Application Note 2011: Quick Installation guide for the OpenLM license management system v1.8

The OpenLM Floating license monitoring and Usage optimization tool interfaces an ever growing variety of license managers, such as Flexera FlexLM (Flexnet publisher), Beta LM, IBM LUM, DSLS, Sentinel HASP, Sentinel RMS, Reprise RLM, MathLM, LM-X and Easycopy.

Step 1: Installation

The OpenLM System components are available for download on the OpenLM site. After filling in your name and email, you would be directed to the download section. Select the OpenLM Version 1.8 section:


And start by downloading the server:

When downloading is complete, double click the downloaded *.msi file and follow the standard installation instructions.

Step 2: Configuring License Servers

When the installation is complete, click:

Windows’ Start → All Programs → OpenLM → Server → OpenLM Server Configuration

The OpenLM Server configuration window opens.

1. Add in your license servers:

  • Click the ‘Add’ button,

  • Type in the License server’s host name or IP (e.g. lm10) and Port number (e.g. 27000)

  • Select the new License server’s type (e.g. FlexLM)

  • Type in an informative name (e.g. “lm10 – ArcGis server”)

  • Select the license server’s time zone (e.g. UTC+1)

The image below demonstrates this configuration:

 

2. Select a license server and click the check button in order to ensure that OpenLM can retrieve information from that license server. This information is the input received from the License manager.

3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 for all license servers.

4. Click ‘Apply’, and “Restart now”.

Step 3: The OpenLM EasyAdmin Interface

The EasyAdmin web application is the main OpenLM Administrative and user interface.

You can find it on:

Windows’ Start → All Programs → OpenLM → OpenLM EasyAdmin2.

The OpenLM EasyAdmin opens. Click the EasyAdmin start button to explore this application’s features.

The image above is an example of an EasyAdmin workspace. It features Administrative tools, License data, License usage data, Graphic usage representation, Roles and permissions’ assignment, and Active Agent capabilities.

For more information on the OpenLM EasyAdmin web interface, please refer to this document.

Congratulations!

You now have an up and running OpenLM system.

For further information regarding the installation and preliminary configuration of the OpenLM system components, please refer to the “Application Note 2010: OpenLM license management system Complete Installation guide v1.8” document.

Revision table

Revision

Author

Date

Remarks

0.1

Orik

Apr 23,  2013

Preliminary

Siemens PLM license analysis and license monitoring

OpenLM supports license monitoring of a wide, and ever growing variety of license managers. Among those are Flexera FlexLM (Flexnet publisher), IBM LUM, DSLS, Sentinel HASP, Sentinel RMS, Reprise RLM, and LM-X.

This group of license management utilities encompass a great variety of licensed products. One group of such licensed products is the Siemens PLM (formerly UGS) 3D & 2D Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) group.

The OpenLM tool provides high level of application usage management and optimization for PLM licenses, providing clear and valuable usage information for Managers, License Administrators and End Users.

Siemens PLM Common Licensing

Siemens PLM employs the “Siemens PLM Software Common Licensing” tool in order to deliver a consistent licensing implementation to all PLM products. It is based on the Flexera FlexNet license management tool, and has incorporated some unique characteristics:

  • The PLM Common Licensing toolkit has adopted the Siemens PLM Software-wide licensing vendor daemon ugslmd. Consequently, all Siemens PLM products gain access to common licenses utilize this same daemon.
  • The PLM Common Licensing toolkit employs a unified license file for all PLM products.
  • The default port for the PLM ugslmd vendor daemon is 28000. That was decided in order to avoid conflicts with other applications, using the default FlexLM port 27000.
  • Composite ID (CID): This is a 12 digit hexadecimal unique machine identifier that is used as part of Siemens PLM Software licensing to lock a license file to a machine. The CID is distinguished from a FLEXnet hostid by the keyword “COMPOSITE=”.
  • NX bundles and Suite Packages: These are packages that Siemens PLM Software has predefined to meet the general needs of customers at a lower cost than purchasing individual floating licenses.

For more information on Siemens PLM Software Common Licensing, please refer to this PDF.

The OpenLM advantage

The OpenLM license monitoring tool incorporates many advantages in PLM software maintenance for members of all positions in an organization. In a nutshell:

  • Managers get a clear picture of their Software assets.
  • System Administrators are freed from managing licenses.
  • End users enjoy improved PLM license availability.

Additionally, OpenLM v 1.8 Automatically sorts NX suites, to clearly display Siemens PLM application usage measuring in its true context.

OpenLM: Concurrent license monitoring and optimization tool

What is OpenLM ?

OpenLM is a comprehensive license-management solution, designed to monitor and optimize the usage of concurrent (‘floating’) license software. OpenLM is capable of monitoring a wide variety of license managers, e.g.: FlexNet (FlexLM), Sentinel RMS, Sentinel HASP, Reprise RLM, DSLS, IBM-LUM and LM-X. MathLM and BetaLM support has also been implemented, and would be released soon.

Who was OpenLM Designed For?

Unlike other license management systems that only offer administration and license monitoring statistics, OpenLM also optimizes license usage in a unique manner that provides all personnel with useful license-related functions.

Organization managers:

  • Know what you have: License inventory.
  • Plan license maintenance and procurement of expensive licenses.
  • Charge projects or business units for software usage time.
  • Cut costs by dropping maintenance for licenses that are no longer in use.

Administrator view:

  • Real time usage management and troubleshooting.
  • Extract license usage statistics information and patterns.
  • Roles and Permissions: Grant licenses according to specific Users’ permissions.

End User View:

  • End users are not kept in the dark. They are informed about the status of denied licenses, and receive a License availability notification when a license becomes vacant.
  • Who is using the license I need, and what are this person’s contact details?

Supported features

License managers:

  • OpenLM interfaces a wide variety of license managers, e.g.: FlexLM / Flexnet publisher, IBM LUM, Sentinel RMS, Sentinel HASP, RLM, DSLS and other leading license managers.
  • Concurrent monitoring of multiple license servers on multiple time zones.
  • Management of Floating, Node-locked and Borrowed licenses.

Monitoring capabilities:

  • Easily review license inventory in real time.
  • Extract license activity reports (e.g. Flexnet report), with configurable resolution.
  • Receive Billing reports for any time period, per user or software (FLEXbill capabilities).

Infrastructure

  • Operational over WAN and LAN networks.
  • Interface license managers that run on UNIX, Linux, or Windows’ Operating systems.
  • Web-based user interface, applicable on any major browser.
  • Mobile interface application enhances monitoring abilities for system administrators.
  • OpenLM supports both external and embedded databases.

What does “Open” in “OpenLM” stand for?

OpenLM provides a set of open and documented APIs that enable customers and business partners to develop applications that integrate OpenLM software capabilities.

OpenLM Screenshots

Watch the OpenLM EasyAdmin screenshots on the OpenLM site.

Want to evaluate the software ?

You can get the most updated version of OpenLM from our OpenLM downloads area. After filling in your name and email – you’d be directed to the downloads’ section. The Installation process is easy and straightforward, but if you still need any assistance – please send an email to support@openlm.com, and we’ll be glad to help.

Application Note 1030: OpenLM license usage monitoring according to projects – v1.8.

General

OpenLM is able to record information about the usage of various licenses and allocate them to different company projects. This ability facilitates license allocation according to organizational projects, and can also serve as a mean to effectively charge-back license usage expenses according to these projects.

This ability complements OpenLM’s license monitoring capabilities; integrating license usage optimization with Active directory synchronization, Project assignment, and monitoring a variety of  license managers such as FlexLM (Flexnet), Sentinel HASP, Sentinel RMS, RLM, DSLS, LM-X, IBM LUM, and MathLM.

Scope

The Project license usage recording capability is available for OpenLM from version 1.6 onwards. In the 1.8 version, some modifications have been made:

  • The configuration of Project monitoring was shifted from the OpenLM Server configuration tool to the EasyAdmin web application.

  • Administrative capabilities have been added, such as Enabling / Disabling a project, assigning it a priority and expected duration, and marking the project’s completeness percentage.

  • Projects can now be assigned to user groups (not just to individual users), and

  • Projects can be introduced by end-users via the OpenLM Agent module.

This Application Note describes the feature as implemented in the 1.8 version.

Project usage reporting

The Project usage reporting is available on the EasyAdmin web interface. Click OpenLM Start → Resports → Project usage in order to see the report. Set the filtering options on the left-hand side of the screen, and click the ‘Apply’ button in order to run the usage query. It is also possible to view the report in a chart format, or extract the information to a CSV file (green arrow icon at the bottom) and manipulate it on a spreadsheet software.

However, before having any information to report – it is necessary to set up the projects. Please follow the section below in order to do so.

Projects Settings

The “Projects Settings” screen defines the policy of the Project usage monitoring capability. In order to open it, click the OpenLM ‘Start’ button → ‘Administration’ → ‘Projects’ icon.

Notes:

1. Projects’ information logging requires the installation of the OpenLM Agent (Either Active Agent or Utilizer Agent) on the end-users’ workstations.

2. When the OpenLM server is configured to employ user permissions, access to this window requires administrative privileges.

The ‘Projects’ window appears:

Note:

The project configuration window was moved in OpenLM version 1.8 to EasyAdmin (under the Administration menu. Following is an account of its different configuration objects:

Log Projects Information

Check the Log projects information checkbox to start recording license usage information according to projects’ allocation.

Minimal Usage Duration for Project

This setting defines the shortest duration for logging purposes. Shorter periods would be merged together to form significant usage periods. For example, if the minimal duration is set to 5 minutes, and a user has opened the application for only 3 minutes, this usage period will not be accumulated to the current session, but rather merged with the following session.

Agent’s Behavior Settings

These settings define what the end-users will see on their workstations if they work on more than one project for their organization. If the workers are only allocated to one project in EasyAdmin then OpenLM will log their license usage without the need to take any action when the software is started. If the users work on more than one project then a dialog box will appear on their screen prompting them to select the current project.

Hide projects option from menu

Deny users the ability to determine the name of the project on which they’re working.

Projects window fades away after

OpenLM enables users to ignore the project dialog box by having it fade away after a predefined number of seconds. The Projects window fades away after setting defines the number of seconds after which it becomes invisible.

Allow creation of projects in Agent

This option has been introduced in the OpenLM 1.8 version.

The OpenLM project management module facilitates project creation via the OpenLM Agent. Check this box to enable this option, thus adding the “Create New Project” menu item in the OpenLM Agent interface (see image below).

When an end-user selects this option, the “Create new Project” window opens. The user then could create new projects and associate themselves to them.

Modification of these projects will be possible in EasyAdmin only. The origin of creation of the project will be apparent in the EasyAdmin Projects list window.

Show unassigned projects

By default, users can only see projects they are assigned to in the Agent → Set Active Project menu option. Checking this box will produce a list that contains all enabled projects in the system and the user will be able to select any project from this list. This option has been introduced in the OpenLM 1.8 version.

Support Environment Variable

The LM_PROJECT env. variable support is a backward-compatibility option, that supports this variable for registering projects. The variable is defined separately for each workstation, so there is no option of overriding its value between users.

The environment variable option is disabled by default. It is recommended to use the OpenLM supplied solution, unless backward support of the environment variable option is required.

The “Add unknown project” option presents an administrative filter for project names that are unknown to the OpenLM server:

  • Checked: The unknown project will be set and added to the list of projects.

  • Unchecked (default): The unknown project will not be set.

Selecting the active project

When logging of project information is enabled (see above), work hours need to be assigned to a specific project. When there is only one project – that project will automatically be assigned all the working hours. When there are more than one project – it is up to the end users to report on what project they are currently working.

1. One option for the end user to set the Active project is to right-click the Agent icon, and select the “Set Active Project” option.

2. Another option for setting the Active project is by a pop-up window. The appearance of this pop-up is configurable by options in the ‘Projects’ window, which was mentioned above.

Display at license retrieval

The default option is to prompt the worker to select the project when retrieving a license. This is a very useful way to ensure accurate logging of the project information, therefore the recommended setting is to leave the checkbox turned on.

Display periodically every

Users may start to work on one project, and then switch to a different one, without changing the Active Project setting. If this checkbox is ticked, a dialog box will pop up in a predefined time interval, according to the number of minutes set by the user.

Project creation in EasyAdmin

In the previous section, we have seen the mathod for creating project via the Agent. Projects can also be created via the EasyAdmin “Add project” window.  

In the “Project details” tab, the Administrator can set up the following characteristics:

  • Project name

  • Start and End time for the project

  • Number of working hours allocated to this project

  • The project’s priority, and

  • The project’s completeness percentage.

Users and user groups may be assigned to the project upon its creation, via the ‘Users’ and ‘Groups’ tabs. After configuring these items, click the ‘Save’ button.

Editing existing projects

The new project would be apparent in the Projects list window. In order to access this window, Click the EasyAdmin Start button → Users and Permissions → Project List.

This window presents options to create new projects, as well as to delete or edit existing ones. It is split to two panes:

  • The left pane serves as a filter for projects to be shown on the list on the right pane.

    • The Priority drop-down list presents Low / Medium / High priority levels.

    • “Created in” marks whether the project was created by the Agent or via the EasyAdmin window: Admin / Agent

  • The right pane consists of a list of the existing projects, and an action bar at the top.  Click the top bar icons to add a new project, delete a selected project, Edit a selected project’s properties, Enable or Disable a selected project.

Attaching users and user groups to the project

After creating a project, it is time to bind users or user groups to the different projects, according to organizational preferences. In order to do so, select the target project, and select the Users or Groups tab in the ‘Add project’ window. Then select the User or Group that would be attached to the project, and click the ‘Add’ button.

Appendix A: Projects information logging in v1.7

This application note relates to the OpenLM 1.8 version. As stated in the scope of this document, most Projects information logging capabilities are already existent in the 1.7 version. The main change of interface is due to the shift of the configuration from the OpenLM Server configuration tool to the EasyAdmin web application. Below is a screenshot of the 1.7 Projects setting tab on the OpenLM Server configuration tool for comparison.

OpenLM Maintenance Release – Agent version 1.7.1.5

OpenLM Agent Version 1.7.1.5

OpenLM Agent version 1.7.1.5 is a maintenance release to version 1.7.
It contains a fix for monitoring the new ESRI ArcGis v10.1 license.
This version impacts the OpenLM Active Agent, and should be installed by users of the ESRI ArcGis v10.1.

Upgrading

In order to upgrade to Agent version 1.7.1.5:

  1. Download and Install the new Agent version on top of the existing one.
  2. Update the products XML from the OpenLM site. In order to do so:
    1. Open the OpenLM Server configuration tool in the ‘Advanced’ tab,
    2. Click the “Update products…” button. The “Update product features” window opens.
    3. Select online updating, and click the ‘Update’ button.
    4. Click the ‘Apply’ button, and “Restart Now” when prompted.

See image below for clarification.



Some customer testimonials:

“OpenLM is exactly the software we were looking for”
“Thank you OpenLM team for your incredible product.”
“Thumbs up for OpenLM !”
“(OpenLM’s) capabilities have made administering the licenses a snap …”
“Thanks to the OpenLM team for a great piece of software.”
“Congratulations on an excellent product”

 

Kory Krofft, CAD Administrator,

Trimble Navigation Ltd, USA

“Trimble Navigation Ltd. Is a Silicon Valley based technology company with a wide product range whose core technology leverages the many applications for Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Customer solutions range from controlling earthmoving equipment and precision agriculture to fleet management and surveying.

Trimble’s engineering staff includes roughly 95 CAD system users whose CAD tools are licensed through a FlexLM floating license manager. It has been a long term struggle to properly allocate the costs associated with the CAD system tools such as new licenses and maintenance fees for existing seats to the proper departments.

Initially, OpenLM was investigated as a tool to track license usage so that the costs can be allocated to the specific groups within Trimble based on actual usage of the licenses provided. OpenLm’s “Groups” feature and reporting tools make this task as simple as constructing the report description. The output clearly displays the hours that each department is responsible for, making the allocation of costs simple and equitable.

In addition to the reporting capabilities, Open LM’s license monitoring allows CAD administration to easily see the status of multiple license servers and to remotely release hung licenses.

These capabilities have made administering the licenses a snap.”

Jorge Cunha, IT department – license manager,

Faculty of Engineering,

University of Porto, Portugal

 Work day morning. IT department received a complaint about Matlab licenses not being available and was asked to explain what happened. Usual procedure would be scavenging flexlm logs, building reports by hand and filtering the data so it would make sense.

Openlm proved to be a precious tool! With few clicks we were able to create a report on what happened and illustrate it with graphics. Even more, if the users wanted to see who was using matlab, and what features were active, it provided an online web tool that could be queried on demand, by the inquiry user, enabling them to get data by the minute.

The work stress was lifted from our shoulders and the users got the information they were looking for, and more.

Thumbs up for OpenLM!

 

Philip Nelson, GIS Project Manager

Land Management, Bord na Móna, Ireland.

“I have been using OpenLM for over a year now managing our concurrent licences on Citrix between four offices and seven departments. As we only have a limited number of licences available it is critical that I can monitor the use on and hourly basis to make the most effective use of the available licences. It also helps me with the accounts department to show that we are making the most cost effective use of licences and to produce detailed statistics on a monthly/annual basis of licence use.

At the moment I am not using the full capability of OpenLM to shut down unused licences but as the use of ArcMap grows in the company I expect to implement this in the near future.

The most useful feature of this software is the ease of monitoring licence use so that users who do not have their own dedicated licence can still use ArcMap on quiet days when the full compliment is not being used. The technical support provided by OpenLM is fast and always efficient in solving any problems.”

 

Dirk Linnemüller, GIS Manager,

Landkreis Osnabrück, Germany

“As a GIS manager in a public administration I was again and again confronted with the same questions from groups with very different interests. The GIS-users asked for more GIS-licenses, the financial accounting urged me to save money in the GIS-business. With the installation of OpenLM software these questions are history. We use

our licenses much more effective and were confirmed in our guess, that some users opened GIS-software when they started working and keep the license the whole day, just to have it ready if they need. Now licenses are freed up after 20 minutes when a license usage of 80% is reached and everything works fine. The financial accounting I can apply with statistics from OpenLM about the usage of licenses to show the importance of GIS-software. OpenLM is exactly the software we were looking for. Thanks to the OpenLM team for a great piece of software.”

 

Craig Robson, JBA Consulting, UK

“As for our thoughts on OpenLM, I can honestly say we are extremely pleased with it. Before we used OpenLM there were always broadcast emails being sent around the company asking ‘can anyone free up an ArcGIS licence’ – these stopped almost immediately when we installed OpenLM. We always suspected that people were ‘hogging’ licences (i.e. loading ArcGIS when they first got into the office in the morning because they wanted to use it later and feared they wouldn’t be able to get a licence), so we widely publicised the fact that licences would now be freed up after 15 minutes of inactivity.

..As you can see, after several months of use we don’t have any real problems. OpenLM is very straightforward to administer and works very well in the background without interfering with the users’ way of working. All in all, we’re extremely glad we stumbled upon your website!! Congratulations on an excellent product.”


Daniel Avramov, GIS Team Lead,

Environment Canada

“OpenLM is the most important tool in the management of Environment Canada’s geospatial software assets. Over the past several years, Environment Canada has been working towards better coordination of the Department’s geospatial tool. OpenLM has given us the power to identify and optimize the Department’s investments and is instrumental in the decision making process for the purchase and maintenance of geospatial software. Now, instead of independently investing in duplicative and costly licenses, we have been able to consolidate and save time, resources and money. OpenLM staff are knowledgeable and friendly and most importantly know the value of client service. They went the extra mile to get their software configured on our infrastructure well before we ever committed to purchasing the software. The software is well designed, very easy to use and the summaries and statistics it provides far exceeds any other software management tool that we evaluated. OpenLM is extremely affordable and the cost saving it provided in licenses has made it pay for itself many time over. Thank you OpenLM team for your incredible product.”


Clara Alonso Fernández-Coppel,

GIS manager, Tragsatec, Spain

  “With more than 800 seats of potential users for ArcGIS, we were really worried about the  amount of licenses we will need to buy to cover our needs. People argue that they cannot finish their work when there’s not enough license available, so we received a lot of pressure to buy more licenses. We suspected that in most cases, licenses were captive but not being used. Until we bought OpenLM we couldn’t be sure that we were right.

   Now we have delayed our purchases of licenses until we get real data for the need of buying them.

   At the beginning, people get a bit annoyed when they loose their licenses, but they see the benefit of it pretty soon.

   We have received a great support from people at OpenLM: quick, effective and friendly. It has been a pleasure to work hand in hand with them. We got help right from the beginning when we were merely testing the software.”


Israel Tauber, Director, Forest Management,

Monitoring & GIS, Forest Management, Israel.

“For a long time we heard complaints from many of our GIS users in the organization about the low availability of ArcGIS licenses. We considered buying two more expensive licenses, as we regularly did almost every year. However at that time we happen to be introduced to the OpenLM application and were invited to participate in testing one of the first OpenLM versions. We asked for the price of the software, just in case we ended up deciding to purchase it. When we heard the price we realized that we have nothing to lose. If the application would actually work as expected, we should be saving much time and money by using it, so we really had nothing to lose. The results were beyond expectations, in fact amazing. No more complaints, high availability of licenses and when there is an urgent need for a license, you can always see who are the active users and ask one of them to release their license. I highly recommend OpenLM to every organization, large or small.”

IBM LUM i4blt command reference

Scope:

Even though the IBM LUM license monitoring tool has decreased in popularity over the passed several years, it is still a widely spread tool for monitoring and tracking license usage of many CAD applications.

The OpenLM license monitoring tool extracts information from a variety of license managers, such as Flexnet / FlexLM, DSLS, Sentinel HASP, Sentinel RMS, Reprise RLM, and – of course IBM LUM. OpenLM extracts comprehensive license reports and obtains license statistics for all these lisence managers.

In order to interface the IBM LUM license manager, OpenLM employs the i4blt command.
The i4blt command is very versatile; its usage depends on the attached i4blt flag options. The following document is a reference to some of these flags.

Syntax:

There are several syntax rules to be met:
1. Named strings containing spaces must be presented within single quotation marks.
2. Names are case sensitive
3. Listed values must be presented within double quotation marks, e.g.:
i4blt -lp -n my_server -v “‘Vend A’ ‘Vend B’”
4. Parameters that appear within options are position specific, e.g.: vendor information in the i4blt -E (Enrollment) option include vendor_name, vendor_id, and vendor_password.

Command reference

The following diagram is a reference to some of the main i4blt options. The Yellow rectangle is a complete reference to the primary i4blt command options. the turquoise rectangles contain elaboration for some of these primary options.

Usage examples:

The following are usage examples of the i4blt command. The examples are taken from real workstations, and include genuine usage information. They were cleared of any user identification markings.

i4blt -s -lc

In order to obtain current license usage information, OpenLM employs the i4blt -s -lc option.

i4blt -ln

The list display option with the ‘n’ flag lists the servers which are monitored by the IBM LUM.

i4blt -r1 -e

The r1 report type enables the extraction of  further information. This example shows license related event logging, in this case: license release.

Forward reading

I have found the following links helpful:
From the University of Alberta

A bit about HAL (High – Availability licensing) : i4blt -H.

Application Note 1027_a: OpenLM Agent Installation and Configuration

OpenLM Utilizer Agent

The OpenLM Utilizer Agent is the end user tool of the OpenLM system. It completes the OpenLM license monitoring tool from the End user’s point of view. It provides end users the following capabilities:

  • Query license availability.
  • Check which users are holding required licenses.
  • View a user’s full set of details as they appear on the LDAP, and communicate with users regarding license availability.
  • Receive license availability notifications as soon as requested licenses become available.
  • Report the session’s active project (mainly for billing purposes).

OpenLM Active Agent

The Active Agent incorporates all the characteristics of the Utilizer Agent. On top of that, it supports an extension that enables system administrators to shut down open applications either manually, or by defining a timeout policy. In this manner, system administrators can suspend or save and close idle applications, in order to make more efficient use of licenses. The Active Agent features a user-friendly interface that enables users to quickly reopen closed applications, or resume suspended ones.

Installation

Download and save the Openlm Utilizer or Active Agent MSI installation file from the Download section of OpenLM’s site. Double-click it, and follow the instructions of the installation wizard.

When installing the Active Agent, the Extensions “OpenLM Extensions” dialog window appears.

The user may either:

  • Select to install the appropriate software extensions, thus ruling an idle application to be treated in the “Save and Close” method, or
  • Select NOT to install the appropriate software extensions, thus ruling an idle application to be treated in the “Suspend and Resume” method, even though it is an “Extension Supported” application.

For more information on Extension-Enabled applications, please refer to “Application Note 1005: Configuring OpenLM to close idle Licenses”.

At the end of the installation process, in the “Agent Configuration” dialog window, type in the OpenLM server with which the Agent is required to connect, and click the “Apply” button. The Installation is now complete, can be changed at any time (see below).

After installing:

The OpenLM Agent icon appears on the “system tray”.
OpenLM Agent in a connected state:
OpenLM Agent in a disconnected state:

Agent Configuration

  • Right click on the agent icon and select ‘OpenLM Agent Configuration’. The Agent configuration window opens.
  • Select the Agent’s language.
  • Type in the OpenLM server name or IP.
  • Type in the OpenLM server port. This is by default 7012.
  • Click the “Check connectivity to OpenLM server” button.

Advanced settings:

  • Logger Configuration File: Type in the location of the Agent Log File.
  • Logging Level: Adjust the Agent’s logging level.
  • Skip Double Instances Alert: This option either enables or blocks alerts when trying to open two agent sessions simultaneously. This option is set active by default.
  • Use Local Computer’s Proxy Settings: This setting may solve issues that originate using a proxy server. This option is set inactive by default.
  • Shut Agent when products Are inactive… : These parameters are relevant for VM servers. When OpoenLM closes a licensed application, the VM (e.g: Citrix) is kept in use by the workstation, unnecessarily consuming a license. This configuration shuts down the OpenLM Agent after INACTIVITY_TIME, thus releasing the VM license.

The OpenLM Java Agent window

The OpenLM Agent window shows the Feature usage status, per License Server, Vendor and User name. Individual user data is also available through the Agent; Just click a chart line to get more information on the user who is currently occupying the license.

Revision 0.1, Apr29 2012.

Sharepoint Webparts: License usage & Active Products

General

The OpenLM license monitoring and control tool employs various User Interfaces, from which Managers, Administrators and Users may extract data regarding applications’ license utilization and availability. These interfaces include the EasyAdmin web application, the OpenLM Mobile application, and the Agent client interface.

OpenLM also provides a comprehensive API for developers that enables users to add functionality to the system. API implementation capabilities are extensive, and may be applied for

  • Creating additional end user interfaces similar to EasyAdmin or the OpenLM Agent.

  • Including OpenLM Capabilities in other software products.

  • Assuring license availability in batch jobs.

  • Support of additional systems, etc.

SharePoint

Organizational portals are popular web applications that capacitate quick and easy development of informations system. These systems also enhance knowledge sharing within organizations and act as platforms for operational system.

Microsoft SharePoint is a specifically popular organizational portal. After receiving numerous requests for implementation tips we have decided to publish the following code sample as a possible implementation of OpenLM on a SharePoint platform.

This sample code is provided as is, as a full open source reference. It implements two of EasyAdmin’s popular report windows: Active Poducts & Lisence Usage.

OpenLM API

OpenLM has released a set of open APIs for users who wish to apply the capabilities embedded in the OpenLM software for use in their own applications. These APIs may accommodate querying of the license management system for current and historical license usage, querying available licenses’ status, and license report management.

The  “Active Products” and “License Usage” Webparts are implemented using these APIs.  They communicate with the OpenLM Server via XML-based request and response messages: The Server receives requests in the POST method, and returns the corresponding response in XML format.

SharePoint Code Sample

Scope

This code sample is brought as is, and serves as an example for implementing license management applications via OpenLM APIs.

Code sample

public static XElement GetResponse(string xmlRequest, string requestUrl)
{
HttpWebRequest httpRequest = (HttpWebRequest)System.Net.WebRequest.Create(requestUrl);
httpRequest.Method = “POST”;
Encoding encoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding(“utf-8″);
byte[] postData = encoding.GetBytes(xmlRequest.ToString());

// Set the content type of the data being posted.
httpRequest.ContentType = “text/xml”;

// Set the content length of the string being posted.
httpRequest.ContentLength = postData.Length;

Stream reqStream = httpRequest.GetRequestStream();
reqStream.Write(postData, 0, postData.Length);
reqStream.Close();

// Get Response
HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)httpRequest.GetResponse();
Stream respStream = response.GetResponseStream();

// Pipes the stream to a higher level stream reader with the required encoding format.
StreamReader readStream = new StreamReader(respStream, encoding);

XElement xmlResponse = XElement.Parse(readStream.ReadToEnd());

// Releases the resources of the response.
response.Close();
// Releases the resources of the Stream.
readStream.Close();

return xmlResponse;
}

Communication

Communication between the WebParts and the OpenLM Server is handled by a Helper class with the GetResponse Method:

  • GetResponse receives the service URL and the XML request string as parameters from both WebParts.

  • The Helper object compiles the request message, and sends it to the destined URL.

  • The same Helper object receives the corresponding response message and parses it.

“Active Products” and “License Usage” Webparts’ base

Both WebParts have two common properties; the Service URL and the XML Request. The ReportBaseWebPart class serves as the base class for the Active Products and License Usage WebParts. ReportBaseWebPart defines the two common properties (URL and XML), and validates them using the overridden method CreateChildControls.

Active Products WebPart

The ActiveProducts WebPart inherits from OpenLM’s custom class ReportBaseWebPart. This WebPart renders a grid with values obtained by the OpenLM Server’s response.  The CreateChildControl method builds a table containing this data.

In order to enhance the generated table, a jQuery plugin named dataTables (www.datatables.net) is used. This plugin enables filtering based on a free text search, sorting and paging with configurable page size.

License Usage WebPart

The LicenseUsage WebPart inherits from our custom class ReportBaseWebPart. This WebPart renders a chart with values obtained by the OpenLM Server’s response.  The CreateChildControl method builds a chart containing this data.

In order to render the chart, we used a jQuery plugin named Flot (http://code.google.com/p/flot/).

Screenshot

The following is a screenshot image of the two webparts, as they are seen in the Sharepoint environment.

Summary

The SharePoint webpart example demonstrates adding OpenLM to an organizational portal. There many options for configuring OpenlM via API, and we encourage our users’ community to implement it in-house and, if possible, share the code with the other users.

Our new users web forum contains a developers’ section that accommodates posting of code segments and questions that other users may be able to answer.

We believe that the use of these WebParts would contribute to the continuous monitoring of licenses with no additional effort, in organization that have implemented the Sharepoint portal. Moreover, additional functionality may be added in the same way, and OpenLM awaits the feedback of SharePoint users in order to enhance this ability.