Licenses and Licensing

Licenses and Licensing

Introduction

This document describes the basic license types used by Pixar software and how to retrieve them.


License Types

Pixar software requires a license to run. Pixar provides several different license types depending upon the software and how it was obtained:

Non-Commercial Licenses

Unlike our commercial products, the non-commercial licenses are retrieved with the non-commercial product installer, RenderManNC-Installer. The RenderManNC-Installer can be downloaded from this link

Node-locked Licenses

Software for non-commercial purposes is granted a node-locked software license. Node-lock licenses are locked to a specific host and generally include a single license for the software.

You can verify a node-locked license by opening the license in a text editor and looking for the <LicenseAccess> entry. A node-locked license's entry will look like:

<LicenseAccess type="nodelock">ComputerName</LicenseAccess>

Besides the LicenseAccess entry, the license will contain a list of all licensed features, feature count, and expiration dates in an XML format.


Commercial Licenses

License Server Floating License

Software purchased for commercial applications is granted a floating license. The floating license must be read by a license server application, and hosts running applications must request a license from the license server machine.

The license file must reside in the license server directory. A license created for the license server will look very much like a node-locked license, with one exception. Looking at the <LicenseAccess> key in the pixar.license file will show the type as "floating", rather than "nodelock".

A license server floating license's LicenseAccess entry will look like this:

<LicenseAccess type="floating">9010@LicenseServer</LicenseAccess>

In the example above, 9010 is the port on which the license server will listen for license requests, and LicenseServer is the name of the license server host.

Like the node-locked license, the license server floating license will contain all features, feature counts, and feature expiration dates in the license file.

Floating Redirector License

Software purchased for commercial applications is granted a floating license. As mentioned above, the license must be served by a machine designated as the license server. On the application machines a special variant of the pixar.license file, which simply points at the license serving machine, is used.

The floating redirector license will contain the same <LicenseAccess> info that matches the license server floating license.

<LicenseAccess type="floating">9010@LicenseServer</LicenseAccess>

Unlike the license server floating license, this license will not contain the feature information, such as feature names, feature counts, and expiration dates.

This license should reside in the root directory where Pixar software is installed. Depending upon platform, this would default to:

  • Linux: /opt/pixar/pixar.license
  • Macintosh: /Applications/Pixar/pixar.license
  • Windows: C:\\Program Files\\Pixar\\pixar.license

Retrieving a License

Starting with the RPS 19 and RMS 19 releases, licenses are retrieved in the same way for all three platforms (Linux, Macintosh, and Windows). Generally, installing the various software types will automatically retrieve a proper license.

Retrieving a Node-locked License

Near the end of installing RenderMan Pro Server or RenderMan Studio (which is RenderMan for Maya), a licensing application (LicenseApp) will launch. This application will present an interface for entering your forum login and password.

  • Enter your serial number as received from Pixar sales department
  • Enter your forum login
  • Enter your forum password
  • Press Get License

If the forum login and password are correct, a fully-featured, node-locked license will be downloaded to the application root (as defined above).

Retrieving a Floating License

Retrieving a floating license is identical to the node-locked case above.

To retrieve a floating license simply:

  • Enter your serial number as received from Pixar sales department
  • Enter your forum login
  • Enter your forum password
  • Press Get License

If forum login and password are correct, and they match a serial number issued to that forum user, a redirector type license will be downloaded to the application root (as defined above).

Note: You must install a license server for a floating serial number first, before installing the applications. This allows the LicenseApp to retrieve a license that is pointing to the assigned license server properly.

Retrieving a License Server License

Near the end of the installation of the License Server software, the LicenseApp application will execute. Retrieving the proper license is as simple as retrieving a floating license above. The LicenseApp knows that it is requesting a license file for the license server and downloads the proper license type. Instead of downloading to the application root, it downloads the license file to the license server directory.

As mentioned above, the License Server should be installed before installing any applications. This allows the license serving machine to become associated with the serial number, so when an application install requests a license, it will retrieve a proper floating redirector license, which points to the license server machine.

Retrieving a License After Installation

Although a license is generally retrieved during installation, there are times when you might need to reconnect to Pixar to retrieve a new license. This is very simple, and also accomplished using the LicenseApp application.

  • To update the License Server license, run LicenseApp by double clicking the application, which resides in the LicenseApp directory of the License Server distribution.
  • To update a node-locked license, run the LicenseApp application, which can be found in the bin subdirectory of all Pixar applications.
  • Floating applications generally do NOT need to be retrieved unless the license server has been changed. If the license server has been changed, run the LicenseApp contained in the bin subdirectory of any application.

Because all applications retrieve a license into the same root location, you only need to run LicenseApp from one of the applications, even if you have multiple Pixar applications installed.

NOTE: Non-commercial licenses can be re-retrieved by running the RenderManNC-Installer program. The LicenseApp software included within the RPS or RMS software will NOT retrieve a non-commercial license.