Licensing

The StrataBugs licence manager is RLM, from Reprise Software.

Reprise provide comprehensive documentation.

Licensing models

There are two licensing models that can be used:

  1. A license server process (rlm.exe) running on a designated license server machine, serving floating network, per-use licenses. This is the default model for corporate networks.

  2. A licence file encoded for the client machine. This is the default model for single user systems and evaluations. The licence will only run on the target client.

We no longer support the hardware key (dongle) model.

Licence file

The licence file may have any file name (and you can change the file name), but will always have a .lic extension. The file is plain text and can be examined with a text editor, but you cannot edit the file contents without risking making the file invalid (except for example, adding a port number for the licence server).

All types of licence file are time-limited, and reissued on an annual basis, even for previously purchased "perpetual" licences.

A full description of the licence file is available in the Reprise documentation.

The licence file may contain a mixture of licence types.

Setting up a standalone licence

Simply put the licence file into the StrataBugs folder OR set the environment variable RLM_LICENSE to point to the location of the licence file.

Setting up a floating license server

  1. Download the RLM License Administrator Bundle for your platform from the RLM site. Run the installer or unpack the zip into the destination folder e.g. C:\RLM

    Do not install into "Program Files" on Windows as this is a protected area which will prevent the password process working.

  2. Run the RLM application to find the hostid of your server:

    rlmutil rlmhostid 32

    Report the output code(s) to StrataData who will issue a licence file. Also report the host name, so this can be included in the licence file. A license file which permits the license server to run on a virtual machine can be provided at StrataData’s discretion.

  3. Download the StrataData licence daemon from StrataData support (or here for versions prior to 15.1), and extract the two files into the RLM folder.

  4. When you receive the licence file, put it into the RLM folder, and run the licence manager from the command line:

    rlm -c <licence file name>

    If there are errors, report the error messages to StrataData.

  5. If there are no errors, then you should test this with your StrataBugs client application by setting the RLM_LICENSE environment variable:

    RLM_LICENSE:port-number@license-server-host

    For users, go to the Windows Control Panel | System | Advanced system Settings | Environment Variables, and add a User or System variable. The variable name is RLM_LICENSE and the value might be 5053@server-host.

    When the application starts, you should see an "OUT" message from rlm on the command line, and an "IN" message when you close StrataBugs.

    05/13 15:57 (stratadata) Using options file stratadata.opt
05/13 15:57 (stratadata) Setting TIMEOUT for all products to 14400 secs.
05/13 15:57 (stratadata)
05/13 15:57 (stratadata) Server started on Aragog (hostid: cb7c179d8) for:
05/13 15:57 (stratadata)        stratabugs sbchart support
05/13 15:57 (stratadata)
05/13 15:57 (stratadata) License files:
05/13 15:57 (stratadata)     Aragog-Server.lic
05/13 15:57 (stratadata)
05/13 16:11 (stratadata) OUT: stratabugs v3.0 by rosa@aragog
05/13 16:16 (stratadata) IN: (client exit) stratabugs v3.0 by rosa@aragog
    There is a browser interface to the rlm process which by default runs on port 5054: https://hostname:5054 where hostname is the name of your server.

  6. If there are no errors, stop the process wth Ctrl-C and go to the next step of installing RLM as a service.

Installing as a Windows Service

Follow the instructions in the RLM documentation. You must run the command with administrator privileges. For example:

rlm -c <licence file> -install_service -service_name rlm-v17 -dlog C:\dev\rlm.v17.0BL1-x64_w4.admin\log\server.log

  • The service name parameter is optional (and defaults to "RLM" if not set).

  • The logs folder indicated in the dlog parameter must already exist.

You must log in to the web interface (https://localhost:5054) within 10 minutes to set the admin password. If you don’t do this, the ISV servers will shut down.

Port setting

You might need to modify your firewall or Windows Defender to open the ports that RLM uses. You should open the incoming ports for the RLM and ISV servers, and for the web server if necessary. You can use the information from the web interface or the rlm startup command to see which ports it uses. The default ports are:

  1. RLM 5053 - OR defined on the HOST line of the licence (.lic) file e.g.

    HOST MYHOST 005046b54e87 5053

  2. Web server 5054

  3. ISV server - assigned at runtime OR set in the licence (.lic) file on the ISV line e.g.

    ISV stratadata port=49695

Roaming licenses

We can issue a floating licence which allows licences to be checked out for a period of time from the network server. If this is enabled you will have an argument to the LICENSE line in the licence file stating "max_roam=n" for the maximum number of days a licence can be roamed (with an overall maximum of 180 days).

To check out a roaming license, the environment variable RLM_ROAM should be set to the number of days the licence is required, before running the StrataBugs control panel. Thereafter, the client can be disconnected from the network. A script like this would work:

@echo off
REM start strataBugs with roaming options.
echo.
echo Enter the number days you want to take a StrataBugs licence for.
echo.
echo Enter 0 to leave unchanged.
echo Enter -1 to return the existing licence to the server.
echo.
SET /P RLM_ROAM=Days required :
echo.
echo. Remember to Open and Close the charts module.
echo.
IF %RLM_ROAM% GTR 0 echo You can disconnect from the network and use StrataBugs for %RLM_ROAM% days.
SET /P TEMP=Press Return:

If you have the flag issuer=user_roam set in the StrataBugs LICENSE line of the licence file, users can check out a roaming license themselves via the StrataBugs control panel (Config menu). This option will be disabled if not enabled in the license file.

Diagnosing problems

Run StrataBugs with the following environment variable set:

RLM_DIAGNOSTICS=rlmdiag.log

or start it with Stratabugs_diagnostic.exe, which will contain this setting. Messages are shown on the command line as well as to the log file.

Troubleshooting "Connection refused" errors

Sometimes in troubleshooting problems with clients connecting to license servers, it’s useful to have a tool outside RLM which can tell you whether messages can get through to the server. If a firewall or anti-virus package or proxy is blocking communications, a separate tool will have the same problems connecting to the server as RLM.

On Linux/Unix:

Simply attempt to connect to the running RLM license server with telnet. Note the name of the license server you’re trying to check licenses out from, the main RLM port number, and the ISV server port number. The port numbers can be found in the server side diagnostics.

For example, if RLM running on the machine server123 and is listening on port 5053, and the ISV server is listening on port 12345, try:

telnet server123 5053
telnet server123 12345
If telnet can get through, you'll see a message like this:
Trying xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx...
Connected to server-123 (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx).
Escape character is '^]'.
Type control-] and quit to exit telnet

But if telnet cannot get through you’ll see a message like this:

Trying xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx...
telnet: connect to address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx: Connection refused
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused

On Windows:

If you have telnet available you can use it as you would on Linux/Unix. If you have access to PowerShell on your system you can run Test-NetConnection.

For example, if RLM is running on the machine server123 and listening on port 5053, and the ISV server is listening on port 12345, try:

Test-NetConnection -ComputerName server123 -Port 5053
Test-NetConnection -ComputerName server123 -Port 12345

If successful the response will look like:

ComputerName     : server123
RemoteAddress    : xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
RemotePort       : 5053
InterfaceAlias   : Ethernet
SourceAddress    : xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
TcpTestSucceeded : True

If not successful:

WARNING: TCP connect to (45.58.39.56 : 12345) failed
ComputerName     : server123
RemoteAddress    : xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
RemotePort       : 5053
InterfaceAlias   : Ethernet
SourceAddress    : xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
PingSucceeded          : True
PingReplyDetails (RTT) : 94 ms
TcpTestSucceeded       : False

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