Using NWAdmin to Install and Administer Licenses

The first piece of software metering you should be familiar with using is NWAdmin to install and administer licenses. You should use the NWAdmin utility to create metered certificates as well as to add new ones to existing license containers. You can also use the NWAdmin utility to generate reports and view information about software metering.

To access the licensing features from NWAdmin, select the Novell Licensing Services option from the Tools menu, as shown in Figure 16.1.

Figure 16.1. The licensing options in NWAdmin.

Installing a License Certificate Using NWAdmin

You first need to install a license certificate. When you install a certificate for an NLS-aware application, the system adds a License container object to the NDS database as well as a License Certificate object inside that container object.

To install a license certificate in NWAdmin, use the following steps from the tree browse view:

1. First select the container you want to install the license certificate into.

2. Then select Tools, Novell Licensing Services, Add Licenses (see Figure 16.1).

3. From the pop-up window, select License File and click OK. A window pops up enabling you to specify the license file you want to install.

4. From this window, navigate to the location of the license file you want to install and select it. Click OK and a window similar to the one in Figure 16.2 appears.

   Figure 16.2. The Add Certificates from an Envelope window in NWAdmin.

   

5. From this window, browse to the NDS context where the Certificate object should be installed. (The default is the currently selected container.)

6. Once both fields are completed, click the View button to view specific information about the license, or click the Add button to install the license certificate.

Creating a Metered Certificate Using NWAdmin

The next procedure you should be familiar with is creating a metered certificate. Metered certificates enable you to track application usage. Using metered certificates enables you to track and manage the licenses for user applications even if they are not NLS (Novell License Services)-aware.

To create a metered certificate using NWAdmin, follow these steps from a tree browse window:

1. First select Tools, Novell Licensing Services, Add Licenses.

2. From the pop-up window, select License Metering and click OK. A screen similar to the one in Figure 16.3 appears.

   Figure 16.3. The Create a Metered Certificate window.

   

3. From that screen, enter the name of the software publisher.

4. Enter the product name.

5. Enter the version.

6. Set the NDS context for the license certificate.

7. Set the number of licenses for the certificate.

8. Enter or select the number of grace licenses you will allow.

9. Set whether users will use a single license when launching an application multiple times from one workstation.

10. Click OK to finish.

NOTE

The grace licenses option enables additional users to run. If you do not enter a number of grace licenses, users cannot open additional applications beyond the number specified.

Assigning Licenses to Users Through NWAdmin

Once you know how to install license certificates and create metering certificates you need to know how to assign licenses to users through NWAdmin.

The NDS user who installs the license certificate is the owner. An owner can assign the following objects access to the licenses:

• User

• Group

• Organization

• Organizational Unit

• Server

For example, if an owner assigns a container object to use a certificate, all users in and below that container can use the certificate. Once license assignments are made, only those objects that have been assigned to the license certificates can use the license.

To assign and delete access to licenses using NWAdmin, use the following steps from a tree browse window:

1. Select the license certificate that you want users to access.

2. Right-click the license certificate and select details.

3. Select the Assignments property page.

4. Click Add to add objects.

5. Locate and select the object that enables the correct users to access the certificate's licenses.

Here are the steps for deleting assignments on a license certificate in NWAdmin:

1. Navigate to the Assignments property page of the License Certificate object you want to delete assignments on.

2. Select the user objects and click Remove.

Assigning a New Owner to a License Certificate Using NWAdmin

The next procedure you should be familiar with is assigning a new owner to a license certificate. Because the user who installs a certificate automatically becomes the owner of that certificate, you might want to reassign ownership at a later date.

NWAdmin enables you to assign a new owner to a license certificate by using the following steps:

1. Select the License Certificate object from a tree browse window in the NWAdmin utility.

2. Right-click the object and select details.

3. Select the Installer property page.

4. From the Installer property page, locate and select the object you want to assign as owner of this certificate.

NOTE

Only a certificate's owner can reassign ownership of the certificate.

Working with Reports in NWAdmin

The final procedure you should be aware of is the capability to create reports about licensed and metered products in the NWAdmin utility. Because NWAdmin tracks data about licenses and metered products, you can create reports that help you assess and monitor usage and compliance concerning these products for the past 15 months.

These reports can range in information about a single license certificate to information about all license certificates currently being used for a given product.

Creating a Report

To create a report for license certificates, use the following steps from within NWAdmin:

1. Select Tools, Novell Licensing Services, Generate License Reports.

2. From this screen, shown in Figure 16.4, you can select to scan either the tree or a pre-defined catalog to generate the report.

   Figure 16.4. The Scan Tree tab on the Novell Licensing Services window in NWAdmin.

   

3. Select a license container you want to begin the scan at and specify any specific publisher, product, or version filters you want to use for the scan. Click the OK button.

4. Once the scan is complete, a list of license certificates and containers appears. To create a report, simply select the license certificate you want to report usage on and select Actions, Create License Usage Report. A screen similar to the one in Figure 16.5 appears.

   Figure 16.5. A metered license certificate report in NWAdmin.

   

Viewing a Report

Once you have created a report using NWAdmin, you can toggle between a graphical view of the report and that report's text.

To use the graphical view, click Graph, as shown in Figure 16.6, and a graphical representation of the data in the report is displayed on the screen. This view displays the number of license units installed and the number used. The dates along the bottom of the graph show the start and end dates that the report covers. You can change these dates to make the data more informational.

Figure 16.6. A metered license certificate usage report graph in NWAdmin.

To use the textual view, click Summary and a textual representation of the data in the report is displayed on the screen, as shown in Figure 16.7.

Figure 16.7. A metered license certificate usage report summary in NWAdmin.

The textual view provides the following information:

• The date and time you created the report

• The product

• The location or NDS context of the object

• Current number of licenses being used and installed

• The range of dates being reported

• Peak usage of licenses, including date the peak occurred

• The number of units used and installed during peak usage

• A list of possible dates out of compliance