Obtaining and installing the license file

The license file is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file. The license file has the information regarding the product, major release, and license features and capacities.

You must install license files for the Communication Manager main server, but not for survivable servers. Survivable servers receive licensing information from the main server.

On System manager WebLM, if you are licensing a duplicated pair configuration, you must install the license file on both servers. The system does not synchronize the license file from active server to standby server.

A 30-day grace period applies to new installations or upgrades to Communication Manager, Collaboration Server, and Solution for Midsize Enterprise. You have 30 days from the day of installation to install a license file.

Customer Option features and the license file

Communication Manager has two categories of Customer Option features:

• Unlicensed Customer Option features that are available to all customers with the purchase of Communication Manager.

• Licensed Customer Option features that customers purchase and are controlled by the license file.

A specific feature in the Communication Manager license file may enable or map to multiple features on the Customer Options form. For example, ASAI Features (FEAT_CM_ASAI_PCKG) in the license file enables multiple ASAI-related features on the Customer Options form, including ASAI Link Core Capabilities and ASAI Link Plus Capabilities. Unlicensed features are available to all customers and are excluded from the license file.

The Communication Manager System Management Interface (SMI) provides the ability to enable or disable individual Customer Option features that have an on or off (yes or no) setting. This capability is available only for the Customer Option features to which you are entitled. Features to which you are entitled include unlicensed features plus any licensed features that are entitled based on the license file. This capability does not apply to capacity features and other types of features that do not have an on or off setting.

How Communication Manager acquires licenses from WebLM

At startup, Communication Manager contacts WebLM and requests license release, features, and capacities. WebLM responds to Communication Manager, which then uses the acquired features and capacities to set license permissions in the Communication Manager software.

Communication Manager acquires all of the feature capacity from WebLM, regardless of actual usage. For example, if the Maximum Stations (VALUE_CM_STA) feature is set to 36,000 in the license file, Communication Manager acquires capacity for all 36,000 stations regardless of the number of stations currently configured. Actual license usage can be viewed on the Customer Options form in the System Administration Terminal (SAT) interface.

Every 9 minutes, Communication Manager sends a request to WebLM to renew its license information. Because of this time interval, you may have to wait up to 9 minutes for a newly installed license file to take effect on Communication Manager.