License activation is necessary when you distribute an application that will be locked to a particular end user's machine, or when the expiration date depends on the activation date. Otherwise, license activation is not usually necessary.
LM-X gives you three different approaches to license activation:
- Manual
- Semi-automated, using LM-X API
- Automated, using License Activation Center (LAC)
Manually activating licenses
Manually activating licenses is feasible for issuing fewer numbers of licenses, but is difficult to manage for larger numbers of license activations.
To manually activate a license, you need to work individually with your end users as follows:
- You ask the end user to run the LM-X End-user utility or End-user Configuration tool to obtain their HostID(s).
- The end user sends you their HostID(s).
- Using xmllicgen, you enter the HostID tag(s) in the license template and generate a license file, which you send to the customer. The LM-X License Generator GUI lets you send emails with license file attachments to your end users, making license delivery quick and easy.
Partially automating license activation
You can partially automate your license activation by using the LM-X API to integrate HostID retrieval into your application. This enables you to obtain the information in a more automated way. You can also automate the execution of xmllicgen by integrating it with any custom license generation tools. License delivery would be the same as for manual license activation.
Fully automating license activation
We highly recommend using LM-X together with License Activation Center (LAC) for the ultimate solution to license activation, particularly for managing greater numbers of activations. LAC provides an efficient license activation solution that lets you quickly and easily generate licenses and activation keys for end users. LAC gives end users a means to activate their own licenses, without your intervention.For information about LAC, see License Activation Center Documentation
LM-X with LAC
A common way of integrating LM-X with LAC is by uploading xmllicgen to LAC as a license generator. LAC is responsible for handling information about existing licenses, including license generation and delivery, whereas LM-X is capable of using a generated license. You can completely automate license generation and delivery using the LAC REST and SOAP APIs that let you use LAC on any machine. In addition, the LM-X web-based UI, which is integrated with LAC, lets you activate your license online by entering your activation key in the License Management sub-tab under the Administration tab, as shown below.
You can also activate your license manually, or partially automate your license activation as described in Different approaches to license activation.