License Keys

Altair Accelerator license keys are more reliable than RLM because they are simply a file that the Altair Accelerator product server reads directly instead of communicating with an external daemon to get licenses. If you have multiple Altair instances, RLM may be more manageable, because there is only one license file.

If license keys are activated, the products do not interact with RLM. This type of licensing is supported for Monitor and Accelerator instances. FlowTracer does not use this type of licensing.

License Keys Description

License key files can be installed either in the local directory of the installation tree or in the product-specific server working directory (SWD). License keys installed in the local directory must be in the format of license.productcode.key, where productcode is one of "lm" or "nc".

License keys that are installed in the SWD can use this format or the name license.key. For example, for Monitor, use the file licmon.swd/license.key and for Accelerator use vnc.swd/license.key.

Note: The SWD is created upon product start up, so ensure the product has been started before attempting to put a SWD license key file in place.

The vovserver searches for the keyfile license as follows:

The file named by the environment variable VOV_LICENSE_KEY, if set. This should be defined in the project's setup.tcl file.
SWD/license.<productcode>.key
SWD/license.key
$VOVDIR/local/license.<productcode>.key

The license key encodes the host IDs of the hosts where the application is allowed to execute and the maximum allowed number of tokens provided by the license.

The following is an example of one such license key, to enable an Accelerator project (product: nc) on port 6271 on a machine called mac05 for up to 100 slots (license for: 100 slots).

Example License Key File

#    -----------------------------------
#    -- VOV License  Key  Information --
#    License S/N: 20161110a 
#    VovVersion:  2020.1
#    Product:     nc
#    Licensed to: rtda 
#    For host id: MAC:00:25:00:9f:76:68
#    For host:    mac05
#    For port:    6271
#    License for: 100 slots
#    StartDate:   Tue Nov 10 10:29:25 2019
#    Expiration:  Thu Dec 31 21:00:00 2020
#    -----------------------------------
#
EFIFFF`gjdCEceFDdd`ekgMDEDMEBGheee`ejcGEiadeifogJA
iel`neC@`eca@EHAMDFAgeD@LENFedfdCEceJE`angFE`dn`AA
L@AAADNGkfA@IADEBAkaB@o`KEceADEFJGlfnbJEd`bdFBeeod
CDeehgidbaOEjgMENE`ejcOEhdeeieedadceMEGEcc@@AECEle
bdHDCEfbDEEBEDICIEIFAFEAG@oeLACDndLEDENAg`KFhgfdAA
BDddodCEbeJBddne@DFFaejeODjdD@AEAALDAAKGk`BDofCGl`
dek`@@OFidd`aeedadheheoeACGEee`eieedadeeceLEAEIGNG
`e

Multiple license keys can be concatenated into the same file and the combined value of all the license keys will be used by the application. The serial numbers of such licenses must be distinct. You must leave the comment lines that precede the encrypted section.

This licensing mode is activated if one of these conditions is true:

If the license.key file is present, even if it is empty or invalid
If the variable RLM_LICENSE is not defined

If the software is using the license key, vovserver manages the licenses for any vovtasker that connects it. The vovtaskers do not read the license key file.

If the license key is missing or has expired, a grace period of 5 days is offered in which the product can run normally. At the end of the grace period, Accelerator stops dispatching jobs and Monitor obfuscates all checkout information saved to the log files, and does not load it into the DB.

Note: The grace period does not apply when a new license key file is installed; the newly installed license key is quickly detected should the previous license expire or otherwise go bad.

License Keys for Products

Product: License Key
Monitor: The concurrent number of distinct users having one or more license checkouts is counted. There is no limit to the number of vovtaskers and agents that connect to Monitor.
Accelerator: With Accelerator, for each vovtasker, the total number of "slots" or of "cpus", whichever is smaller is licensed.; For example, a machine with 8 cores is seen as 8 CPUs. The default behavior for such a machine is to allocate 8 slots, meaning that the machine can run 8 concurrent jobs. For licensing purposes, this machine would account for 8 license tokens. Additional slots possibly created as a consequence of preemption or by overcommitting the computer, are automatically allowed and licensed.
Note: On Linux, the method to find the number of "cpus" is sysconf(_SC_NPROCESSORS_ONLN); An administrator can decide to over-commit or under-commit a machine by controlling the number of slots it offers, using the -capacity option in the taskers.tcl file. If the machine is under-committed, then it will require fewer license tokens. If it is over-committed, it will still require just 8 tokens, that is the number of CPUs in the system.
FlowTracer: Use the Reprise License Manager (RLM). FlowTracer requires floating licenses.

Checking the License Key

An easy way to verify a license key file is with the utility vovreadlicutil.

vovreadlicutil

usage: vovreadlicutil [-f filename] [-P port] [-p product] [-V version]
                    [-I hostid] [-tv]
   -f:         Specify a license file.
   -P:         Specify port number.
   -p:         Product name to test (nc,lm,ft,lam,wa,...)
   -V:         Release date of version to test, in YYYY.MM format
   -I:         HostId to test
   -t:         Generate Tcl array with license info
   -v:         Print version.

Example

The typical use is the following:

> source /<install_path>/<version>/<platform>/common/etc/vovrc.csh
% vovreadlicutil -p nc -f vnc.swd/license.key
    -----------------------------------
    -- VOV License  Key  Information --
    License S/N: 20160909T153538 
    VovVersion:  2020.1
    Product:     nc
    Licensed to: Altair
    For host id: MAC:00:25:00:9f:76:68
    For host:    mac05
    For port:    6271
    License for: 40 slots
    StartDate:   Thu Sep  9 06:35:38 2019
    Expiration:  Fri Dec 31 12:00:00 2021
    -----------------------------------
vovreadlicutil Nov 14 14:11:27 Valid for product nc
vovreadlicutil Nov 14 14:11:27 Valid for this host MAC:00:25:00:9f:76:68
vovreadlicutil Nov 14 14:11:27 Valid for port 6271
vovreadlicutil Nov 14 14:11:27 Valid for version 2019.01
vovreadlicutil Nov 14 14:11:27 Valid expiration (still 112d21h to go)
vovreadlicutil Nov 14 14:11:27 The combined license is:
    -----------------------------------
    -- VOV License  Key  Information --
    License S/N: 20160909T153538 
    VovVersion:  2020.1
    Product:     nc
    Licensed to: Altair
    For host id: MAC:00:25:00:9f:76:68
    For host:    mac05
    For port:    6271
    License for: 40 slots
    StartDate:   Thu Sep  9 06:35:38 2019
    Expiration:  Fri Dec 31 12:00:00 2021
    -----------------------------------