Licensing TIBCO SmartSockets on Windows Systems

You enter a license key and customer name into your SmartSockets system before certain processes are allowed to run. Formerly, these processes were branded with the license key and customer name or ID, using the rtbrand command. Now, there is a license file, stored in the standard directory, where you enter your product licenses and customer name.

You can still use the rtbrand command to brand your RTservers, instead of using the license file, but if you add your SmartSockets license to the license file, it overrides any branding. The license file takes priority over branding.

Your License Key and Customer ID

A license key is needed to license the RTservers and other processes for SmartSockets. These processes cannot be run until they have been licensed or branded. You also get a customer ID, which is encoded into your license. You need your customer ID to provide to TIBCO Product Support when you contact them with a question or support issue. Contact TIBCO Product Support to get both the license key and customer ID.

The license key is a 32 character string. Only hexadecimal characters are valid. It is case-insensitive. It can contain embedded hyphens as a readability aid.

Here is an example of a valid license:

12345678-90ABCDEF-12345678-90ABCDEF 

The customer ID is a numeric string, such as 4425. When you receive your customer ID, note it someplace for future use when requesting product support. If you forget your customer ID, you can use this SmartSockets command to display your customer information:

rtserver -license 

Modifying the License File

An empty license file is created during your SmartSockets installation, and can be found in:

%RTHOME%\standard\talarian.lic 

Use an editor, such as notepad, to edit the file to add your license information, including the product name, serial number, and your company name. If your company name includes a space, it must be enclosed in double quotes. The product name and serial number must match the name and number sent to you in the Technical Support email that provides your license information. The best way to ensure a match is to copy the line in the email that includes the product name and serial number and paste it into the license file.

Here is a sample license file for a system that has several products, including SmartSockets:

# 
# License file for TIBCO products. 
# 
# Licenses for TIBCO products may be added to this file, 
# $RTHOME/standard/talarian.lic, or the TIBCO product may 
# be branded. Any license found in this file will override a 
# branded TIBCO product. 
# 
 
Product              Serial Number                           Company Name 
-------------------- ------------------------------------   ----------------- 
SmartSockets         C586A216-12345678-0C2B6775-FEAD0AFF     "Acme Sockets" 
SmartSockets/Gateway 4E85BE66-28D8437B-1F6017E5-12345678     "Acme Sockets" 
SmartSockets/PGM     0384DB01-E0550592-56EB3ED5-12345678     "Acme Sockets" 
SmartSockets/Cache   F5860E16-12345678-0C2B6775-FEA10A0F     "Acme Sockets" 

Licenses you have added to this file override any branding you might do. The license file takes priority over use of the rtbrand command.

For this SmartSockets installation, add a line for the SmartSockets product name and serial number. If you licensed SmartSockets PGM (a license for the RTgms process to support multicasting), also add a line for that product name and serial number to the file.

After you have edited the file and saved it, RTserver can now be started. Starting RTserver now helps verify that the SmartSockets installation was successful. To start RTserver, type this command at the prompt:

$ rtserver 

A message appears saying that the RTserver was started successfully.

Or go to the Start menu, select Programs, and select the SmartSockets program folder. Select RTserver (32-bit).

Select RTserver (64-bit) instead to run the 64-bit version, if your hardware and operating system support 64-bit

If RTserver started successfully, the window is automatically minimized. Check your bottom bar for the RTserver process and click on it to expand the window, which displays a message saying that the RTserver was started successfully.

If you have an existing SmartSockets license and want to upgrade or add other products, you also edit the license file. To add products, add a new line in the license file. To upgrade an existing license, with additional RTservers or upgrading to multi-threaded RTservers, replace the existing SmartSockets serial number with the new serial number.

Displaying the License File

After you have installed SmartSockets, added the RTserver license to the license file, and started the RTserver, you can use the rtlic shell script to display information about your license.

At a SmartSockets command prompt, enter:

$ rtlic 

This is a sample of what is displayed:

product             = SmartSockets 
customer check sum  = <11> 
server_count        = <20> 
client_count        = <200> 
customer_id         = <1234> 
product_version     = <65> 
reference_date      = <Tue Nov 23 13:11:42.000 2003> 
customer_name       = <Superior Messaging, Inc.> 
eval                = <false> 
capabilities        = <14> 
                    = "Advanced Usage" 
                    = "Multi-Threaded" 
                    = "Group Connections" 

For more information on using rtlic, see the TIBCO SmartSockets Utilities reference.

Branding a License

If you want to use branding instead of the license file, use the rtbrand command. You can also use this command to upgrade a standard SmartSockets Version 6.8 license to add the SmartSockets Multicast or SmartSockets MP features.

There are multiple rtserver executables installed during SmartSockets installation. If you have an existing SmartSockets license and want to upgrade by rebranding, you need to explicitly rebrand each configuration (each executable) of the RTserver that you use. For example, if you use the optimized version of the RTserver, you must rebrand that in addition to rebranding the default version.

Using your new license, modify your existing SmartSockets license, invoking rtbrand for each configuration of the RTserver that you use.

Here is the syntax for the rtbrand script:

rtbrand license_key customer_name rtserver_exec 

where:

For example:

$ rtbrand 12345678-90ABCDEF-12345678-90ABCDEF "Acme Sockets" rtserver.exe 

This brands the default RTserver with the new license and customer name.