Creating a FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit License Generator (VCG) Configuration

A Vendor Certificate Generator (VCG) is an executable built by a publisher using the FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit technology. A VCG contains unique encryption seeds used to digitally sign licenses. FlexNet Operations can be configured to use multiple VCGs. FlexNet Operations ships with a VCG for a vendor named “demo,” which you can use for testing purposes. This is equivalent to lmcrypt in the FlexNet Licensing toolkit.

FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit license files are encoded using UTF-8.

To configure FlexNet Operations with your own production VCG

In the FlexNet Operations Producer Portal, click Administer > License Generators.

Click Add a License Generator Configuration.

From the License Technology drop-down list, select FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit. (To create a license generator configuration for a different license technology, see Creating a License Generator Configuration .)

View or change the values of the following settings. Required fields are indicated with an asterisk. If a default value exists, it is listed as the first choice.

Setting	Description
Name	Name to uniquely identify this license generator configuration in drop-down lists.
Description	Describe the characteristics of this license generator configuration that make it unique. The description can be changed at any time.
License Technology	License technology for which this VCG configuration generates licenses: Select FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit.
Name of the VCG Executable	The name of the VCG executable. For example, the name of the demo VCG executable is “demo,” “demo_vcg,” (UNIX) or “demo_vcg.exe” (Windows only). Required.
Vendor Daemon Name	Name of the vendor daemon for which this VCG generates licenses. If not specified, this name is inferred from the name of the VCG executable. Note:Vendor daemon name must match the vendor name in the publisher.xml file. The name is case-sensitive.
Index to VCG Generator Function Table (default is 0)	Integer index into the custom generator table inside the VCG.
Index to VCG Crypt Seed Table (default is 0)	Integer index into the key seed array inside the VCG.
License Signature Strength	The encryption strength of licenses generated by the VCG: The strength configured in the VCG can be overridden on this page.
License Signature Compatibility Level	Used to allow backward compatibility with version 8.0 CRO (TRL). The setting in the VCG can be overridden on this page.
Include License Key Strength for pre-TRL Compatibility	Used to add a 20-character license key along with a SIGN= signature. The setting in the VCG can be overridden on this page.
FlexNet Licensing Version for Compatibility with Client Application	The FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit license file format to use to format the generated license: The setting in the VCG can be overridden on this page.
Format String for Date-based Versions	When a feature is created in FlexNet Operations, its version is specified to be either fixed or date-based. Using date-based versions is a product versioning strategy. In this scheme, the version number of the FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit feature line is a representation of the calendar date when a customer’s maintenance for the product expires. The version number that the application asks for when it checks out a license is a representation of the date it was built. Therefore, a customer has the right to use a version (the build date) of the application less than or equal to the date that the maintenance expires (the version in the license). The date-based version that the VCG puts in the license varies from license certificate to license certificate, whereas a fixed version is the same for all licenses generated for that product-version combination. If a feature is created that uses a date-based version format, the date that is expressed in that format is specified when an entitlement line item containing that product is configured. For a date of May 15, 2009, yyyy.MM gives 2009.05 and yyyy.MMdd gives 2009.0515.
Suppress START Date Keyword in License Text	Used to suppress the START Date keyword identifying the license start date in a feature line.
Suppress ISSUED Date Keyword in License Text	Used to suppress the ISSUED Date keyword identifying the license issue date in a feature line.
Server host ID used for Trusted Activations	Fill in applicable data.
Default Server Port Number in License File	Fill in applicable data.
Version of VCG	Version number of the VCG executable used to generate licenses. This setting is used to check whether FlexNet Publisher keywords and hostID types in a license are supported by the version of the VCG and also to deliver appropriate error messages when conflicts are discovered. If you are using VCG 11.5, for example, then set Version of VCG to 11.5.0. Default version: 6.2.1. Your current VCG version can be identified by executing the VCG with the version flag. For example: demo_vcg.exe version. So, if this command returns the VCG version (not the vendor version) 12.11.0.0, for instance, the Version of VCG value can be 12.11, 12.11.0, or 12.11.0.0.

Click Save to save the configuration for this VCG.