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Legacy Licensing

Before you start

Goal

  • License the Altair SLC Hub.

Prerequisites

  • Follow the initial install instructions.
  • Administration privileges for the host.
  • Access to a license file.

Install the Altair SLC Hub licence key

By default, the Altair SLC Hub licence key is read from the file [var directory]\licence.txt. The location from which the licence key is read is controlled by the licence.keyfile configuration property and can be changed if required. For details on the operation of the configuration process and how configuration files are read, see Configuration.

The license key is delivered as a text string. Edit the licence key file and paste the licence key text into it.

The permissions on the [var directory] directory require that this file be edited as root. For example, to edit the file with vi, type the following command:

sudo vi [var directory]/licence.txt

Once the file is created and saved, ensure that the correct ownership and permissions are set. The file should be owned by root, with the group set to slchub. The permissions should be set to read/write by owner, and readable by group, not accessible to others, that is 0640, or --rw-r-----. These settings ensure that only the Hub service processes can read the licence file, while any workloads that Hub may run cannot.

Once the file is created and saved, ensure the correct access controls are set to prevent normal users accessing and reading then file. To do this it is necessary to disable access control inheritance for the file and then set the access control list so that the Administrators group has Full Control, the SYSTEM user has Read access.

Set the licence key in an Environment variable

The license may also be set using the environment variable SLC_HUB_LICENCE to the licence key text. This environment variable should not be set globally, but either for the user running the license server, or the specific service itself

Edit the service file /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/slchub.license.service and add the environment varable, so the file would read e.g. 

[Service]
Environment="SLC_HUB_LICENCE=pGNqduRFkB4K9C2vijOmUDa2kPtUhArN..."
Then run the command 
systemctl daemon-reload
When the service starts, it should accept the environment variable

Edit the service file [Hub Directory]\services\slchub.license.xml and add the environment line e.g. 

<env name="SLC_HUB_LICENCE" value="pGNqduRFkB4K9C2vijOmUDa2kPtUhArN..."/>
When the service starts, it should accept the environment variable

Verification

Verify licence

  • run the hubctl verify licence command

Before continuing it is necessary to verify that the licence has been installed correctly This can be done using the hubctl commands, as follows:

hubctl verify licence

Note

hubctl is run as the administrator user, hubctl verify licence will run as this administrator user, not as the service user an not as a service. It will therefore fail when an environment variable is used, even if this is valid. You must verify a license passed by environment variable by starting the license service hubctl service start license and checking the log files.