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Installing the VE License Server Software

Installing the VE License Server Software

May 23, 2022

Please note:

  • The license server kit is included in pre-packaged Charon emulator marketplace images. Alternatively, Stromasys will provide you with a download location.
  • Charon emulators that are to use Virtual Environments (VE) licenses require at least one VE license server on the Charon host system itself or an a separate license server. However, it is recommended to run the VE license server on a dedicated system to avoid license invalidation caused by changes to the system which are more likely to occur on a system used for other purposes as well, for example, to run a Charon emulator. It is also recommended to install a backup license server to ensure continued operation in case of a failure or invalidation of the primary license.
  • For more information, and if you installed your host system using a different base image and the VE License Server RPM packages, please refer to the VE License Server user's guide in the Licensing Documentation section of the Stromasys documentation site.
  • Additional information for Amazon Linux 2023: by default, Amazon Linux only installs a minimal gnupg package. This is not sufficient to unpack the VE license server kits archive. An attempt to unpack the archive will result in the error gpg: uncompressing failed: Unknown compression algorithm. To swap the minimal for the full package, use the following command:
    # dnf swap gnupg2-minimal gnupg2-full
  • Important: when upgrading to version 2.4.9 or above from an older version of the license server, additional steps are required:

    • Before installing version 2.4.9 or later:

      • Backup modified VE configuration files (e.g., config.ini, non-default certificates).

      • If the VE license server runs in AutoVE mode:

        • Backup the instances.db file.

        • If on same host as SSP: check SSP and AutoVE compatibility in the Release Notes. Upgrade Charon-SSP if needed and rename the file /opt/charon-license-server (if it exists) to /opt/charon-license-server-address.

      • Uninstall the old VE version (do not use the upgrade function).

    • After installing the new version:

      • The latest xxx.v2c license file must be re-imported

      • Restore the previously saved files to the new installation directory and restart the license service


In the description below, the placeholders used have the following meaning:

  • <mykey> is the private key of the key-pair you associated with your cloud instance
    (for an on-premises VMware installation or an installation on a physical system where logging in with username/password is allowed, this is not needed).
  • <user> is the management user associated with your license server instance. For an instance installed from a Stromasys-provided Charon AL or VE emulator marketplace image, use user charon for SFTP and user sshuser for interactive login.
  • <linux-ip> is the ip address of your license server system.

Please note: if an instance was installed from a prepackaged Charon emulator marketplace image, the installation package is already stored in /charon/storage. Please check, if there are newer versions available that would be preferable for your environment.

Perform the following steps to install the VE License Server software:

  1. Copy the license server software package to the license server host (if needed):
    1. For example, use sftp to connect to the VE license server system.
      # sftp -i ~/.ssh/<mykey>  <user>@<linux-ip>
    2. Copy the software package to the license server system using the following SFTP command:
      > put <local-path-to-license-server-package>

  2. Use ssh to log in on the license server host.
    # ssh-i ~/.ssh/<mykey> <user>@<linux-ip>

  3. As a privileged user (root) go to the directory where you stored the installation package and install the package:
    1. Become the root user: # sudo -i
    2. Go to the package location:  # cd <path-to-package-directory>
      If you used SFTP to copy the package to an instance installed from a prepackaged Charon marketplace image, the home directory of the charon user and the default location for file transfers is /charon/storage.
    3. Unpack the archive and agree to the end-user license agreement (EULA).
      1. For VE license server 2.2.4 and above:
        1. # sh ./license-server-<version>.rpm.sh
          This will display the EULA. You must agree to it to unpack the software.
        2. For version 2.2.4, the RPM installation package will be unpacked in the current directory.
        3. For version 2.2.5 and later, the EULA and the RPM package will be unpacked in a subdirectory (license-server-<version>.rpm) of the current working directory.
        4. RPM package name: license-server-<version>.rpm
      2. For VE license server 2.4.9 and above:
        1. # sh ./charon-license-server-<version>.rpm.sh
          This will display the EULA. You must agree to it to unpack the software.
        2. The RPM installation package will be unpacked in a subdirectory (charon-license-server-<version>) of the current working directory.
        3. RPM package name: charon-license-server-<version>.rpm
        4. Important: if this is an upgrade from a version before 2.4.9, the old version must be uninstalled first and additional post-installation steps are required. Before proceeding, review the requirements described in the overview section above and the VE License Server Release Notes.
    4. Install the package: 
      1. Go to the directory in which the RPM package is located.           
      2. Linux 7.x: # yum install <license-server-package-name>
      3. Linux 8.x and higher: # dnf install <license-server-package-name>


Sample installation:

# dnf install charon-license-server-2.4.9.rpm
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:23 ago on Wed 12 Nov 2025 01:20:19 PM UTC.
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================================================
Installing:
charon-license-server x86_64 2.4.9-1 @commandline 56 M

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 1 Package

Total size: 56 M
Installed size: 90 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
Preparing : 1/1
Running scriptlet: charon-license-server-2.4.9-1.x86_64 1/1
Installing : charon-license-server-2.4.9-1.x86_64 1/1
Running scriptlet: charon-license-server-2.4.9-1.x86_64 1/1
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/CharonLicenseServer.service → /etc/systemd/system/CharonLicenseServer.service.

Verifying : charon-license-server-2.4.9-1.x86_64 1/1

Installed:
charon-license-server-2.4.9-1.x86_64

Complete!

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