Setting Up Software Metering

Now that you are familiar with using the NWAdmin utility, you need to understand how to set up software metering. Setting up software metering involves using the following procedures to verify the metering requirements and setting up metering certificates.

Verifying Setup Requirements

The first step in setting up software metering is to make certain that you have the correct system requirements met. The following are the current requirements for setting up software metering:

• You should have Supervisor rights to the [ROOT] of the eDirectory tree in which you install the Application Management portion of ZENworks for Desktops.

• Users must have Read and File Scan rights to the directory in which you install NAL.

• Users must have sufficient rights to the directories in which you install the applications they can access.

Installing Locally or on the Network?

Once the system requirements are met, you must make certain that the application is delivered to the user through the Application Launcher via the Application Launcher window or via the Application Explorer. Although software metering does not care where an application's executable file is located, it must be delivered to the user through the Application Launcher.

Ensuring Users Have Access to NLS

The next step in setting up software metering is to ensure users have access to NLS. Users must always be attached to a NetWare server that provides licensing services.

TIP

By loading NLS on more than one server in your tree, and ensuring users have a connection to one or more servers with NLS loaded, you can ensure users have access to NLS. If a server running NLS goes down, NLS still works as long as it is running on another server and users have a connection to that server.

Assigning Users to a License Certificate Object

Once you have verified that the system and setup requirements for software metering have been met, you need to assign users to a license.

If no object is specifically assigned to a License Certificate object, anyone can use it. However, after assigning at least one user to a License Certificate Object, only the users, groups, or containers who are assigned to that license can use it. This limits access to the licenses.

To assign users to a License Certificate object, use NLS Manager or the following steps in the NWAdmin utility:

1. Double-click a Product License container.

2. Select a License Certificate object.

3. Right-click it and select Details to add users.

Creating a License Container and Metered Certificate Object

To set up software metering, you now need to create a license container and a Metered Certificate object. These objects enable ZENWorks for Desktops to track and control access to license objects.

The license container is a special container object in NDS to store Metered Certificate objects.

The Metered Certificate object contains the information you enter. License Containers can contain multiple Metered Certificate objects.

To create a Metered Certificate object and a license container, use the following steps in the NWAdmin utility:

1. Highlight the container where you want to create a Metered Certificate.

2. Select Tools, Novell License Metering, Add Licenses then License File; a screen similar to the one in Figure 16.8 appears.

   Figure 16.8. The Create a Metered Certificate window in NWAdmin.

   

3. From that screen, enter information about the application that you want to meter, such as software publisher name, software product name, and version or revision.

4. Click OK.

Adding Licenses (Metered Certificates)

The last procedure you need to be aware of when setting up software metering is adding additional licenses; for example, if you originally installed a 50-user license of an application and want to extend this to a 75-user license. To extend the license of the application, you need to create another Metered Certificate object.

The license container is a container class object in eDirectory and cannot be renamed. The metered certificate is a leaf object of the license container. The metered certificate basically represents the individual license count. To get a total license count, the license container adds all leaf metered certificates beneath it.

To add licenses, you need to add Metered Certificates using the following steps in the NWAdmin utility:

1. Highlight the container where you want to add a license.

2. Select Tools, Novell License Metering, Add Licenses then License Metering.

3. From that screen, enter the same name as the original license container to which you want to add licenses.

If you enter the same software publisher name, software product name, and same version number, a new Metered Certificate is created below the license container. This metered certificate is added to those already located in the license container to form a new license total.