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Q1. Introduction to FLEXlm

Q1.1 What is FLEXlm?

FLEXlm is the software licensing defacto standard, that allows the implementation of a wide variety of licensing policies.

FLEXlm is available on :

Networking is required only for floating/concurrent use licenses.

Q1.2 What is a license file, vendor daemon, lmgrd, etc.?

The following terms are used to describe FLEXlm concepts and software components:

VENDOR DAEMON NAME
Usually some short form of the Company Name. Each company is guaranteed to have a unique vendor name. Although, some companies have multiple vendor names.

FEATURE
Any functionality requiring licensing. The meaning of a feature will depend entirely on how it is used by each application. For example, a feature could represent any of the following:

CLIENT
An application program requesting or receiving a license.

DAEMON
A process that must continuously run in the "background", and is often designed to respond to requests from other processes across a network. The word "daemon" is common on UNIX, but not on Windows. Daemon comes form the Greek word "ghost". On Windows NT, daemons are called "services". When services respond to requests, they are known as the "SERVER" half of a client/server architecture.

VENDOR DAEMON
The daemon/service/server that dispenses licenses for the requested features. This daemon is built by a software provider with FLEXlm libraries supplied by GLOBEtrotter Software.

LMGRD
The daemon process, or license server, that directs client processes to the correct vendor daemon. The same lmgrd can be shared by all applications from all vendors, as this daemon neither authenticates nor dispenses licenses. Lmgrd processes few user requests on its own, but forwards these requests to other daemons (the vendor daemons).

SERVER NODE
A computer system running the license server software. The server node will contain all site-specific information regarding all feature usage. Multiple server nodes used for redundancy can logically be considered the server node.

LICENSE FILE
A file distributed with software which enables and restricts the usage of specified features and behaviors. The restrictions can include concurrent usage limits, specific computers by hostid or IP-address, and more.

LICENSE FILE LIST
A list of license files separated with a colon ':' on Unix and a semi-colon ';' on Windows. A license file list can be accepted in most places where a license file is appropriate. When a directory is specified, all files matching *.lic in that directory are automatically used, as if specified as a list(v6+ only).

LICENSE KEY
A 12- or 20-character hexadecimal number which `authenticates' the readable license file text, ensuring that the license text has not been modified.

LICENSE SERVER
The lmgrd and vendor daemon processes. License server refers to the processes, not the computer which runs these processes.

Q1.3 How does FLEXlm work?

FLEXlm is a client-server application toolkit. The software/client requests a license from the license server and is either granted or denied the license. FLEXlm is also often used simply to "node-lock", without a license server. In this case, the license is authenticated by the FLEXlm libraries compiled into the software application.

The five main components in FLEXlm are:

The end-user installs lmgrd and the vendor daemon on the computer specified in the licenses. Once the license file(s) and the daemons are in place, the only requirement is to start lmgrd. The daemon is typically started when the machine boots (in the UNIX ".rc" scripts, or on Windows as a system service), but can also be started manually by any user.

Q1.4 Where do I go to download the most current version?

Go to our web site: http://www.globetrotter.com/lmgrd.htm

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