Pre-Installation Checks

License Services uses unique keys to register and control licensed software.

Before you install License Services, you need to decide which environment is suitable for your license server or client application. Secondly, you need to decide how (or if) a client-server setup is appropriate, and if so, how to configure that.

This section provides summary information to simplify the task of requesting keys to license your software.

Once you have decided the installation environment and operational configuration for License Services, the Registration Wizard is an easy-to-use tool that will draw from you the information needed for licensing software on standalone systems.

Note: You can install License Services silently via the command line. See Silent Installations. If this is done as part of a group policy or automated rollout process, please ensure the account used to install remotely has full administrative access to the target machine(s), otherwise installation will fail.

Installation Environment

License Services provides three operating modes, one of which is selected at the start of the installation process of the standalone License Services package, but can be changed later using the License Manager Options screen:

Local Desktop or Physical – License Services will run on physical PC hardware, that is, a local desktop. This option represents the only configuration of License Services available prior to version 5.7.
Private Cloud – License Services will run on a virtual Azure platform that is accessible within a private network, or a virtual machine (say, hosted by a virtualization server or even a local virtual machine hosted in Hyper-V, for example).
Public Cloud – License Services server will run on a virtual machine accessible via the public Internet. This is targeted at and has been tested in V5.8 using the Microsoft Azure platform.

Note: Datamine can also host your licenses for you. You'll still be able to manage your license distribution, but we'll take on the burden of administering license updates and ensuring server uptime. Contact us for more information and also see Hosted License.

To change your License Services operating environment after installation:

Run License Manager as an Administrator.

Note: You can launch License Manager from the Windows Start menu.
Display the Options screen.
Select the License Manager tab.
Select the Startup Type (Local Desktop, Private Cloud or Public Cloud). See Supported Environments.
Click OK or Apply.
The License Service restarts and your new configuration is applied.

Important: If you change your Installation Type/Startup Type and already have licenses bound to Machine IDs, these licenses may be invalidated and will need to be reissued. If you already have Machine ID-bound licenses and need to alter your operation mode, please contact your local Datamine office for advice.

Server-Client Interactions

The following table can help you decide which type of licensing setup you need:

Will licenses be served across a network?	Single or multiple licenses per product or module?	Is a network license server key needed?
Yes	Single	No - Desktop server is sufficient.
Yes	Multiple	Yes
No	Single	No
No	Multiple	N/A

You should also base your decision on the following:

Which products need licenses?
How many licenses are required for each product?
What type of license is needed for each product?
How will the license be secured, and what is the unique number?

Machine ID: an encrypted key that represents your machine identification. This is the preferred method of securing a license and does not require any physical device (e.g. a dongle - see below).

More about machine identification.

Dongle: an encoded hardware device which is attached to the parallel or USB port, and contains a unique number. The dongle can be moved in the event of a machine failure, providing a flexible solution.

Note: License checks will fail if the specified dongle is missing from the server and licenses are bound to that dongle.

If you have any questions or concerns about the best licensing configuration for you and your organization, please contact Datamine for guidance.