Creating a License Model

A license model defines licensing characteristics that determine how, when, and where a Flex-enabled product can be used.

Tip:A license model can be created from scratch or by editing a copy of an existing license model. To start with a copy, select an existing license model on the License Models page and click Copy.

To create a license model

Click Administer > License Models. This link opens the License Models page.

Click Create New License Model. This button opens the Create a License Model page.

If more than one license technology is defined, select the license technology for which this license model is valid.

If the license model is for FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit or for a custom license technology, follow these steps to define the license model.

Note:Required fields are indicated with a red asterisk.

Provide a name and a description for the license model, and specify the expiration setting.

Identifying a New License Model

Value

Description

Name

Name to uniquely identify this license model: The name can contain spaces.

Description

Describe the characteristics of this license model that make it unique. The description can be changed after the license model is deployed.

State

A license model can be in one of four states: Draft, Deployed, Inactive, or Obsolete:

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Draft: A license model is created as a draft that can be modified or deleted.

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Deployed: After a license model is deployed to use in production, it cannot be deleted or modified. Before a product can be deployed, its linked license models must be deployed (deploying a product does not deploy its linked license models). A draft license model can be linked to a deployed product or suite, but the license model cannot be used in an entitlement line item until it is deployed.

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Inactive: An inactive license model cannot be deleted or modified. An inactive license model cannot be used to create an entitlement, but a product with an inactive license model on an existing entitlement line item can be activated.

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Obsolete: Deployed and inactive license models can be made obsolete. Obsolete license models behave like inactive license models, but can be deleted.

Expiration

Should licenses activated using this license model be permanent or should they expire?

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None: If you choose None, you defer deciding if these licenses are permanent or expiring until the time you configure an entitlement line item.

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Permanent: If you choose Permanent, these licenses never expire.

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Expiring: If you choose Expiring, set a duration of n days, weeks, months, or years.

Subsequent steps vary depending on whether you are creating a license model with FlexNet license technology or custom license technology:

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If this is a license model for a custom license technology, configure any custom license model attributes and click Save to save the license model or click Next to configure policies on the license model.

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If this is a FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit or FlexNet Embedded license model, click Next to continue defining the license model. FlexNet Operations presents the license model settings as a dynamic set of decisions. (Additional information about these attributes is available in FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit or FlexNet Embedded documentation.)

Is this an Embedded License Model?


Value	Description
Yes	Identifies the license model intended for devices that use the FlexNet Embedded toolkit.
No	Identifies the license model as one intended for software products that use the FlexNet Publisher toolkit.

Will this License Model be Sharable? (FNP toolkit)


Value	Description
Yes	A sharable, or floating license can be used by anyone on the network, up to the limit specified in the license. Floating licenses require a license server system to be running to count the concurrent usage of licenses. If a license is floating, it is most common for it to be counted, allowing only limited checkouts.
No	A license that is not sharable, sometimes known as node-locked, can be used only on one machine or a specified set of machines.

Is this a Counted Model? (FNE toolkit)


Value	Description
Yes	Counts the number of seats deployed to customers.
No	Provides unlimited copies.

Will this License Model allow Unlimited Checkouts? (FNP toolkit)


Value	Descriptiont
Yes (unlimited)	An uncounted license allows unlimited concurrent usage. If a license is uncounted, it is most common for it to be nodelocked. The floating uncounted certificate license model in FlexNet Operations is implemented as a floating counted license with DUP_GROUP=SITE.
No (limited)	A counted license allows usage limited by the count in the license. If a certificate license is counted, it is most common for it to be floating. However, it is possible to have a nodelocked counted license.

Is this an Activatable License Model?


Is this license delivered into trusted storage or as a certificate?
Select Yes if license is delivered into trusted storage.	FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit v11.x can activate trusted licenses. Trusted licenses are usually activated automatically and securely with an activation utility written by the publisher of the licensed software. Products linked with a trusted license model must also be associated with a transaction key.
Select No if license is delivered as a certificate.	All versions of FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit can generate certificate licenses that are emailed or otherwise delivered to a software customer.

Is this License Model Detachable?


This license can be transferred among license servers. Is it also detachable to a client machine?
Yes (detachable)	Only applicable to trusted license models. Licenses are floating and served from a license server, but they can also be removed from the floating group of licenses and be activated on an individual client machine.
No (not detachable)	Only applicable to trusted license models. Licenses are floating and only served from a license server. The licenses can be configured to allow them to be transferred between vendor daemons.

Is this License Model for an End User or for an Enterprise?


Will this license be activated from FlexNet Operations by a retail client or by a license server in an enterprise environment?
End User	An end-user license is sold to an individual retail user. Only applicable to trusted license models.
Enterprise	A volume license is sold to an enterprise user. Only applicable to trusted license models.

Is this a Metered Model? (FNE toolkit)


Value	Description
Yes	Designates the license model as a usage-based model. (Usage-based licensing is available to producers who use FlexNet Embedded and FlexNet Usage Management.)
No	License does not use the usage management feature to track usage.

Fill in the Attributes for this License Model.

Depending on the decisions made above, sets of choices are presented.

Choice

Description

Allow Partial fulfillments

If you select Yes, when you Activate Licenses for a customer, FlexNet Operations allow syou to activate a portion of the total amount entitled to that customer (that is, the total amount that they purchased). If you select No, you must activate the total amount in the single transaction.

Package Specification (for uncounted licenses)

Applicable to all uncounted certificate license models.

Select None if this license model is to be associated with a product that is not defined as a package.

Select Basic if this license model is used to provide a PACKAGE line as a compact, efficient way to distribute a large number of features that share most of their feature line arguments.

Package Specification (for certificate counted licenses)

Applicable to certificate counted licenses.

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Select None if this license model is to be associated with a product that is not defined as a package.

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Select Basic for the Package Specification if this license model to provide a PACKAGE line as a compact, efficient way to distribute a large number of features that share most of their feature line arguments.

Select Suite if this license model:

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Is to be associated with a product that is a package.

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Is counted.

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Allows a license to be shared among the components of the package using OPTIONS=SUITE on a PACKAGE line. Within a package suite, a license is shared by the components of the package rather than being applied to one specific feature.

Select Suite Reserved if this license model:

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Is to be associated with a product that is a package.

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Is counted.

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Specifies Client Uniqueness, most as commonly User.

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Allows a set of package components to be granted to a fixed number of users at any one time using OPTIONS=SUITE_RESERVED on a PACKAGE line. In addition, after a user checks out a license for one component, licenses for the other package components are reserved for that user. A set of package components remain reserved for the given user until all licenses for the set are checked back in.

Package Specification (for trusted floating licenses)

Applicable to trusted floating (transferable and borrowable) licenses.

Select None if this license model is to be associated with a product that is not defined as a package.

Select Suite Reserved if this license model:

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Is to be associated with a product that is a package.

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Is counted.

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Specifies Client Uniqueness, most as commonly User.

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Client Uniqueness

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Applicable to certificate counted licenses and trusted floating transferable and floating borrowable licenses. Also known as duplicate grouping.

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Duplicate grouping allows a vendor-defined combination of users, hosts, and displays to be considered in the same group such that license requests from any member consumes only one license. Any combination of User, Host, Display, and Vendor can be selected.

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If Vendor is selected, LM_A_CHECKOUT_DATA must be set and all requests with the same vendor-defined data use the same license. This is useful for sharing licenses among otherwise unrelated processes.

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Setting Client Uniqueness for a package suite affects only its enabling feature line. It limits the total number of users of the package to the number of licenses, and allows the package to be shared among the users that have the suite checked out. Without Client Uniqueness constraints specified in the components of package suite, a floating license is shared among the components of the package regardless of the number of users.

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Client Uniqueness must be specified to get suite reserved behavior.

Terminal Server Usage

Controls whether a licensed application can be run from a Terminal Server client. Choose from

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Not Used—Prevents Terminal Server client access in the license model. This is the default setting for Terminal Server Usage.

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Specify Value Now—Permits Terminal Server client access (for one or many clients) in the license model.

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Specify Value at Entitlement Time—Allows Terminal Server Usage to be set during entitlement.

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Specify Value at Fulfillment Time—Allows Terminal Server Usage to be set when the license is fulfilled.

To permit access from one Terminal Server client (one session), choose One Connection Allowed. This adds the ONE_TS_OK keyword to the feature line. This setting only applies to Flex-enabled applications built with FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit version 11.5 or later.

To permit access from multiple clients (multiple sessions), choose Many Connections Allowed. This adds the TS_OK keyword to the feature line. This setting only applies to Flex-enabled applications built with FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit version 8.0 or later.

To prevent access from Terminal Server clients, choose Not Used.

Applications built with versions of FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit prior to version 8.0 do not support this license model feature (and thus may always run using Terminal Server). Therefore, in licenses for applications built with version 8.0 or earlier FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit set Terminal Server Usage to Not Used. Similarly, applications built with a version of FlexNet Publisher prior to 11.5 do not support the One Connection Allowed setting.

These settings apply to applications using a nodelocked uncounted, retail activation, or enterprise activation license. FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit detects when a nodelocked uncounted license is running under Windows Terminal Server.

To allow your Flex-enabled application to run using a Terminal Server client, nodelock the license to the Terminal Server.

FLEXid Sharing

This property, which is applicable to nodelocked uncounted licenses, enables mobile licensing using a FLEXid with FLOAT_OK for a particular feature line.

This feature line must be nodelocked to a FLEXid (a dongle that connects to a parallel or USB port).

One feature line containing the FLOAT_OK keyword and one FLEXid is needed for each instance of a license that can be mobile.

When the FLEXid is attached to a license server, the license floats on the network. When the FLEXid is removed from the license server, the license is available only on the standalone computer with the FLEXid attached.

This property is supported only on Windows machines.

If a license is to be moved between different Windows machines, it is nodelocked to a FLEXid. To move a license to a different machine, the dongle must be moved to that machine.

Select one of the following options:

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Not Used: Select to disallow mobile licensing.

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Allow: Select to allow mobile licensing using a FLEXid with the FLOAT_OK keyword (without a server_hostid). The FLOAT_OK keyword is generated for each FEATURE line in the license file. The nodelocked host ID given at fulfillment time lists the FLEXid to which the license should be attached.

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Specify Value At Entitlement Time: Select to prompt the user at entitlement time to specify if mobile licensing is allowed. At that time, the user would enter the host ID of the license server machine to which the FLEXid (specified as the nodelocked host ID) can be attached to allow this license to float.

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Specify Value At Fulfillment Time: Select to prompt the user at fulfillment time to specify if mobile licensing is allowed. At that time, the user would enter the host ID of the license server machine to which the FLEXid (specified as the nodelocked host ID) can be attached to allow this license to float.

FLEXid Sharing (continued)

When generating a license, specify a FLEXid as the Nodelocked Hostid and the server host ID for FLEXid Sharing. A SERVER line is added to the generated license certificate and:

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The server_hostid is the same host ID that appears on the SERVER line of the license file, or could be a different host ID that refers to the same machine. If the SERVER line host ID is ANY, the FLOAT_OK server_hostid must be specific to the license server machine.

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The license server can only be run on the machine with the host ID that lmhostid returns equal to the server_hostid specified with FLOAT_OK.

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A user can run on the license server machine, but he can use only the license being served by the license server, not the nodelocked license. Otherwise an extra use for each FLOAT_OK license could occur. Note that without the server_hostid specified on the feature line, the FLOAT_OK license can be served from any computer, as long as the FLEXid is attached to it.

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The host ID on the FLOAT_OK feature line must be only a single host ID. For multiple FLEXids, use individual feature lines for each FLEXid.

Time Zone

Controls whether or not licensing is limited to specified regions (expressed as time zones). Choose from

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Not Used—Licenses are not restricted by time zone. This is the default setting for Time Zone.

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Specify Value Now—Limits licenses to publisher-defined time zone values in the license model.

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Specify Value at Entitlement Time—Allows Time Zone limitations to be set during entitlement.

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Specify Value at Fulfillment Time—Allows Time Zone limitations to be set when the license is fulfilled.

To limit usage based on time zone, choose a time zone value from the list. Time zone values must be defined by the publisher. For details, see Working with Time Zones.

To limit usage to machines running in the same time zone as the license server machine (served licenses only), choose Server Time Zone Only.

To ignore time zones for licensing purposes, choose Not Used.

Time zone-based licensing is supported for licenses generated by FlexNet Publisher version 11.7 or later, and applies to the following certificate-based licenses: floating counted, floating uncounted, and nodelocked counted.

Time zone-based licensing is not available for nodelocked uncounted license models (because limiting licenses based on their geographic location is not required if an unlimited number of licenses is available). In this case, the Time Zone setting will be blank.

The special Time Zone setting, Server Time Zone Only, is not applicable to licenses that do not include a SERVER line nor to nodelocked uncounted licenses, generally.

Virtualization Restrictions

Controls whether or not licensed applications are restricted to running only on physical machines or only on virtual machines. Choose from

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Not Used—Permits usage on physical and virtual machines the license model: no restrictions. This is the default setting for Virtualization Restrictions.

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Specify Value Now—Restricts licensed applications to running, either on physical machines or on virtual machines, in the license model.

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Specify Value at Entitlement Time—Allows Virtualization Restrictions to be set during entitlement.

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Specify Value at Fulfillment Time—Allows Virtualization Restrictions to be set when the license is fulfilled.

To limit usage to physical machines only, choose Restrict to Physical Machines. This adds VM_PLATFORMS=PHYSICAL to the feature line.

To limit usage to virtual machines only, choose Restrict to Virtual Machines. This adds VM_PLATFORMS=VM_ONLY to the feature line.

To operate without restrictions, choose Not Used.

Virtualization Restrictions are supported for licenses generated by FlexNet Publisher version 11.7 or later, and apply to certificate license models: floating counted, floating uncounted, nodelocked counted, and nodelocked uncounted.

Borrowing

Applicable to counted, certificate licenses. To disable borrowing, select Not Used. If any other setting is selected, license borrowing is enabled.

If borrowing is allowed, the maximum number of hours that the license can be borrowed for can be specified as the default (168 hours, or one week) or can be specified in the license model, during entitlement, or during fulfillment.

The maximum borrow period is limited by the maximum value of a 32-bit integer: 2 billion hours.

Renew Interval

How often—if ever—the client attempts to re-contact the local license server. Successful contact extends the server-imposed expiration based on the borrow period. When using a finite borrow period, for maximum effectiveness, the renew interval should be set such that the client attempts renewal at least two times per borrow interval. It is set as a percentage of the borrow interval in the license model.

Note:Renew interval is not enforced; it is for the publisher's convenience to use as they want.

Unique Users and Hosts

Applicable to certificate counted licenses and trusted floating transferrable and floating borrowable licenses. Sets the number of users (User Based) or host names (Host Based) that can be specified in INCLUDE statements in the end-user options file.

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Select Not Used if you do not want to include the USER_BASED or HOST_BASED keyword.

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Select Use Default Value to use the full license count.

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Select Specify Value Now to specify the number of users or host names in the license model.

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Select Specify Value At Entitlement Time or Specify Value At Fulfillment Time to specify the number of users or host names later.

Reusable

Applicable to metered (usage-based) license models, Reusable specifies whether the usage counts can be increased and decreased by the usage client or only increased. Choose either Yes or No.

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Yes: Usage counts can be increased when counts are consumed and decreased if a feature checkout is canceled or reversed.

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No: Usage counts can only increase (with possible exceptions expressed in the Undo Interval).

Undo Interval

Applicable to metered (usage-based) license models, Undo Interval defines a window in which feature checkouts can be canceled even if Reusable is set to No. Choose from Not Used, Specify Value Now, and Specify Value at Entitlement Time.

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Select Not Used if Reusable is set to Yes or if Reusable is set to No and you do not want to permit counts to be decreased.

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Select Specify Value Now to set the length of time after feature checkout when the checkout can be canceled and the usage count reverted. Specify a number of seconds, minutes, hours, days, or weeks.

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Select Specify Value At Entitlement Time to allow or require the Undo Interval setting later.

Overdraft

Select the Overdraft option to allow, for example, a specified number of users to run the software package during peak usage times even after the application’s license limit has been reached.

Usage above the license limit is reported by the FlexNet Manager reporting tool, expressed using the OVERDRAFT license keyword. By viewing this report on actual usage, you can accurately determine your account’s license requirements, and purchase any additional licenses that are needed. The Overdraft option is applicable to both certificate and trusted counted licenses.

Overdraft is specified as a Maximum value per entitlement line item with Floor and Ceiling values per fulfillment against that line item. From the Maximum list, select one of the following:

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Not Used: Select if you want to disable Overdraft support.

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Unlimited: Select if you want to allow unlimited overdrafts. You are then prompted to specify a Floor and Ceiling value. (For metered license models, Unlimited does not require Floor/Ceiling values.)

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Specify # now: Select if you want to specify a number value for the overdraft maximum. After your selection, enter a number in the box to specify the overdraft maximum for a line item. For non-metered models, you are then prompted to specify a Floor and Ceiling value.

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Specify % now: Select if you want to specify a percentage value for the overdraft maximum. The percentage is applied to the entitlement line item count to compute the overdraft maximum for a line item. The computed value is rounded to the nearest whole number (4.2 would be rounded to 4, while 4.8 would be rounded to 5). After your selection, enter a percentage value in the box. For non-metered models, you are then prompted to specify a Floor and Ceiling value. Overdraft licenses are allocated as a percentage of each fulfillment count.

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Specify % at Entitlement Time: Select if you want to specify the number value for the overdraft maximum at the time of entitlement. For non-metered models, you are then prompted to specify a Floor and Ceiling value. For metered models, designate whether or not the Overdraft value is required at entitlement time.

If the decision to set the maximum overdraft is deferred until entitlement time (FlexNet Operations user interface or Web services), only an absolute number can be set, not a percentage.

See About Overdraft Support for more information.

Grace Period Days

Select the Grace Period Days option to enable a FlexNet Embedded application to function for a specified number of days, without interruption, after its license has expired.

Choose from

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Not Used: Grace period is not used for this license model (default).

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Specify Value Now: Specify the grace period, in number of days, for this license model.

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Specify Value At Entitlement Time: To defer the decision about grace period. Users must choose whether or not to add a grace period when they are creating entitlements based on this license model.

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Select the Required check box if the user must add a grace period.

See About the License Expiration Grace Period for more information.

Auto Provision

For producers who use FlexNet Cloud Licensing Service, FlexNet Operations can automatically generate a Cloud Licensing Service license server for new customer accounts and automatically map new entitlements to an existing Cloud Licensing Service license server for existing customer accounts.

Choose from

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No: To manually create license servers for entitlements based on this license model.

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Yes: To permit the automatic creation of Cloud Licensing Service license servers.

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Specify Value at Entitlement Time: To defer the decision about auto-provisioning. Users must choose whether or not to use auto-provisioning when they are creating entitlements based on this license model.

Note:The following limitations exist for auto-provisioned license servers that have entitlements mapped for metered features:

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License servers cannot be moved to another account.

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Only unused licenses for metered features can be removed using Licenses > Remove Licenses.

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License servers can be made obsolete, which will remove all licenses mapped to the server. However, this is not recommended, because future line items will not be mapped automatically to the auto-provisioned license server.

Issuer

Issuer of the license: Applicable to all license models.

Select Not Used if you do not want to include the ISSUER keyword, or select Specify Value Now to set the value of ISSUER in the license model.

Select Specify Value At Entitlement Time or Specify Value At Fulfillment Time to specify the ISSUER value later.

In addition to accepting an explicitly specified string, this field can accept, enclosed in curly braces, one of several pre-defined substitution variables or the name of a custom attribute.

Serial Number

Serial number used to identify feature lines: Applicable to all license models.

Select Not Used if you do not want to include the SN keyword, or select Specify Value Now to set the value of SN in the license model.

Select Specify Value At Entitlement Time or Specify Value At Fulfillment Time to specify the SN value later.

In addition to accepting an explicitly specified string, this field can accept, enclosed in curly braces, one of several pre-defined substitution variables or the name of a custom attribute.

Vendor String

Vendor string used to identify feature lines: Applicable to all license models.

Select Not Used if you do not want to include the VENDOR_STRING keyword, or select Specify Value Now to specify the value of the VENDOR_STRING in the license model.

Select Specify Value At Entitlement Time or Specify Value At Fulfillment Time to specify the VENDOR_STRING value later.

In addition to accepting an explicitly specified string, this field can accept, enclosed in curly braces, one of several pre-defined substitution variables or the name of a custom attribute.

Notice

Notice string used to identify feature lines: Applicable to all license models.

Select Not Used if you do not want to include the NOTICE keyword, or select Specify Value Now to specify the value of the NOTICE in the license model.

Select Specify Value at Entitlement Time or Specify Value at Fulfillment Time to specify the NOTICE value later.

In addition to accepting an explicitly specified string, this field can accept, enclosed in curly braces, one of several pre-defined substitution variables or the name of a custom attribute.

USE SERVER

Applicable only to certificate licenses.

USE_SERVER takes no arguments and has no impact on the server. When the application sees USE_SERVER, it ignores everything in the license file except preceding SERVER lines and transfers checkout validation to the vendor daemon.

For uncounted features, USE_SERVER is used to force logging of usage by the daemons.

You can specify to use or not use USE_SERVER in the license model, or specify whether to use it at the time of entitlement or fulfillment.

Platforms

Applicable to all license models. Usage is limited to the selected platforms.

Select No Platform Restrictions if you do not want to specify any platform restrictions.

Select Specify Value Now to specify the allowed platforms in the license model.

Select Specify Value At Entitlement Time or Specify Value At Fulfillment Time to specify the allowed platforms later.

The platforms are selected with check boxes. They are expressed in a license using the PLATFORMS keyword.

Client Repair Count %

Applicable only to Floating Borrowable and Enterprise Activation license models.

A fulfillment record of a vendor daemon contains a fulfill count and a repair count. The fulfill count indicates how many client activations the vendor daemon can perform and the repair count indicates the number of repairs of those client activations the vendor daemon can perform. After the repair count has been used, no more repairs can ever be done against that vendor daemon fulfillment record.

FlexNet Operations license model policies affect only direct transactions between FlexNet Operations and a requesting vendor daemon or client application; they do not affect transactions between a vendor daemon and its clients. Therefore, a parameter has been added to license models to restrict the number of repairs that a vendor daemon can perform on activations from one of its fulfillment records.

When a vendor daemon makes an activation request to FlexNet Operations, it can request a fulfill count and a repair count against that fulfill count. The Client Repair Count % is applied to the requested fulfill count and compared to the requested repair count: the minimum of the two values is returned to the vendor daemon as the repair count on the fulfillment record.

For example:

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A vendor daemon requests a fulfill amount of 100 and a repair count of 20. Client Repair Count % is 100%. FlexNet Operations returns a repair count of 20.

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A vendor daemon requests a fulfill amount of 100 and a repair count of 200. Client Repair Count % is 100%. FlexNet Operations returns a repair count of 100.

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A vendor daemon requests a fulfill amount of 100 and a repair count of 100. Client Repair Count % is 0%. FlexNet Operations returns a repair count of 0.

Max Transfers

Applicable only to trusted models. If a license is bound to a license server, this is the number of transfers of a license allowed between vendor daemons.

Complete the license model creation process by clicking Save, Complete, or Next:

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Click Save to save the license model and remain on the current page.

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Click Complete to save the license model and return the License Model page.

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Click Next to save the license model settings and continue by setting up custom license model attributes (if any have been created) or setting policies for the current license model. (See Setting Up Custom License Model Attributes and Setting License Model Policies .)

After creating a license model, you can continue creating more license models, or start creating features, feature bundles, or products.

Note:After a license model has been saved, the history of its state change can be viewed by clicking the View History button.