Re: Grace Period info returned by QLZARTV (Retrieve License Information) not as expected -- MIDRANGE-L


On 07/01/2007, at 9:50 AM, Dave Murvin wrote:

At Simon Coulters suggestion, I tried creating my product with a
grace period instead of generating a 30 day license key at RSTLICPGM
time.   The problem I am having with this is recognizing when the
grace period is over (under my old way, I would send a "Trial expires
in nnn days" message).

You can still do this by catching the "Grace period expired" messagesand sending your own message instead. The two you care about areCPF9E70 and CPF9E71. Both of these indicate the grace period hasexpired.


You might also care about CPF9E17.

CPF9E72 indicates a grace-period licence has been issued.


Using the grace period method, the day I installed the product,
QLZARTV (Retrieve License Information) was returning a Grace Period
Expires date of 9999999 and a licence key expiration date of
9999999.  I tried this again on the following day and the Grace
Period Expires date was still 9999999.  I think the license key
expiration date was also 9999999, but do not have a print screen and
I have since created a product license which fills in the license key
expiration date.  I would have thought that at least one of the dates
would tell me how much time is left on the Grace Period or that there
would be some kind of message, but I didn't see anything.

Grace period starts from the date of first USE, not date of install.The product can be installed but unused and the grace period will notexpire and therefore will not be set. Did you actually use the productbefore checking the grace period information?


QLZADDLI (Add License Key) parms are set as follows:

D LicenseInfoDS   DS
D  UsageType                     2    Inz('01')
      Concurrent limit
D  Compliance                    2    Inz('03')
      Must have key
D  DftUsageLimit                10I 0
Inz(*Zero)                           Allowed days w/o key
D  LicenseTerm                   1    Inz('2')
      Entire Release
D  AllowLicRel                   1    Inz('0')
      Can't be released
D  VendorPasswrd                10    Inz('xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx')
      Same for keys!!!
D  GracePeriod                  10I 0
Inz(30)                              Grace period days

D AllowGracePer 1 Inz('1')Yes


Looks OK for a quick check.


License Key information returned by QLZERTV API  on the day the
product was installed is as follows:

BYTESRETURNED OF LICKEYINFO = 87
BYTESAVAIL OF LICKEYINFO = 142
USAGELIMIT OF LICKEYINFO = -1
USAGECOUNT OF LICKEYINFO = 0
USAGETYPE OF LICKEYINFO = '01'
COMPLIANCETYP OF LICKEYINFO = '03'
LICENSETERM OF LICKEYINFO = 'V2R1  '
LKIRELEASELVL OF LICKEYINFO = 'V2R1M0
THRESHOLDVAL OF LICKEYINFO = -1
GRACEPERIOD OF LICKEYINFO = 30
GRACEEXPIRES OF LICKEYINFO = '9999999
PROCESSORGRP OF LICKEYINFO = 'P05'
LKIRESERVED OF LICKEYINFO = '  '
PEAKUSAGE OF LICKEYINFO = 0
EXPIRECENTURY OF LICKEYINFO = '9
EXPIREDATE OF LICKEYINFO = '9999999
EXPIREYMD OF LICKEYINFO = '999999
VENDORDATA OF LICKEYINFO = '        '
PRDLICHANDLE OF LICKEYINFO = 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'

This shows Usage Count of 0 meaning not currently in use, and it showsPeak Usage of 0 meaning never used.

API documentation says that Grace Expires of 999999 means no graceperiod or the grace period has expired. I've never noticed what thisshows immediately after and install but I do know that it shows theactual expiry date even after expiration has been reached so I thinkthe documentation is wrong on this point.

I can't remember what you'll see for Expire Date after an initialinstallation. I think it should be 999999 because and expiry date for alicence key hasn't been set because no key has yet been added. You'reexpecting the grace period to cover evaluation use.

The rest of these values seem to be what I would expect except forUsage Limit which is *NOMAX. This suggests you've added a licence keywith Usage of *NOMAX and no expiry date. If so, that will defeat thepoint of the grace period (although it doesn't explain why Peak Usageis zero).

Use WRKLICINF and compare the values it shows with what you expect fromthe QLZADDLI API (and QLZAADDK API or ADDLICKEY command if you used oneof them).


Shouldn't I be able to tell when the grace period expires from the
license APIs or do I just have to wait until the system figures out
that the Grace Period has expires and shuts off the usage of the
product?

Yes, you should be able to tell but the licence manager won't set theexpiry date until the default usage limit has been exceeded. Yourdefault usage is *ZERO so this suggests that:

        1) The product has only been installed and never actually used

2) The product does not properly request a licence when it runs ordoes not successfully get a licence (and doesn't handle the error)which is why the usage count is 0.

I would have thought that since I have a Default Usage
Limit of Zero, that the Grace period count down would start the first
time I used the product.

That's how it should work and I've successfully used a 30-day graceperiod with all three licence models (*CONCURRENT, *REGISTERED, and*PROCESSOR). Like you, I only use *KEYED compliance and I've neverbothered with *OPRACTION or *WARNING.


Regards,
Simon Coulter.
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