Setting up an HTTP Floating License Server

Floating License Server (HTTP Server)

The Oxygen XML Developer plugin license server is available in several distributions, tailored for covering a variety of deployment configurations:

  • Windows installer - Easy-to-use Windows installation wizard. Requires elevated permissions to run it.
  • All-platform distribution - Script-based deployment that does not require elevated permissions to run it. Provides scripts for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
  • Web Archive (WAR) distribution - Provides more flexibility in your deployment configuration, but it requires an existing HTTP server (such as Apache Tomcat).

Installation Steps for the HTTP License Server Installer Distribution for Windows

  1. Download the HTTP license server installer from the Oxygen XML Developer plugin website.
  2. Run the installer and follow the on-screen instructions.
  3. You need to configure two sets of credentials:
    1. Administrator credentials - used for accessing the Oxygen XML Developer plugin license server administrative interface. Optionally you can choose to change the standard 8080 port.
    2. Standard user credentials - used by an Oxygen XML Developer plugin application to connect to the license server.
  4. Optionally you can choose to install the server as a Windows service. In this case, you can choose the name of the Windows service.

Installation Steps for the HTTP License Server All-Platform Distribution

  1. Download the HTTP license server all-platform archive from the Oxygen XML Developer plugin website.
  2. Unpack the archive.
  3. Run the license server scripts suitable for your operating system (licenseServer.bat for Windows or licenseServer.sh for Linux and Mac).

    Note

    To specify a different port (other than the default 8080), you can pass the new port number as an argument to the scripts (for example, licenseServer.bat 8082).
  4. On the first run, you will be prompted to set two sets of credentials:
    1. Administrator credentials - used for accessing the Oxygen XML Developer plugin license server administrative interface.
    2. Standard user credentials - used by an Oxygen XML Developer plugin application to connect to the license server.

Installation Steps for the HTTP License Server WAR Distribution

  1. Make sure that Apache Tomcat 5.5 or higher is running on the machine you have selected to be the license server. To get it, go to http://tomcat.apache.org.
  2. Download the HTTP license server Web ARchive (.war) from the Oxygen XML Developer plugin website.
  3. Configure two Tomcat users:
    1. One user with the role user, used by an Oxygen XML Developer plugin application to connect to the license server. In the subsequent example, this user name is John.
    2. Another user with the roles admin and manager-gui, used for accessing the Oxygen XML Developer plugin license server administrative interface and the Tomcat management interface. In the subsequent example, this user name is Mary.
    A typical way to achieve this is to edit the tomcat-users.xml file from your Tomcat installation (if using a Tomcat zip/tar.gz distribution, by default this configuration file is found in the /TomcatInstallFolder/conf/ directory). After adding the two users, the configuration file might look like this:
    <tomcat-users xmlns="http://tomcat.apache.org/xml"
                  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
                  xsi:schemaLocation="http://tomcat.apache.org/xml tomcat-users.xsd"
                  version="1.0">
      <!-- ... other user and role definitions ... -->
      <role rolename="user"/>
      <role rolename="admin"/>
      <role rolename="manager-gui"/>
      <user username="John" password="user_pass" roles="user"/>
      <user username="Mary" password="admin_pass" roles="admin,manager-gui"/>
    </tomcat-users>
  4. Go to the Tomcat Web Application Manager page and log-in with the user you configured with the manager-gui role (Mary in the example above). In the WAR file to deploy section, choose the WAR file and click the Deploy button. The oXygenLicenseServlet application is now up and running, but the license key is not yet registered.
  5. Go to the oXygen license server administration page by clicking the oXygenLicenseServlet link in the manager page. You will need to authenticate with the user configured with the admin role (Mary in our example).
  6. Activate the floating license key. This process involves binding your license key to your license server deployment. Once the process is completed you cannot activate the floating license with another license server. Follow these steps to activate the license:
    1. Access the HTTP license server by following the link provided by the Tomcat Web Application Manager page. If prompted for authentication, use the credentials configured for the admin or manager users.

      Result: A page is displayed that prompts for a license key.

    2. Paste your floating license key into the form and press Submit. The browser used in the activation process needs to have Internet access.

      Result: You will be redirected to an online form hosted on the Oxygen XML Developer plugin website. This form is pre-filled with an activation code that uniquely identifies your license server deployment, and your license key.

      Note

      If, for some reason, your browser does not take you to this activation form, refer to the Manual Activation Procedure.

    3. Press Activate.

      If the activation process is successfully completed, your license server is running. Follow the on-screen instructions to configure the Oxygen XML Developer plugin client applications.

  7. By default, the license server logs its activity in the TomcatInstallDir/logs/oxygenLicenseServlet.log file. To change the log file location, edit the log4j.appender.R2.File property from the TomcatInstallDir/webapps/oXygenLicenseServlet/WEB-INF/lib/log4j.properties configuration file.

Manual License Activation Procedure

  1. Access the HTTP license server by following the link provided by the Tomcat Web Application Manager page. You will be taken to the license registration page.
  2. Copy the license server activation code.
  3. Go to the activation page at http://www.oxygenxml.com/activation/.
  4. Paste the license server activation code and floating license key in the displayed form, then click Activate.
  5. The activated license key is displayed on-screen. Copy the activated license key and paste it in the license registration page of the HTTP server.

Automatic Subscription Renewal

If the HTTP license server is configured with a subscription license, then the license server will automatically check to see if a new subscription license was purchased and will automatically download and install it for you.

Important

This automatic checking procedure implies a connection to a web service located at oxygenxml.com. You can deactivate this automatic behavior by disabling the Automatically check for subscription renewal option from the main management page of the license server.

If the automatic renewal process fails, you can try either of the following possible solutions:

  • If your server uses a proxy to connect to the Internet, go to the main management page of the license server and configure the proxy settings by clicking the Proxy settings link in the Management tasks section.
  • Manually replace the floating license key.

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