Aculab licence activation server system

Transcription

1 Aculab licence activation server system User guide APB0277 Issue 5.0

2 PROPRIETARY INFORMATION The information contained in this document is the property of Aculab plc and may be the subject of patents pending or granted, and must not be copied or disclosed without prior written permission. It should not be used for commercial purposes without prior agreement in writing. All trademarks recognised and acknowledged. Aculab plc endeavours to ensure that the information in this document is correct and fairly stated but does not accept liability for any error or omission. The development of Aculab s products and services is continuous and published information may not be up to date. It is important to check the current position with Aculab plc. Copyright Aculab plc all rights reserved. Document Revision Issue Date By Detail AN First release AN Improved help links for ACT and AIT systems AN Added note regarding Machine IDs to section AN Screenshots updated to reflect new website style; filename changed to use lowercase throughout; note added re: Prosody S v2 withdrawal; correct link for flowchart AN Amended SIGTRAN to include and msg/sec rates; added note re: VM installs to the Machine ID section AN Correction to typo re: maximum SIGTRAN message rate not 6400 in section AN Major revision with introduction of new licensing mechanism and adjustments to evaluation licensing; Prosody S v2 licensing example removed

3 CONTENTS 1 Introduction Main functionality available Using the system Logging in Main screen after login System architecture and interfaces to ACT tool Legacy key creation New style key creation Installing a licence on a server that is offline Splitting a licence Managing user accounts Your account Adding other users Changing customer administrator from one person to another Managing credits (sales orders) Products and features SIGTRAN upgrade orders Assigning view rights to particular sales orders Split/merge functionality Searching for a particular sales order Managing licences Licence view screens available Generating a new licence key Custom user tag Upgrading a licence on a system Creating and updating SIGTRAN feature licence keys The use of suffixes on sales order numbers Additional notes on licence creation Searching for a licence entry Emergency licence procedure How to obtain an emergency key from the licensing portal Evaluation licences Licence Activation Server System 3 of 27

4 1 Introduction The Aculab licence activation server system is a secure database of software licence information with a web-based front end. It has been designed to provide Aculab customers with the ability to manage their licences, including automatic licence generation using pre-purchased credits. The process to obtain licences is as follows: Customer places order with Aculab Aculab creates user account and applies credits to the account for the products/features purchased Customer uses the credits as required to create licence keys A process flow diagram can also be found on the main Aculab website here. 1.1 Main functionality available Automatic issue of licence keys Customers can automatically generate licence keys for regular licences, evaluation licences and emergency licences without the need for multiple communications to/from Aculab order administration staff after the customer has made the initial purchase Self-management of software product activation The web interface driven activation server allows customers to self-manage their software product activation. Once the customer has bought software and the order has been processed by Aculab, Aculab will add credits (as sales orders) to the licence activation database. The customer will then be able to activate the software by obtaining the licence key automatically. Additionally, under emergency situations, the customer will be able to get systems running again quickly using emergency licences, if required Evaluate software Products and features can be tried for limited durations (duration varies depending on specific product/feature chosen). Both existing customers and new customers can evaluate products or features that are new to them via a request to an Aculab Account Manager Sales order credits Aculab will apply licence credits to the system against purchase orders placed for Aculab software. Each sales order will have a unique identifier that is used when generating the licences. A cross-reference to the customer purchase order is included in the sales order description. Licence Activation Server System 4 of 27

5 2 Using the system 2.1 Logging in Aculab will provide details via of the first login account for a particular customer. This account will be set to be type Customer admin. Access to the activation server is via secure login at A username and password are required. If you forget your password, a new one can be ed to you using the link on the login screen. Licence Activation Server System 5 of 27

6 A link to login to the licensing system and other useful licensing system links are included on the downloads section of the main Aculab website. Evaluation software keys can also be requested on this page or via the main licensing system login screen. Note that these are available to you even if you do not have a login account for the licence activation system. If an incorrect username/password combination is entered several times, then a captcha system will be invoked requiring you to enter two additional cryptic words (shown on screen) to gain access to the system. NOTE: NOTE: During testing we discovered that there are display issues and database upgrade issues when using the Microsoft IE6 browser. We recommend that later versions of IE be used, or other browsers such as Chrome or Firefox be used to access the system. IE10 browser users: Some of the sites action buttons do not render correctly in IE10, so users wishing to use this browser should use the F12 developer tools settings to put the browser into IE10 compatibility mode, or IE9, IE8 mode to enable correct operation of the site. Licence Activation Server System 6 of 27

7 2.2 Main screen after login Initial login message Upon successful first login, you will be presented with a note advising that a personal password be set. The login account set up by Aculab includes a login name (cannot be changed once set) and a system generated password. A user chosen password that is easier to remember is advised Aculab dashboard The main screen view includes a dashboard function that shows recent activity on the account. Note that for a Customer admin this is activity both for the administrator and any other users from the same company (see adding other users for details of how to add further users to the system). For a Customer user, the dashboard shows personal activity only. Licence addition events are shown on the left hand side. Under Recent sales orders a view of credits applied to your account (by Aculab) is shown. Licence Activation Server System 7 of 27

8 2.2.3 Main menu bar functions The main menu bar provides access to the core system functionality broken down into the following sub-categories: Licences choose this option to create new licences or view existing licences Sales Orders choose this option to view licence credits available to you that have not yet been used to create a licence key User Accounts (shown only to customer administrators) choose this option to manage the accounts of all users at your company Quick Links Quick links on the right hand side of the screen are used throughout the system as a way to present commonly used functions to the user Page navigation Each page includes a Back button to go back to the previous screen. Alternatively, the user can navigate using the main menu bar choices, the Quick Links, or using the breadcrumb trail shown just below the main menu bar. On the pages showing a list of sales orders or a list of licences, the sort order is usually alphabetical, or in order of creation date. The sort order can be changed. Clicking on a particular column heading will re-sort the table of data according to that field. Licence Activation Server System 8 of 27

9 3 System architecture and interfaces to ACT tool There are now two approaches to creating a licence key, the legacy and the new way. A legacy key is formed using hardware parameters from the target server, whereas a new style key does not use a Machine ID. The licensing interface and Aculab software will support both options whilst we transition customers to the new, simpler licensing mechanism. 3.1 Legacy key creation The Aculab configuration tool (ACT) is used by customers to configure the Aculab telephony software. With version 3.x the ACT is also used to generate the machine ID field required to create a legacy licence. A manual cut and paste operation is used to copy the machine ID and licence key string between the ACT and the licence server web interface system. A schematic of the system components and process flow is shown below: Customer premises ACT running on target server Licence key field Customer purchase order 1 Aculab premises Order processing team member Machine ID field Manual cut and paste Licence server web based interface Sales order credits 2 Licence credit information Existing licence key info Machine ID info Machine ID field HTTPS Licence key field Licence Key info Licence server web based interface Licence key SQL Database Figure 1 - System architecture for legacy key creation The process flow on the Aculab side is shown using numbered activities. Once the credits are placed into the customer account, they can be used as and when needed. Licence Activation Server System 9 of 27

10 3.2 New style key creation With version 4.x of ACT and Licence Manager, the Machine ID concept is removed. The version 4.x ACT can only be used to install new style licence keys, it cannot be used to install legacy keys. Customer premises ACT v4.x running on target server Aculab premises Licence installation details - web based interface, for Aculab only Licence key field 5 Key installation details copied to Aculab licensing server Licence key installation details SQL Database 4 Manual cut and paste 3 Customer creates licence using web based interface Licence server web based interface Licence credit information Existing licence key info Machine ID box leave blank HTTPS Licence key field Licence Key info Licence key string SQL Database Customer purchase order 1 2 Sales order credits loaded Order processing team member Figure 2 - System architecture for new style key creation A new style licence is created in the Aculab licensing portal the user simply chooses the sales order and how many credits to use to make the licence. When creating the licence, the Machine ID entry box can be ignored, and should be left blank. The licence is then created and can be installed via the ACT via a manual cut and paste operation. For more information on the ACT please refer to the ACT user guide, different versions exist depending upon your application OS in use. ACT user guide for Windows systems ACT user guide for Linux systems Further user guides describing specific Aculab telephony software or software installation procedures can be found on the main Aculab website at this address: Licence Activation Server System 10 of 27

11 3.3 Installing a licence on a server that is offline With the new licensing scheme, the majority of installs will be to servers that always have internet connectivity, which makes it a simple task to install and manage the Aculab licence on the target server. In some scenarios, the target server can be disconnected or behind firewalls which would prevent the Aculab licensing system from connecting to the target server during install or licence renewal. To handle these scenarios, a tool is available from Aculab the Aculab Licence Tool (ALT). Figure 3 - Aculab Licence Tool You can find out more about the ALT and its operation from its user guide. Both the ALT and its documentation can be downloaded via this link Splitting a licence It should be noted that once a licence is created, its quantity cannot be reduced. If further channels are needed on a server, then a second licence can provide this, but Aculab are not able to split, for example, a licence for 100 channels into two licences of 50. If you have an installation scenario where you believe you may need to reduce the licensed channels on a server at a later date, then you should install multiple licences Licence installation flexibility example Customers requiring licence flexibility may want to install multiple 100 channel licences onto a server to make up a 1000 channel capacity system rather than just load one 1000 channel licence. Should the licences need to be re-allocated at a later date, then the customer will have multiple 100 channel licences and be free to deploy them on one new server or multiple new servers if required. Licence Activation Server System 11 of 27

12 4 Managing user accounts 4.1 Your account By pressing My Account at the top of the screen, you are able to see your account details. Company Name Username The company name and username of the customer administrator are set by Aculab. The company name field is chosen to match the name associated with the company in the separate Aculab sales database. The customer administrator username is chosen to be non-person specific so that it can be moved to a new administrator if required. Once a username is set it cannot be changed. The usernames for Customer users are set by the customer administrator, as described below. The other fields shown on the My account screen are all editable i.e., name, and password. Licence Activation Server System 12 of 27

13 4.2 Adding other users As customer administrator, you are able to add other users to the system. The account can only have one customer administrator, the other users added can be: Customer Customer + split/merge As a user of Aculab software, two accounts are required: An AIT account is required to download the telephony software A licensing system account is required to create licence keys Details of the AIT tool can be found here, Customer administrator account The customer administrator account is allocated to someone who has extra privileges to manage the accounts of other users (within the same company) or of his customers in the case where he is a reseller/distributor of Aculab products. A person logged in under the Customer Admin account is able to perform the following activities: Set up a new customer account for his company (or for one of his customers in the case that he is a reseller/distributor of the Aculab software) Delete any of the customer accounts that he manages Set/reset customer account username and password Obtain full access to licence generation process for all sales order credits and licences held by the company Manage the access rights to the licences purchased by the customer by all other users from the same customer Set split/merge rights to be on/off for a customer account Licence Activation Server System 13 of 27

14 4.2.2 Customer account A person logged in under the Customer account type is able to perform the following activities: Obtain full access to licence generation process for the sales order credits and licences he is entitled to view/edit (rights to view/edit are set by the customer administrator or Aculab administrator) Customer account with split/merge rights A person logged in under the customer account with split/merge rights enabled shall be able to perform all activities listed for user type Customer and in addition shall be able to carry out sales order splits and merges for the sales orders assigned to him/her. Section 5.4 explains the use of split/merge functionality in more detail. The activation server permits simultaneous use by multiple customer personnel from multiple customers and Aculab personnel via its user interface. 4.3 Changing customer administrator from one person to another The system only allows one customer administrator at a time. This means that if you wish to re-assign administration rights from one person to another, you cannot simply change either the admin to a regular user (as that would remove the customer admin from the account), or promote a basic user to admin (as you would be trying to create two active admins). The way to change over the admin rights is to edit the details of the Customer admin account. All name and fields can be changed, hence making it possible to reassign rights to another person. Licence Activation Server System 14 of 27

15 5 Managing credits (sales orders) When a software purchase is made, Aculab will apply credits to the user account on the licence activation server database. The credits are applied to the Customer admin account as a sales order (SO) with a unique numerical identifier; he can allocate them to another user from his company if required. The actual licence key is created by using these credits as and when required. Aculab order admin do not have to be involved when keys are generated, meaning that a 24x7 service is supported by the system. The Sales orders > View sales orders menu choice shows the details of all sales orders available to the user. 5.1 Products and features Aculab software has both product and feature licences. Each product or feature has its own licence key that has to be generated separately. Product Prosody S --- SS7 SIP Feature SIGTRAN DRSS NOTE: Product licences should be installed before feature licences. Licence Activation Server System 15 of 27

16 SS7 and SIGTRAN: SS7 is a product, and a licence for SS7 has to be present on a system in order to support SIGTRAN feature licences. Note that the SS7 licence is a non-chargeable item, so does not need to be purchased, but credits for SS7 product licences will be applied to your account when you place orders for SIGTRAN. SIP and DRSS: We licence SIP and Dual Redundant SIP Service in a similar way to SS7 and SIGTRAN as a product/feature combination. If you wish to run DRSS, you will need to purchase DRSS licences, and install SIP (non-chargeable item) product licences at the same time. 5.2 SIGTRAN upgrade orders SIGTRAN, a feature of the SS7 product, is licensed differently to other products (such as Prosody S) in the following manner: The first SIGTRAN licence is purchased; different licences available for 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, or message/second rates SIGTRAN upgrade credits can be subsequently purchased and used to upgrade a SIGTRAN licence to a higher rate SIGTRAN upgrade licences are ordered in steps, and these credits are shown separately to other credits on the system from the menu choice Sales orders > View Sigtran upgrades 5.3 Assigning view rights to particular sales orders When Aculab process an order and add the licence credits to the customer account, they are always applied to the Customer admin account. The Customer admin can assign view rights to sales orders exclusively to one person, or to multiple people. This is done by editing their user account info using the User accounts tab on the main menu bar. Licence Activation Server System 16 of 27

17 When access to particular sales orders is granted to a user, they will receive an to say their account has been updated, and when they login to the system they will see the new sales orders shown on the dashboard as having being added. The customer administrator can also do the same for assigning view rights to particular licences. This feature is useful if management of particular systems by different staff (e.g., geographically dispersed) is desired. The customer administrator is able to view all sales orders and licences for all users on his company account. 5.4 Split/merge functionality Applicable to Customer admin and Customer + split/merge accounts. If a sales order contains e.g., 1000 channels of Prosody S, then a split function can be used to create two sales order credits on the system. This function can be used if it is required to allocate separate credits to two users. An administrator may have two colleagues geographically dispersed who are assigned to manage the licences for particular servers. The administrator can take an existing sales order and split it between the two other users as required. Licence Activation Server System 17 of 27

18 A merge function enables you to merge the credits of two sales orders together. The credit types must be the same i.e.: Same product/feature Same licence type and duration The merge function is used when a user wishes to create a licence for more credits available on any one sales order. The merge can either be done before the licence creation is started, or it can be done once the user has started to create the licence. The system will guide through the merge function if this is the case. Licence Activation Server System 18 of 27

19 5.5 Searching for a particular sales order The View sales orders or View Sigtran upgrades screens have a search box. If you hover the mouse over the search box, then a note appears to describe the fields it is possible to search by. For sales orders the searchable fields are: Sales order Company Customer administrator Contact details Licence Activation Server System 19 of 27

20 6 Managing licences 6.1 Licence view screens available Several different licence types are available, and these are viewed using various different screens in the system, all accessed via the Licences tab of the main menu bar. The main Manage Licences screen shows all regular licences, and any emergency licences currently in use. A separate view of just the emergency licences is also available. 6.2 Generating a new licence key Licences are created using sales order credits available to the user. The add licence function can be reached by the following two approaches: 1. View sales orders available, choose the one you wish to use for the new licence, and select the Add licence button OR 2. Navigate to the manage licences screen, press Add licence, and then select from a drop down list which sales order to take the credits from To generate a new licence key, select the sales order, against which there are the required product/feature credits, from the drop down list of your sales orders. Enter the quantity of credits you wish to use, and leave the Machine ID field blank. When creating a legacy style key, you must also enter the Machine ID you obtained via the ACT. The activation server system generates the licence key which is shown on screen. An is also sent to the user and their customer admin user account with the same key details. The key should be cut and pasted into the ACT tool to activate the Aculab software. NOTE: Care should be taken when performing the cut and paste operation as characters can be appended to the key string (for example by MS Outlook). Any appended characters (spaces) should be removed from the pasted key string; otherwise the key will not be valid and will fail to install. Licence Activation Server System 20 of 27

21 6.2.1 Important note regarding Machine IDs Used to create legacy type keys only: A Machine ID is determined by both hardware parameters of the target server, AND a random software string. So even though a licence key may be destined for a server where Aculab software licences already reside, a new Machine ID MUST be used for each install. The machine ID should be freshly generated by the ACT each time; the machine ID from the currently installed key must NOT be used to create the upgrade key if it is used, then, then the key will fail to install. The software is licensed for use on a per machine basis (physical or virtual). If you are planning a virtual machine install, we strongly advise you to use the new style licences as the new scheme was specifically designed for VM scenarios Licensing with the new style licences Rather than use a Machine ID to tie a licence to a particular piece of hardware, the new licensing scheme will instead allow you to install a key on a server without a Machine ID entry. Aculab use a client-server approach to monitor where the licences are installed. For Virtual Machine installations, a timed licence is installed that will auto-renew. This mechanism allows for the more frequent moves and changes that are encountered in VM environments. Information on the licence renewal procedures can be found in the ACT user guide. 6.3 Custom user tag Once a licence is created, its licence key entry in the database can be opened to see the details. A customer user tag field has been made available to allow customers to tag a licence entry with free text. This can be used, for example, to note that a certain licence resides on a particular server, as below. The user tag field is also used when operations such as an emergency licence creation are embarked upon. See emergency licence procedure for details. Licence Activation Server System 21 of 27

22 6.4 Upgrading a licence on a system If a particular licence entry is viewed, the option may be given to upgrade the licence. If the licence is for a particular product or feature and the user has licence credits available to him/her for the same product/feature, then an Upgrade button will be present next to the quantity field in the licence details view. Using this Upgrade button, additional licences can be generated so that the user can add further licence keys to the server running the Aculab product. NOTE: Each licence key added to a server must be generated using a unique Machine ID. The machine ID should be generated by the ACT each time; the machine ID from the currently installed key must NOT be used to create the upgrade key if it is used, then, then the key will fail to install Prosody S version 3 example User has a 100 VMP point licence key on a machine Detail of this licence is viewed in the licence database system, and an upgrade button is showing User presses Upgrade button A licence key creation process is started User is asked to enter desired quantity of VMP points for the new licence, 250 is entered User is asked to enter new machine ID (generated by the ACT system that the user is running on the target machine). Machine ID should be generated by the ACT system running on the target server, not copied from the current key string. Customers using the new licensing scheme (v4.x ACT and Licence Manager) do not have to enter a Machine ID New key is generated for quantity 250 minus 100 i.e., 150 VMP points User adds this key to the target machine The existing key (100 VMP points) and the new key (150 VMP points) act cumulatively to give the new channel count required Licence Activation Server System 22 of 27

23 6.5 Creating and updating SIGTRAN feature licence keys The first SIGTRAN licence on a server is generated in the same way as other Aculab licence keys as described above. The sales order with the SIGTRAN licence credit is used to generate the first key. It will have a specific message rate e.g., 100msg/sec, chosen by the customer when the original order was placed. In order to upgrade a SIGTRAN licence, the user has to have SIGTRAN upgrade licence credits (ordered separately from the original SIGTRAN licence credit). To invoke a SIGTRAN upgrade the process is as follows: Details of the licence is viewed in the licence database system, and an Upgrade button is showing User presses Upgrade button A licence key creation process is started The drop down list of credits shows the SIGTRAN upgrade credits available (in units of steps) User asked to enter desired message rate for the new licence and is shown how many steps of credit that will take Maximum allowed message rate is 25,600 msg/sec User is asked to enter new machine ID (generated by the ACT system that the user is running on the target machine). Machine ID should be generated by the ACT system running on the target server, not copied from the current key string. Customers using the new licensing scheme (v4.x ACT and Licence Manager) do not have to enter a Machine ID New SIGTRAN feature licence key is generated User adds this key to the target machine The existing key and the new key act cumulatively to give the new message rate required Licence Activation Server System 23 of 27

24 6.6 The use of suffixes on sales order numbers When sales orders are created by Aculab, their format is a 5 digit number. When licences are created using credits from a particular sales order, a suffix identifier is added to the sales order number and this is used as the licence key identifier. This allows cross-referencing of a licence against a sales order. For example, when the first licence key is created using sales order then the licence ID is The second time a licence key is created from the credits remaining on sales order 12345, the licence ID is etc. In a similar manner, when a split sales order function is carried out, a suffix is appended to the original sales order number for each of the two parts that the order has been split into. Example: Original sales order ref: Splitting would yield the following sales orders: and Splitting again would yield: and Splitting would yield: and Additional notes on licence creation Creating a new licence using more credits than appear on any single SO If a licence creation task is started and the user enters a quantity value greater than appears on any one sales order, then a merge sales orders operation will be prompted Upgrading a licence using more credits than are currently shown available on the original source SO If a licence upgrade task is started and the user enters a quantity value greater than appears on the original source sales order, then a merge sales orders operation will be prompted. Licence Activation Server System 24 of 27

25 6.8 Searching for a licence entry The Manage licences screen has a search box. If you hover the mouse over the search box, then a note appears to describe what fields it is possible to search by. For licences, the searchable fields are: Licence ID Company name Customer administrator name Licence Activation Server System 25 of 27

26 7 Emergency licence procedure Licence keys are tied to the server hardware upon which they are installed. With legacy keys this is via the Machine ID, and with the new style keys it is via the entry that is stored for the licence in Aculab s backend licensing systems. With legacy keys, if the customer server fails and has to be fully or partially re-built, new licence keys will be required if more than one hardware component has been changed. With the new style keys, even though an entry for a Machine ID is no longer required, Aculab are aware of the server that the key is installed on, so again, new licence keys would be required in the case of server failure. The emergency licence procedure includes both contact with Aculab support staff, and the use (for some scenarios) of a temporary emergency key. Type of install Legacy key New style key, Bare Metal install New style key, Virtual machine install What to do if server fails Use emergency licence procedure to get a temporary key as detailed below. Aculab support will then follow up. Use emergency licence procedure to get a temporary key as detailed below. Aculab support will then follow up. If outage occurs during normal business hours for Aculab UK support, contact our support team who will reset your key so it can be re-installed on the new server. If outage occurs outside of normal support hours, use the emergency licence procedure to get a temporary key as detailed below. Aculab support will then follow up. 7.1 How to obtain an emergency key from the licensing portal Customers can obtain an emergency licence (short duration, typically 10 day, varies with product) to get their system re-started immediately. Then with the temporary licence in place, communication with Aculab personnel can be achieved to set about obtaining replacement credits to create a new key with. If there is a need to obtain an emergency replacement for a key on a particular server, the Licences > Request emergency licence menu choice should be used. From here, you will be prompted to choose which licence is to be replaced (with a temporary one), and be prompted to enter the new machine ID for the new server being used as the replacement. Licence Activation Server System 26 of 27

27 The action of requesting an emergency key will automatically notify Aculab order administration via so that we are able to get in touch to plan for the credits to be granted to your account to replace this temporary key with one of the same type as was originally in place (permanent, 45 day, 12 month etc.). When the credits are granted, you are notified via , and should replace the emergency key with the regular key before the emergency key expires to avoid loss of service. To do this, the details of the particular emergency key should be opened for viewing, and you will be prompted to complete your licence replacement again with a new machine ID (for legacy type licences only). NOTE: The machine ID field includes a random number in its sequence, so even if the hardware on which the emergency key is running is not changing when you move back to a permanent key, a new machine ID should always be used (generated by the ACT system) otherwise the key will not work. 8 Evaluation licences Customers are able to try out new products or features by requesting an evaluation from an Aculab Account Manager via a form on the Aculab website. Evaluation licences are available to Aculab s customers even if they do not have a login account for the licence activation system. The evaluation licence key is sent via . Licence Activation Server System 27 of 27