Advantage Licensing Summary (Support Release G - 5/4/2016)

Advantage Licensing Summary (Support Release G - 5/4/2016)

The purpose of this document is a summarization of Advantage Licensing key concepts and usage.

It is not a replacement for existing documents. Other informational, how-to and electronic help documents may be necessary for complete usage of Advantage Licensing.

Please refer to the GE Support web site for detailed documents related to Advantage Licensing.

Also included in this document is Advantage Licensing FAQs which is available as a PDF file on the support website.

Document Usage

Please note for this document the terms “license”, “activations” and “activation codes” will be interchangeable.  The term “cloud” will be interchangeable with the “GE Intelligent Platforms License Server”

Contents

• Advantage Licensing Introduction
• Advantage Licensing Key Concepts
• License Version History
• Licensing Software
• Advantage Licensing Software
• Advantage Licensing Preparation

• Common IT concerns regarding Internet access

• Summary of Steps
• License Server Information
• Advantage Licensing Utilities - Available on the Interface
• Advantage Licensing Utilities – Manual Execution
• Advantage Licensing Troubleshooting
• Advantage Licensing Application Notes

• Using RDP to manage licensing
• Building a License Server prior to removing M4 licensing
• Modifying the License Server default port number
• Inserting a USB key when a soft key is running
• Advantage USB key information
• Timing Issue – License not recognized

• Advantage Licensing Support Calls
• Advantage Licensing Important Links
• Advantage Licensing Knowledgebase Articles
• Advantage Licensing FAQs

Advantage Licensing Introduction

Advantage Licensing includes aspects of the previous license model and includes new concepts. It is necessary to understand the new concepts in order to leverage Advantage Licensing.

Prior versions of GE Licensing (M1, M4) provided:

• GE Licensing software that runs as a Windows service authorizing the key
• Support for hardware or software keys

• License Viewer application used to verify license features
• Licenses are not tied to a device (PC, VM or USB)
• A soft key option is available which could be used multiple times

Advantage Licensing provides similar capabilities:

• GE Licensing software runs as a Windows service authorizing the key
• Support for hardware or software keys

• License Viewer application used to verify license features
• Maintains support for legacy M4 keys

Advantage Licensing provides new capabilities:

• Licenses now come in the form of an “activation code”
• Every product type installed will have its own activation code
• Licenses are activated via the internet using the GE Intelligent Platforms License Server
• Licenses are now associated with the device they are activated on (PC, USB or VM)
• Licensing no longer includes a global soft key that can be used multiple times
• Licensing strategy is necessary to leverage Advantage Licensing
• Supports a “pool” of licenses on a local license server
• Offers an “Offline” activation process for systems without internet access
• Provides two new interfaces to manage Advantage Licensing

Advantage Licensing and VM’s

• VM software is supported using a local license server or a USB key
• Direct activation without a local license server to the cloud is not supported
• VM cloning should be performed before licenses are activated on the host
• If a VM is cloned with an activated license the licensing on the cloned image will fail
• If VM’s are created for activities such as training and those VM’s not used for long periods of time licenses could be expired upon startup.

More specifically VM’s representing a client (leasing license from a server) could be expired as the 21 days has elapsed as the stored license date is old compared to the current date. The client lease will eventually refresh or a manual license refresh can be performed.

Advantage Licensing Key Concepts

GE License Server

The GE license server is a “cloud” based license provider.

All license activations will be processed by accessing the internet (“the cloud”).

New license activations, license returns and license updates will all take place by accessing the GE License Server.

Activation Codes

Advantage Licenses are in the form of a 16 digit “activation code”.

Customers will receive an activation code for each product. For FIX, IGS Driver and Historian three activation codes would be provided.

Activation Codes and Customer Service Numbers (CSN)

On order completion activation code(s) are forwarded to the customer.

Every activation code is identified with the CSN associated with the order.

The CSN used when ordering products is highly important as activations that will co-exist on the same device MUST have been ordered with the same CSN.

Replacing Device Activation Codes

A typical example is when a Sales Demo key is activated onto a device and subsequently removed to activate the customer code.

Device identification including the CSN is recorded in the “cloud” the first time a license is activated to a device. Subsequent activations will fail if the CSN for the new activation is not the same. Errors may include an “ownership mismatch” message.

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