What is the difference between an authorization code and a license code?
Question & Answer
Question
What is the difference between an authorization code and a license code?
Answer
The licensing technology used by IBM SPSS products consists of a number of components:
- Authorization Code
License Authorization
License Code
Lock Code
License File
Product Configuration File
Authorization Code
An authorization code is comprised of lower-case alphabetic characters and numbers.
Authorization codes vary in length but are approximately twenty characters.
An authorization code looks like this:
1a2b3c4d5e6f7g8h1a2b3c4d
Some things to know about authorization codes
(a) Authorization codes are specific to a product and version. An authorization code must be used to license the product and version specified when the authorization code is created.
(b) There are multiple types of authorization codes:
- Authorized User authorization codes are intended to be used to license no more than two separate product installations. Authorized User codes are typically issued to individuals for their individual use on, for example, a desktop product installation and a laptop product installation.
Site authorization codes are intended for use on multiple installations. Site authorization codes are typically issued to organizations that are licensing large numbers of product installations.
Concurrent authorization codes (also known as ‘network license codes’) are used to license License Managers. Concurrent authorization codes allow a License Manager to license product installations configured as network clients.
(c) Authorization codes are not specific to any operating system. Any product supported by a specific operating system can be licensed using an appropriate authorization code.
License Authorization
A license authorization occurs when an authorization code is used to license a specific product installation.
All authorization codes are created with a limited number of license authorizations. When an authorization code is used license a product installation, the number of licenses available to be created by that authorization code is reduced by one (1).
The successful use of a license authorization results in the creation of a license code.
License Code
When an authorization code is used to license a product installation a unique code is generated that is specific to the product installation and the host device (computer) where the product is installed.
A license code is comprised of upper-case alphabetic characters and numbers
A license code looks like this:
A1B2C3D4E5F6G7H8I9J0K1L2M3N4O5P6Q7R8S9T0U1V2W3X4Y5Z6A7B8C9D0E1F2G3H4
Often the license code is followed by additional information/annotations regarding the license:
(i) A pound sign/hashtag (#).
(ii) The product code in quotations (“8400”, “1200”)
(iii) The product version code (version “90”, version “240”)
(iv) An indication of the expiration date of the license code (‘expires Midnight of Aug 31, 2012’)
(v) The word ‘exclusive’.
Here an example of a license code with all additional information/annotations included:
A1B2C3D4E5F6G7H8I9J0K1L2M3N4O5P6Q7R8S9T0U1V2W3X4Y5Z6A7B8C9D0E1F2G3H4# “8400” version “90” expires Midnight of Aug 31, 2012, exclusive
Some things to know about license codes:
(a) License codes can not be transferred for use by a different product or product version.
(b) License codes can not be transferred from one product host machine to any other host machine.
(c) License codes are ‘locked’ to a specific product host using a ‘lock code’.
(d) Only one license for a given product and version is active at any given time (hence ‘exclusive’).
(e) If more than one license code exists for the same product and version in a license file, the most-recently-added license code is the active license. All previous licenses for the same product and version are inactive.
Lock Code
When a license code is generated, the licensing technology uses a unique identifier from the product host (computer) to ‘lock’ the license to that specific product host. This unique identifier is called a ‘lock code’.
This ‘lock code’ is based upon a characteristic of the product host. The characteristics used is sometimes referred to as the ‘locking device’ for that host.
There are a number of different locking devices that can be used by the licensing technology as the choice of locking device.
The choice of locking device is context-driven and varies by product, authorization code and host features.
The locking device information — lock code — is combined with the information stored in the authorization code used to license the product to create the license code specific for that product/version and host.
This license code is stored in a license file on the product host.
License File
At the completion of a successful product licensing process, a license code specific to the product installation and host is stored in a license file.
The name of the license file is ‘lservrc’.
The license file (lservrc) does not have a file extension (such as ‘txt’).
The location of the license file on the product host varies, but the file is always located within the product installation directory or one of the sub-directories within the product installation directory.
Whether a product installation uses a host-specific license file for licensing or is configured to use a License Manager for licensing is determined by the contents of the product configuration file (spssprod.inf) located within the product installation directory or one of the sub-directories within the product installation directory.
Product Configuration File
Every IBM SPSS product installation contains a product configuration file related to the licensing technology. This file is named ‘spssprod.inf’ in versions prior to Statistics 27 and ‘commutelicense.ini’ in Statistics Subscription and Statistics version 28 or later.
The product configuration file ‘spssprod.inf’ contains multiple pieces of configuration information regarding the installed product. Only one of these configuration settings is relevant to the licensing technology: DaemonHost
The ‘DaemonHost’ configuration setting determines whether the product is configured to license from a license file (lservrc) or is a Concurrent licensing client configured to acquire a license from a License Manager.
If product installation is configured to use a license file for licensing the ‘DaemonHost’ setting will appears as:
DaemonHost=no-net
If the product installation is configured to use a License Manager for licensing the ‘DaemonHost’ will appears as follows (where ‘<host identifier>’ is replaced by the License Manager host name or IP address):
DaemonHost=<host identifer>
