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Sentinel/Gemalto

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Tools not Applicable to the VE License Server

Any Sentinel/Gemalto-specific license tools provided with the emulator installation are not applicable to the VE license server configuration.

Sentinel/Gemalto-specific tools and configuration options on in Charon -SSPemulator kits:

In Charon -SSPemulator kits, the Sentinel/Gemalto-specific license tools and configuration options are available when installing the management packages for the VE-capable Charon-SSP complete emulator packages. These tools and options are in particular the following:

• Charon-SSP:
  • HASP Viewer, HASP Updater, and HASP Manager in the Tools > HASP Tools menu of the Charon Manager
  • The Regular and Backup License parameter in the emulator license configuration section
  • The command-line tools in /opt/charon-agent/ssp-agent/utils/license

The above tools cannot be used for managing Charon-SSP VE licenses. Please ignore them if you have a VE license.

Actions that can Invalidate a VE License

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For cloud deployments: if supported by the cloud provider, the VE license server instance can be moved to a different subnet, as long as the original instance can be moved.

It is also possible to backup and restore (to the same instance) the license server data.

However, the following actions will invalidate the license:

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• Copying the license server data to a different instance
• Seriously damaging the root filesystem of the license server system
• Re-installing the license server system
• Copying the virtual machine on which the license server runs
• Changing the number of CPU cores of the license server system.

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• Charon-PAR:
  • The command-line tools in /opt/charon/bin (including the update tool hasp_update, and the license viewer and C2V creation tool hasp_srm_view)
    
  • The license_id configuration parameter is not supported. To choose a specific product section, the passphrase of the section is used.

The above tools and commands cannot be used for managing VE licenses. Please ignore them if you have a VE license.

Actions that Can Invalidate a VE License

Starting and Stopping the License Server

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The licensed service logs information to its log file in /opt/license-server/license_log/license.log and to journalctl.

Primary and Backup License Server / Peer Servers

General Information

Charon emulators for VE licenses support a backup license server to ensure service continuity should the primary license server become temporarily unavailable. Backup licenses are The primary/backup servers in general VE license mode operate differently from the peer servers of AutoVE mode:

• For general VE license mode, backup licenses are typically limited to a certain number of emulator runtime hours.

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The example below shows the output of a time-limited license:

# /opt/license-server/license_viewer 
<<License Viewer>> Current license:
License fingerprint: 07792211fc8ce3fdc085 <truncated>
Customer name: Stromasys
License ID: 01.00000001.002.020
Key type: COUNTDOWN
Expiration date: 100 hour(s)
Platform: amazon.aws
Release date: 2021-06-17 13:08:01
Grace period: 120 minutes
License check interval: 60 minutes

Virtual Hardware: Charon-SSP/4M,Charon-SSP/4U
Product code: Charon-SSP/ALL
Expiration date: 2021-12-22 23:55:00
Major Version: 5
Minor Version: 3
Maximum CPU: 64
Maximum virtual memory: 1048576MB
Instances allowed: 3

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• The backup license server is only used for failover if the primary license server fails in order not to deplete the available runtime hours unnecessarily.
• For AutoVE mode, the two license servers act as peers between which the client database is synchronized. The total number of instances available on both servers determines the number of Charon host cloud instances that can be licensed from the license server pair. Each instance can connect to either of the two servers. However, if one of the peers fails and there are not enough available instances on the second peer, there is no backup for an instance trying to fail over to the second  peer due to failure of its primary server - and the emulators running on this instance will fail. The license on the server designated as backup server can be a countdown license (specified number of runtime hours) or a normal license.

The example below shows the output of a time-limited license:

# /opt/license-server/license_viewer 
<<License Viewer>> Current license:
License fingerprint: 07792211fc8ce3fdc085 <truncated>
Customer name: Stromasys
License ID: 01.00000001.002.020
Key type: COUNTDOWN
Expiration date: 100 hour(s)
Platform: amazon.aws
Release date: 2021-06-17 13:08:01
Grace period: 120 minutes
License check interval: 60 minutes

Virtual Hardware: Charon-SSP/4M,Charon-SSP/4U
Product code: Charon-SSP/ALL
Expiration date: 2021-12-22 23:55:00
Major Version: 5
Minor Version: 3
Maximum CPU: 64
Maximum virtual memory: 1048576MB
Instances allowed: 3

The above sample is a backup license with 100 hours of emulator runtime. The remaining hours can be checked via the web interface.

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Should the primary license server become unavailable, the emulator tries to connect to the backup license server. If this succeeds, the emulator continues to run without interruption. If no connection to a valid license can be established within 2 hours the grace period, after the loss of the license has been detected, the emulator will stop. The grace period is defined on the license. Check the license content for the actual value configured (default for new licenses is 24 hours, but the actual configuration may be different).

Please note: If you do not have a valid backup license and the primary license server is unavailable for more than the grace period, make sure to shut down the guest operating system cleanly before the end of the grace period. Failure to do so may cause data loss or corruption.

If the primary license server becomes available again after the emulator has switched to the backup server, the emulator will automatically switch back to the primary server to avoid unnecessary depletion of the backup license runtime hours in VE license server mode.

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Log Files

Log files provide important information about the operation of the license server and the Charon emulator software. In case of problems, this is the first place to check.

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License server log file /opt/license-server/license_log/license.log

At every license server start, a new version of the log file is created and the previous file is rotated to license.log.1. Other existing versions are rotated accordingly.

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Please note: The output shows a 2 hour grace period. The grace period implementation and defaults changed several times. In Since VE versions before version 4. 1.21, the grace period was 24 hours. It was shortened to two hours after the introduction of the backup license server feature in 4.1.19. Since version 1.1.12, the grace period is determined by the corresponding license parameter (please check the license content for the value configured on your license). If a valid license has not become available before the end of the grace period, the emulator will be stopped.

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2020-06-29 18:08:25 ERROR VE     Failed to connect with the license server!
2020-06-29 18:08:25 INFO  VE     Trying to login to license server: 127.0.0.1
2020-06-29 18:08:34 ERROR VE     Failed to connect with the license server!
2020-06-29 18:08:43 WARN  VE     Charon will be terminated within 2 hours!
2020-06-29 19:08:57 INFO  VE     Connected with license server: 172.31.40.62
2020-06-29 19:08:57 INFO  VE     Found available license ID: 01.00000001.002.045.

License Server version mismatch:

The software checks for compatible protocol versions between license server and emulator software. It logs an error if the versions are not compatible.

The following messages may logged in older versions:

2020-01-16 11:24:38 WARN  VE  Failed to get data from license server!

2021-08-10 17:03:42 FATAL VE       License server is unavailable!

Newer versions have a more descriptive error message:

2021-08-10 17:16:41 ERROR VE       License protocol version is invalid.server: 172.31.40.62
2020-06-29 19:08:57 INFO  VE     Found available license ID: 01.00000001.002.045.

License Server version mismatch:

The software checks for compatible protocol versions between license server and emulator software. It logs an error if the versions are not compatible.

The following messages may logged in older versions:

2020-01-16 11:24:38 WARN  VE  Failed to get data from license server!

2021-08-10 17:03:42 FATAL VE       License server is unavailable!

Newer versions have a more descriptive error message:

2021-08-10 17:16:41 ERROR VE       License protocol version is invalid.

Charon-PAR Emulator Log Files

The default location for the Charon-PAR emulator log files is the directory in which the emulator was started. The name and location can be influenced via the configuration file and using a start-up parameter.

By default log file name is charon-par.<YYMMDD>-<timestamp>-<incremental number>.log.

The link charon-par.log points to the current log file.

Log File Samples

Working license found during emulator start:

20211213:120216.970965:Trying to login to license server: 127.0.0.1
20211213:120219.975731:License allowed CPUs: 8.
20211213:120219.975746:License allowed memory size: 32768.
20211213:120219.979873:Connected with license server: 127.0.0.1
20211213:120219.979900:Found available license ID: 03.00000003.002.006.
20211213:120219.979908:Customer name: Stromasys
20211213:120219.979915:Grace period is 120 minutes.
20211213:120219.979928:Virtual hardware model Charon-PA9-64-L4 is licensed.
20211213:120219.979937:Maximum concurrent instances are limited to 10.
20211213:120219.979950:Maximum allowed virtual CPU(s) are 8.
20211213:120219.979959:Maximum allowed virtualized memory is 32768 MB.
20211213:120219.979967:Major allowed version number is 3.
20211213:120219.979976:Minor allowed version number is 0.
20211213:120219.979988:Expiration UTC time: 2022-06-08 23:55:00.
20211213:120219.980216:Product Name = Charon-PA9-64-L4 License key ID = 03.00000003.002.006.

License server not found at start:

20211214:193342.307175:VE primary license 192.168.2.2
20211214:193342.307701:There is no VE backup server.
20211214:193342.334171:Trying to login to license server: 192.168.2.2
20211214:193351.337196:warn:Unable to login to server because the license server failed to respond
20211214:193351.337392:err:Failed to connect with the license server.
20211214:193351.337457:err:Failed to connect with the license server.
20211214:193351.337509:err:Exit
20211214:193351.339823:err:Invalid license product name

Charon-AXP/VAX Emulator Log Files

The default location for the Charon-AXP/VAX emulator log files on Linux (Linux is required for VE licensing): if the setting of the template configuration is used, the default is the directory from which the emulator instance was started.

The name and location can be influenced via the configuration file.

By default log file name is <model-name>.log.

Management GUI Web Server Log File

This log file contains errors encountered by the web server providing the management GUI of the VE license server.

Log file location: /opt/license-server/log/webserver.log

Sample content:

$ cat /opt/license-server/log/webserver.log

<attempt to start the license server a second time>
[1636549131] [error] [client ] cannot bind to 80: 98 (Address already in use)
[1636549131] [error] [client ] cannot bind to 8084s: 98 (Address already in use)
[1636549131] [error] [client ] Failed to setup server ports

<restart of the license server>
[1636551531] [error] [client 192.168.2.80] SSL syscall error 104
[1636551532] [error] [client 192.168.2.80] SSL syscall error 104