Important information regarding changes to licensing for NetWare 6

(Last modified: 15Jul2003)

This document (10065536) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

goal

fact

Novell NetWare 6.0

Novell Licensing Services

Novell Small Business Suite 6

symptom

NetWare 6 uses a User Connection License Model (UAL).

change

Licensing has changed from the Server Connection License model (SCL) used with NetWare 5.x and previous versions of NetWare to a User Connection License Model (UAL) in NetWare 6. This has resulted in changes to the way licenses are installed and consumed as well as the license disk format.
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ACTIVATION
With NetWare 6, server licenses are basically free. As a result, every license diskette will contain a server license, therefore many customers will have a number of extra server licenses not in use.

The same Server licenses can NOT be installed multiple times in the same container and if additional server licenses are needed, they can be downloaded for free from:

http://www.novell.com/licensing/eld/LRequest.jsp?ENCRYPTION=NW6

Because server licenses are distributed freely, the only activation key contained on upgrade license diskettes will be for the user license component. As before, activation keys will only be distributed with upgrade licenses.

When the SERVER license on an upgrade license diskette is installed, either during the actual server installation or after server installation in iManage (or in NWADMN32.EXE), no activation screen is generated.

When the user license on this same disk is installed, a screen prompt appears requesting manual entry of the activation key.

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User Licenses must be installed "POST-SERVER INSTALL"

If you select a user license for installation by the Java GUI license install (during SERVER install), you will receive a message that the file is in an unknown format. User Licenses must now be installed POST-SERVER install through iManager or NWADMIN32.EXE

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Licensing Installation Tools: iManager

The tool delivered with NetWare 6 that provides the ability to install user licenses is called iManage. iManage is accessed from a web browser by typing the secured IP address of the server and the port 2200.

For example https://192.168.0.1:2200
(Note the S in https)

This will bring up the NetWare Web Manager. A number of different products will be listed, depending on the components selected during the NetWare 6 server install. eDirectory iManager is one of the tools listed. iManage contains a plugin for licensing which allows you to install/delete/move licenses.

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NWCONFIG Licensing options removed

The License Options menu is no longer supported by NWCONFIG. User licenses are installed relative to users, not servers, therefore using iManage will allow you to install/move licenses to the same container as the users.

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Why change from NWADMIN32.EXE to iManager?

Licenses may be installed through NWADMN32.EXE, however iManager was created to address government requirements for 508 Compliance (which accommodates people with Disabilities) For more on 508 Compliance see http://www.section508.gov/

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Changes to the Diskette layout of NetWare 6 Licenses

With NetWare 6, the server license is contained in the A:\LICENSE directory of each license diskette. This is a *.NLF file and is accompanied by a NICI key, *.NFK.

User licenses are stored in the root directory of each of these diskettes. User license files are also *.NLF files but do not have an accompanying NICI key.

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Consumption of Licenses using the UAL Model

With NetWare 6, users consume a single User license (per tree) regardless of the number of NetWare 6 servers to which he/she logs into. No other objects in the tree like ZEN Workstations, Printers (NDPS and legacy), Printservers and so on will consume a license. (External printservers, like HP Jetdirect, will continue to consume a license in queue based mode. They will not consume a license when using NDPS).

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License Consumption is no longer Concurrent

With NetWare 6, once a user logs into the tree, the license unit is assigned to that userID for 90 days, making it essentially a permanent assignment. Thus, if a company has installed a five user license and has 10 employees, the first five users can log in and then logout. The remaining five users will not be able to get a license until 90 days after the other users have logged out, or until another 5-User license is installed.

The license units that are "in use" can also be manually released by an administrator via iManage ( License Management => Manage License Properties => Units in Use).

***NOTE - Most users map more than one drive and possibly several printers, therefore most companies will find their overall unit consumption reduced with the NetWare 6 UAL model, despite the persistent nature of license unit assignments.***

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Location of User Licenses in the tree

Both NetWare 5.X and NetWare 6 search for licenses upward in the tree. If a license is not found in the current context, NLS will search upward in the tree to the organization level. Licenses cannot be installed into containers higher than an organization.

In NetWare 6 users do not consume licenses from individual servers, thus it does not make sense for licenses to be tied to servers. NetWare 6 UAL licenses must be installed into the user's context or a context which can be found on an upward search to Root from the user's context.

The exception to this user context installation is for MLA licensing. See below Changes to MLA Licensing

***NOTE: If a license is not found in this upward search, no search of the server's context is attempted. ***

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Changes to MLA Licensing

MLA licenses should be installed in a path that CAN be found on an upward search in the tree. Multiple MLA licenses may be installed into the tree. MLA licenses CANNOT be installed more than once in a single container.

MLA licenses contain a server license and no user license. MLA server licenses contain information which permits NLS to grant logins without interaction with NLS.

During server installation, if an MLA license is detected in a path accessible to the current installation, the administrator will be prompted to choose an install without a license or to select another context.

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PACKAGING OF LICENSE UNITS
NLS searches through user contexts and because these contexts may be diverse, companies may need to split up their user licenses. To accommodate this, Purchased Licenses envelopes have been broken down into multiples of 5 unit licenses.

Purchased License    Contents
Server+5                1 5-unit license
Server+10              2 5-unit licenses
Server+25              5 5-unit licenses
Server+50            10 5-unit licenses
Server+100          20 5-unit licenses

These 5-unit increments can be installed all at once using iManage and then moved individually where needed throughout the tree.

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Common Issues with NetWare 6 Licensing

1. Attempting to install user licenses during the server install, customers will get this message:
"The format of the license file <filename> is unknown. It will not be installed."
User licenses MUST BE installed "post-server install" using iManage.

2. Administrators may say licenses are installed but not working (ex: no users are consuming license units.)
Most likely the NetWare 6 user licenses are not installed in the user's context or above. As a result, these users will be unable to find and consume license units until the user licenses are moved to the users context or above.

3. License consumption is now persistent. Each user now consumes only one license unit in the tree, not one for every drive mapping and printer capture.

4. Administrators may attempt to install multiple server licenses for the same server because a server license comes with every license diskette. They DO NOT need to do this. Each RedBox server needs only one server license assigned to it. MLA servers should not have licenses specifically assigned to individual servers. MLA licenses should be left available for all servers.

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New Licensing Tools:
These sections are very brief introductions. The on-line NetWare 6 documentation contains complete coverage and can be found at:

NetWare Remote Manager: NetWare Usage

The NetWare Remote Manager (NRM). It is a web interface into a particular server and allows administration of a number of server elements including licensing. The license snapin to NRM is under the heading NETWARE USAGE. If this heading is not present, then NWUSAGE.NLM is not loaded on the server.

USAGE INFORMATION under the NETWARE USAGE heading was primarily designed for the Novell auditors but may be used by administrators as well. USAGE INFORMATION can provide summary statistics on the number of unique userIDs that have logged into the tree. It can also provide detailed information listing every user's authentication to servers in the tree. The detail information can show an administrator all the servers that have granted a particular user access - for all users in the tree.

Data is transferred to this page by NWUSAGE.NLM which talks to a collection mechanism controlled by NLSLRUP.NLM. Every server tracks its own authentication information using NLSLRUP.NLM. The first time an administrator connects to a server in the tree via NRM, that server becomes the collector server and receives detail from all the other servers in the tree.

Note: The first time a server starts, it contacts the NLSLRUP.NLM modules running on other servers in the tree. In a large tree, this can take 10-15 minutes. It is a very low priority. During this time, statistics will be unavailable at the server in question.

Customization tools are provided in NRM to change the collector server, to turn off data collection and to change when and how often data is collected.

iManage

iManage is a tool provided with NetWare 6 for administration of NetWare products such as Licensing, DNS/DHCP, and iPrint. The licensing snapin to iManage can install, delete and move licenses. "Manage License Properties" shows administrators license details including license count, license consumption, and server assignment. It is not necessary to access iManage from the server you are installing licenses for. The context of the license object in the eDirectory tree and the server assignment (for non-MLA licenses) establish which server(s) can consume units from it.

For additional information on NetWare 6, please see the following solution. TID #10064501 - NetWare 6 Readme Addendum

document

Document Title:	Important information regarding changes to licensing for NetWare 6
Document ID:	10065536
Solution ID:	NOVL61386
Creation Date:	22Oct2001
Modified Date:	15Jul2003
Novell Product Class:	Beta NetWare Novell BorderManager Services Novell eDirectory

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