Counted vs. Uncounted Licenses
The license model (as defined in the license file on the end user machine) determines whether a license server is needed. If all feature definition lines have a license count set to either zero (0) or uncounted, then the customer does not need a license server. This type of license is called uncounted. Alternatively, if any features have a non-zero license count, then the customer needs a license server to count those licenses. If a software publisher wants to use FlexNet Publisher without a license server, they must issue uncounted licenses.
The license server can serve uncounted licenses also. This is often done so that:
| • | Transactions can be logged into the report log for all license requests, which can then be reported on by FlexNet Manager. |
| • | Options file constraints can be applied to the licenses. |
When serving uncounted licenses from a license server, note the following:
| • | Include the SERVER and VENDOR lines in the license file. |
| • | The user application must point to the license server with port@host (recommended). |
| • | Served uncounted INCREMENT line signatures are not linked to the hostid on the SERVER line, therefore using served uncounted licenses with HOSTID=ANY is an exploit risk. Instead, Revenera recommends served counted licenses with a large count. |