The information on this page refers to License Statistics v6.11, which redesigned license server administration and resulted in removing functionality related to "realtime" license servers and "gathering type." If you are running an older version of License Statistics, see documentation for versions prior to v6.11. |
This glossary lists terms that are specific to License Statistics and license feature usage monitoring.
Client application | A software program that requests or receives a license from a license server. |
---|---|
Log file | One or more ASCII text files written by a license server. Log files contain information that can be imported into License Statistics and used to track license usage. (See Imported license server.) |
Feature | Any functionality of an application that is licensed. A feature has a name and one or more versions and license types. The definition of a feature depends on how the software vendor distributes an application, but might include (for example):
|
Floating license | A license that runs an application for users on a network. A license server is required to manage a floating license. With this type of license, the number of concurrent users is counted, with the licensed application usable by only a specified number of users at any time. Also referred to as network license or shared license. |
Imported license server | A license server that is being monitored using existing data in one or more license server logs. |
Realtime license server | A license server that is being monitored at specified intervals to gather data about usage as it occurs. |
Local license | A license that runs on a single specific machine, as opposed to being on a network. Node-locked licenses do not require a license server because they are uncounted. |
Vendor | The developer/distributor of a software application. |
License file | A text file shipped to an end user, which provides one or more features. |
License server | A license server is defined as a software application hosting licenses for a single software vendor (e.g. vendor daemon), and not a physical machine. A license server is required to manage a floating license. |
License type | The type of licensing used for a feature, such as floating, node-locked, token, trial, etc. |
Configuration file | The License Statistics configuration file, xflicstat.cfg, which specifies settings such as License Statistics output file paths, update intervals, and the host server information of the applications for which License Statistics will gather statistics. |
Windows system | Refers to Win32 or Win64 platform. |
Linux system | Refers to Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, Mac OS X and FreeBSD platforms. |
Diagrams
A feature and its parts
This diagram shows a software feature and its parts. A feature consists of a name and has one or more versions and types associated with it.
Example of a feature and its parts
This diagram shows an example of a software feature and its parts. This feature has three different versions of the software (Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7), which each have one or more types of licensing (floating, node-locked, or token).
Example of a feature on license servers
This diagram depicts a feature being hosted by a license server. This feature has two versions (Windows Vista and Windows 7), each with one or more types that run on one or more license servers.
User on Hosts report
...
Actions | |||||||||
| A request made by a user to obtain a particular software license. | ||||||||
| Refers to the use of a license, which means that the license is taken from a pool of available licenses. A user can use two licenses of the same feature, as shown below. Users Using License | ||||||||
Borrow
| A type of license usage that allows a user to use a floating license without being connected to the license server. | ||||||||
Denial
| The denial of a request for a license. | ||||||||
License Reservation
| License is assigned to a specific user and cannot be utilized by another user without an administrator reassigning the license to another user. For reservations, a "user" is defined by a set of rules with various parameters, which may include the following, depending on the license server:
| ||||||||
Realtime Denial
| The denial of a license request. | ||||||||
Denied Requests Log
| One or more log files that contain data about denials. | ||||||||
Feature Versioning
| When Feature Versioning is set, features shown in lists include a separate entry for each version of that feature, and are named feature_version throughout License Statistics. | ||||||||
Monitoring
| Gathering information from a particular license server about feature usage details. | ||||||||
Importing
| Gathering information from a license server log file about feature usage details. | ||||||||
Last Update Time
| The last time at which License Statistics received an update from a license server. | ||||||||
Entities | |||||||||
Software
| An application. | ||||||||
Log file
| One or more ASCII text files written by a license server. | ||||||||
License
| License for particular software. | ||||||||
| The definition of a license. The parts of a feature are:
As shown in the diagram below, a feature is defined by its name, version and type. There can be multiple versions with the same name, but each version can have only three license types: nodelocked, floating, or token. Although the features may share the same name, each feature with a different version and/or type is an individual, unique feature. Feature
| ||||||||
| A solution that provides the ability to manage licenses. | ||||||||
User
| An application or person that requests a license.
| ||||||||
Host
| The computer on which a user is accessing a license. A user can use a feature on more than one host, and a host can be used by more than one user, as shown below. |
...
User on Hosts |
User Using Feature report
This diagram shows how License Statistics gathers information for the User Using Feature report. As shown in this diagram, a user can use a feature on more than one host, each getting their license from the same license server.
...
| |||||||
| Software hosting licenses for a single software vendor. A license server can be an individual license server or a license server group (two or more license servers that are treated as one). | ||||||
| The manufacturer of a software application using a particular license manager. | ||||||
Data source | The source of data being used for statistics gathering (Remote, Imported, or End User). | ||||||
Linux system | Refers to Linux x64 platform. | ||||||
Windows system | Refers to Win64 platform. |