CHARON-AXP for Windows licensing

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General description

The CHARON-AXP products are protected by licenses issued on a customer basis by STROMASYS Inc. The CHARON-AXP license defines all the specifics of a particular CHARON-AXP distribution and its usage.

The license is implemented in the form of a hardware dongle (a Sentinel HASP key) or a software license. Please be careful with your license key, in case of loss or damage, the CHARON-AXP instances will not run or start until the license key is replaced. For extra protection, STROMASYS recommends the use of a backup license key (purchased separately) that can replace the main license key for a restricted period of time. It is possible to specify the backup license in the CHARON-AXP configuration file to prevent CHARON-AXP from stopping in case the main license dongle is no longer accessible.

The CHARON-AXP license is read upon the start of each instance of CHARON-AXP and at a specified interval (defined by the license content) during the emulated system execution (default is 1 hour). If CHARON-AXP detects the absence (or malfunction) of the license key or software license, CHARON-AXP will try to use a backup license (if specified in the configuration file). If the license is not available or not specified, CHARON-AXP displays a warning message in the log file requesting the license key reconnection or software license reactivation. If the license is not reconnected or reactivated within a given period of time (the check interval), CHARON-AXP exits.

 The CHARON-AXP main license is time restricted or unlimited, the backup license is limited by the number of executions (1 execution = 1 interval check)

Note that if the time-restricted license is used and it expires, CHARON-AXP tries to find its replacement automatically and, if found, CHARON-AXP proceeds using the replacement license.

Update of the CHARON-AXP license can be performed on the fly without stopping CHARON-AXP. All the parameters including the expiration date and time can be updated w/o any restrictions.

At the next license check, CHARON-AXP will use the updated license normally.

CHARON supports the "driverless" mode of the new generation Sentinel protection keys ("Sentinel HL"). Note that installation of Sentinel drivers is still required if the new generation HASP network key is going to be used to serve CHARON instances running on other hosts.

The following sections list all the main parameters of the CHARON-AXP licensing mechanism.

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Parameters defined by CHARON-AXP license

The following table represents all the parameters defined by the CHARON-AXP license:

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CHARON-AXP licensing models

CHARON-AXP licensing models are divided into 3 groups:
 

Network Sentinel HASP keys

The Network Sentinel HASP key (red dongle) can be shared between several hosts running CHARON-AXP (including the host on which the network license is installed).

If CHARON-AXP is installed on the host where the network key is connected, no additional steps are required. The Sentinel driver is activated as part of the CHARON-AXP installation. If the host does not have CHARON-AXP installed, the host can still distribute the connected network license to CHARON-AXP instances running on other hosts. In this case the Sentinel driver must be installed on the host manually.

The Sentinel run-time driver is distributed as a part of the CHARON-AXP kit. Please see the "License installation" section of this chapter for details.

Once the Sentinel run-time driver is installed and the network license is connected, CHARON-AXP can be started on any appropriate host on the LAN network segment.

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License installation

Installation from scratch

At the moment CHARON supports Sentinel HASP keys, Sentinel HL and Sentinel Software Licenses (SL).

Installation of a CHARON-AXP regular or network licenses consists of:

Installation of CHARON-AXP Software License

CHARON-AXP software licenses can be installed according to the following procedure:

• Install CHARON-AXP together with Sentinel run-time (Sentinel run-time is an essential part of CHARON-AXP for Windows distribution)

• Reboot host system

• Collect CHARON-AXP host fingerprint file ("*.c2v"):

  Open "License Update Service" utility:

  

   

  In the utility dialog popup open the "Collect Status Information" tab, then select "Installation of new protection key":

  

  Press "Collect Information". In the popup dialog choose the place to store the "Fingerprint.c2v" file and press "Save":

  

   

  A message should appear similar to this example, confirming the fingerprint has been collected successfully.

  

• Send the ".c2v" file ("Fingerprint.c2v" in the example above) to STROMASYS

• STOMASYS will send you a ".v2c" file in return. Put it somewhere on the CHARON-AXP host.

• Open up the  "License Update Service" utility the way described above and open the "Apply License File" tab:
  
  
  

   

  
  Press "..." button beside the "Update File" edit-box. In the popup select the license file received from STROMASYS:
  
   
  
  Press the "Open" button and apply the license.
  

• Start any web browser on this system and go to http://localhost:1947 to access the "Sentinel HASP Admin Control Center" (ACC).

• Ensure that the license appears in the “Sentinel Keys” menu.

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Sentinel HL "driverless" mode

New license keys from Sentinel, so called "Sentinel HL" can work in 2 modes:

1. Regular. The key behaves as normal Sentinel HASP key.
2. Driverless. Sentinel HL keys do not require installation of any specific run-time or drivers since they unitize HID drivers, which are an integral part of the Windows operating system.

Sentinel HL license key in "driverless" mode has the following benefits:

• Support of a higher number of features.
• Larger on-key memory space.
• No specific drivers are needed.
• No additional support software is needed for all operations with the license keys.

There is a disadvantage of using Sentinel HL in "driverless" mode: inability to use "Sentinel Admin Control Center" (see below for details) for detailed configuration of the Sentinel HL license key attached to the host.

Now to define mode of Sentinel HL license key

STROMASYS may provide Sentinel HL keys in regular or "driverless" mode. To define the current mode:

1. Install Sentinel run-time (drivers) as described above in "Installation from scratch" section.
2. Connect the key to the host
3. Run "HASP View" utility. It will report whether the key has "driverless" mode enabled or not.

Switching Sentinel HL to "driverless" mode

To switch Sentinel HL from regular to "driverless" mode:

1. Install Sentinel run-time (drivers) as described above in the "Installation from scratch" section.
2. Apply a specific "*.v2c" file provided by Stromasys as described above in the "Installation of CHARON Software License" section.
3. Remove Sentinel run-time (drivers). See the detailed description below.

Using Sentinel HL in "driverless" mode

To use Sentinel HL key in "driverless" mode:

1. Install CHARON kit. By default it installs Sentinel run-time.
2. Reboot your host as the CHARON installation suggests.
3. Login as Administrator
4. Extract content of the only ZIP file resided in “hasp_install” directory of the CHARON distribution to the same folder.
5. Run “cmd.exe” from “Start” menu of host computer.
6. “cd” to the “hasp_install” directory.
7. Issue the following command: "haspdinst.exe -fr -kp"
8. Reboot your host.
9. Connect Sentinel HL key to the host. It will be correctly recognized by operating system. Once it is done the Sentinel HL key is ready to be used.

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License management

CHARON-AXP license management is performed by the Sentinel Admin Control Center and specific utilities.

Sentinel Admin Control Center

General Description

The Sentinel Admin Control Center (ACC) is the web-interface to the Sentinel run-time environment. It allows the viewing and managing of any available keys, enabling and disabling them, controlling usage of remote keys etc.

To access Sentinel Admin Control Center start any web browser, enter http://localhost:1947 and press Enter. Web interface of the Sentinel Admin Control Center will appear.

 Example:

This example demonstrates that 4 license keys are available:

1. Network key ("HASP-HL NetTime") on the host "XEON4WAYW7"

2. Network key installed locally

3. HASP-HL installed locally

4. Network-wide software license on the host "RH64"

Sentinel Admin Control Center reports that there is one opened session on key (4). The other keys are not being used at the moment

For a more detailed description of Sentinel Admin Control Center, please refer to its "Help" section.

Disable remote keys access 

A helpful feature of Sentinel Admin Control Center is the ability to disable access to remote keys. If the network key is installed locally, access to the key from remote hosts can be disabled. The following examples demonstrate how this can be done.

To disable access to remote keys switch to the "Access to Remote License Managers" tab and uncheck the "Allow Access to Remote Licenses" checkbox. Then press the "Submit" button to apply this change:

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License management utility

CHARON-AXP for Windows provides two specific utilities for license management:

• "HASP View". This utility is used to display CHARON-AXP license content.
• "License Update Service". This utility is used to collect key status information and host fingerprint (C2V) files, apply updates (".v2c" files) and perform the license transfer/removal.

Please refer to the "Utilities" section of this Guide for more details.

Transferring and removing CHARON-AXP software licenses

Software Licenses Transfer

Software Licenses (SL) can be transferred from one host to another using the "License Update Service" utility.

The following example demonstrates the transfer procedure.

Let's suppose a Software License must be transferred from a host "SourceHost" to a host "RecipientHost":

Deinstallation is needed only in case if Sentinel run-time has been installed. If Sentinel HL in "driverless" mode has been used (see above) no specific deinstallation is required. Just disconnect the key from CHARON host.

To completely remove a CHARON-AXP license from a host, it is enough to remove the Sentinel run-time driver using the following procedure:

• Login as Administrator
• Open the CHARON-AXP kit folder
• Switch to the "hasp_install" subfolder
• Unzip the archive located in this folder
• Open "cmd.exe" and switch to the folder where the files were unzipped

• Issue:

  ...> haspdinst.exe -fr -kp -nomsg

Remove the license dongle. Note that the Sentinel run-time driver is deinstalled automatically on CHARON-AXP with a complete deinstallation.

Backup keys are provided by STROMASYS along with standard license dongles. It is strongly recommended to order a backup key to recover immediately from damage or loss of the main license key. Backup keys use a counter (integer) value hardcoded inside the key. This integer value is a number of hours CHARON-AXP is allowed to run. Each time CHARON-AXP checks the license (every hour), the value is decreased (by 1 hour). Please note that backup keys have restricted functionality: