RLM Activation Pro Getting Started Guide

RLM v11.3

April, 2015
 Contents

Welcome ........................................................................................ 3
RLM Activation Pro Overview ................................................... 4
RLM Activation Pro Setup …..................................................... 5
Using RLM Activation Pro ........................................................... 8
Next Steps ...................................................................................... 10

Appendix A – RLM Activation Pro Kit Contents ..................... 11

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 Welcome
Welcome to RLM Activation Pro, the most scalable activation system available for RLM
licensees. This manual, the RLM Activation Pro Getting Started Guide, assumes that you
are familiar with RLM, the Reprise License Manager.

About this Manual

This manual is an introduction to the RLM Activation Pro system. This manual is in a
tutorial format, and by following the steps, you will install the RLM Activation Pro
system, configure it for fulfilling licenses, and do a test fulfillment.
While RLM Activation Pro supports issuing licenses by ISVs who use ISV-defined
hostids, this tutorial will not cover ISV-defined hostids. In order to use these hostids, you
will need to consult the RLM Activation Pro Reference manual.

Introduction To RLM Activation Pro

RLM Activation Pro allows you to completely automate the delivery and fulfillment of
electronic licenses from your website for your RLM-licensed application.

RLM Activation Pro allows you to deliver a pre-generated activation key to your
customer, and when they are ready to use your product, a transaction with the activation
server running at your site allows the license to be fulfilled without manual intervention.
When using activation, there is no need for you to get your user's hostid information - this
is transmitted to the activation server automatically.

In the case of a node-locked product, a typical scenario would be that your customer runs
the product on the desired machine, and if the license had not been fulfilled earlier, the
product asks for an activation key. Once the activation key is supplied, the license is
retrieved transparently. From this point on, the product runs with its license in place.

Floating licenses would operate in a similar manner, except that the number of floating
licenses to be activated is required.
 RLM Activation Pro Overview
How RLM Activation Pro Works

RLM Activation Pro is driven by two main data items - product definitions and
activation keys. The RLM License Center tool (rlc) allows you to define various
products to be activated.

Product definitions consist of a product definition name, a product name, version,

expiration specification, and node-locked/floating indication. In addition, product
definitions can contain additional attributes for the license. All product definition
attributes are described in detail in the RLM Activation Pro Reference Manual.

Once a product is defined, activation keys can be created. An activation key specifies
the product to be fulfilled, the type of fulfillment, and how many fulfillments are allowed
by this activation key. In addition, activation keys allow you to specify additional
attributes for the license. If any of the attributes specified in the activation key are the
same as attributes specified in the product definition, the activation key version of these
attributes will be used. All activation key attributes are described in detail in the RLM
Activation Pro Reference Manual.

Once activation is set up, you give your customer an activation key, which they then use
to retrieve the license for the particular machine which they are using. This happens via
the internet, using the RLM Activation Pro license generator (isvname_mklic) on your
website.

The request is made by your customer via either calls you make to the activation request
API or the Reprise-supplied activation GUI built into the rlm webserver.

RLM Activation Pro Components

RLM Activation Pro consists of 5 components:

• web-based activation admin tool (rlc)
• activation server license generator (isvname_mklic)
• activation database (MySQL)
• activation request API (rlm_act_request())
• activation GUI (built into the rlm webserver)
 RLM Activation Pro Setup
Setting up RLM Activation Pro involves setting up a webserver with PHP and MySQL
support, as well as the RLM Activation Pro software. Ideally, you should be familiar with
downloading and installing open-source tools and using Web infrastructure.
You can evaluate RLM Activation Pro using a system hosted on Reprise servers. If you
do this, you can skip the first 2 steps below, and go directly to Step 3. Configure RLM
Activation Pro on page 7. If you want to evaluate Activation Pro on your own servers,
start at step 1 below.
To get you started as quickly and easily as possible with RLM Activation Pro we will do
the following in this tutorial:
• Install a pre-configured Apache/MySQL/PHP (AMP) stack
• Install the RLM Activation Pro software
• Configure RLM Activation Pro

Step 1. Install a pre-configured Apache/MySQL/PHP (AMP) stack

To start, you need the stack of web services to support RLM Activation Pro. A pre-
configured AMP stack called XAMPP is available for Windows and Linux systems at
the Apache Friends website. To install it, do the following:
• For Windows:
• Browse to: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html
• Below the text “Jump-off point”, select the XAMPP download.
• select the “Installer” link. Save the file, then run it.
• For Linux:
• Browse to http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-linux.html
• Follow the 4 steps on the download page
• after installing, the package will be in /opt/lampp, execute the
following commands (as root):
• chmod 777 /opt/lampp/cgi-bin
• chmod 777 /opt/lampp/htdocs
(Note: these directories would not normally have 777 permissions,
but we are doing this to make the rest of the evaluation easier).
• Now you can log out as root.
Step 2. Install the RLM Activation Pro kit from the Reprise website

RLM Activation Pro operates on a particular RLM binary platform, and is

supported on windows and linux systems (x86_w and x86_l):

On all Platforms

First, download the Activation Pro kit: go to the Reprise Website

Download area, enter your username and password, and select the “RLM
Activation Pro” kit. Pick the appropriate platform, and save this on your
system.

Note: When downloading Unix kits using Internet Explorer on Windows XP

systems, the files are incorrectly named as 'actpro.platform.tar.tar', rather than
'actpro.platform.tar.gz', once downloaded. This is a browser issue - after transfer,
please rename the file before installation. Or, better yet, use Firefox.

Continuing the Installation on Linux

Extract the kit files:

Use gunzip/tar to extract the archive:

% gunzip actpro.platform.tar.gz
% tar xvf actpro.platform.tar

Continuing the Installation on Windows

Extract the kit files:

On Windows, the kit is in a ZIP file. Unzip the file in the desired location.
Step 3. Configure RLM Activation Pro

1. Build your License Generator Settings file

• Change directory to your RLM development kit directory.
• Run “rlmsign -gen”.
• Copy the resulting .gen file (typically demo.gen for an evaluation) to
your ActPro kit into the “actpro_setup” directory.

2. Install the RLM Activation Pro files on your webserver

(Skip this step if you are using the demo on Reprise servers)

• FTP the contents of the actpro_setup directory to your webserver.

3. Run the Activation Pro setup program.

(Skip this step if you are using the demo on Reprise servers)
• On Windows: Run the XAMPP control panel. Start the Apache and
MySQL services. On Linux, this happened as part of installation.
• Point your browser (Firefox recommended) to:
http://localhost/actpro_setup/setup.php
• The defaults in the form should be correct, so press “Setup activation
database”. Do not change the admin account password.
 Using RLM Activation Pro
Now your activation system is set up and ready to use. In this section, you will:
• Set up a user
• Populate the activation database
• Activate a license from your activation server

Step 1. Set up a user

In this first step, we will log in to the activation server as the admin user, then create a
second user who can make changes to the activation database. Perform the following
steps:
1. Click on the “Done – start rlc” button that appeared at the bottom of the screen
after setup completed, or point your browser to: http://localhost/actpro
2. On the left-hand side of the screen, near the bottom, type “admin” in the
Username box, and “admin” in the password box. Press “login”.
3. Select “Administer Users” from the lower-left menu.
4. Press “Create New User” in the view area, below the list of users.
5. Select a username, password, and “Edit” access in the “Create New User” page,
then press the “Create User” button. Go back to the admin page by clicking on
the “Admin Page” link. You should now see your new user, with Edit access.
6. Log out (at the bottom left).

Step 2. Populate your activation database

Now we will populate the activation database enough to be able to create a license with
the actpro_demo example program.
1. Log in with the new username and password you created in step 1. Notice that
your new user does not have the “administer users” menu on the left.
2. Press “Create Product Definition” on the top of the left-hand menu. This will
display the Product Definition entry/edit screen.
3. Enter “test” in the first box (Name of this product definition), and “actdemo” in
the second box (Product Name). Leave the rest of the boxes as they are. Press
“Create Product Definition”. Press “Back to List” on the confirmation screen.
 You can now see your product definition in the list. (hint: you can edit any
product definition by clicking on the pencil on the right-hand side of the list).
4. Press “Create Activation Key” on the left-hand menu.
5. Since all the defaults are OK, you can press “Generate Activation Key” now.
Alternately, you can enter the activation key string in the last text box, and
Activation Pro will create the exact key string you enter. Click “Back to List” and
note the activation key you created for the next step.

Step 3. Activate a license from your activation server

In this last step, you will activate a license from your freshly-set-up activation server by
using the actpro_demo example program.

1. Go back to the window (command window on Windows) where your Activation

Pro kit is installed. You will notice the actpro_demo (actpro_demo.exe on
Windows) file in this directory. Run it now.

2. If this is the first time you have run actpro_demo, it will say:

Error checking out actdemo license

No license for product (-1)

Would you like to activate this license now?

3. Answer “y” to this question. actpro_demo will indicate the URL and ISV name
from which it is attempting to activate the license. (You can change these values
by editing the #defines in the actpro_demo.c source). Enter your activation key
from the last step at the prompt:

Activation will be attempted for ISV demo at http://localhost

Enter Activation key for "actdemo":

4. When you enter the activation key, actpro_demo will go to your activation server
and retrieve a license. You should see this message:

Activation successful, license file "a0.lic" written

Checkout of actdemo license OK.
Enter <CR> to continue:

Congratulations! You have now set up your Activation Pro server, and checked out a
license from the server. You can now go back to the GUI and see the fulfillment data
from this license fulfillment by clicking on the “View Fulfillments” button.
 Next Steps
Now that you have finished installing and testing RLM Activation Pro, what are the next
steps when you decide to purchase?
This Getting Started Guide covers one of the 3 possibilities for you, the RLM ISV:
1. You do not use an ISV-defined hostid, and your base RLM license enables the
platform where you plan to run the Activation Pro license generator. This will be
true for a majority of ISVs and is the case covered by this Getting Started Guide.
2. You do not use an ISV-defined hostid, and your base RLM license does not
enable the platform where you plan to run the Activation Pro license generator.
3. You use an ISV-defined hsotid.
For cases (2) and (3), above, you should consult the RLM Activation Pro Manual for the
steps to configure Activation Pro in your situation.
If you fall into case (1), above, and you are ready to install RLM Activation Pro for
production, the next step would be to re-build the Activation Pro software with your
permanent RLM license (license_to_run.h file) and your Activation Pro license, in place
of the demo licenses you used here. Then you would install the software on your
production servers. To do this, you would FTP the contents of the kit actpro_setup
directory to the htdocs directory on your webserver.
Once on your production webserver in the htdocs/actpro_setup directory, run the
setup.php script to set up your production server. From that point on, the procedure is
just like what you did in this demo.

NOTE: if you are going to host your servers at your ISP, many ISPs have
naming conventions for MySQL databases, and, in addition, many ISPs will
not allow you to create a new database from a script, the way that Activation
Pro's setup.php software does it. If this is the case, simply create the
database manually using your ISP's administration tools, then run setup.php
after the database is created.

One thing we have not talked about in this guide is what to do if you use an RLM ISV-
defined hostid (case (3) above). If you have an ISV-defined hostid, you will need to set
up the MySQL Connector/C development libraries in order to build a custom license
generator. This is beyond the scope of this document, but it is described in the RLM
Activation Pro Manual (which is available by clicking on the “Manual” button in the
GUI.
 Appendix A – RLM Activation Pro Kit Contents
Each RLM Activation Pro kit (for a particular platform) is contained in one directory:

File Contents
Release notes for this version of RLM
RELEASE_NOTES
Activation Pro
VERSION Activation Pro kit version information
actpro_demo.c Demonstration program
actpro_mklic The generic license generator
The Activation Pro files, to be put in your
actpro_setup/
webserver's htdocs directory
license.h rlm include file
license_to_run.h License for RLM Activation Pro
makefile
RLM activation flat-file database conversion
rlmact2sql (.exe)
utility
rlm.a (.lib for windows) RLM Client Library with MySQL support
rlm_isv_config.c RLM Configuration data
rlmact2sql (.exe) RLM activation database conversion utility
rlmmains.a Library of main programs – unix only
rlmsign.obj main() for rlmsign.exe – windows only
rlmgenkeys.obj main() for rlmgenkeys – windows only
rlm_actpro_mklic.obj main for license generator – windows only

The platform names for RLM Activation Pro follow the standard RLM convention:
arch_[os][ver]

where:
 arch is the Reprise Software name for the processor/chip architecture
 os is the Reprise Software identifier for the operating system, and
 ver is the Reprise Software identifier for our version of rlm OS support (note: this is
NOT the operating system version)

For example, x86_w1 refers to Windows on x86 architecture, with Visual Studio
6/2003 support.