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Altiva Licence Server |
The configuration file "Als.cfg" controls some aspects of the behaviour of the server. It is a plain ASCII text file which can be viewed and edited in any text editor, such as Windows Notepad. The file format is very simple, and consist of simple "key = value" pairs. Comments are preceded by a hash/pound sign '#'. The configuration file does not normally need to be edited, and should usually be left as-is for most environments. It is read at startup-time for the service, so any changes in the configuration file will only go into effect after the service is restarted.
A default configuration file is shown below.
######################################################### # Altiva Licensing Server Configuration File # # # # Last modified by Piers Porter # # Altiva Software, Inc. # # 26th March 2009 # # # ######################################################### # # This variable defines the port number of the server. # This only needs to be changed if it conflicts with an existing port. # PORT_SERVER = 1999 # # Heartbeat time for freeing lost connections (in seconds) # HEARTBEAT_TIME = 1800 # # Use DNS/WINS lookup for computer name? # This may slow the server down if the client is on a different workgroup to the server. # Disabling COMPUTERNAME_LOOKUP will report the computer name as "Unknown" in all log files. # # COMPUTERNAME_LOOKUP = 1; Lookup is enabled # COMPUTERNAME_LOOKUP = 0; Lookup is disabled # COMPUTERNAME_LOOKUP = 1 # # Department licensing options. This is only relevant if the licence file on the server has the "DEPT=" command. # # DEPARTMENTS_ALLOW_ANY = 0 : This means that a client can only check out a licence for its own department # DEPARTMENTS_ALLOW_ANY = 1 : This means that a client can check out a licence from any department, but it will start with its own first. # DEPARTMENTS_ALLOW_ANY = 0 # # Debug level option. # Modifying this variable changes the amount of information stored in the debug.log file. # If there is a problem with the Altiva Licence Server, change this variable to the highest level # and restart the service. This will provide more information in the log for the Corporate # Montage support staff to correct the problem. # # DEBUG_LEVEL = 0 : Minimal data stored. # DEBUG_LEVEL = 1 : (default) # DEBUG_LEVEL = 2 : More debug information stored # DEBUG_LEVEL = 3 : Verbose debug messages information logged # DEBUG_LEVEL = 1 # # Debug log file retension time. # This defines how old inactive debugs file are allowed to get before they are deleted automatically. # Note that this only affects previous log files and not the current log file. If the computer or service has a # longer uptime than this definition below, then there is no limit on how old the current debug log file can get. # Older debug logs can be useful for tracing problems with the service. If no such problems occur then this # setting can be safely ignored. # # Note that the default is 3 weeks (21 days) # DEBUG_RETENSION_DAYS = 21
Below is some more detail on what settings are available:
This integer value represents the port number to use for communication on the server. It must also match the port number set in the client side licence file (see also: "Licence Files"). It is set to "1999" by default, but can generally be set to any number as required. Port numbers below 100 should generaly be avoided as this may interfere with ports reserved for other system applications.
This value defines how long to wait (in seconds) before cleaning up lost connections. Each client application sends a "heartbeat" back to ALS to indicate that it is still running and continuing to use the licence. If the network connecting the client and the server goes down, or the client suddenly crashes or loses power, then the server needs to relinquish the licence that was being used, otherwise the pool of available licences may be exhausted by computers that are not actively using a licence. Therefore ALS will periodically relinquish a licence when a certain amount of time has past without ALS receiving a heartbeart from the client. Under normal operation a client will specifically send a message to ALS that it is no longer using a licence when the application exits, so the licence is freed immediately. The heartbeat time setting is only used when the client application did not exit gracefully, and thus it is not a common occurrence that the server needs to free licences manually through the heartbeat time. The default time for a freeing a licence after the heartbeat is lost is 1800 seconds (30 minutes). Generally the clients should always send a heartbeat at least twice as often as ALS frees licences with lost heartbeats. The client-side heartbeat can be set by the client application.
This setting is used by for logging purposes only. It can be set to "0" to disable, or "1" to enable. If it is enabled, then the computer name will be displayed next to the IP address of each computer in the log file. This can be useful for seeing which computers are using licences regularly if the IP address is dynamic (and therefore not a useful unique identifier). The disadvantage of using this setting, is that if the client computer accessing ALS is part of a different workgroup or domain, then this can slow down the licence communication, or possibly cause ALS to time-out. If time-outs or noticeable lags occur regularly, COMPUTERNAME_LOOKUP should be disabled by setting the value to zero.
This value controls behaviour of department licensing and can be set to "0" (disabled) or "1" (enabled). It is only used for licence files that have specifically been generated for a particular department. If it is enabled, then licence requests from a specific department will be attempted first, and then fall back to any available department. If it is disabled, then licences for a specific department can only be met with a free licence from a corresponding department. This functionality can be useful if you want to reserve some licences so they are always available for a specific department. Consider the example below:
Example scenario:
You have a pool of 10 licences of a product available for everyone, however you want to install it on about 20 machines, as the application is not used all the time by everyone. You want the licences to be available as a first in, first served basis. You also have 2 IT administrators, and they should always have access to the application as top priority, so they can resolve any issues with the application if needed. What you can do is request a licence file where you have 8 normal licences, and 2 licences reserved for the IT department. This licence file will then run on ALS. On the two IT computers, they have a client-side setting that specifically requests a licence reserved for the IT department.
Now assume that you have 8 normal clients running the application and one more normal user tries to check-out a licence.
If the DEPARTMENTS_ALLOW_ANY is set to "0", then the user will not be granted a licence, as there are always 2 licences kept in reserve for the IT department.
If the DEPARTMENTS_ALLOW_ANY is set to "1", then the user will be given one of the IT department licences, as the department is only used to prioritise which licences are granted first.
Now assume that you purchase an extra 2 licences reserved for a new department named "Mapping". You have 8 normal clients running the application and one more normal user tries to check-out a licence.
If the DEPARTMENTS_ALLOW_ANY is set to "0", then the user will not be granted a licence, as 2 licences are reserved for the IT department and 2 reserved for mapping.
If the DEPARTMENTS_ALLOW_ANY is set to "1", then the user will be given either one of the IT department licences, or one from the mapping department.
Now assume that you have 2 IT administrators already running the application and one more IT administrator tries to check-out a licence.
If the DEPARTMENTS_ALLOW_ANY is set to "0", then the user will be granted a licence only if there are still some licences left in the normal pool.
If the DEPARTMENTS_ALLOW_ANY is set to "1", then the user will be given either one of the normal licences if available, or one from the mapping department.
Therefore the DEPARTMENTS_ALLOW_ANY setting only has bearing on whether department licences are available to clients that are not in that department.
The DEBUG_LEVEL is used to define how much debugging information is included in the log file. The higher the number, the more debugging information is logged. The lowest level is "0" and the highest level is "3". The default level is "1", which gives minimal debugging information. The disadvantage of higher levels is that it can create larger log files and possibly slightly slower operation, though this affect may be negligible on all but the slowest servers. See also the DEBUG_RETENSION_DAYS setting below.
The DEBUG_RETENSION_DAYS setting defines how many days to keep legacy debug log files for. Every time the ALS service is restarted (either due to a manual restart or an automatic one after a server reboot), a new debug log is created. At this stage in starting up, the service will also automatically delete any existing debugging log files that are older than the current setting for DEBUG_RETENSION_DAYS. It is possible for a debug log to be much older than this setting if it is still in active use, so the age and size of the current debug log will also be a function of the current uptime of the server. The default is 21 days. If sporadic problem occur with the server that can not be traced in the current debug log, then you may wish to increase this size so that are longer audit history is available.
Copyright 2001-2010 Altiva Software, Inc. Last modified by Matthew Tolmie.