GTWorks Floating License Manager Guide

An option to the standard GTWorks licensing of using an Ethernet Address-password combination or a parallel port dongle or key to restrict the use of the software to a single computer is the Floating License Manager (FLM). FLM is similar to a node-locked license of GTWorks in that the FLM runs on a computer secured by either an Ethernet Address-password combination or a parallel port dongle or key. The FLM then controls the number of copies of GTWorks Standard and Professional that can be run concurrently in a network. When GTWorks starts under this configuration, the FLM is queried whether a license is available and GTWorks either starts or stops accordingly.

The Floating License Manager is also a way of distributing licenses of the Professional version of GTWorks among the Standard licenses. For example, if a company has purchased three Standard licenses and two Professional licenses, then there are actually a total of five Standard licenses that the FLM will authorize for activation. Among these five users, any two can proceed into the additional functionality found in a Professional license. Each time a user returns to the main menu from a Professional license function, the Professional license is released. If there is continual inability of one or more users to access a Professional License or Standard license, then you can conclude that additional licenses should be purchased, and of what type, Standard or Professional.

A company can have more than one Floating License Manager running in a network. If the company is concerned that too many users are tied to a single FLM, then the company should request from GrayTech passwords for two, or possibly even three FLMs, to decrease the risk of any downtime of the computer running a FLM. Another alternative is to use a hardware lock (parallel port dongle) instead of a network card to secure a FLM. GrayTech’s experience is that a hardware lock is less likely to fail than an Ethernet Card.

INSTALLATION OF GTWORKS

When the user installs a production copy of GTWorks using setup from the GTWorks directory on the GTWorks CD, or file gtwprod.exe downloaded from the GrayTech Web site, there is an additional choice in the GTWorks License Type dialog box for ‘Network’. Make this choice and enter the name of the computer in the network that is running the Floating License
Manager that you will be relying on. The computer name is stored in the lm.mf modal file (e.g. c:\gtworks\data\lm.mf) and can be changed later as needed. There is also a required selection for the network protocol to be used to comminicate between GTWorks and the FLM. The default is  ncacn_nb_nb, or NetBIOS over NetBEUI, and requires NetBEUI to be
loaded on your network. All the network protocols are available for selection. The most common alternative is TCP/IP and is labeled ncacn_ip_tcp.

LICENSE MANAGER – gtwnet.exe

The name of the Floating License Manager is gtwnet.exe. This file is found in the self-expanding zip file named GTWorksLM.exe found in the GTWorks-LM directory of the GTWorks CD, or on the GrayTech Web site. Extract the program by double clicking on the self-expanding zip file. At the present time you next must start a Command Prompt and move to the directory where the main GTWorks program is stored (e.g. c:\gtworks). The four basic commands for the FLM are as follows (the first two are required for an installation):

gtwnet -install

Enter this command and option to register the Floating License Manager as a service and make the required entries in the Windows registry. The next step is to configure the FLM and enter any required passwords.

gtwnet -configure

Enter this command to choose the license type (hardware lock or Ethernet), enter the required password if choosing Ethernet, and choose the type of event logging desired. Under Windows XP, Me, 98 and 95 you must designate a file to store the events if you check any events to log.

Events are stored and accessed via the Event Viewer under Windows NT or 2000. The events under Windows XP, Me, 98 and 95 can be viewed with notepad  or wordpad by opening the file specified in the bottom of the dialog box  when running the gtwnet configuration option.

You can either leave the Communication Protocol the FLM uses (defaults to all) or choose one that matches the choice make when you installed the GTWorks software.

Under Windows NT or 2000, the Floating License Manager will not start until you either reboot the computer or Start the service under Windows NT from the control panel->services icon. or Windows 2000 from the control panel->Administrative Tools->services icon. Under Windows XP, Me, 98 and 95 the  FLM will not start until you either reboot or start the program by entering ‘gtwnet’ from the Command Prompt.

gtwnet -stop

Enter this command under Windows XP, Me, 98 and 95 to stop the Floating License Manager. This is required before you can substitute any updates to the FLM that GrayTech may implement. An alternative is to uninstall the software (see below) and install the software after the substitution is made. Under Windows NT or 2000, use the service’s applet in the Control Panel to stop the FLM.

gtwnet -uninstall

Enter this command to uninstall the Floating License Manager. This will delete the FLM as a service. Registry entries will remain to make is simpler to reinstall the software. If you desire to delete the registry entries, they may be found in the registry under local machine->software->graytech (GTWNLMan)

LICENSE USE – gtwnetinfo.exe

To obtain the current status of activity by a Floating License Manager, enter the command ‘gwtnetinfo’ and press ENTER (or select ‘Net License Info’ from the GTWorks program group). A dialog box will appear for gtwnetinfo in which you can obtain the status of any GTWorks FLM in the network. The default computer is your own, and if it is not running a FLM, then the entries for License will be blank. Browse for the Server Name running a FLM and change the Update Interval as desired. The number of Standard licenses in use and free will equal the total number of licenses authorized on that server. The bottom panel in the dialog box will display the computer name of a user, their Ethernet Address, the type of license currently in use, and the total use time of the Standard license.