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License Manager Usage Logs

The License Manager can record all license requests and returns in the usage log file. The information is recorded in the log file one entry per line in the following format:

Contents of the Usage Log

The name and location of the usage file is set by the license server startup options. The License Manager records all license requests and returns in this file. Usage reports can be generated using lsusage.

Element Description

Server-LFE

Customer-defined log file encryption level as specified by the license server -lfe option. See Encrypting License Manager Log File Entries.

License-LFE

Vendor-defined log file encryption level. If this is non-zero, it overrides the Server-LFE.

Date

The date the entry was made, in the format: Day-of-week Month Day Time (hh:mm:ss) Year

Time-stamp

The time stamp of the entry.

Feature

Name of the feature.

Ver

Version of the feature.

Trans

The transaction types as described below:

  • 0 - A license is issued.
  • 1 - A license is denied.
  • 2 - The License Manager has reclaimed the issued key for which no update was received from client application.
  • 3 -  A queued key is issued and the client is placed in a queue. When the license would be available (after other clients release any token), this client may get that license.
  • 4 - The queuing request failed.
  • 5 - The queuing request succeeded, however, instead of obtaining a queued key the client receives the normal key and is not placed in the queue.
  • 6 - A queued license is converted to an actual license. This happens when the client obtains the license that was released by some other client (and a queued client may call the VLSgetQueuedClient API to get the key). Thereafter, the client is removed from the queue.
  • 7 - A queued license key that was issued earlier is released as it could not be converted into an actual license key (non-queued key) after a certain time period.
  • 8 - A commuter license is checked out.
  • 9 - A commuter license is checked in.

Numkeys

The number of licenses in use after the current request/release. (Encrypted if encryption level is set to 3 or 4.)

Keylife

How long, in seconds, the license was issued. Only applicable after a license release.

User

The user name of the application associated with the entry. This element can be logged anonymously if the anonymous logging option is set.

Host

The host name of the application associated with the entry. This element can be logged anonymously if the anonymous logging option is set.

LSver

The version of the License Manager.

Currency

The number of licenses handled during the transaction. (Encrypted if encryption level is set to 3 or 4.)

Comment

The text passed in by the licensed application.

A typical entry might appear as:

# Startup Sentinel RMS Development Kit v7.00 Fri Aug 13 17:33:31 1999  934590811 jsmith 140 4294489039

2 0 MTI1 Fri Aug 13 17:33:33 1999  934590813 99 v 0 1 0 jsmith jsmith 7.00 1 - MA== 754986 OTM1MzQ1Nzk5

2 0 MTI1 Fri Aug 13 17:33:33 1999  934590813 99 v 2 0 0 jsmith jsmith 7.00 1 - MQ== 905242 MTY2MDIyOA==

# Shutdown Sentinel RMS Development Kit v7.00 Fri Aug 13 17:33:34 1999  934590814 jsmith 4294489039 Mg== 2058783

If the Sentinel RMS log file contains characters that are not 7-bit ASCII (for example, if a user name contains multi-byte characters such as Japanese Kanji characters), those characters will not be viewable when looking directly at the log file. However, if you use the lsusage -c option to create CSV-format output from the log file, you will be able to view the multi-byte characters if you view the CSV-format file with an appropriate text editor on an operating system that displays the multi-byte language. Also, when anonymous usage logging option is enabled, that multi byte user and host names will be logged anonymously.

You can also create Microsoft Access reports from the CSV-format file that can be viewed on a computer using the appropriate multi-byte operating system. (For information on creating reports from log file CSV-format output, see Creating License Manager Use Reports)

Here are what the fields in the first entry mean, reading from left to right

Field Description

2

(Server-LFE) Customer-defined log file encryption is set to level 2.

0

(License-LFE) 0 means the vendor set the log file encryption to customer-defined.

Fri Aug 13 17:33:33 1999

(Date) Date the license transaction was made.

934590813

(Time-stamp) Time-stamp of the transaction record.

99 v

(Feature/Ver) Feature name 99 and no version.

0

(Trans) License was granted.

1

(Numkeys) 1 token was in use after the request.

0

(Keylife) Only applicable for a license release.

jsmith

(User) The user requesting the license was jsmith.

jsmith

(Host) The host name of the computer on which the license request was made is also named jsmith.

7.00

(LSver) This log file is for a version 7.00 License Manager.

1

(Currency) Only 1 license was handled in this transaction.

Managing the Size of the Usage Log File

Sentinel RMS writes records to the log file until it reaches its maximum size. The default value for maximum size is 50,00000 bytes (approximately 4.76MB) but this can be changed using the -z option in the LSERVOPTS environment variable or at command-line. Once the maximum size is reached, the contents of the current log file will be saved into a backup file unless the no-backup -x option has been used in the LSERVOPTS environment variable or at command line. If -x has been selected, the License Manager will simply stop logging when the maximum size is reached. For information on the License Manager -x and -z options and for more detail on how log file backups are created, see License Manager - Commonly Used Variables.

Recommended settings (each of these can be set in the LSERVOPTS environment variable or by using the specified option on the command line):

RECOMMENDATION:

Please note the following recommendation regarding the management and backup of the License Manager usage log files. Suppose you have set the maximum size as 2 MB. While creating logs, if the size reaches 2 MB, the License Manager starts adding suffix at the end of the usage file name as 00, 01.. till 99, Example: lserv.log.00, lserv.log.01, lserv.log.02...lserv.log.99. Once this limit reaches, the License Manager starts generating the same log file name series and overwrites the existing usage files. Example: the log file creation will begin from lserv.log.00.....lserv.log.99; after reaching lserv.log.99, the License Manager would again start logging from lserv.log.00—hence overwriting the previous lserv.log.00. In order to preserve the log files, write a script that should first backup the 1st 100 log files. Once the limit of 100 is reached, these log files (lserv.log.00 to lserv.log.99) should be backed to another location and must be deleted from the original location. 

If customer needs to preserve log files, they need to write their own script, which should first backup the 1st 100 log files. Once the limit of 100 is reached, these log files (lserv.log.00 to lserv.log.99) should be backed to another location and must be deleted from the original location.

For a site with a 2 megabyte log file limit and no other License Manager options, LSERVOPTS would just be set to -z 2m.

Tip:

As part of your payment arrangement with your vendor, your vendor may request that you do not use the -x option to stop log file backups.

Encrypting Log File Entries

For security reasons, the network administrator may wish to encrypt part or all of a license transaction record in the License Manager log file. To set the encryption level, use the -lfe License Manager startup option and specify a number from 1 to 4, where:

Encryption Level Description

1

No encryption. Transaction data will be readable and tampering with or deleting an entry will not be detected by lsusage.

2

No encryption. Transaction data will be readable, but tampering with or deleting an entry will be detected by lsusage. This is the default encryption level if you do not specify one (and if your vendor has not set an encryption level for your license codes).

3

Encrypt usage only. Transaction data will be readable except for license usage data. Such entries will not be displayed by lsusage.

4

Encrypt entire record. All transaction data for the license code will be encrypted. Such entries will not be displayed by lsusage.

For a specific license code, your application vendor can specify a particular encryption level; all entries for that license code will be encrypted to that level regardless of your encryption level settings. You may only set the encryption level of transaction records for license codes for which your vendor has allowed user-defined encryption.

To learn more about lsusage, we recommend you to read through lsusage - Display the Usage Log File.