Please refer to the other sections of the Charon Licensing Handbook and your product documentation for any topics not covered in this overview guide and for more detailed information on the topics discussed here.

This page provides an overview of the basic steps to set up the licensing environment on a system running Charon-AXP or Charon-VAX for Windows:

General Description
License Type Overview
Overview of Initial License Installation Steps
Overview of License Management Tools
- Accessing the License Management Tools on Charon Version 4.7 and older
- Accessing the License Management Tools on Charon Version 4.8 and Higher
Define a Password for the Sentinel Admin Control Center (ACC)
View Existing Licenses
- Viewing a License with Sentinel ACC
- Viewing a License with the License Viewing Utility
  - HASP View Utility Window
Installing the License
Handling Multiple Keys
Update an Existing License
Removing a License
Manual Sentinel HASP License Driver Installation
- New License Driver Installation
- Replacing the Currently installed License Drivers

General Description

A Charon emulator product will not run without a valid license. For Sentinel HASP licenses (the topic of this chapter) this license can be provided on a USB hardware dongle (a Sentinel HASP key) or as a software license bound to the hardware of the host system or the network license server. A loss or defect of a license will cause the emulator to stop.

For extra protection, Stromasys recommends the use of a backup license key (purchased separately) that can replace the main license key for a limited period of time. It is possible to specify the backup license in the Charon configuration file to prevent the emulator from stopping in case its main license is no longer accessible.

To check the validity of a license, Charon performs the following steps:

The Charon emulator checks the text block of the license to determine if it is allowed to run (if there is a product section which corresponds to the emulator).
Then Charon checks the feature associated with the product to see if the feature is valid - that is, it is not expired, the available runtime hours are not exhausted, and if there are still some instance-slots available to run the emulator.
If there is no matching product section or if the feature is not valid, Charon reports the problem in the log and shuts down.

Charon License Checks

Charon products check the availability of a valid license at different points in time:

1. At startup:

If no valid license is found, an error message will be written to the emulator log file and the emulator will not start.

Charon-AXP/VAX has a configuration parameter to define the number of retries (license_key_lookup_retry). Please refer to the product configuration documentation for more details.

2. At regular intervals during the runtime of the emulator (the default license check period of 1 hour can be changed by Stromasys using the appropriate license parameters):

If the previously used valid license has been removed, has disappeared, is defect, or has become invalid, the emulator will report the loss of the license in the log file and continue operation for a limited amount of time as described below.
If there is another valid license, for example a backup license defined in the configuration file, it will be used.
Starting with Charon-AXP/VAX 4.9, Charon allows for a grace period of 12 hours during which the software checks for the presence of a valid license every 10 minutes until a valid license is found. If no valid license is found after the grace period has expired, the emulator will stop.
Earlier versions of the above products and other emulator products: should there still be no valid license at the next regular license check (this default interval may be changed by individual Charon products), the emulator will stop.
If a time-restricted license is used and it expires, the Charon instance tries to find its replacement automatically and, if found, proceeds using the replacement license.

Important note for Windows installations: any running emulators will be stopped if the license service is forced to stop despite existing service dependencies (i.e., running emulators). So any running guest systems must be cleanly shutdown before restarting the license service in order to avoid data loss. This is the behavior at the time of writing. It may change in future versions.

Charon License Updates

Under certain circumstances existing licenses must be updated.

License updates are required, for example, in the following cases:

Charon product version upgrade
Product change
License validity (time) extension

License updates, for example a new expiration date or a new execution counter, can be performed without interrupting operation, that is, without shutting down active Charon instances, provided that the resulting license is valid for the running Charon instance. If any parameters of the updated license are not valid for the running Charon instance (for example, the wrong model or version), the Charon instance will stop running.

Licenses are backwards compatible to some extent. A license update to a more recent version will allow some previous Charon versions to run as well. The details depend on the Charon product.

The license check on Charon-AXP/VAX/PDP starting with version 4.4 will be successful for a newer license if the major version (for example, the 4 in 4.7) is the same. In version 4.3, the emulator will start, but there are inconsistencies and incompatibilities especially in the associated tools (e.g., hasp_view). Product versions 4.2 and earlier are incompatible with the current license schema.

License Content

The license data on a license key, independent of whether it is a hardware or software license key, consists of several parts: the license key text block contains the license section and one or more product sections. The license features describe additional conditions and limitations for the emulator products contained on the license.

A) License Key Text Block

1) License Section (one per license key)

The license section contains general license information related to ownership and administration.
There is one license section per license key.
Please note that in rare cases, you may receive an empty USB dongle for which command outputs will show that no license information was detected. In such cases, request a license update from Stromasys as described in Updating a License.

Relevant license section parameters:

License type: type of the license, i.e., hardware or software license, network-enabled or local (added in newer Charon product versions, e.g., Charon-AXP/VAX 4.9)
License number: assigned by Stromasys
License key ID: unique; pre-programmed; unmodifiable; on physical keys same value as the Physical Key ID
Master key ID: the software vendor ID used by Stromasys for issuing licenses
Release date: the day on which the license was issued
Release time: the time at which the license was issued
Update number: the number of license updates that have been applied
End user name: the name of the person to whom the license was issued
Purchasing company name: usually the company to which the license was issued

2) Product Section (one or more per license key)

The text block also contains product sections that contain product specific licensing information.

Several products can be combined on one license key. Stromasys may place restrictions on what products can be combined on a single license key.
The product section also may include information about the support contract and the end of support. It may contain hardware specific limitations related to the types of devices that can be connected (e.g., serial interfaces).
A checksum is inserted after the last product section of a license. This checksum is not visible in the show command output. Charon products/versions requiring such a checksum will not start if the license does not contain a checksum.
Each product section is associated with a feature defining additional conditions for the product.

The following list shows the most important parameters of a product section.

Please note that not all of these parameters may be present for a particular Charon product.

Product License Number: identification of specific product section (optional; new starting with Charon-AXP/VAX 4.9 and Charon-PAR 1.10). Corresponds to configuration parameter license_id.
Virtual Hardware: range of virtual models available for running
Product Name: commercial product name
Product Code: commercial product code
Major Version, Minor Version, Maximum Build, Minimum Build: commercial product version and range of build numbers suitable for running with this license. The parameters Maximum and Minimum Build are no longer displayed starting with Charon-AXP/VAX 4.9 and Charon-PAR 1.10.
Please note that, depending on the product and product version, licenses have a limited backward compatibility (i.e., when the version on the license is newer than the product version).
See Operational Procedures Overview in the Sentinel HASP Licensing Documentation for more information.
Host CPU supported or 32bit and 64bit OS requirements: type of host CPU required (for example, x64)
Host Operating System required: Linux or Windows
CPUs allowed: number of virtual CPUs enabled for virtual multiprocessor systems
Maximum virtual memory: Maximum memory emulated. If not present the value defaults to the maximum memory possible for the particular virtual system. Note that the maximum memory may not be available to the virtual system if the host computer has insufficient physical memory.
CHAPI enabled: whether or not CHAPI (Charon-AXP API) can be used with this product
Instances allowed: maximum number of Charon emulator instances of this program/hardware model that are allowed to run concurrently on the local host. Relevant for local license keys that do not support the process count parameter. See also the parameter Number of processes in the feature section.
CPU Speed: optional parameter to reduce the speed at which the program can run to a fraction of the maximum (e.g., to 25%)
HPSUSAN: optional parameter. Specific to HP3000, overrides physical key ID. The HPSUSAN (HP System Unique Serially Assigned Number) is used for licensing purposes by HP. The parameter may be needed if a license on the physical system is tied to the original HPSUSAN.
Feature number: number of the feature defining further limits/restrictions for the product license. Each product can use a separate feature, or the same feature can be used by several products.
If using a network license and the same feature is shared by several products, the number of instances allowed by the feature is shared between the products (e.g., 2 allowed instances enable one Charon-AXP and one Charon-SSP instance to run concurrently). If using a local license dongle and the same feature is shared by several products, the number of allowed instances is counted separately for each product.
The parameters defined in a feature are described below in the Features section.

B) License Feature Section (one or more per license key)

Features define product specific conditions, for example expiration date and number of concurrent instances.

The following list describes these conditions:

Released product expiration date: for time-based licenses. Note that at the time of writing the license of Charon-AXP/VAX products will expire at the end of the day of the expiration date, the license of Charon-SSP in the early morning of the expiration day. The exact behavior of the different versions can change without prior warning. Not supported for HL-MAX dongles.
Runtime counter: number of license checks after which the license will be disabled. Default check interval is one hour. The counter will be decreased at the start of the emulator and then at every license check interval. Once the counter has been depleted, the license becomes invalid. This license type is typically used on licenses intended as backup licenses.
Login interval or Check interval: frequency of license checking during emulator execution (default 1 hour). This parameter is not visible in the show command output in older Charon product version. It is visible in the show command output of newer versions, starting with Charon-AXP/VAX 4.9 and Charon-PAR 1.10.
Network license: indicates that a physical license is a network license
Number of processes: maximum overall number of Charon instances that are allowed to run concurrently.
This parameter is set by Stromasys to the value matching the respective customer contract. For network dongles, the maximum possible value of this parameter is determined by the type of network dongle. For example: on a NetTime10 dongle this parameter can be set to a value between 1 and 10 (depending on the customer contract). The type of dongle can be viewed via Sentinel ACC.

Example with Time-Based Parameters

The parameters below describe the following limitations to the emulator:

License permits running up to 2 instances of Charon at the same time.
License expires on May 31, 2020, or after 360 license checks (with an interval of 60 minutes between the checks).

Expiration date: 31/5/2020
Runtime counter: 360
Login interval: 60 minutes
Instances allowed: 2

If any of the conditions are no longer met (too many instances, past expiration date, all checks exhausted), the feature becomes invalid and will not allow an emulator instance (or an additional instance) to run.

License Type Overview

Depending on customer requirements, Stromasys can provide several different license types.

Local Hardware License

Local hardware licenses are USB dongles and work on the system they are physically connected to. For Windows systems supporting AnywereUSB®, hardware licenses can also be connected over the network (similar products are available for Linux). They can easily be moved to a different system, if required. The content of the dongle can be updated if a change to the license or an extension of a time-based license is required. The necessary steps are described later in this document.

Please note:

Hardware dongles require the Sentinel HASP run-time (driver) installation before the dongle can be connected to and used by the system.
Hardware dongles, apart from HL-MAX dongles, are equipped with a battery and a clock, which makes them independent of the host clock. The battery is not rechargeable. However, the dongle can use the power provided by the host system while it is plugged in. By doing this, the depletion of the battery can be slowed down. Check the dongle at regular intervals if it is not permanently connected to a system. If the battery becomes completely depleted, the dongle will be permanently unusable and must be replaced. See also: How long does the license USB dongle battery last upon a full charge.
Hardware dongles are not suited for running Charon emulator products in cloud environments. Stromasys provides other licensing solutions adapted to virtual environments (Charon VE licenses) for selected products. See Virtual Environment (VE) License Server Documentation.

Software License

A software license is a "virtual" key with functionality very similar to a HASP network-enabled hardware dongle.

A software license does not require any special hardware but it still requires installation of the Sentinel runtime environment.

Important information:

To avoid unexpected problems, do not use any Sentinel runtime software that was not provided by Stromasys without being advised to do so by your Stromasys representative.
Software licenses are best suited for stable environments, because their correct function depends on certain characteristics of the host system. Changing these characteristics will invalidate the license.
- If the Charon host runs on real hardware, software licenses are by default tightly bound to the hardware for which they were issued. If major hardware characteristics of the system are changed, the license will be disabled.
- If the Charon host runs in a virtual environment (e.g., VMware), software licenses are normally bound to the virtual machine ID and a set of additional characteristics of the virtual machine. If any of these parameters are changed, the license will be disabled.
- For a more detailed description of the restrictions, please refer to Software Licensing restrictions or contact your Stromasys representative.
Software licenses are very sensitive to even small changes on the host system. Therefore, it is especially important to provide for a backup license that will ensure continued operation should there be a problem with the software license. See Handling Multiple License Keys for details.
Standard software licenses are not suited for running Charon emulator products in cloud environments. Stromasys provides other licensing solutions adapted to virtual environments (Charon VE licenses) for selected products. See Virtual Environment (VE) License Server Documentation.

Network License

The network Sentinel HASP key (red USB dongle) can be shared between several hosts running a Charon emulator product (including the host on which the network license is installed).

Please note: all software licenses are also network licenses.

If the Charon emulator product is installed on the host where the network license is connected, no additional steps are required. The Sentinel driver is installed as part of the Charon product installation. If the host does not have a Charon emulator product installed, the host can still distribute the connected network license to emulator instances running on other hosts.

The Sentinel HASP runtime software must be installed on such a license server and on the client system. For details regarding the installation, please refer to the software installation section in this document. Once both the Sentinel runtime software and the network license are installed, the Charon emulator product can be started on any appropriate client host on the LAN, provided access to the license is enabled.

The network license will be visible to all hosts that can access the license server over IP. Access to the license server must be possible on port 1947 via UDP (discovery process) and TCP (actual access to license). Further information (e.g., use of additional UDP ports) can be found in the section Firewall Considerations.
The license server and the client must both allow access to the network license using the appropriate management tools.

The maximum number of concurrently active Charon instances is determined by the parameters of the license.

Please note: Charon-AXP/VAX version 4.7 build 171-01 introduced a change with respect to network licenses. In previous versions of Charon-AXP/VAX a network license controlled the maximum number of client host systems and Charon instances per host system (station/instance mode). In the current Charon-AXP/VAX versions a network license controls the maximum overall number of active instances, which can be distributed across client host systems according to the preference of the customer.

Overview of Initial License Installation Steps

Each Charon emulator product requires a valid license to run. To access a Sentinel HASP license, the emulator needs the Sentinel runtime software. This software is part of the Charon-AXP/Charon-VAX for Windows installation kits. Refer to the software installation section of the Charon product user's guide for software installation instructions.

After the installation of this software, the license can be installed on the system. The following steps are described in more detail below:

Add a password for the Sentinel Admin Control Center (ACC).
If you purchased a hardware license, you can simply plug the dongle into a free USB port on the system.
If you purchased a software license, you need to create a fingerprint file in C2V (customer-to-vendor) format containing the system characteristics. Use this file to request a license for your Charon product from Stromasys.
If your license is a network license served by a license server, make sure that the access of the client system to the license server is not blocked by the configuration or a firewall.
Optionally, define how multiple licenses will be used (selecting primary/backup license, defining license priorities).
If you have an existing license that needs to be updated, you need to create a customer-to-vendor (C2V) file and use this file to request a license update from Stromasys.

Overview of License Management Tools

The following list shows the main tools used to manage licenses on Windows:

Sentinel Admin Control Center (ACC): A web-based interface providing important configuration options with respect to licenses.
The license viewing utility: A GUI-based tool to display the detailed license contents. Cannot be used over a remote connection when using local hardware licenses.
The license update utility: A GUI-based tool to extract the information required for creating and updating licenses, and to install the resulting license data.

Accessing the License Management Tools on Charon Version 4.7 and older

The Sentinel ACC on the local system is accessed by starting a web-browser and pointing it to the URL: http://localhost:1947.

The license viewing utility and the license update utility are accessed via

Start > All programs > Charon > Charon product folder > Utilities as shown in the image below.

Accessing the License Management Tools on Charon Version 4.8 and Higher

All license management tools are accessed via the Charon Virtual Machines Manager (VMM) as shown in the image below.

The CHARON VMM is started via Start > Charon > CHARON Virtual Machines Manager or by clicking on the associated desktop icon.

Define a Password for the Sentinel Admin Control Center (ACC)

Please note: Stromasys strongly recommends performing the steps described below to reduce the risk of unauthorized access to the Sentinel ACC.

By default, anyone on the local system with access to port 1947 can access the GUI. If remote access is enabled, users on the network with access to port 1947 can also access the GUI. To protect access to the GUI with a password, perform the following steps:

Step	Description
1	Open a web browser and navigate to http://localhost:1947/.
2	Click on the left-hand menu item labeled Configuration.
3	Click on the Basic Settings tab.
4	Under the entry labeled Password Protection, click the Change Password button.
5	At the Change Password window: Leave the Current Admin Password field blank (there is no password set by default). Enter the desired password into the New Admin Password field. Repeat the desired password in the Re-enter new Admin Password field. Click the Submit button.
6	Back at the Basic Settings tab: Under the section labeled Password Protection, select the All ACC Pages radio button. Click the Submit button to save this change.
7	Optional: to allow remote access to the Sentinel HASP GUI: Click the Basic Settings tab. Select the Allow Remote Access to ACC check box. Click the Submit button. Additional information for remote access to the Sentinel HASP GUI: The firewall must permit access to port 1947/TCP, and network visibility on the ACC network configuration tab must be set to All Network Adapters. If required, remote access can also be enabled on Linux by editing the file /etc/hasplm/hasplm.ini and setting the parameter ACCremote to 1. Should the file not yet exist, refer to How-to enable remote connection to Sentinel Admin Control Center without GUI. The parameter to enable network visibility is bind_local_only. It must be set to 0 to enable all adapters. Changed settings are recognized automatically by aksusbd.

View Existing Licenses

It is important to know which licenses are visible on a system. For example, the user can

determine if the correct license is installed,
identify the expiration date on time-based licenses,
identify the remaining hours of run-time on backup licenses,
identify the license ID of primary and backup license which are needed for the emulator configuration file.

Licenses can be viewed using two tools:

Sentinel ACC: shows important information, but not the product specific license parameters.
License viewing utility: shows all product details contained on the license. Can only be run from a local connection for local hardware licenses.

Viewing a License with Sentinel ACC

To view available licenses using Sentinel ACC, start the web interface as described above.

Please note: starting with Charon-AXP/VAX 4.9 a new Sentinel ACC version (>= 7.60) has been included in the product. The functionality is very similar but the appearance is somewhat different.

o get to the Sentinel Keys screen, click on the corresponding menu item or access the URL http://localhost:1947/_int_/devices.html directly. A screen similar to the following opens and displays the available license keys:

For Sentinel drivers version 7.60 and above, this screen looks similar to the following:

This page displays important information about the available licenses, including

Location: Shows whether the license is local or remote. If the license is a network license, the hostname of the remote system is specified. You can access the remote license manager by clicking on the hostname, provided that access is permitted.
Key ID: The unique identification of the license.
Key Type: Hardware keys are marked by the abbreviation HL (hardware license) and a picture of the license dongle. Software licenses are marked by the abbreviation SL (software license).
Sessions: Shows the number of active sessions opened for the specific key.

The buttons on the right-hand side can be used to retrieve more information about the license or to extract the C2V file for a license update. The Browse button shown for network licenses will connect to the remote license manager to show the license features.

A C2V file can only be extracted if the license in question is local to the current license manager, i.e., the license manager to which the web browser is connected. You can connect to a remote license manager by clicking on the hostname in the Location column (if connections are allowed).

Please note:

The option to create a C2V file is not available in older versions of the license software.
Starting with ACC version 7.60, the option to create C2V files for USB dongles is only available if it has been enabled in the basic configuration section (under the Configuration menu item).
Newer versions of ACC also offer the option to create a fingerprint for a new SW license.
Some newer versions of ACC show the option on this screen to create a DEMOMA fingerprint. This is a demo key for development purposes and not relevant for Charon products.
Some newer versions of ACC offer to create a fingerprint for a software license if such a license does not exist yet. Do not use this option. The resulting file has a format that is incompatible with the Stromasys license creation tools. Instead use the tools described in Installing the License.

The menu options Products, Features and Sessions on the left-hand side provide the same information as the buttons. However, they show the information for all licenses.

Viewing a License with the License Viewing Utility

To view available licenses using the license viewing utility, start the program as described above.

Please note: a local hardware key cannot be read via a remote connection (e.g., via RDP). One possible workaround is described in detail in the document How to read a HASP key over RDP on Windows. It shows, how to setup a scheduled task for this purpose.

HASP View Utility Window

The following image shows sample output:

The buttons at the bottom of the window provide additional functions:

Charon License Details (re-)queries the selected license key (the highlighted tab) and displays the contents.
Refresh the key list. This is useful if a key has just been added or removed.
Copy license details to clipboard, for example to paste into a support e-mail.
Exit from the utility.

If there is more than one license, the data for each license is shown on a separate tab.

Please note: starting with Charon-AXP/VAX version 4.9, the button Charon License Details has been renamed to Refresh current license. The names of some parameters have changed, new parameters were added, and other parameters removed. See the following sample output:

Installing the License

This section provides a short overview of the initial license installation. For more in-depth information about licensing, please refer to the licensing handbook.

Preparation

Before a license can be installed, some preparatory steps are required.

Ensure that the correct Sentinel Runtime software is installed. Please refer to the installation section of your Charon emulator user's guide for details.
If a conflicting or obsolete license is available on the system it may be necessary to (temporarily) remove or disable it. If you need to remove a hardware license, simply unplug it. If you need to remove a software license or disable access to a network license, please refer to the relevant chapter in the licensing handbook. Before removing a license or disabling access to it ensure that it is not required by another currently active product.

Installing a Local Hardware License

A local hardware license (USB dongle) is installed by inserting the USB license key into a free USB port of the host system after the Sentinel runtime software has been installed.

After this step, verify that the license is visible to the system by following the steps for viewing a license as described above. Please bear in mind that a local hardware license cannot be read when connected to the system via a remote connection (e.g., via RDP).

Installing a Software License

To install a new software license, perform the following steps:

Step 1: Start the license update utility as described above and create a fingerprint file:

The license update utility (HASPRUS) looks the same, independent of the product variant used.

The following image shows the necessary options for creating a fingerprint file: select the tab Collect Status Information and the option Installation of new protection key.

After pressing the Collect Information button, you will be prompted to enter a location for storing the fingerprint file. Select a location and filename and save the file.

Once a software license has been installed, current versions of the license update utility do not allow you to create another fingerprint without (temporarily) removing the installed software license. Therefore, save the created fingerprint file in case you need to create an additional software license for the same system (this will be the exception because in most cases the existing license can be updated with the required information). If you don't have the fingerprint file anymore and cannot create a second fingerprint because there is already a valid software license installed, please contact your Stromasys representative or VAR. If you have an obsolete/invalid software license on your system, you can remove it as described in Removing a License.

Step 2: Send the resulting fingerprint file to Stromasys orders administration using the email address that Stromasys will provide to you.

Step 3: After receiving the V2C file from Stromasys, copy the file to the system where the license needs to be installed, start the license update utility as described above, and install the new license:

1. To install the V2C file(s) for hardware and software licenses, select the tab Apply License File.

2. Press the "..." button next to the Update File field. This will open a file browser.

3. Select the V2C file to be applied.

4. Click on Apply Update to complete the operation.

Please note: This section describes the installation of a new software license. However, the installation procedure for a V2C file is identical when updating a hardware license.

Important caveat: When updating a hardware license, you will in most cases receive two V2C files, a *_fmt.v2c file and a *.v2c file. The *_fmt.v2c file formats the dongle and the *.v2c file contains the updated license data. In such cases the *_fmt.v2c file must be applied first.

Installing a Network License

For a network license to be provided to a client host on the network, a license server must have been set up either with a network-enabled hardware license (red dongle) or a software license (software licenses are always network enabled).

If the license server also runs a Charon emulator product, follow the software installation steps in the user's guide. Additionally, the licensing handbook contains additional information about setting up a dedicated license server without installing the full product kit using the license-specific packages of a product kit.

For the client to access a license on a license server the following steps are required:

Any firewall between license server and client must permit the necessary communication.
The license server must be configured to allow access from the client.
The client must be configured to allow access to the license server.

Firewall Considerations

The following ports are used for the communication between license server and client hosts:

On the server side (where network license has been installed), port 1947 must be open for incoming TCP and UDP traffic to allow client access to the license.
On the client side, traffic is initiated using ports 30000 through 65535 as the source ports and port 1947 as the target port. If broadcast search for remote licenses is to be used, the client must also permit UDP traffic initiated from port 1947 of the license server to ports 30000 through 65535 of the client.

If a host on the network cannot find the license server even though the server is operational, you can temporarily disable the firewall to determine whether it blocks the traffic.

For details on how to configure the firewall in your network, please consult your operating system documentation and make sure to adhere to your company's security policies.

Allowing Client Access on the License Server

The Sentinel license manager on the license server can be configured to allow or disallow access from remote clients to the network licenses installed on the license server. To access this configuration option, perform the following steps on the license server:

1. Open a web-browser and go to the URL http://localhost:1947/_int_/config_from.html (option: Configuration / Access from Remote Clients).

2. This opens a page similar to the following. Please note: newer Charon emulator products (e.g., Charon-AXP/VAX version 4.9) have newer versions of Sentinel ACC. The pages of these versions look different, but the functionality remains mostly the same.

Old ACC version:

New ACC version:

Or for versions starting with 8.x:

3. Possible actions:

- To allow access from remote clients, activate the check-box next to the field Allow Access from Remote Clients or Anyone and cloud licenses can be consumed without identity and press Submit at the bottom of the page.
  To allow access from remote clients, network visibility on the "Network" tab must be set to All Network Adapters.
- To refuse access from remote clients, clear the check-box next to the field Allow Access from Remote Clients or select No one, and press Submit.
- Access Restrictions allow refining access rules, e.g., by specifying IP addresses. Please refer to Sentinel ACC help for details.

Sentinel ACC versions 8.x and higher have additional configuration options on this screen (mostly cloud related). These options are not relevant to Charon emulator products.

Allowing Access to a License Server on the Client

The Sentinel ACC can be configured to enable or prevent that the client host discovers network licenses and to change the options used to discover and access network licenses provided by a license server.

1. Open a web-browser on the client host and go to the URL http://localhost:1947/_int_/config_to.html
(option: Configuration / Access to Remote License Managers).

2. This will open a configuration page similar to the following. Please note: newer Charon emulator products (e.g., Charon-AXP/VAX version 4.9) have newer versions of the Sentinel license drivers. The Sentinel ACC pages of these versions look different, but the functionality remains mostly the same

Old ACC version:

New ACC version:

3. Possible actions:

- Activate the check-box next to the field Allow Access to Remote Licenses to enable access to license servers. Press Submit to save the setting.
- Clear the check-box next to the field Allow Access to Remote Licenses to disable access to license servers. Press Submit to save the setting.
- The option Broadcast Search for Remote Licenses, when activated, enables a broadcast search for license servers on the local network without having to enter the address of a license server.

Please note:

If the option Broadcast Search for Remote Licenses is not enabled or cannot be used in the customer specific setting, you can enter specific IP addresses or host names that should be queried for network licenses in the Remote License Search Parameters field. Please refer to the Sentinel ACC help function for more information.
To allow access to remote license managers, network visibility on the "Network" tab must be set to All Network Adapters.
Starting with Charon-AXP/VAX 4.9 for Linux and Charon-AXP/VAX version 4.8 for Windows, these Charon emulator products do not follow the settings in the Sentinel ACC with respect to querying remote license servers and network visibility. They perform a broadcast search for network licenses even if this has been disabled in the local Sentinel ACC configuration. If this behavior has to be prevented for specific reasons, the access of the system to the license server has to be temporarily restricted or disabled, for example by blocking the relevant traffic in a firewall. Another possibility would be to block access to the network license at the license server side. Note that such methods can negatively impact other functions of the system or, in the case of blocking access to a network license on the server, even the functions on other license clients.

Verifying License Availability

After installing a license on the system, verify the availability of the license as described in the section View Existing Licenses.

Check if the license shows the correct product, expiration date etc.

Handling Multiple Keys

A Charon host system can have access to several local and remote license keys. Each license key can contain one or more product licenses.

The Charon emulator products can only use one active license at one time. Without additional configuration, they cannot make decisions about which product license or license key to use. If there is more than one available license key, the default license key will be used. The default license key is determined by the Sentinel software. As this can lead to undesirable effects, newer Charon emulator products have configuration parameters that allow the definition of a primary (or production) and a secondary (or backup) key, or the creation of a list of license keys or product licenses sorted by priority.

The following sections describe the options available to achieve a more deterministic license selection. If only one license is available, either locally installed or via the network, this section does not apply.

Please note: for Charon-AXP/VAX before version 4.9 and other older Charon products: the parameters described in this section can only be used to define a primary key and a backup key, or to specify the correct key if there is a conflicting license for a different Charon product on the same system. It is not possible with these versions of Charon to combine a local license (black dongle) with other licenses (local or network) to increase the number of concurrent instances of the same Charon product on one host system. Newer versions allow a more flexible use of multiple licenses. Both variants are described in the following sections.

Backup License Characteristics

It is strongly recommended to order a backup key to recover immediately from damage or loss of the main license key. A backup license key can also help in situations where the Charon host hardware fails and the software must be moved to a different system, thus invalidating the original software license.

Backup keys typically use a counter (integer) value programmed in the key. This integer value corresponds to a number of hours the Charon software is allowed to run. Each time the Charon software checks the license (at start and then every hour), the value is decreased (by 1 hour). Please note that backup keys have may have additional restrictions:

The runtime is typically limited to 720 hours (30 days). This is the time available to get a replacement license from Stromasys.
A backup license key may be valid only until a certain date.

Please note: if you start and stop the emulator frequently (e.g., frequent runs with a duration of under one hour), the runtime may be significantly less than 30 days, because the license check during the start of an emulator will reduce the counter by one.

Primary and Backup License for Charon-AXP/VAX prior to Version 4.9

If more than one key is visible to the system, you can define which is the primary and which the backup key. To do this, add the following parameters to the configuration file of the Charon instance:

set session license_key_id[0]=<primary-key-id>

set session license_key_id[1]=<secondary-key-id>

The entry with index 0 denotes the primary key, the entry with index 1 the backup key.

To identify the relevant key IDs, display the available licenses as described in section View Existing Licenses.

To get information about modifying the Charon configuration files, refer to the appropriate sections in the user's guide.

Prioritized List of License Keys or License IDs for Charon-AXP/VAX 4.9 and Higher

Prioritized List of License Keys

If more than one key is visible to the system, you can define a prioritized list of license keys. To do this, add the following parameter to the configuration file of the Charon instance:

set session license_key_id = "<key-id prio1>, <key-id prio2>,...[,any]"

The first entry in the list has the highest priority. The emulator instance will try to use this key first. If it is not available, it will try the second key in the list and so on. If the parameter any is added to the end of the list, the emulator instance will search for any keys not part of the list should none of the listed keys be available. If the parameter is not defined, an unqualified search for a suitable license will be performed and the first one found (if any) will be used. If no usable license is found, the emulator will stop.

To identify the relevant key IDs, display the available licenses as described in section View Existing Licenses.

To get information about modifying the Charon configuration files, refer to the appropriate sections in the user's guide.

Prioritized List of Product License IDs

Every license key can contain one or more product sections. Newer licenses can contain a product license ID identifying each product section. A prioritized list of product license IDs can be added to the emulator instance configuration file to specify which product sections to use and which should have the highest priority. To do this, add the following parameter to the configuration file of the Charon instance:

set session license_id = "<lic-id prio1>, <lic-id prio2>,..."

The emulator instance will scan the available license keys for the listed product license IDs. Then it will try to use the first defined product section. If it is not available, it will try the next and so on. If none of the listed product license IDs are found, the emulator will stop.

To identify the relevant product license IDs, display the available licenses as described in section View Existing Licenses.

To get information about modifying the Charon configuration files, refer to the appropriate sections in the user's guide.

Update an Existing License

If you need to update an existing hardware or software license, for example because the time limit on the license has expired or to upgrade to a new product version, perform the following tasks:

Generate the C2V file for the existing license. This step is the same for a hardware license or an existing software license. This Customer-to-Vendor (C2V) file contains the license characteristics necessary for creating the license update.
Send the C2V file to Stromasys. Stromasys will use the data to create the necessary license update. You will receive one (software license) or two (most hardware license updates) V2C files (the Vendor-to-Customer file).
Apply the license data from the V2C file(s). This will install and activate the update for your license.

These tasks are described below:

Step 1: Start the license update utility as described above and generate the C2V file:

The License Update Utility (HASPRUS) looks the same, independent of the product variant used.

The following image shows the necessary options for generating a C2V file for an existing license: select the tab Collect Status Information and the option Update of existing protection key.

After pressing the Collect Information button, you will be prompted to enter a location for storing the C2V file. Select a location and filename and save the file.

If there is more than one license key available on the system, the tool will allow you to select the appropriate key to update as shown in the screenshot below:

Step 2: Send the resulting C2V file to Stromasys orders administration using the email address that Stromasys will provide to you.

Step 3: After receiving the V2C file(s) from Stromasys, copy the file(s) to the system where the license needs to be installed, start the license update utility as described above, and install the new license:

Important caveat: if a hardware USB key is to be updated, you will in most cases have received two files: a *_fmt.v2c file and a *.v2c file. The *_fmt.v2c file formats the dongle and the *.v2c file contains the updated license data. In such cases the *_fmt.v2c file must be applied first.

1. To install the V2C file(s) for hardware and software licenses, select the tab Apply License File.

2. Press the "..." button next to the Update File field. This will open a file browser.

3. Select the V2C file to be applied.

4. Click on Apply Update to complete the operation.

If you received two V2C files, perform these steps for both files (remember to first apply the *_fmt.v2c file).

Alternatively, you can use the Sentinel ACC to apply V2C files (use the section Update/Attach). Refer to the license handbook for more details.

Removing a License

If a license needs to be removed from a system or the access to the license needs to be disabled, the steps are different for the different license types and are described in the next sections:

Removing a hardware license from a system
Removing a software license from a system
Removing access to a network license from a system

Important: before removing a license from a system or disabling access to a license, take to following points into consideration:

Make sure that there is a valid replacement license for all emulator instances depending on the license to be removed, or make sure the emulated systems have been cleanly shut down,
Make sure that this step will not negatively impact your production environment.

Removing a Hardware License from a System

To remove a hardware license from a system, simply unplug it from the system.

Removing a Software License from a System

Please note:

The old method for removing a software license from a system depended on the license transfer functionality. This functionality is no longer available in the current versions of the Charon products. The only way to remove a non-transferable obsolete software license is the method described below. On Microsoft Windows, you can use the Charon License Utility (see CHARON on Windows - Charon License Utility) to perform the necessary steps.

To remove an obsolete software license or a software license in cloned state (a software license goes into a cloned state, for example, if a VM is cloned to a different Virtual Machine UUID) from the system, perform the following basic steps:

Start the Sentinel Admin Control Center (ACC) (for local system: URL http://localhost:1947).
Identify the software license that is to be removed.
Identify the name of the certificate file and the path of the base directory where it is stored.
Remove the certificate file(s).
Restart the Sentinel runtime service.

The following example shows the required steps in detail:

1. Go to http://localhost:1947/ to access the Sentinel HASP ACC and select Sentinel Keys on the left.

2. In the Sentinel Admin Control Center (ACC), go to Sentinel Keys and locate the target "Sentinel SL AdminMode" license to be removed.

3. Click on the Certificates button at the right side of the SL description:

Old version (showing a software license in cloned state):

New version (showing an active software license and a cloned software license):

4. Note the name of the corresponding certificate file and the path to the certificates base directory as shown in the "Certificates" section:

Example using old ACC version:

Please note: the certificate display screen can look slightly different depending on the type of software license and the actions performed on this license in the past. The following example shows the certificates of a software license after several updates. The screenshot is based on Sentinel ACC version equal or higher than version 7.60.

5. Remove the certificate file(s) using operating system tools.

a. In the first example above (Windows), there is one file to be removed. It is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\SafeNet Sentinel\Sentinel LDK\installed\68704.
b. In the second example (Linux) there are several files created by a series of license updates. On Linux, the certificate files are typically stored in /var/hasplm/installed/68704/.
c. All certificate files in the identified directory must be removed.

6. After removing the certificate file, restart the Sentinel license service or reboot the system. To restart the service, proceed as follows:

a. On Windows, restart the "Sentinel LDK License Manager" service (hasplms) either using the services.msc program or via a command line (as administrator) then enter the "sc stop hasplms" command followed by "sc start hasplms".
Important: any running emulators will be stopped if the license service is forced to stop despite existing service dependencies (i.e., running emulators). So any running guest systems must be cleanly shutdown before restarting the license service in order to avoid data loss.

b. On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x and 8.x (and compatible Linux systems) restart the aksusbd service: # systemctl restart aksusbdThis also will automatically restart the hasplmd service (separate service for this daemon was introduced in newer runtime driver versions).

c. On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x, restart the aksusbd service: # service aksusbd restart

7. Start the Sentinel ACC again to verify that the software license has been removed.

Removing Access to Network Licenses from a System

There are three different ways to remove a network license. They have different implications and are described below:

Full Removal of Network License

To completely remove a network license, follow the steps above for hardware or software licenses respectively. The steps must be performed on the license server.

Please note: this will remove the license for all emulator hosts on the network using this license and also for the local host. Make sure that this is in fact intended.

Block Access of Remote Emulator Hosts to Network License

You can use the Sentinel Admin Control Center on the license server

to allow access to a network license for all or specific hosts on the network, or
to block access from remote hosts completely.

Please refer to the section Controlling Access to Network License on Server Side in Installing a Network License for more information.

Block Access to Network Licenses on Client System

If access of the local system to network licenses is not desired, this can be disabled in the Sentinel ACC for certain products and product versions. Blocking access at the server side is the safer way.

Please refer to the section Controlling Access to Network License on Client Side in Installing a Network License for more information.

Manual Sentinel HASP License Driver Installation

This is normally not required as the license drivers are part of the Charon emulator product installation kits. Also, Stromasys provides a license update utility that simplifies this task.

New License Driver Installation

Before installing the license make sure that the Sentinel run-time (driver) to be installed is collected from your Charon kit or provided by Stromasys on request for your particular product. Do not update the Sentinel run-time (driver) from online or any other sources, including the Sentinel web site.

In case of several Charon kits containing different versions of Sentinel run-time (driver), the last one, having the most recent version, must be installed. The Charon installation performs this operation automatically.

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

Installation of a Charon regular or network license consists of:

Installation of the Sentinel run-time environment on the Charon emulator host (regular and network keys) or on the host that will distribute Charon licenses over a local network segment (network key only). The Sentinel software is installed automatically by the Charon emulator products for Windows.
Physical connection of the HASP license dongle to the Charon host or to the host distributing the Charon license over the local network segment.
Collecting the system fingerprint (*.c2v file), sending it to Stromasys and applying the update (*.v2c file) in case of software license (and in case of updating HASP dongle license). See the details below.

When a manual installation of the Sentinel run-time is required (in the case of the network license server that does not have a Charon emulator product installed):

Login as Administrator
Open the Charon kit folder
Switch to the hasp_install subfolder
Unzip the archive haspdinst.zip located in this folder
Open cmd.exe and switch to the folder where the files were unzipped
Execute the following commands:
...> haspdinst.exe -fr -kp -nomsg
...> haspdinst.exe -install -cm
Extract the contents of this archive hasplib.zip to the same directory.
Copy the file haspvlib_68704.dll
to C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Aladdin Shared\HASP" (in case of a x64 host) or
to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Aladdin Shared\HASP (in case of a x86 host)

Note that the following operations have to be performed when installing a network license:

On the server side (where the network license will reside): open port 1947 for both TCP and UDP
On the client side, if broadcast search for remote licenses is to be used, UDP traffic from port 1947 of the license server to ports 30000-65535 of the client must be permitted.
Both on server and client sides: setup default gateway

Please consult with your Windows User's Guide on details.

If stricter firewall rules are required, it is possible to open the ports 30000-65535 and 1947 only for the Sentinel HASP License Manager (hasplms.exe) service (it will be installed as part of the Charon emulator kit).

Replacing the Currently installed License Drivers

Replacement of the currently installed Sentinel Run-time can be needed in case of installation of specific run-time provided by Stromasys.

To proceed, remove the current version of Sentinel run-time:

Login as Administrator
Extract the content of the unique ZIP file residing in hasp_install directory of the Charon distribution to the same folder.
Run cmd.exe from the Start menu of host computer
cd to the hasp_install directory
Issue the following command:
...> haspdinst.exe-fr -kp -nomsg

Install the new Sentinel run-time:

cd to the directory where the target run-time resides
Issue the following command:
...> haspdinst.exe -install -cm
cd to the hasp_install directory
Extract the contents of this archive hasplib.zip to the same directory.
Copy the file haspvlib_68704.dll
to C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Aladdin Shared\HASP (in case of a x64 host) or
to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Aladdin Shared\HASP" (in case of a x86 host).

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