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This section describes some information that could become relevant during the operation of a VE license server and the corresponding Charon emulator products.

Contents

Sentinel/Gemalto 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 Charon-SSP:

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

  • 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

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:

  1. All supported environments:
    • 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. This includes cloning a virtual machine, or recovering a backup into a new virtual machine.
    • Changing the number of CPU cores of the license server system.
  2. VMware environments:
    • Restrictions from point 1 above. 
    • If the license server is bound to the ESXi host: using vMotion on the VM in which the VE license server runs
    • Changes to the API interface of the ESXi host or vCenter Server
    • The license can become temporarily unavailable if the user credentials or address information recorded by esxi_bind are changed. In this case, esxi_bind must be run again to define the correct user credentials and address information.


Starting and Stopping the License Server

Please note: In versions before 1.0.17, the license server can only be started if a valid license is installed.

The license server is a systemd service that is controlled via systemctl:

  • Starting the license server:     # systemctl start licensed
  • Stopping the license server:   # systemctl stop licensed
  • Restarting the license server: # systemctl restart licensed

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

Primary and Backup License Server

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 typically limited to a certain number of emulator runtime hours.

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.

Backup License Server Operation

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 after the loss of the license has been detected, the emulator will stop. The grace period is defined on the license.

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.


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.

License Server Log File

Log File Location

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

Log File Samples

Normal startup:

2020-01-16 09:00:43 INFO    MAIN     Build time: Jan 16 2020 10:54:15
2020-01-16 09:00:44 INFO    MAIN     License server is ready to serve.


No valid license installed:

2020-01-10 12:17:19 INFO    MAIN     Build time: Jan 10 2020 17:22:12
2020-01-10 12:17:19 ERROR   License  license is not available.
2020-01-10 12:17:19 INFO    MAIN     The program is terminated.


Client connection log (new in 1.0.28):

2020-10-02 21:46:29 INFO    MAIN     License server is ready to serve.
2020-10-03 01:31:09 INFO    Server   CHARON-SSP/4U v4.1.32 has logged in from 127.0.0.1:40704.
2020-10-03 01:45:21 INFO    Server   CHARON-SSP/4U v4.1.32 from 127.0.0.1:40704 has been disconnected

Charon-SSP Emulator Log Files

Log File Location

The default emulator log file location is /opt/charon-agent/ssp-agent/ssp/<architecture/<vm-name>/.

  • <architecture> can be sun-4m, sun-4u, or sun-4v.
  • <vm-name> is the name of the emulated SPARC system.

The log file is called <vm-name>.log. At every emulator start, a new version of the log file is created and the previous file is rotated to <vm-name>.log.1. Other existing versions are rotated accordingly. The number of retained files is determined by the log configuration of the emulated SPARC system.

Please note: The log file path can be changed by the user to a non-default value.

Log File Samples

Working license found during emulator start:

2020-07-16 21:25:10 INFO  VE       Trying to login to license server: 127.0.0.1
2020-07-16 21:25:13 INFO  VE       Connected with license server: 127.0.0.1
2020-07-16 21:25:13 INFO  VE       Found available license ID: 01.00000001.002.044.
2020-07-16 21:25:13 INFO  VE       Customer name: Stromasys/Testing.
2020-07-16 21:25:13 INFO  VE       Virtual hardware model Charon-SSP/4M is licensed.
2020-07-16 21:25:13 INFO  VE       Maximum concurrent instances are limited to 4.
2020-07-16 21:25:13 INFO  VE       Maximum allowed virtual CPU(s) are 4.
2020-07-16 21:25:13 INFO  VE       Maximum allowed virtualized memory is 512 MB.
2020-07-16 21:25:13 INFO  VE       Major allowed version number is 4.
2020-07-16 21:25:13 INFO  VE       Minor allowed version number is 2.
2020-07-16 21:25:13 INFO  VE       Expiration UTC time: 2020-12-31 15:55:00.


Connection to license server lost temporarily and then restored:

(License loss detected)

2020-07-16 22:25:56 ERROR VE       Failed to connect with the license server!
2020-07-16 22:25:56 WARN  VE       Charon will be terminated within 2 hours!

(License server connection restored)

2020-07-16 23:26:01 INFO  VE       Connected with license server: 127.0.0.1
2020-07-16 23:26:01 INFO  VE       Found available license ID: 01.00000001.002.044.
2020-07-16 23:26:01 INFO  VE       Customer name: Stromasys/Testing.
2020-07-16 23:26:01 INFO  VE       Virtual hardware model Charon-SSP/4M is licensed.
2020-07-16 23:26:01 INFO  VE       Maximum concurrent instances are limited to 4.
2020-07-16 23:26:01 INFO  VE       Maximum allowed virtual CPU(s) are 4.
2020-07-16 23:26:01 INFO  VE       Maximum allowed virtualized memory is 512 MB.
2020-07-16 23:26:01 INFO  VE       Major allowed version number is 4.
2020-07-16 23:26:01 INFO  VE       Minor allowed version number is 2.
2020-07-16 23:26:01 INFO  VE       Expiration UTC time: 2020-12-31 15:55:00.
2020-07-16 23:26:01 INFO  VE       Local UTC time: 2020-07-16 15:26:01.
2020-07-16 23:26:01 INFO  VE       The license is verified, back to normal operation.

Please note: The output shows a 2 hour grace period. The grace period implementation changed several times. In 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. If a valid license has not become available before the end of the grace period, the emulator will be stopped.


Switch to backup license server:

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.

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/error.log

Sample content:

$ cat /opt/license-server/error.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


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