, using the following syntax:

RLM_LICENSE=<port>@<host>

where <port> is the port the daemon is running on and <host> is the host the daemon is running on.

The port and host values can be obtained from the information output when the daemon is started. The format of this output is as shown in the following example:

07/05 12:05 (rlm) License server started on rhel4e
07/05 12:05 (rlm) Server architecture: x86_l2
07/05 12:05 (rlm) License files:
07/05 12:05 (rlm) license.lic
07/05 12:05 (rlm)
07/05 12:05 (rlm) Web server starting on port 5054
07/05 12:05 (rlm) Using TCP/IP port 5053
07/05 12:05 (rlm) Starting ISV servers:
07/05 12:05 (rlm) ... prismtech on port 35562
07/05 12:05 (prismtech) RLM License Server Version 9.1BL3 for ISV "prismtech"
07/05 12:05 (prismtech) Server architecture: x86_l2
Copyright (C) 2006-2011, Reprise Software, Inc. All rights reserved.
RLM contains software developed by the OpenSSL Project
for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit (http//www.openssl.org)
Copyright (c) 1998-2008 The OpenSSL Project. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 1995-1998 Eric Young (eay@cryptsoft.com) All rights reserved
07/05 12:05 (prismtech)
07/05 12:05 (prismtech) Server started on rhel4e (hostid: 0025643ad2a7) for:
07/05 12:05 (prismtech) opensplice_product1 opensplice_product2
07/05 12:05 (prismtech)
07/05 12:05 (prismtech) License files:
07/05 12:05 (prismtech) license.lic
07/05 12:05 (prismtech)

The <server> value should be taken from the first line of the output. The <port> value should be taken from the line reading ”... prismtech on port xxxxx”. From this example, the value for RLM_LICENSE or prismtech_LICENSE would be '35562@rhel4e‘.

5.4. Utilities

A utility program, rlmutil, is available for license server management and administration. One feature of this utility is its ability to gracefully shut down the license manager. To shut down the license manager, preventing the checkout of licenses for the Vortex software, run either of the following commands:

where <location> is the full path and filename of the license file.