Distributed run-time licensing

• US 20050086174A1
• Filed: 10/26/2004
• Published: 04/21/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BEA Systems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Eng, May D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,536,356 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

Methods and systems are disclosed for managing software licenses in a distributed computer network. The number of software licenses allocated to software users can be determined on a node-by-node basis in realtime with little or no additional processing overhead incurred by the network. Upon of the occurrence of a node failure, software licenses are efficiently reallocated to new users. In one implementation, users are periodically counted at each network node and transmitted to a master node with a sanity scan result message. A license allocation condition is periodically evaluated using the sum of the counts. If the condition is met, a license lockout can be performed upon the expiration of a grace period.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method for managing software licenses in a computer network having a maximum number of said licenses for use with a licensed software program, comprising the steps of:

counting users of said licensed software program at a plurality of nodes of said computer network to obtain counts of software licenses in use by each node;

transmitting said counts to a master node of said computer network;

calculating a total number of software users on said computer network, said calculating step uses said counts;

evaluating a license allocation condition using said total number of users.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

performing a sanity scan on at least one subset of said plurality of nodes;

generating a scan result message, said transmitting step transmits said scan result message with at least one of said counts.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the steps of:

checking whether one of said scan result messages has been received from all of said nodes; and

deallocating any licenses allocated to users of any of said nodes from which a scan result message has not been received.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said evaluating step compares said total users to said maximum number of licenses,

said condition is met if said total users comprises at least a minimum percentage of said maximum number of licenses.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said transmitting step transmits said counts asynchronously.

15. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of:

repeating said performing step periodically.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said period is two minutes.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

repeating said calculating and evaluating steps periodically.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said period is five minutes.

4. The method of claims 41, wherein:

said condition is an error condition,

said responding step comprises the steps of;

measuring a license lockout grace period; and

initiating a license lockout if said grace period is exhausted.

5. The method of claim, 41 wherein:

said condition is an warning condition,

said responding step comprises the step of;

displaying a warning message.

6. The method of claim 41, wherein:

said condition is an information condition,

said responding step comprises the step of;

displaying an information message.

7. The method of claim, 41, wherein:

said condition is a threshold value,

said evaluating step compares said total users to said threshold value,

said condition is met if said total users is at least equal to said threshold.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein said threshold is 110 percent of said maximum number of licenses.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein said threshold is 100 percent of said maximum number of licenses.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein said threshold is 90 percent of said maximum number of licenses.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein said threshold is at least 5 licenses greater than said maximum number of licenses.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein said threshold is at least equal to said maximum number of licenses.

19. An apparatus comprising:

a memory, said memory adapted to store program code;

a processor in communication with said memory, said program code capable of programming said processor to perform a method for managing software licenses in a distributed computer network having a maximum number of said licenses for use with a licensed software program, the method comprising the steps of;

counting users of said licensed software program at a plurality of nodes of said computer network to obtain counts of software licenses in use by each node;

transmitting said counts to a master node of said computer network;

calculating a total number of software users on said computer network, said calculating step uses said counts;

evaluating a license allocation condition using said total number of users.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein said method further comprises the steps of:

performing a sanity scan on at least one subset of said plurality of nodes;

generating a scan result message, said transmitting step transmits said scan result message with at least one of said counts.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein said method further comprises the steps of:

checking whether one of said scan result messages has been received from all of said nodes; and

deallocating any licenses allocated to users of any of said nodes from which a scan result message has not been received.

23. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein:

said condition is a threshold value,

said evaluating step of said method compares said total users to said threshold value,

said condition is met if said total users is at least equal to said threshold.

24. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein said method further comprises the step of:

repeating said performing step periodically.

25. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein said method further comprises the step of:

repeating said calculating and evaluating steps periodically.

22. The apparatus of claim 43, wherein:

said condition is an error condition,

said responding step of said method comprises the steps of;

measuring a license lockout grace period; and

initiating a license lockout if said grace period is exhausted.

26. An apparatus for managing software licenses in a computer network having a maximum number of said licenses for use with a licensed software program, comprising:

means for counting users of said licensed software program at a plurality of nodes of said computer network to obtain counts of software licenses in use by each node;

means for transmitting said counts to a master node of said computer network;

means for calculating a total number of software users on said computer network, said calculating step uses said counts;

means for evaluating a license allocation condition using said total number of users.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, further comprising:

means for performing a sanity scan on at least one subset of said plurality of nodes;

means for generating a scan result message, said transmitting means transmits said scan result message with at least one of said counts.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, further comprising:

means for checking whether one of said scan result messages has been received from all of said nodes; and

means for deallocating any licenses allocated to users of any of said nodes from which a scan result message has not been received.

30. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein:

said condition is a threshold value,

said evaluating means compares said total users to said threshold value,

said condition is met if said total users is at least equal to said threshold.

31. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein said sanity scan is performed periodically.

32. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein:

said total number of software users is calculated periodically,

said license allocation condition is evaluated periodically.

29. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein:

said condition is an error condition,

said responding means comprises;

means for measuring a license lockout grace period; and

means for initiating a license lockout if said grace period is exhausted.

33. A processor readable storage medium, comprising:

processor readable program code embodied on said processor readable storage medium, said processor readable program code for programming a processor to perform a method for managing software licenses in a computer network having a maximum number of said licenses for use with a licensed software program, the method comprising the steps of;

counting users of said licensed software program at a plurality of nodes of said computer network to obtain counts of software licenses in use by each node;

transmitting said counts to a master node of said computer network;

calculating a total number of software users on said computer network, said calculating step uses said counts;

evaluating a license allocation condition using said total number of.

34. The processor readable storage medium of claim 33, wherein said method further comprises the steps of:

performing a sanity scan on at least one subset of said plurality of nodes;

generating a scan result message, said transmitting step transmits said scan result message with at least one of said counts.

35. The processor readable storage medium of claim 34, wherein said method further comprises the steps of:

checking whether one of said scan result messages has been received from all of said nodes; and

deallocating any licenses allocated to users of any of said nodes from which a scan result message has not been received.

37. The processor readable storage medium of claim 33, wherein:

said condition is a threshold value,

said evaluating step of said method compares said total users to said threshold value,

said condition is met if said total users is at least equal to said threshold.

38. The processor readable storage medium of claim 34, wherein said method further comprises the step of:

repeating said performing step periodically.

39. The processor readable storage medium of claim 33, wherein said method further comprises the step of:

repeating said calculating and evaluating steps periodically.

36. The processor readable storage medium of claim 47, wherein:

said condition is an error condition,

said responding step of said method comprises the steps of;

measuring a license lockout grace period; and

initiating a license lockout if said grace period is exhausted.