Floating Licenses

A Floating License enables multiple machines to use the same license. The number of "seats" specified during purchase determines how many concurrent users can check out a license.

These licenses are served via a local license server. Connectivity to the license server is required in order to check out a license.

Setting up the license server

  1. Download or copy the RLM bundle to the machine you want to run the license server on.

    1. You can download the RLM bundle from Reprise’s support site. Versions for all platforms are available there. Please select the appropriate package.

  2. Unpack the archive to a user-defined directory.

    1. It is recommended to create a new folder in the C:\root directory and keep all your license-related files in there.

  3. Download the ISV file hightec-rt.set (compatible with all RLM versions) from https://download.hightec-rt.com/rlm/18/hightec-rt.set -if you don’t already have it.

  4. Copy the ISV file and paste it into your user-defined directory (to the same directory where the rlm.exe file is located).

  5. Copy the server license (cached/floating/roaming) that you received upon purchase to another user-defined directory.

    1. It is recommended to keep this in a subdirectory of the C :\ root directory, e.g., C:\Reprise\Licenses \.

  6. To start the license server, open a terminal in the directory of your RLM executable and run it by typing "rlm.exe -c <path_to_license>".

    1. For this example, use:

rlm.exe -c c:\Reprise\Licenses\YourHighTecLicense.lic

Your license server should now be active. You can try it out by accessing the RLM web interface.

Administration interface

After you have started the license server, you can access the RLM web interface to easily manage your licenses. This can be accessed by typing your hostname and port number into a web browser, like this: "https://<hostname>:<port_number>".

Accessing the license server

To access the license server outside the HighTec IDE, you need to set up the RLM_LICENSE environment variable and point it to your license server e.g. from a Windows cmd command line via set RLM_LICENSE=<port_number>@<hostname> or on the graphic interface. This needs to be done for each client machine trying to access the license server.

Automated license server

If your company runs a server computer, you may want to set up the RLM license server to start automatically at boot time. To do this, Reprise offers the function to set up the RLM license server to run as a service on your machine.

For this, you can find a detailed and up-to-date tutorial on Reprise’s website: one section for Windows and another section for Unix systems. Please notice, that this section assumes you have already completed the basic steps of setting up your license server.

Notes

  • As of RLM v15.1 an automatic username and password are set for you. Username: admin, password: admin. If you don’t change the password, the license server will shut down within 10 minutes. The password can most easily be changed via the RLM web interface.

  • In case you have more than one product licensed through RLM the standard port number may be occupied. This can easily be fixed by changing the port number inside your license file. The port number is listed under the "HOST" line in your license file. The standard port number is 5053. HighTec does not need to validate this change in the license file (for more information, please check the related part of our FAQ). Another option is to use only one RLM instance and let it handle all the licenses of your software vendors.

  • If you set up the RLM server as a service on Windows, the "-install_service" command does not start your license server automatically. To start it, you need to navigate to the Windows service list or restart your computer.

  • If you receive the error message: Error: Access to Service Control Manager denied, it typically means that RLM could not get proper access to create a Windows service. To fix this, make sure that your terminal was started with “run as administrator” and that your RLM directories are granted proper access. This error can also occur if you have tried to set up the Windows service with an administrator account. Reprise has the following to say about this issue:

The solution is to create a service user who isn’t an administrator to run the service. The service can be configured to be run as the service user in one or two ways. Either:
- Use the -user and -password parameters when creating the service or
- Create the service and then modify the service and change the "Log On User". That is, the important part is that a separate user account is created and that it is granted proper access to modify the services on your machine.

  • Further information regarding the different parameters of setting up a service on your Windows machine can be found in the RLM user-guide.