Licensing schemes overview

The library provides three licensing schemes out-of-the-box – local (node-locked), hardware key, and remote (floating). I can also be extended to accommodate additional schemes. The local scheme uses licence files stored locally on the machine that the software is running, while in the remote mode licenses reside on the license server and are granted as required by users in an organization.
The following picuture presents the local scheme:




Each time application is launched it checks for valid licenses. If this is the first launch, it cannot find any licenses. In this case, a temporary evaluation license can be created that will expire in short period of time. After that, the user has to obtain a valid licence key by sending license request containing host identification string to the LicenseGrantor, optionally with user name and encrypted password. The transfer method may be either web browser, e-mail, or direct communication with software grantor's server via the Internet. The License Grantor can now process the request and generate license key for specific period of time using a command-line utility or GUI application or using a customized script.

Another option, remote licensing, is presented on the next illustration (the evaluation phase is omitted here for clarity).

In the remote licensing mode, target application connects directly to specified license server host to obtain license upon each execution. The license is reserved from the pool of licenses available to LicenseServer instance. Information about the license is returned to the target application that keeps the connection to the server alive until termination. When it terminates, the server is notified and returns the license to the pool for further use by another application instances.

Licenses to the LicenseServer can be added in the same way as to the target application in local licensing scheme – via e-mail, web, or direct connection. The advantages of the remote licensing include centralized license management suitable for larger organizations and optimal license usage. In this scheme the License Grantor does not need to know the host ids of machines that Target Application is running on – only the LicenseServer host id.