At X-Formation we make every effort to ensure that existing deployed software will continue to work with future license servers, and older license files can be read by newer servers. However, although we will strive for backward compatibility in all future releases of LM-X, we cannot guarantee maintaining compatibility if doing so might compromise the security of protected applications.
Be sure to read the release notes for all new LM-X releases to learn of any issues that may affect version compatibility.
Backward compatibility
LM-X is designed to be backwards compatible, so that new license servers can read existing license files and existing license clients.
LM-X does not support future compatibility, where the client is newer than the server. Supporting future compatibility would be analogous to an application like Word 2010 supporting the new Word 2013 document format, which would be highly unexpected. Attempting to provide such future compatibility would result in a product that is very complex to maintain and prone to problems.
The following table shows compatibility between LM-X versions, where version 1 is older than version 2:
| License Files/Clients | License Servers | Compatible? |
|---|---|---|
| Version 1 | Version 1 | Yes |
| Version 1 | Version 2 | Yes |
| Version 2 | Version 1 | No |
Note that the license file cannot be newer than the LM-X version; therefore, be sure to generate license files as old as the oldest version of LM-X used to deploy your application.
Version compatibility considerations when upgrading LM-X
When upgrading LM-X to a newer version, note the following version compatibility considerations:
Existing deployed client applications and existing license files will continue to work with the new version. However, new license files cannot be used by older applications.
If you distribute floating licenses, your end users must also upgrade their LM-X License Server, because the old license server cannot support new licenses (that is, we cannot provide "future" compatibility). In most cases, borrowed licenses will also continue to work. However, borrowed licenses rely on using Secure Store, so if Secure Store is changed (which is rare), borrowed licenses will not be backward compatible.
- If you are using any external shared libraries—for example, for .NET, Java, etc.—you must also deploy these new versions with your software.
- You can install multiple versions of LM-X, but do not mix files between different distributions, because this can cause problems such as compilation or runtime errors. The only file that can safely be shared between platforms is the security configuration file, security_config.lmx.
See Upgrading the license server for more information about upgrading the server at the end user site.