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Sentinel RMS Product FAQ
- What is Sentinel RMS?
- Why use Sentinel RMS?
- Why deploy license management at all?
- How does licensing work?
- What comprises a "license"?
- How do I enable my product for Sentinel Licensing?
- What types of Licenses Models are supported?
- How long does it take to integrate Sentinel RMS into my product?
- How do I secure my licenses from piracy?
- How can I distribute Sentinel RMS licenses to my end-users?
- What is the Sentinel License Server?
- How are licenses distributed across a network?
- How does the Sentinel client communicate with the Sentinel License Server?
- Will license management be intrusive to my customers?
- I have an increasingly mobile customer base. Will Sentinel RMS allow users to travel with their licenses?
- Does the Sentinel License server have fail-over capability?
- Can I use a combination of hardware and software based license management?
- Can I customize the Sentinel RMS tools to give them my own look and feel?
- Can my customers administer and monitor their licenses?
- What are the key new customer benefits you are introducing with Sentinel RMS?
- How is Sentinel RMS different from Sentinel LM 8.0?
- Is Sentinel LM 8.0 forwards-compatible with Sentinel RMS?
What is Sentinel RMS?
Sentinel RMS is a comprehensive system that dramatically reduces or eliminates many of the costs normally associated with license management. With RMS, software vendors can optimize the entire licensing lifecycle, from design, to fulfillment, to ongoing management. RMS also provides protection from unauthorized use.
Why use Sentinel RMS?
Sentinel RMS dramatically reduces or eliminates many of the costs
normally associated with license management. The modular design of Sentinel
RMS allows it to quickly join up to your back-office systems, automating
most fulfillment and management operations. Our secure, role-based system
allows every department in your company the access they require to
effectively manage your customer's needs.
RMS also comes with the level of protection from unauthorized use you'd
expect in an enterprise-class software licensing system. In addition, the
licensing flexibility provided by Sentinel RMS allows you to reach new
markets, leading to increased revenue.
With Sentinel RMS, you can optimize the entire licensing lifecycle, from
design, to fulfillment, to ongoing management. Because it adapts quickly to
your way of doing business, Sentinel RMS allows you to have a license
management system that is right for your customers and right for your
business.
Why deploy license management at all?
Effective license management opens up additional revenue generating
opportunities as well as protecting applications against unauthorized use.
Sentinel RMS supports a multitude of licensing models such as Evaluation,
Commuter, Feature-Based, Pay-Per-Use, and Network. With Sentinel RMS,
features or bundles of features can be sold and licensed separately,
enabling increased revenue.
Sentinel RMS also provides an interface that allows easy integration with
order entry and customer service databases so that tracking and management
of licenses can be automated. License requests can flow through your ERP/CRM
systems - eliminating the need for costly manual processes.
For more information on building vs. buying a license management system,
please read our white
paper.
How does licensing work?
The license, when called upon, either grants or denies authorization to use the application it is intended to protect. When the user requests use of the application, the license is called by API's that are embedded within the targeted application. The licensing function can be embedded automatically through the RMS Shell as well as via API (or library). The libraries provided with Sentinel RMS manage all the communication between the application and the license. The licenses can be local or managed from a centralized license server.
What comprises a "license"?
A license is a file containing an encrypted string of ASCII characters. Licenses are produced by the Sentinel RMS license generator and contain specific information on the features within the protected application that are available for use as well as the details of the licensing agreement. For stand-alone (node locked) applications, this license will typically reside in the same location as the protected application. For network (floating) applications, the license will reside on the system designated to be the license server.
How do I enable my product for Sentinel Licensing?
SafeNet's Sentinel RMS supports two methods for implementing licensing
into your applications. The first method is via the Sentinel RMS Shell. The
Sentinel RMS Shell requires no programming and is an easy-to-use tool for
Windows applications that provides a way to quickly "wrap" an application
with a protective shell in just a few minutes. The Sentinel RMS Shell is
designed to be quick and easy to use and meets most common developer needs.
Sentinel RMS Shell is ideal for quickly protecting demonstration programs
that use a time-limited license or for protecting an application for which
you do not have source code.
The second method is via the Sentinel RMS API. The developer integrates the
Sentinel RMS Application Library calls into each licensed application to
ensure that the application does not run without first obtaining
authorization. Use of the Sentinel RMS Application Library provides full
licensing control for implementing a variety of different licensing models.
Multiple language interfaces are supported by Sentinel RMS to allow the
incorporation of Sentinel RMS Application Library calls into applications
coded in a wide variety of programming languages.
These two implementation methods need not be mutually exclusive. For more
control over sophisticated license designs, use the Sentinel API to embed
protection calls into your application source code. In addition to offering
an alternative quick implementation option, the Sentinel RMS Shell can also
be added to provide another layer of security.
What types of Licenses Models are supported?
A range of functionality and features enables you to define and tailor license models that precisely match your business needs. Some of the available choices are:
- Trial - license runs for a predetermined number of days following the initial use of the product
- Network (concurrent) - license and its usage (seat or count) managed by central server
- Standalone or Named User (personal license) - license a specific machine
- Pay-per-use - license usage (for payment) managed by actual usage, not seat limit or count
- Perpetual - license is granted to an individual by a centralized server for use on and off the network
- Evaluation - Licenses have a fixed expiration date
How long does it take to integrate Sentinel RMS into my product?
The time required depends on the implementation method chosen, amount of security to be implemented with the chosen license models and the programming resources that are available to the developer. Using the Sentinel RMS Shell wrapping, software licensing functionality can be embedded in a pre-compiled executable in a matter of minutes. A more complex licensing model using one of the integrated libraries can take several days to implement depending upon factors listed above. On the average our experience has been that two full-time weeks are required to properly design and integrate Sentinel RMS into an application.
How do I secure my licenses from piracy?
License codes can be generated as encrypted files. The option of
encrypting generated licenses naturally increases the overall security.
However, for even higher security against license piracy, challenge-response
"secrets" can be used to authenticate the license. In utilizing this
mechanism, "challenge" strings are sent to the licensing server (floating)
or library (standalone), which then compute a response by using the
"challenge" string and chosen "secret" that is stored within the license.
The "response" can then be compared to the exact same programmatic
functionality provided by RSA Security Data, Inc, with their publicly
available MD4 hash algorithm.
Finally, for the highest level of license protection, Sentinel
Hardware Keys can be employed. Available in
either USB or parallel form, these hardware tokens lock down your licenses
in a highly secure, portable device.
How can I distribute Sentinel RMS licenses to my end-users?
Sentinel RMS offers an array of ways in which your customers can activate their licenses. The activation methods include:
- Phone - An operator can deliver a license code over the phone.
- Mail/Fax - A permanent or temporary license can be mailed or faxed to the end user. The license code can be mailed separately or can be shipped with the product itself.
- Computer ID Key - A license code can be tied to a SafeNet Sentinel Hardware Key so that the activation takes place once the hardware key is shipped to the customer.
- Internet - Licensing information can be obtained and license codes can be generated and installed over the Internet. SafeNet provides a comprehensive set of tools to facilitate online license generation and tracking.
What is the Sentinel License Server?
The license server is the central administrator of all licenses for
protected applications configured for network use. The license server can
reside on any machine on the network. The application is simple to install
and extremely lightweight, with installation taking less than a minute for
most systems. The license server communicates with the client using UDP.
In the case where your application is sold with a site license for multiple
users on a network, Sentinel RMS moves the license management function
outside the protected application. An external license server is then used
to verify that a valid license code exists before granting authorization to
run the application. The license server can run on any computer on the
network, including a computer on which the protected application is run.
The license server keeps track of all Sentinel RMS licenses and handles
requests from network users who want to run the application. Authorization
is granted to the requesters to allow them to run the application. Requests
are denied when all licenses are in use.
How are licenses distributed across a network?
Your applications running in a networked license environment need not be network aware. Sentinel RMS client libraries handle all communication with the License Server using UDP packets. The Sentinel RMS client libraries manage all the error recovery services that would be provided by TCP/IP while maintaining low bandwidth across the network. Periodic updates (developer-defined) are maintained between the client and the server.
How does the Sentinel client communicate with the Sentinel License Server?
Sentinel uses encrypted UDP datagrams for client-server communication. The Sentinel License Server listens on port 5093 by default, although this can easily be changed to an alternative.
Will license management be intrusive to my customers?
The purpose of license management is both to gain control over your application usage as well as allow your customers to be aware of their licensing terms. Electronic licenses can vary in their degree of transparency to the end user. The license can be completely seamless, or very apparent, posting on-screen notification messages that encourage purchase of demo software. Sentinel RMS has several built-in features to maintain a high level of transparency to the end-user.
I have an increasingly mobile customer base. Will Sentinel RMS allow users to travel with their licenses?
Yes. Commuter licenses allow your users to "check out" a license for a period of time up to the license's expiration date. Once the user returns to the network, the license can be checked back into the pool of free licenses where it is made available for the next commuter user.
Does the Sentinel License server have fail-over capability?
Yes. You can link multiple license servers together to form a pool of
redundant servers. These redundant servers will provide back-up to one
another in the case of a failure and will also facilitate load balancing.
The servers themselves are standard RMS servers. A special configuration
file is created using a SafeNet end-user tool to enable redundancy.
Can I use a combination of hardware and software based license management?
Yes. For added security and portability you can lock your licenses to a hardware key, including SafeNet's Hardware Keys. Additionally, Sentinel RMS and SafeNet's hardware keys can be used simultaneously but as two independent license management strategies to protect the same application.
Can I customize the Sentinel RMS tools to give them my own look and feel?
Yes. All of the functionality provided by SafeNet's tools is available via the Sentinel RMS API. There are API's included for license generation, license monitoring and administration, lock code generation, and many other functions.
Can my customers administer and monitor their licenses?
Yes. There are end user tools and documentation provided for license administration and monitoring. License servers can be administered from a central location for all license servers on the network across multiple operating systems.
What are the key new customer benefits you are introducing with Sentinel RMS?
Sentinel RMS introduces the following key benefits:
The product now includes additional components for the automated fulfillment
and management of your license management process:
- Easily coupled with your ERP and CRM systems so that your licenses are tracked and managed in the same way as the products they control
- Component-based architecture allows licensing functions to be individually customized and scaled according to your needs
- Securely managed role-based processes allows stakeholders across the organization to maintain control of their individual stage of the licensing process
- Systems logging for auditing
- Web-enabled license deployment for creating a customer-friendly product activation portal
- Embedded client activation allows online licensing with no user involvement
- Deliver software or hardware tokens
- Secure access enables safe channel usage
In addition, several licensing options provide increased flexibility and superior end-user experience:
- End users can move freely and securely between on and off-network environments without any administration intervention.
- With traditional network or floating licenses, users are required to manually check out a license each time they go off-network. With the new Perpetual License option, the license remains with the user until it is checked back in or the license expires. This significantly reduces administration effort and improves the experience of users who often use licenses while logged off of the network, typically because they are traveling.
- Occasionally new network license end-users will forget to check-out a license and find themselves in a situation where they are not able to use an application off-network, even though they are entitled to use it. Grace Period Licensing gives the developer the ability to use a configurable clock to program a limited "grace period" during which the application will function even when the license is not present.
- License administration is made even more flexible because the number and physical location of licenses can be easily and dynamically adjusted as entitlements change due to business expansion, merger, or re-allocation of resources.
- License Revocation provides a simple and easy-to-use mechanism for an organization to revoke a user license. Traceability is provided so that end-user refunds can be managed securely and promptly. License Transfer provides the ability to revoke a license at one company location and transfer that license to another location. Records management ensures that the location and configuration of each license are clear at all times.
How is Sentinel RMS different from Sentinel LM 8.0?
Sentinel RMS contains all the capabilities of LM 8.0 and also includes an entire system of components that provide intuitive, automated systems for the design, fulfillment and management of licenses. This modular system integrates easily with your existing back office systems to create a fully automated and synchronized license management infrastructure. Sentinel RMS dramatically reduces the costs normally associated with license management.
Is Sentinel LM 8.0 forwards-compatible with Sentinel RMS?
Yes. All licenses created with Sentinel 8.0 are fully compatible with Sentinel RMS.