Types of Licensing - Engineering

LMU support three different licensing types:

• Trusted Store Licensing
• Certificate Licensing
• Online Licensing

Trusted Store Licensing

This license is stored in a trusted store file. The licensing library (FNP) ensures that the file cannot be manipulated (e.g. copied to another machine).

The licenses stored in a trusted store can be returned and (re-)activated on other machine. In Trusted Store Licensing, any "modification" on the target machine (where the trusted store file is stored) may break the binding and the licenses in the trusted store become untrusted. This is especially in virtual environments.

Trusted store license can be activated using Entitlement ID or Activation ID, either using online or offline activation workflow.

Certificate Licensing

Certificate Licensing is used to perform actions for dongle certificate. During the activation process when the certificate file is created the license get bound to the key asset. The key asset can either by a physical dongle or the Trusted Platform Module chip of (newer) windows PCs. Whereas the certificate file can be copied multiple times, the physical key asset is the 'valuable' asset for this licensing type.

Certificate Licensing can not be manipulated (e.g. copied to another machine) and is the quite simple handling. There is no protection of the license is required, as it is physical key asset. If this asset fails the license is lost and a manual license return workflow needs to be performed.

On client side, there are two types of certificate based licensing, server-based certificates or local certificates. These two types of certificate are displayed in LMU with a different icon, small 'S' for server-based certificates and small 'L' for local certificates.

Online Licensing

The Online Licensing is different that Certificate Licensing. The Online license is issued as simple certificate file, this license token needs to be requested and considered, that the license is valid and usable on the client. Online Licensing is the flexible usage, as it is no longer bound to a dedicated machine or physical key asset. online licensing supports the disaster recovery workflow. Online Licensing requires an internet connection to the LMS backend server.