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Chapter 7: RealServer License files

This manual describes a pre-release product. As such, some features may not be fully implemented; any information here is subject to change.

This chapter explains how RealServer features are controlled by a license file. If you have more than one RealServer in your organization, you can use a license group to share features.XXX

Overview

The list of features available to your RealServer is stored in a file in the License directory. If you purchase additional features, these may be listed in additional files stored in the same directory. License files are written in XML format.

To upgrade your license so that you can use more of RealServer's features, contact RealNetworks or your reseller.

If your organization uses several RealServers that all use the same set of features, you can configure these to share a single license. Refer to "Distributed Licensing".

Information Stored in the License

The following features are controlled by the license:

Reading the License

You can read the file with RealSystem Administrator by clicking About in the left-hand frame. A second browser window appears, displaying the values for your license file. If you have multiple license files, RealServer will show the values for all of them at once.

You can also read the file with any text editor. Although you can read the file with a text editor, you cannot make changes. Any changes to the file invalidate it. If you have multiple files, you will need to read each file individually and calculate any additive features (such as number of streams) yourself.

The LicenseDirectory variable in the configuration file tells RealServer where to look for license information.

Additional Information
To learn about the configuration file, see "Configuration File".

If the license file is invalid, RealServer will report an error message, add the error to the error log file, and will not start. To resolve this, remove the license file, and restart RealServer. It will use minimum settings, as described in the "Minimum Settings" table. Contact RealNetworks for a correct license file.

Minimum Licensed Features

If your RealServer suddenly allows fewer connections or otherwise appears to be using minimum settings, either your license has expired or RealServer is unable to start using the settings you've selected. The table below lists the minimum settings present in every RealServer.

Minimum Settings
Feature Value
Number of streams 25
RealPlayer versions Only RealPlayer versions 5.0 and later are allowed to connect.
Splitting Acts as pull splitting source. Cannot act as pull splitter, push source, or push splitter.
Multicasting Disabled
Authentication Encoder and RealSystem Administrator users can be authenticated. Links to content cannot be authenticated.
Data types RealVideo and RealAudio are enabled; all other types (Real G2 with Flash, WAV, AVI, VIVO) are disabled.

Note
Evaluation versions may have lower minimum values and additional features.

Distributed Licensing

The distributed licensing feature allows you to purchase a single license to be used by multiple RealServers on your network. The RealServers that share a license are called a "license group". Features enabled in the license are then automatically enabled on all the RealServers in the group, and the number of available connections is shared. Clients are not denied service unless the entire pool of connections in the group is in use.

When you use this feature, you place the main license file on the main RealServer (called the "publisher"). You configure the publisher RealServer with a unique port number, then configure corresponding RealServers (called "subscribers"). The subscribers can be set up to look for a primary publisher RealServer, and if that RealServer is not available or has too few connections available for use, a secondary RealServer can be called upon.

Note
Within a given network or organization, you can have multiple groups, but you should not use this feature outside of a network.

Each RealServer maintains its own configuration file, and can be configured independently using RealSystem Administrator. The features available to each subscriber depend on the features permitted by the shared license, but can be set up with different values on each subscriber.

Setting Up Distributed Licensing

To use this feature for the first time requires three steps:

  1. Setting up the publisher RealServer

  2. Setting up the subscriber RealServer

  3. Starting the license group

Once you have configured both publisher and subscribers, you need only remember to start the publisher before starting the subscribers.

Setting Up the Publisher

In addition to the steps shown below, you must tell the person who is setting up the subscriber what value you are using for Admin Port.

To set up the publisher:

  1. On the publisher, start RealSystem Administrator.

  2. Look up the value of Admin Port:

    1. In RealSystem Administrator, click General Setup. Click Ports.

    2. Look at the value for Admin Port and make a note of it. You'll use it in when setting up the Publisher.

  3. In RealSystem Administrator, click License Group. Click Configure.

  4. List the subscriber RealServers that will be sharing this publisher's license:

    1. In the Enable License Publisher box, select Yes.

    2. In the License Publishers area, click Add New.

      A generic IP address appears in the Edit Publisher IP Address box.

    3. In the Edit Publisher IP Address box, type the IP address of the license publisher host.

    4. Click Edit.

    5. In the Admin Port box, type the value of publisher's Admin Port that you looked up in Step 2.

  5. List the subscribers that will be sharing this RealServer's license (repeat this step for each subscriber):

    1. In the License Subscriber area, click Add New.

      A generic description appears in the Edit Subscriber Description box.

    2. Type a name in the Subscriber Description box, to distinguish this subscriber's address from others.

    3. Click Edit.

    4. In the Subscriber Address box, type the subscriber's IP address.

    5. In the Subscriber Netmask box, type the subscriber's subnet mask (usually 255.255.255.255).

  6. Click Apply.

Setting Up Subscribers

You'll need to know the value for Admin Port on the publisher, as well as the publisher's IP address.

To set up the subscribers:

  1. In RealSystem Administrator, click License Group. Click Configure.

  2. In the License Subscribers area, click Add New.

    A generic IP address appears in the Edit Subscriber Description box.

    1. In the XXX box, type the IP address of the license publisher.

    2. In the Admin Port box, type the value of the publisher's Admin Port.

    3. Click Edit.

  3. Click Apply.

Starting the License Group

The publisher RealServer must be started before you start the subscribers, so that the subscribers can access the shared license.

To start the license group:

  1. Restart the publisher.

  2. Restart the subscribers.

Distributed licensing is now active; RealServers can pool their stream count and feature availability.

Monitoring Distributed Licensing

On the publisher, you can use Java Monitor to view the number of connections currently in use by the subscribers.

To monitor license activity:

  1. In RealSystem Administrator, click Monitor.

  2. Click XXX.


Copyright © 1998, 1999 RealNetworks
For information on RealNetworks' technical support, click here.
Comments on this document? Click here.
This file last updated on 08/16/00 at 09:54:26.
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