Using RLM for Team License Management

To manage team (or floating) licenses, Eggplant Functional relies on Reprise License Manager (RLM) from Reprise Software. RLM is a robust license server with many advanced license management features.

If you have obtained a Floating license, you may install one or more copies of the Software on any computer, instrument, or machine within your internal computer network or on dedicated server resources provided by a third party for your internal business use, provided the total number of users who are accessing or using any of the Software at the same time does not exceed the maximum number of licenses.

note

Use of Eggplant Functional is subject to the terms of the Keysight EULA.

Below you will find information about how RLM works, installing and setting up RLM in your environment, and how to get your Eggplant Functional licenses into RLM.

About RLM

You run RLM as a server in your environment. Your Eggplant Functional license is installed on the license server rather than on the machine running Eggplant Functional. Therefore, it's essential that any machine that runs Eggplant Functional is able to access the RLM server machine over the network.

Eggplant Functional contacts the license server each time it launches and requests a valid license to run. Ensure that the server is able to run continuously, or at least that it is available whenever users need to access licenses for Eggplant Functional.

Each team license has a designated number of users. Each time you launch Eggplant Functional, the application asks RLM for a license in order to complete its launch. If there is an unused license available, the server checks out the license for that instance and allows that computer to run Eggplant Functional.

For example, if your team purchases an Eggplant Functional team license set up with three users, you could use Eggplant Functional on as many as three computers at the same time. If all three licenses are in use when you launch a fourth instance of Eggplant Functional, you will see a message that no licenses are available and you won't be able to run the application until a license becomes available. Note that with this system, the three machines using the Eggplant Functional licenses could potentially be different machines each time.

You can complete most license administration for your environment through a web interface. By default, the web server runs on the local machine where the RLM server runs, and you can access the administration site over port 5054: http://<server_IP_address>:5054

Important

Starting with v15.1, you must set passwords for the RLM administration web server. If you have not set passwords for the administration web server, upon startup, RLM will create a new admin account for you and set a default password for it. In that case, you must log into the web server console and change the default admin password. If you have already established accounts for the administration web server prior to the upgrade, you must clear the passwords for the existing accounts and provide new values after the upgrade. If you fail to change the default admin password or you fail to establish new passwords for legacy users, the RLM license server will shutdown automatically after 10 minutes. Please refer to page 51 of the RLM License Admininstration Guide for details.

The RLM License Administration Manual provides information about using license server failover, transferring licenses between servers, and other features. The sections below describe basic set up and licensing procedures for using RLM with Eggplant Functional.

note

Eggplant Functional used Team License Server (TLS) for license management prior to version 16.10. If you are using TLS, you can continue to do so for existing licenses. See Installing and Licensing the Team License Server (TLS) for information about TLS. For questions about licensing in your environment, contact your account manager or ep-sales@keysight.com.

RLM System Requirements

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For information about EPF compatible RLM Server versions, please see the Eggplant Functional Prerequisites page

Processor and Memory

Processor and RAM: If you are running RLM in a large environment where you are serving hundreds of installed licenses, we recommend using a machine with higher CPU and RAM specifications for better performance. For further guidance, consult Reprise Software. Otherwise, RLM has no minimum specification for CPU or RAM; virtually any machine will work, provided it is a server that is continuously and reliably accessible.

Setting Up the License Server

Follow the steps below to get the RLM license server running in your environment for Eggplant Functional license management. It is important to run the RLM server on a machine that is network accessible from any other machine in your environment that will run Eggplant Functional with a team license. You should also ensure that the server is able to run continuously.

1. Download the Eggplant RLM license server from the Eggplant Functional Downloads page. There are separate downloads for different platforms:

   • RLM Server for Windows
   • RLM Server for Redhat (CentOS)
   • RLM Server for Ubuntu
   • RLM Server for Mac

   Each download contains an RLM executable (rlm for Mac/Linux, rlm.exe for Windows) as well as a file called testplant.set, which provides the information necessary to run RLM for Eggplant Functional. Typically, you do not need to do anything with the testplant.set file; however, if you are running RLM with additional third-party products, see Running RLM for Multiple Products below.

2. Copy the folder for your download to an appropriate location on the machine where you intend for the RLM server to run, such as the Applications folder on Mac or the Program Files folder on Windows.

   note

   It is important that you remember where you locate this folder because you need to copy new team license files to it so that the license server can read them.

3. Copy your team license files (i.e., .lic files) to the RLM folder. If you have not generated your licenses, see Generating Team Licenses for Eggplant Functional for instructions on how to do this in the Keysight License Manager (KSM) web-based license management portal.

   note

   You can start the server without adding license files, and you can add additional license files at any time. If you add license files while the server is running, you can use the Reread/Restart Servers function in the RLM web administration portal so that they are recognized by the server.

4. Start RLM from the command line. Remember, the RLM executable is in the RLM Server folder. You need to execute a command to launch the executable from that directory.

   Example:

   >cd C:\Program Files (x86)\RLM_Server_Win>rlm.exe

   Important

   You must keep the command window open. If you close the command window, it shuts down the running processes, which means stopping the server. See Running RLM as a Service below for information about starting the server as a service.

5. When the server is running, you can access the Reprise License Manager Administration portal from a browser by going to: http://<IP address>:5054 where <IP address> is the IP address of the machine where the server is running. If you access the web portal from the machine where the server is running, you can use http://localhost:5054

   note

   By default, the ISV port is set to TCP port 5052, the RLM server port is set to TCP port 5053, and the administrator portal port is set to TCP port 5054. Note that ports 5052 and 5053 cannot be changed.

6. In Eggplant Functional, set the Licenser Host on the Eggplant License Registry panel, which you access from the main menu by selecting Eggplant > Licenses. Enter the hostname or IP address for the machine where RLM is running. You need to enter this information in every instance of Eggplant Functional that needs to access the RLM server. Note that you don't need to include this setting on an instance of Eggplant Functional that runs on the same machine as RLM.

Running RLM as a Service

When you start RLM from a command prompt—either cmd.exe on Windows or Terminal on Mac—you must keep the command window open to keep the server running. If you close the window, it shuts down the running processes, which stops the server.

However, you can install and run RLM as a service on Windows or as a launch daemon on Mac so that the server runs without the command window open and restarts automatically if the machine restarts.

On Windows: As a Service

To install and run RLM as a Windows service, run the following command:

rlm -install_service -dlog <server.log>

where <server log> is the full path for where you want to create the server log file. There are additional optional parameters and arguments you can include. See the RLM License Administration Manual for complete details.

After you run the command, you can start (or stop) the service through the Windows Services manager. By default, it is set to automatically restart when the system restarts.

On Mac: As a Launch Daemon

When you run RLM on a Mac, you can create a .plist file that automatically starts RLM as a launch daemon whenever the Mac restarts. If you don't follow this procedure, you need to manually restart the server if you restart the machine.

The RLM Server for Mac folder includes a sample of the .plist file. The text of the file is copied below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.testplant.rlm</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/path/to/RLM_Server_Mac/rlm</string>
<string>-dlog</string> <string>/path/to/log/file/rlmlog.dlog</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</plist>

You must customize the file with the information specific to where you saved the RLM server. The highlighted sections in the example above show the code that you need to update in the example .plist file. Use a text editor to update the .plist file, then save and close the file.

You must save the .plist file in the LaunchDaemons folder on the Mac, which is found at /Library/LaunchDaemons. Additionally, you might need to provide root permissions to the file, which you can do with a Terminal command such as the following:

sudo chown root /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.testplant.rlm.plist

To start the license server daemon, enter a command such as this:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.testplant.rlm.plist

At this point, the server restarts automatically if you restart the Mac machine where it is running.

Installing Licenses on RLM

License files for RLM are plain text files with a .lic file extension. Typically, place any license file in use into the directory with the running RLM executable. For example, if you are running the Windows rlm.exe program from within the RLM_Server_Win folder, you would add your licenses to the RLM_Server_Win folder.

note

It is possible to keep licenses in a different location. If you choose to do so, consult the RLM License Administration Manual for instructions.

Add or remove licenses as needed. The license server typically refreshes at a regular interval, at which point it would read any changes and give you access to new license information. However, you can force a refresh by using the Reread/Restart Servers function in the RLM web administration portal.

Setting a Password for Your License

To add a password to your RLM license, add _password to your .lic files, as in the example below. See Runscript Command Options to use an RLM password from the command line.

LICENSE testplant eggplantfunctional 1.0 03-aug-2019 5
customer=com.TestPlantTAM.L144 contract=51774 _ck=b9dafcc6c2 sig="c
2S25g2~WdQFekWVk8=JscyvDcA+DHcP~118m3UryY0TV3GCr2zoifiX1ktv9MqB" _password=somepassword

Running RLM for Multiple Products

RLM license server is used by many products for serving and verifying licenses. Therefore, if you are already running an RLM server, you do not need to follow the steps above to start a new server instance. Instead, add the Eggplant setup file (testplant.set) to the directory of the running server.

To run Eggplant Functional with an existing RLM server, follow these steps:

1. Download the Eggplant RLM license server from the Eggplant Functional downloads page. The Eggplant-branded setup file is included in the download, so you need to complete this step even if you don't need to run a new RLM server.
2. Copy the setup file, testplant.set, to your existing folder on your server machine. You can find this file inside the downloaded folder for each platform.
3. Copy your team license files (i.e., .lic files) to the existing folder. If you haven't generated your licenses, see Generating Team Licenses for Eggplant Functional for instructions on how to do this in Greenhouse.
4. In the RLM web administration portal, use the Reread/Restart Servers function to restart the server with the Eggplant Functional setup information and licenses.

Roaming Licenses

RLM provides a roaming option that allows users to check out an Eggplant Functional license from the RLM server to their specific machine and use it for up to seven days without having to reconnect to the RLM server.

Set the number of days to roam in the license panel. You can also set a limit to the maximum number of days of roaming on the license server. In the testplant.opt file, enter

ROAM_MAX_DAYS X eggplantfunctional

where X is the number of days to roam.

You can disable roaming on the license server by entering

ROAM_MAX_DAYS -1 eggplantfunctional

in the testplant.opt file. Roaming can also be disabled on a per license basis, when the license is issued.