Managing PCoIP Session Licenses¶

PCoIP session licenses are purchased in bundles from Teradici. Each bundle is given an activation code at purchase, which controls activation and return of its session licenses. Licenses are validated by Flexera FlexNet Operations, and stored on the PCoIP License Server's trusted storage.

Activated licenses remain linked to their license server until they are returned. No other license server instance can activate licenses that are already allocated.

Caution: Licenses can be lost

If a system hosting a PCoIP License Server is destroyed or becomes corrupted, any licenses registered to it can no longer be returned and are effectively lost. If this happens, open a ticket with Teradici Global Support Services at the Teradici Support Center.

Activating Licenses in an Offline Environment¶

Since offline environments have no access to the internet, PCoIP session license activation is done indirectly. To activate licenses, you must have an internet-connected machine available and a means of transferring licensing files between the connected machine and your offline PCoIP License Server.

What if you can't transfer files to an internet-connected machine?

If you are not able to transfer files from the PCoIP License Server to an internet-connected machine, do not follow these instructions. Teradici Global Support Services will facilitate license activation for you. Create a ticket with Teradici Support for assistance.

When you create the ticket, select Licensing as the case reason and include the VM_UUID of the PCoIP License Server in your description. Run the following command to get the VM_UUID:

pcoip-get-license-server-id

Important: Access to teradici.flexnetoperations.com required

Before you can activate licenses with an offline license server, you must be given access to https://teradici.flexnetoperations.com. To request access, create a ticket with Teradici support. Be prepared to provide a valid activation key, and the name and email address of a contact person who should have access.

Offline license activation is accomplished by invoking pcoip-activate-offline-license twice; once to export a request file which you then supply to FlexNet Operations, and a second time to import FlexNet Operation's response.

This command requires the PCoIP License Server's administrative password. You can provide the password inline using -p. If you do not provide the password on the command line, you will be prompted for it.

To activate licenses:

SSH into your PCoIP License Server machine.
Navigate to your home directory (or another directory that you have write permissions for). To navigate to your home directory, type:
```
cd ~
```
Invoke pcoip-activate-offline-license with -g, the activation code, and the number of licenses to activate. Use -p to provide the PCoIP License Server's administrative password inline, or leave it off to be prompted for the password:
```
pcoip-activate-offline-license -g -a <activation code> -c <license count>
```
Important: Activation codes are case-sensitive

The activation code you use here must exactly match the code you received from Teradici, including dashes and uppercase or lowercase letters.

Note: License count (-c) sets the total number of active licenses for each activation code

The license count (-c) sets the total number of licenses that will be active for a given activation code. It does not add c additional licenses.

For example, if you use pcoip-activate-online-license -a 1234567890 -c 5 and then pcoip-activate-online-license -a 1234567890 -c 10, you will have 10 active licenses—not 15.

This will generate a file named request.bin and store it in the current working directory.

The contents of the request.bin file are displayed for transparency and debugging purposes; the response will look similar to this example:
```
The binary file /home/administrator/request.bin includes the following information:
MessageType="Capability request"
Vendor=TERADICI
MessageTime="May 10, 2018 4:04:17 PM"
ResponseTime="May 10, 2018 4:00:10 PM"
IdentityName=Agents_RSA_2048_SHA2_256
HostUUID=abc12d3e-4a50-6789-1234-5e0678a90123
RequestHostIDType="VM UUID"
RequestHostID=123A4BCD-56F7-E82F-970A-B12CD3EFA45C
SourceIds=123A4BCD-56F7-E82F-970A-B12CD3EFA45C/VmUuid
IsServer=true
DesiredRights=(ActivationID=12344:1)
```
Transfer request.bin to a computer that has an internet connection using any acceptable method, such as a USB flash drive.
Submit request.bin to Flexnet Operations:
1. Browse to https://teradici.flexnetoperations.com using the internet-connected machine and log in.
2. Log in with the email address you set up as your Flexnet Activations contact.
  
  Note: First-time only password reset
  
  The first time you log in to Flexnet Operations, you will need to reset your password. Click Password Finder on the login page to reset the password.
  
  Important: Resolving login difficulties
  
  If you experience difficulties logging in, contact Teradici for help. The owner of the activation code email address can also add you as a user on the account.
3. In the sidebar, find the Devices section and click Upload Capability Request:
4. Click Browse and provide the request.bin file you transferred from the PCoIP License Server.
5. Click Send to submit the request and download a response file.
  
  If FlexNet Operations returns an error instead of a response file, there is a problem with your request file. Generate a new request.bin file and try again.
Transfer the received response file to the License Server machine using any acceptable method, such as a USB flash drive.

The response.bin file can only be used on the machine that generated the request.bin file.
Invoke pcoip-activate-offline-license again with -r and the response file received from Flexnet Operations:
```
pcoip-activate-offline-license -r 'path/to/response.bin'
```
Note: response.bin expires after 7 days

The response.bin file expires after 7 days, after which it will be rejected by the License Server. If this occurs, repeat this procedure from the beginning with fresh request.bin and response.bin files.
Verify your license activations:
```
pcoip-list-licenses
```

Returning Licenses in Offline Environments¶

Licenses are registered to the license server where they are activated. In order to activate them on a different license server, they must first be returned, or released, back into the available license pool.

Licenses are returned by using pcoip-activate-offline-license to reduce the active license count, which activates the new (smaller) number of licenses and returns the remainder. To do this, follow the procedure for Activating Licenses in an Offline Environment and supply the reduced license count for pcoip-activate-offline-license in step 3.

For example, if activation code 1234-ABCD-EF12-3456 has 25 active licenses and you want to return 5, you set the number of active licenses to 20:

pcoip-activate-offline-license -g -a 1234-ABCD-EF12-3456 -c 20

Tip: Returning all licenses

You can return all the active licenses by supplying a count of 0 (zero):

pcoip-activate-offline-license -g -a 1234-ABCD-EF12-3456 -c 0

Viewing License Information¶

To view the current status of your managed licenses, use pcoip-list-licenses. This command provides information about the PCoIP session licenses that have been activated on the Teradici PCoIP License Server.

This command requires the PCoIP License Server's administrative password. You can provide the password inline using -p. If you do not provide the password on the command line, you will be prompted for it.

pcoip-list-licenses

The information returned by pcoip-list-licenses includes:

The number of licenses that have been activated
The number of licenses that have been used
The expiration dates of features or session licenses.

Migrating Licenses to Another Server¶

A license may only be used on one license server instance at a time. To migrate licenses, you must return them on the first PCoIP License Server and then activate them on the second.

Viewing the contents of `request.bin` and `response.bin`¶

In some cases, you may need to view the contents of the request.bin or response.bin files generated by the license activation procedure, either as a debugging tool or a securty measure.

The contents of the request.bin file are displayed automatically when running pcoip-activate-license -g. To view the contents of response.bin, run pcoip-activate-offline-license with the -v option and the path to the file to inspect:

pcoip-activate-offline-license -v <response-file>

A result for response.bin looks like this example:

The binary file /home/administrator/123A4BCD-56F7-E82F-970A-B12CD3EFA45C.bin includes the following information:
MessageType="Capability response"
ServerIDType=String
ServerID=BACK_OFFICE
SourceIds=BACK_OFFICE
Lifetime=86400
ResponseTime="May 10, 2018 2:43:53 PM"
LastResponseTimeMilliseconds=0
RequestHostID=123A4BCD-56F7-E82F-970A-B12CD3EFA45C
RequestHostIDType="VM UUID"
HostUUID=abc12d3e-4a50-6789-1234-5e0678a90123
MachineType=Unknown
EnterpriseID=12345678