Management of a concurrent use license in a logically-partitioned computer

• US 6,959,291 B1
• Filed: 05/19/1999
• Issued: 10/25/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Armstrong, William Joseph, Stamschror, Kevin Patrick, Nayar, Naresh
• Primary Examiner(s): Dixon, Thomas A.
• Application Number:
  US09/314,324
• Time in Patent Office: 2,351 Days
• Field of Search: 705/51, 705/53, 705/59, 705/34, 705/52, 705/57, 345/734, 713/200, 717/11, 709/219, 710/5, 710/20, 710/19, 718/100, 718/104
• US Class Current: 705/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2147 Locking files

Abstract

An apparatus, program product and method track concurrent uses of a computer program across a plurality of logical partitions in a logically partitioned computer, such that a decision as to whether to grant or deny a request to use the computer program in a particular logical partition may be made based upon whether the requested use, coupled with other uses in other logical partitions in the computer, would violate a concurrent use software license associated with the computer program. As such, the license restrictions of a concurrent use software license can be enforced on a logically partitioned computer regardless of the particular logical partitions within which a computer program executes.

Claims

1. A method of managing a concurrent use software license in a logically partitioned computer, the method comprising:

(a) tracking concurrent uses of a computer program across a plurality of logical partitions in the logically partitioned computer using a partition manager accessible by the plurality of logical partitions, wherein each logical partition includes an operating system resident therein, and wherein the partition manager is configured to allocate hardware resources in the logically partitioned computer, to each of the plurality of logical partitions; and

(b) with a license manager resident in a first logical partition among the plurality of logical partitions, accessing the partition manager in response to a request to use the computer program in the first logical partition and selectively denying the request to use the computer program in the first logical partition if permitting the requested use would violate a concurrent use software license associated with the computer program.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein tracking concurrent uses of the computer program includes maintaining a global count of the number of concurrent uses of the computer program across the plurality of logical partitions.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising receiving the global count from the partition manager in response to the access thereto, and wherein selectively denying the request includes denying the request when the global count is at least equal to a maximum number of concurrent uses permitted by the concurrent use software license.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

(a) incrementing the global count whenever a request to use the computer program is granted; and

(b) decrementing the global count whenever a use of the computer program is terminated.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein each logical partition includes a local license manager.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein each of incrementing and decrementing the global count includes passing a program identifier to the partition manager.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising determining in the local license manager for the first logical partition whether permitting the requested use would violate the concurrent use software license.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising tracking concurrent uses of a plurality of computer programs across the plurality of logical partitions.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

(a) a logically partitioned computer including a plurality of logical partitions;

(b) a plurality of operating systems, each resident in a different logical partition among the plurality of logical partitions; and

(c) a first program resident in the computer, the first program configured to manage a concurrent use software license for a second program in the computer by tracking concurrent uses of the second program across the plurality of logical partitions, and selectively denying a request to use the second program in a first logical partition if permitting the requested use would violate the concurrent use software license, wherein the first program includes;

(i) a partition manager accessible by the plurality of logical partitions and configured to track the concurrent uses of the second program across the plurality of logical partitions, and to allocate hardware resources to each of the plurality of logical partitions; and

(ii) a license manager resident in the first logical partition and configured to access the partition manager in response to the request to use the second program in the first logical partition.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the partition manager is configured to track concurrent uses of the second program by maintaining a global count of the number of concurrent uses of the second program across the plurality of logical partitions.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the license manager is further configured to receive the global count from the partition manager in response to the access thereto, and to selectively deny the request when the global count is at least equal to a maximum number of concurrent uses permitted by the concurrent use software license.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the license manager is further configured to increment the global count whenever a request to use the second program is granted, and to decrement the global count whenever a use of the second program is terminated.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the license manager is resident in the first logical partition, and wherein each additional logical partition includes an associated local license manager.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the global count is associated with a program identifier for the second program, and wherein the license manager is configured to pass the program identifier to the partition manager when accessing the partition manager.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the partition manager is further configured to track concurrent uses of a plurality of programs across the plurality of logical partitions.

16. An apparatus, comprising:

(a) a plurality of logical partitions;

(b) a plurality of operating systems, each resident in a different logical partition among the plurality of logical partitions;

(c) a partition manager configured to track concurrent uses of a computer program across the plurality of logical partitions, and to allocate hardware resources to each of the plurality of logical partitions; and

(d) a plurality of license managers, each license manager resident in an associated logical partition among the plurality of logical partitions, and each license manager configured to access the partition manager responsive to a request to use the computer program in the associated logical partition.

17. A program product, comprising:

(a) a first program configured to manage a concurrent use software license for a second program in a logically-partitioned computer of the type including a plurality of logical partitions, with each logical partition including an operating system resident therein, the first program including a partition manager accessible by the plurality of logical partitions and configured to track concurrent uses of the second program across the plurality of logical partitions in the logically-partitioned computer, and to allocate hardware resources to each of the plurality of logical partitions, and a license manager, resident in a first logical partition among the plurality of logical partitions and configured to access the partition manager in response to a request to use the second computer program in the first logical partition and selectively deny the request if permitting the requested use would violate the concurrent use software license; and

(b) a signal bearing medium bearing the first program.

18. The program product of claim 17, wherein the signal bearing medium includes at least one of a recordable medium and a transmission-type medium.