Manage licenses

MediaKind solutions offer flexible licensing models. Each model depends on your solution and installation options. A service can be configured but can only be processed for a limited period of time without a license (grace period).

License servers and installation

The license manager is a micro-service application installed on a server, or on two servers if in redundancy mode. By default, the Controller hosts this application that is identified by a Licensing processing type. The license manager may also run on dedicated servers for very large configurations.

Display license details

There is a license code per feature. Licenses are required for features and options in the MediaKind solution and have expiry dates.

1. Click Servers on the left-side menu.

2. Click for the server with the Licensing processing type.

   Note: The Licensing processing type may display for the Controller server if the licensing manager is installed on the same machine as the Controller.

3. Select the Licenses tab. The license information displays.

Request a license file

This is your first time connecting to your MediaKind user interface and you want to request a license file.

1. Display license details. The licensing information displays for the specific server.

2. Copy the version of Controller and the locking code, including the asterisk (*) and paste into the email or file you plan to send to MediaKind.

   

3. Copy and paste the LAC reference number for your Software Handling Community to the same file or email and send to your MediaKind representative.

Import a license file

New license files are available from the support center.

• The new license file needs to be available on the machine.
• Only configuration and admin users can import license files.

1. Display license details. The licensing information displays for the specific server.

2. Click Import license > Select file to browse and select the file to import.

   

A summary displays.

Tip: If an error occurs, keep a copy of the error number and contact support.

Revert to the previous license file

This feature is helpful when solving import errors that restrict license use. Only use if MediaKind support staff approves a revert.

1. Display license details. The licensing information displays for the specific server.

2. Click Revert to previous licenses. You are prompted to confirm.

   

   Note: If any tokens are in use, you will be warned that services may go off air.

   

3. Click Yes, revert licenses! to confirm. The last license file import is discarded and the previous file is used.

License information details

License information displays in a table. View information on license usage and availability per feature. Find license codes (FAT codes) for administration and support.

Each feature has a type of license that can be Exclusive or Aggregate.

• Exclusive licenses override licenses and the newest license takes priority.
• Aggregate licenses are cumulative.

As more license token are added, the total quantity increases. You cannot mix Aggregate and Exclusive licenses for a feature. For example:

Exclusive: An exclusive license code completely replaces any older licenses with a new license, as described in the following example use cases:

• For an Exclusive license of 100 licenses, loading a new Exclusive license of 120 licenses, results in 120 licenses.
• For an Exclusive license of 100 licenses, loading a new Exclusive license of 80 licenses, results in 80licenses.
• For an Aggregate license of 100 licenses, loading a new Exclusive license of 80 licenses, results in 80licenses.

Aggregate: An Aggregate license co-exists with multiple Aggregate licenses of the same feature and version. The hard and soft limit of the Aggregate licenses are aggregated, yet the start and expiry dates of the individual license strings are maintained in an independent manner, as described in the following example use cases:

• For an Aggregate license of 100 licenses, loading a new Aggregate license of 120 licenses, results in 220 licenses.
• For an Aggregate license of 100 licenses, loading a new Aggregate license of 80 licenses, results in 180 licenses.
• For an Aggregate license of 100 licenses, loading a newTrial Aggregate license of 40 licenses, will temporarily result in 140 licenses. When the trial expires, you will revert to 100 licenses.

Display license token usage

Use the Reports menu to review the On-Demand Encoder license usage.

Delete licenses

This feature should only be used to clean up a system with erroneous licenses (accidental mix of aggregate and exclusive), or after a trial period, to clean up the database. Only use if MediaKind support staff approves a revert.

By default, only admin level users have the privilege to delete the licenses. A delete action can be undone by clicking Revert to previous licenses.

1. Display license details. The licensing information displays for the specific server.

2. Click Delete licenses. You are prompted to confirm.

   

3. Click Yes, delete licenses! to confirm. The delete action may take a few seconds. The current licenses are deleted. No licenses remain visible in the UI.

Export licenses

Exporting the current licenses can be useful to troubleshoot license issues, or remove trial licenses. The licenses are exported in the same text format as the file expected for license import.

1. Display license details. The licensing information displays for the specific server.

2. Click Export licenses.

   

A file downloads to the web browser default location. The download date in the file name is in the format YYYY-MM-DD.

On-Demand Encoder licensing

Tokens represent processing capabilities that can be acquired and released over time. The license contains a fixed amount of tokens of different types. The interactions between On-Demand Encoder and the license system are limited to the worker.

The transcoding worker is using 5 different tokens, all specific to On-Demand processing capabilities:

• video processing (FAT 102 3464/97): for encoding video/audio
• Dolby decoding 2.0 (FAT 102 3464/98): for decoding one audio, =< 2.0 channels
• Dolby encoding 2.0 (FAT 102 3464/99): for encoding one audio, =< 2.0 channels
• Dolby decoding 5.1 (FAT 102 3464/100): for decoding one audio, > 2.0 channels
• Dolby encoding 5.1 (FAT 102 3464/101): for encoding one audio, > 2.0 channels

Video processing tokens

Video processing tokens are requested when the worker starts. The amount of token requested depends on the CPU capabilities required by the processing. The worker then repeatedly synchronizes with the license server to know the number of token needed by introspecting its CPU usage and Request or releasing extra tokens. As long as a single token has been acquired by the worker at start-up, the processing is expected to run to completion, even though extra tokens are not available later in the processing. Given that the license contains at least one token, a worker performing the transcoding task of job that cannot acquire a single token (request at start-up is rejected because all the tokens have already been acquired by concurrent processes) will stop and the job will be retried.

Whenever the first token cannot be acquired (due to connection problems with the license server or absence of video processing tokens in the license for example), the job is expected to fail after a timeout. Some amount of processing can perform during this timeout.

At the end of processing, the worker releases tokens.

Dolby related tokens

A Dolby token is needed for each Dolby stream processing (decoding and encoding). Dolby tokens are specific to the channel layout of the given stream.

If no 2.0 token (either decoding or encoding) is available on server, a 5.1 token will be taken instead. Basically 5.1 tokens “include” 2.0 token.