2.2.3. Software Licensing

After the DS software components have been installed it may be necessary to license them. All licensed APEX software uses the industry standard Flexera Software (http://www.flexerasoftware.com) FlexNET license manager tool. The following application specific licensing rules apply to members of the DS suite:

  • The APEX DS application can be used without a license in its simulated input mode. This mode will allow access to all features of the application for testing and evaluation purposes. When using APEX DS with inputs from real acquisition devices then the following licensing rules apply:
    • Each device input channel must have a “DS channel license”. These licenses are counted, each usage will reduce the available count by one.
    • Using the full featured data plotting interface will require one “DR Plot Interface” license. These licenses are shared between running APEX DS and APEX DR application instances.
    • There are additional features in the APEX DS application that are enabled by “on/off” flags in the installed license. These are not counted, the absence or presence of the controlling flag enables or disables these features for all DS application instances. These “flags” control the following optional features:
      • Ability to define computed parameters.
      • Ability to use compressed raw storage formats.
      • Ability to accept control connections over a network interface.
  • The APEX DR application always requires a “DR Plot Interface” license. These licenses are shared between running APEX DS and APEX DR application instances.
  • The APEX DV application can always be used without a license. However, some optional features of the application can be “unlocked” by licensing it. DV uses a “token based” licensing scheme based on “APEX Analysis” tokens. Each unlocked optional feature has a “token cost” associated with it. These analysis tokens can be shared between multiple APEX analysis tools, including DV itself, APEX DX, APEX GageMap and APEX BT (Blade Timing). The optional features that can be unlocked in DV include:
    • Removal of the APEX banner bar at the bottom of the user interface.
    • Ability to open DspCON (DATX, CATS) format data files in addition to the always supported APEX native formats.
    • Ability to save (and later restore) the current session as a “project file”. This includes saving the name of the analyzed file, the plot configuration, the limit values and other miscellaneous session settings.
    • Ability to use up to three additional data plotting interfaces besides the one built into the main application window
  • The device driver and data processing plugins are not licensed individually, their usage is controlled by the application loading them.

2.2.3.1. Node Locked Licensing

The simplest way to license APEX DS applications is to use node locked licensing. Installing such a license starts with the user sending the FlexNET “Host ID” of the computer running the software to APEX Inc. APEX will generate a license file based on this Host ID and the user’s purchased software options. The user will need to copy this file either to its “standard” location (the “../licenses” folder relative to the application executable’s location) or to any other location on the target computer. In the second case the location of the license has to be configured in the application’s GUI.

Node locked licenses will work only on the computer that matches the Host ID used to generate them. The license counts specified in them (for channels, plot interfaces or tokens) are shared between all running application instances on the host computer (regardless of whether under the same user or different ones).

2.2.3.2. APEX OpenCode Licensing

This method is an extension of the node locked licensing described above. The APEX OpenCode mechanism is based on Flexera’s “Trusted Storage” (TS) technology. This technology allows the verified installation and removal of licenses from the target computer. The APEX implementation of the OpenCode technology allows end users to manage their node locked licenses with the assistance of an activation server server hosted by APEX, Inc.

Supported operations include requesting, installing, removing, returning and moving licenses. All operations can be performed by generating alphanumeric code sequences in the to be (un)licensed APEX software and entering these on the APEX activation site. Sequences typically contain 6 to 9 alphanumeric code groups, and are short enough to support environments where the codes have to be transferred using hand written notes because of network security requirements.

2.2.3.3. Server Based Licensing

Hosting a site’s licenses on a dedicated server is the third option of delivering them to the requesting APEX applications. This requires running Flexera’s FlexNET license manager software (lmgrd) on a dedicated server machine. All licenses will be installed on this host. The computers actually running the APEX software will have no licenses installed on them. Instead, the APEX applications running on them will have to be configured to connect to the dedicated license server.

The license server will serve license requests on a “first come first serve” basis until all licensed feature counts are exhausted. Additional license requests after this point will be rejected. When an application exits its requested license counts will be reclaimed.

APEX, Inc. supports installing the licenses served by FlexNET servers either using the “license file” or the OpenCode methods. Both methods work similarly to their node locked variants described above, except that the licenses will be installed on the server machine itself.

APEX supports “borrowing” licenses against a license server’s installed license count. This has to be requested from the (server mode licensed) APEX application, and (after successful completion) allows the requesting client machine to be disconnected from the license server’s network for the duration of the borrow request.