UNIX RUNTIME LICENSING

Transcription

1 UNIX RUNTIME LICENSING This article gives a general overview of UNIX runtime licensing and its implications. When you have developed an application using Server Express, you run it under Micro Focus Server which was previously known as Application Server for Server Express ; you may find frequent references to Application Server as the name change took place relatively recently. To run your application you will need a license to activate Micro Focus Server. You must have a Micro Focus Server (runtime) license before you can execute the application in a production environment, regardless of whether the application is for internal use or for resale. Micro Focus Server licenses are sometimes referred to as deployment or runtime licenses. Runtime licenses in general When you purchase a license for Micro Focus Server, you receive a License Key Card. This card is your paper copy of the Micro Focus Server license. It identifies the product name and the number of licensed users. It also has printed on it a license key, which enables you to install the license onto your system. This card should be kept in a safe place as it is the only record the customer has of the license key. Once installed, only part of the license key can be seen via the License List option in AppTrack, which is the License Administration utility for installing, maintaining and monitoring deployment licenses. Types of licenses Micro Focus Server licenses can cover two types of users: End users - to enable end users to run applications in production environments. Developers - to enable developers who are developing applications using Server Express to run them for testing purposes only. Use of these Micro Focus Server licenses is subject to the terms and conditions in the End-user License Agreement. These licenses are known as Developer Usage licenses. Unlike the current Windows runtime licenses, these licenses do not have a limited 30-day validity unless, of course, the original development license key has a 30-day validity. Otherwise, these keys are permanent licenses. License Models There are two models for UNIX runtime licensing ; Model 1 and Model 2. From version 5.0 of Server Express onwards, only Model 2 licenses are supplied. Model 1 Licenses Model 1 licenses are the old form of licenses (pre Server Express 5.0). Although Model 1 licenses are no longer supplied, if you have Model 1 licenses from an earlier product, you can continue to use them with Micro Focus Server. There are three types of Model 1 licenses: Standard License this is the normal Application Server license required to run an application. This type of license includes the five free Application Server licenses to enable developers to test their applications. Standard licenses have a life span of thirty seconds or the duration of the process (whichever is the longer) and are not released again for use before such time. Transaction License these Application Server licenses are suitable for high throughput applications; that is, applications that exist only for a short time, but are run frequently. Once an application using a transaction license terminates, the license is immediately available for re-use. It is worth noting at this stage that you cannot mix Standard and Transaction Licenses in the same environment. If the development environment makes use of standard licenses and you want to make use of transaction licenses in runtime, then you will have to install Application Server in a separate location. Server License - a transaction license for unlimited users on a system with a specified number of CPUs.

2 Standard and transaction licenses support a specific number of users at a time whereas a server license supports an unlimited number of users on a single server. Model 2 Licenses Model 2 licenses are the form of license provided for Micro Focus Server for Server Express 5.0 onwards. There are three types of Model 2 licenses: User License - for one or more named individuals (authorized users) to use Application Server or Micro Focus Server. Server License (Concurrent Users) for a number of users ie. the maximum number of users that can access Application Server or Micro Focus Server concurrently. Server License (CPU) - this licenses a number of processors (CPUs) ie. the number is the maximum number of processors that can access Application Server or Micro Focus Server concurrently. A CPU server license for ten CPUs allows ten CPUs to run applications concurrently under Micro Focus Server with or without Enterprise Server and the Mainframe Transaction Option. User Licenses and Server Licenses (Concurrent Users) support a specific number of users at any one time whilst a Server License (CPU) supports an unlimited number of users on a single server. Mixing Model 1 and Model 2 Licenses For each installation of Application Server you must either use all Model 1 licenses or all Model 2 licenses. However, on a single machine you can have multiple installations of Application Server and these can use either Model 1 or Model 2 licenses. Installations with Enterprise Server can only use Model 2 licenses. You can, however, convert Model 1 licenses to Model 2 this is a commercial process which requires the intervention of a sales representative. 64-bit on AIX If you install the 64-bit version of Application Server on AIX, you receive licenses for the 64-bit version. Any licenses associated with a 32-bit version of Application Server on AIX remain enabled. You cannot use 32-bit licenses with 64-bit Application Server on AIX, nor can you use 64-bit licenses with 32-bit Application Server on AIX. The License Database Once installed, all Application Server licenses reside in the license database. This database is created the first time a Micro Focus Server license is installed. The database is held in the file mfasdb which, by default, is found in the directory /var/mfaslmf. You cannot change the contents of the database except by using the AppTrack options to install or remove licenses. Keys on the database are in encrypted format and can only be seen by users through AppTrack. Access to AppTrack can be restricted by an optional password system if the password is forgotten or otherwise, then there is nothing we can do apart from advise removal and reinstallation of the license database. You can have only one active license database on a machine which cannot be moved once it has been created. If you have multiple versions of Application Server for Server Express (eg. versions 2.2 and 5.0) installed on the same machine then you should install all licenses in one license database (created using the latest version of the product). In this case the two products must be installed in completely separate directories and their licenses installed via AppTrack making sure that COBDIR is pointing to the relevant product installation at the moment of license installation. If the database is deleted or damaged, you have to recreate it by reinstalling your Micro Focus Server licenses using the aslmdbrecover utility. There is no protection against a malicious user deliberately corrupting or deleting the database.

3 Installing and administering UNIX runtime licenses Micro Focus Server licenses are installed manually by using the License Administration utility, AppTrack. The easiest way of running AppTrack is to run the script mflicense and select option 2. To ensure that the license details are displayed correctly, use the version of AppTrack supplied with your latest version of Micro Focus Server. If you use the script mflicense to fire up Apptrack, you will automatically use the right version. NB. To use AppTrack on your system UNIX must support shared memory allocation. This is how the menu appears: Application Server License Administration System - AppTrack License List 2. License Summary 3. License Install 4. License Uninstall 5. Change/Set Password 6. Reinitialize Licensing 7. Current Users 8. Quit Enter the Menu Selection Setting a password for AppTrack (option 5) prevents any unauthorized person from tampering with your license system. All Micro Focus Server licenses that you install are stored on the license database that is created the first time a Micro Focus Server license is installed. Once you have installed a Micro Focus Server license, and the database is created, then the password is saved. This is so, even if you delete all licenses from the license database. Note that there is only one password for the license database. If other copies of Micro Focus Server are installed on the system and administered by other users, you all share the same password. Installing / Uninstalling licenses - you cannot install the same Micro Focus Server license on more than one machine at a time; to do so would violate the terms of the End User License Agreement. If you want to move a Micro Focus Server license from one system to another, you must first uninstall it from the current system, and then install it on the new system. It is a good idea to uninstall old Micro Focus Server licenses that you are no longer being used since they will still be loaded at startup and could cause your system to run out of shared memory. Monitoring license usage - via option 2 (License Summary) of AppTrack you can monitor the usage of Micro Focus Server licenses by displaying a license report in AppTrack. This shows, among other things, the: Number of licenses installed for each Micro Focus Server and how many of those licenses are in use Serial number and major identifying part of the license number of each license Duration and time remaining of each license Number of licenses in system state - licenses in the system state are standard Model 1 Application Server licenses that are in the first 30 seconds of usage by an application. The significance of this is that even if the application terminates immediately, its license is not freed until 30 seconds have passed since the license began being used. In the initial 30 seconds of usage by an application, the license is included in both the Sys column and the In Use column. After 30 seconds, the license is removed from the Sys column, but remains in the In Use column if the application is still running. Viewing Current Users - from AppTrack you can view a list of users who currently have Micro Focus Server license units in use by selecting option 7 (Current Users). Alternatively, you can redirect output to a file by running the free-standing utility $COBDIR/aslmf/userstat.gnt and using standard redirection. To use this option you must first enable logging by creating an empty file apptrack.log in var/mfaslmf. The simplest way to do this is by using the touch command: touch /var/mfaslmf/apptrack.log

4 You must give the file general write permissions, otherwise the current users display might be incorrect. The display is made up of blocks of information, one block for each ASLMF $COBDIR that is active. Each block begins with a display of a $COBDIR value and is followed by a list of records, one record for each user job under that $COBDIR. The details on each record are: Process ID (PID) User ID (UID) tty Name User Name Model 1 Facilities Overdraft If you intend to run more than one copy of your application at the same time, you must ensure that you have sufficient Application Server licenses to cover the number of users accessing the application. During an exceptional period, eg. at year end, you might have more users running your application than usual. You need to purchase sufficient Application Server licenses to cover this situation. However, to help you cope with unexpected fluctuations in use and to give you time to purchase additional licenses AppTrack has a built-in time-limited overdraft facility. So a 5 unit license would actually run up to 6 processes. However, for each process running in overdraft, a message pops up on the screen, telling the user that he is using a free overdraft, and pausing the system for 20 seconds before allowing the process to run. Model 1 overdraft is only available for 30 days from first usage. You can configure the shell script nolicense to send an to the person responsible for licensing issues whenever a user receives the response that no more license units are available. The person responsible for licenses should contact your product supplier to resolve any excess license usage issues No License Condition If you have more users trying to run your application than you have Application Server licenses installed, there will be times when some users receive the response that there are no more license units available at that moment. You can monitor how often this happens, so that you can determine how many additional Application Server licenses you need to purchase. To help you monitor no-license conditions, AppTrack runs the shell script /var/mfaslmf/nolicense every time that it is unable to satisfy a license unit request. A single parameter is passed to the script; this parameter identifies the directory of the installed Application Server, so that different applications can be separately identified. The script then writes the name of the directory and the date and time, at which the attempt to run failed, to the file /var/mfaslmf/userlog. If you do not want to use this monitoring facility, you can disable the nolicense script by commenting out the unwanted lines. AppTrack executes the nolicense script only if it is owned by root and has no write permissions for Group or Other. This is to prevent anyone other than the person who is responsible for license administration from editing the script. Automatic License Retry Exceptional demands for an application by users might occasionally cause your number of Application Server licenses to be exceeded, although you have enough in normal cicumstances. If this occurs you are advised to set the environment variable ASLMFRETRY which enables you to set a value that specifies the number of times an application should attempt to get a license unit and the length of time it should wait between attempts. In effect, the task suspends itself until a license unit becomes free. This timeout feature does not apply to Transaction licenses nor to any type of Model 2 license. The format of ASLMFRETRY is: ASLMFRETRY=retries[,wait] where the parameters are: retries = number of times the task should attempt to obtain a license unit wait = time in seconds in which application shoud wait between each attempt to obtain a license unit (default = 10)

5 For example, to enable 100 attempts to use a license unit: ASLMFRETRY=100 export ASLMFRETRY To enable 25 attempts to use a license unit with a 1 minute wait between each attempt: ASLMFRETRY=25,60 export ASLMFRETRY Statistics Collection It can be useful to take a snapshot of license use at regular intervals over a period of time and get an average number of licenses used at the end of the data collection. To do this, use the command: $COBDIR/aslmf/apptrack stats p n where the parameters are: p = period of time in seconds between each collection of statistics n = number of statistics collections to make For example, the command: $COBDIR/aslmf/apptrack stats takes 10 snapshots with an interval of 60 seconds between each. By default, the statistics are displayed on the screen. It is usually more useful to direct them into a file, eg. $COBDIR/aslmf/apptrack stats >> userfile Model 2 Facilities Overdraft If you intend to run more than one copy of your application at the same time, you must ensure that you have sufficient Micro Focus Server licenses to cover the number of concurrent users. During an exceptional period, for example, at year end, you might need to run more concurrent copies of your application than usual. You need to purchase sufficient Micro Focus Server licenses to cover this situation. However, to help you cope with unexpected fluctuations in use and to give you time to purchase additional Micro Focus Server licenses, AppTrack has a built-in limited overdraft facility. This takes into account all the Model 2 licenses installed on the UNIX machine. AppTrack monitors the usage of license units and when it detects usage in excess of the licensed capacity, updates are made to the file overdraft.log, which is in the directory /var/mfaslmf. You are allowed to exceed the number of Micro Focus Server licenses you are authorized for (your "licensed capacity") by up to 10%. There is no 30-day limitation, as in Model 1 licenses; 10% is always available. You are also allowed to exceed the licensed capacity by more than 10% for up to 10 days. Each day that you exceed your licensed capacity by more than 10% is known as an overdraft day. When an overdraft day occurs it is logged in the overdraft file and the number of overdraft days remaining is reduced by 1. An is sent to the systems administrator informing him/her that an overdraft has occurred and how many overdraft days are left. On the eleventh overdraft day, any application requesting an overdraft will fail. You must apply to Micro Focus to increase your licensed capacity, then install the extra licenses. Only when you have the extra capacity installed can the overdraft mechanism be reset. After ten consecutive days have elapsed during which no overdrafts occur, the overdraft accumulated so far is reset to zero.

6 Developer Testing Licenses To test applications developed in Server Express you need to run them under Micro Focus Server. When you install Server Express, complimentary Micro Focus Server licenses are automatically generated and installed on the same machine. You are allowed to use them only for testing applications on the machine containing your Server Express. You are not allowed to use Developer Testing Licenses for production or deployment of applications. Developer Testing Licenses behave like Server Licenses (Concurrent Users). The number of Developer Testing Licenses generated is as follows: for each Server Express license on the machine, you get five licenses for the base Micro Focus Server and one license for Enterprise Server. Unlike Micro Focus Server licenses for end users, Developer Testing Licenses for the base Micro Focus Server are not equivalent to Developer Testing Licenses for Enterprise Server. If your Server Express is from Enterprise Edition, then the generated license for Enterprise Server is a Micro Focus Server Enterprise Edition License, allowing you to run applications including those using CICS or JCL. Otherwise, it is a Micro Focus Server Premier Edition license, which does not allow applications using CICS or JCL to run. Developer Testing Licenses are by default Standard Licenses if you are using Model 1 licensing, or Server Licenses (Concurrent Users) if you are using Model 2 licensing. Developer Testing Licenses are automatically installed or uninstalled on the license database whenever you install or uninstall Server Express licenses. Therefore, you do not need to run AppTrack to install them. You might need to take special action in one instance. If you already have a licensed Micro Focus development system (such as Server Express or Object COBOL Developer Suite) installed from a previous version or update, you need to trigger the automatic installation of the Developer Testing Licenses corresponding to the Micro Focus development system licenses you already have. To do this: 1. Change to the directory in which the licenses for your Micro Focus development system are installed. By default, this is either /usr/lib/mflmf or /opt/lib/mflmf 2. Type the command sh./devas at the prompt For example: cd /usr/lib/mflmf sh./devas You only need to run this command once; however, running it again causes no problems. If you need more Micro Focus Server licenses for testing your application than those automatically generated, you must purchase additional Micro Focus Server licenses which must be installed in the normal way via AppTrack with $COBDIR pointing to the correct installation directory of the product. No licenses available when testing If you test an application and get a message telling you that there are no licenses available this might be because the license database does not contain the Developer Testing Licenses. You can check that these Developer Testing Licenses exist by using License List in AppTrack. There should be entries marked **AS Developer Usage or **ES Developer Usage or **MTO Developer Usage for the installed development system. AS or ES indicates a Micro Focus Server Premier Edition License; MTO indicates a Micro Focus Server Enterprise Edition License. If you cannot find these entries: 1. Run the License Administration Services 2. Press F7=refresh The missing Developer Testing Licenses should now be installed onto the license database and the application can be run.