Site Network Licenses

Site network licenses require a license server application to be installed and run on a server on the network. DesignBuilder runs on the client machines on the same Windows network and obtains licences from the license server on a concurrent basis.

Summary of Process

In summary, the steps to set up DesignBuilder Site Licenses are:

 

  1. Download the designb_rlm.zip file from the Downloads > Software area of the DesignBuilder website
  2. Extract the files in the designb_rlm.zip file to the folder on the server to be used to store DesignBuilder site license files (e.g. c:\RLMSERVER)
  3. Obtain the License file by clicking on activate.cmd, following instructions on the webpage and saving the license file to the site license folder.
  4. Run the RLM server as a service and start the service.
  5. On client machines which are to run the DesignBuilder software, set the environment variable DB_SITE_SERVER to the IP address of the site license server on the network.

 

The above steps are detailed below.

Detailed Steps

Obtain your License File

With Site Network Licenses the License file is obtained through the activation code you received when ordering the software.

 

  1. Before you run the rlm server you will need to obtain your license file and save it into the rlm installation folder. That's the folder containing rlm.exe and other files listed above.
  2. You should have received an activation code from your site license purchase. This is an 8-digit number and is needed to activate the license.
  3. Open the rlm installation folder in Windows Explorer and double click on activate.cmd
  4. This loads a web page at www.designbuilder.co.uk with a form for you to enter your activation code.
  5. Other values in the form such as Hostid are automatically filled in for you. After entering your activation code click Activate License and if successful you will be presented with a download link for your activated license file.
  6. Download the license file and save in your rlm installation folder.

 

Running the RLM Server

The server can be run directly by double clicking rlm.exe. This runs a command window and logs activity to the window. This is useful when you first run the license server as you'll be able to see the license server starting up correctly and loading the license file as well as DesignBuilder clients obtaining licenses from the server.

Running RLM as a Service

It is best to set rlm up to run as a Windows service rather than in the command window, otherwise you'll need to remember to manually restart the license server when the computer reboots.

 

If you are running rlm in a command window you should close that before starting up rlm as a service.

 

To create the Windows service to run rlm automatically double click on service_install.cmd or use Manage Windows Service in the admin interface.

 

The service will be added to Windows services but not started. Use Control Panel > Services to start DesignBuilder License Server.

 

 

Once started in this way the service will restart automatically if the computer is rebooted. By default the service will write a log file designb_rlm.log into the rlm installation folder. If you want this in a different location you can use the admin interface (above) to set up the service then you can specify the service name and the log file location. You may experience problems with permissions when setting up the service. You can either disable the UAC or try right clicking service_install.cmd and choosing "Run as administrator"

Setting up Client Machines

In this step each client machine is told the location of the license server on the network.

 

There are 2 ways to do this, both of which result in an environment variable on the client machine pointing to the license server.

 

Easy way from within DesignBuilder

 

The easiest way to do this is from within DesignBuilder by clicking on the Use License Server button on the License dialog. On the License Server Details dialog enter the port and the IP address for the server. The port number will usually be 5303. When you click OK the DB_SITE_SERVER environment variable will be set up based on the port number and IP address you provided on the dialog. See below for details on this.

 

Manual method using Windows dialogs

 

DesignBuilder will examine the environment variable DB_SITE_SERVER to decide whether to look for site licenses or single user licenses. If DB_SITE_SERVER is set then DesignBuilder will try to 'check out' licenses from the server at start up. If DB_SITE_SERVER is not set this DesignBuilder will use single user licenses. The environment variable DB_SITE_SERVER should be set to port@host where port is 5053 and host is the license server hostname (in your DNS system) or IP address.

 

For example:

 

DB_SITE_SERVER=5053@192.168.1.99

 

or:

 

DB_SITE_SERVER=5053@OUR_SYSTEM_SERVER

 

To set environment variables use the Environment Variables button on the Advanced tab of Systems Properties which can be accessed from the Windows Control panel.

 

You can find the IP address of your server by typing ipconfig in the Windows Command box on the server machine.

 

 

Once DesignBuilder is running you can check out or check back in module licenses using the License dialog which can be accessed from the DesignBuilder Help menu.

RLM Server Admin Interface

RLM provides a browser-based administration interface to the license server. To run this, double click on the admin_interface.cmd file in the RLM folder using Windows Explorer.

 

Refer to the RLM End User Manual (double click online_manual.cmd) for more details on using the admin interface.

 

Note: DesignBuilder does not use the Activation page of the admin interface.

 

Reprise Software developers of the RLM licensing system always maintains a current version of the RLM End User's Manual here:

 

www.reprisesoftware.com/RLM_Enduser.html

Adding a lic file for extra seats

If you purchase additional seats for a site network license system, the new licenses are provided in the form of a lic file download. The process of obtaining the additional lic file is the same as described above under Obtaining your License File. The new lic file does not replace the existing lic files, but is used in addition to the existing licenses. The license server reads these multiple lic files, licenses from multiple lic files adding to give the total number of seats of concurrent use that are allowed.