What is the license server?

The Luciad License Server is a small program that coordinates the use of floating licenses for Luciad products. Without the central license server, floating licenses can only be distributed on a local network. With the license server, floating licenses can be shared across a local area network, a wide area network, or even the Internet. The license server allows you to manage a large number of floating licenses with only one single hardware key.

The Luciad License Server is a simple executable that is currently available for Windows, Linux. All of these versions offer the same functionality and work with clients on all platforms.

The term developer license is used interchangeably with the term development license throughout the product, while the end user license may also be referred to as the deployment license.

How to install and start the license server?

  1. Copy the license server executable on the license server host, from the subdirectory of licenses/licenseserver/bin that corresponds to your platform. On Linux, the executable is called licenseserver. On Windows, it is called licenseserver.exe. The license server requires the libusb dependency to be available on the host: on Windows, you can find the corresponding library libusb0.dll in the same directory; on Linux, it has to be installed manually.

  2. Copy the license files to the license server host. The license files for the license server are the same as the license files for the LuciadFusion clients. The license server does require the plain text files, typically development_license.txt and/or deployment_license.txt, which you may have to unpack from their jar files. The IP address of the license server must correspond to the IP address that is mentioned in the license files as property licenseServer. This way, the clients will be able to find the server.

  3. Insert the hardware key into the USB port or serial port of the license server host, if applicable. On Windows, you may need to install an additional driver, while on Linux, you may need to set the proper access permissions. These procedures are documented in Installing the license hardware key.

  4. You can then start the license server from a command prompt, with the license files as arguments. You can also specify a path to a log file. The license server will then log information about the clients that connect to it. It is highly recommended to specify this log file. For example, on Linux the command might look like this: licenseserver -log licenseserver.log development_license.txt. On Windows, the command might look like this: licenseserver.exe -log licenseserver.log development_license.txt.
    All license files that define independent sets of floating licenses can be listed on the same command line. For instance, with 5 floating end user licenses for product A and 20 floating end user licenses for product B, you would specify both corresponding license files, say deployment_licenseA.txt and deployment_licenseB.txt. On Linux and Windows, the command would look like this: licenseserver -log licenseserver.log deployment_licenseA.txt deployment_licenseB.txt. And on Windows: licenseserver.exe -log licenseserver.log deployment_licenseA.txt deployment_licenseB.txt. If some license files share a single set of floating licenses, only one of them should be specified. For instance, different releases of the same product, say version 6.2 and version 6.3, may share a single set of 10 floating development licenses. In that case, you would specify only one single license file, say development_license.txt for version 6.2. The license server will manage the licenses for both versions.

The license server will print out a few messages, indicating that it is starting up. It will not return to the command prompt and should be left running. The license server is a small process that will use minimal resources.

How to install and start license server clients?

Follow the program installation instructions to install and start the programs that will make use of the floating licenses distributed by the license server.

Important: Install the appropriate license file with these applications, typically by making sure that the license file development_license.txt or deployment_license.txt is present in the class path of each application.

Frequently asked questions

Is it possible to start the license server at boot time?

Yes, it is. The setup for running the license server at boot time on Linux and Windows is discussed in How to run a license server at startup.

Is it possible to run the Luciad license server behind a firewall?

Yes, it is. In this case you need to allow connections to the UDP port specified in the license file, which is the value of the property securityPort. The default is UDP port 30323.

Is it possible to run multiple license servers in fail-over mode?

Yes, it is. If your license file contains multiple IP addresses, you can install license servers on all of the corresponding hosts. Each of the license servers will generally require a hardware key. If some license servers fail or become unreachable, the remaining license servers can take over. When the failed license servers come up again, they can resume their duty. Floating licenses will be available as long as at least one license server is up and reachable.