TrinityTonic asked a question.
Secure Return of Licenses
I am using the Flexera Embedded in my device in conjunction with the Flexera FNO Portal as the licensing back-office. I have a use case in mind and would like to know how this could be best achieved and if there's more than one way to do so.
My use-case is that I would like to securely return licenses that were previously acquired by my device so that they could reappear inside the portal and be used by other devices. Typical use-cases would be decomissioning a device or if a device is somehow defect.
In the first step I would like the solution to be manually triggerable, later on I would like to automate it.
Any links to corresponding documentation on how this could be achieved would be much appreciated.
Hi @TrinityTonic ,
Your diagrams are accurate if the FlexNet Operations Configuration setting for "Skip Confirmation" (found in System/Configure/Embedded Devices/License Generation) is disabled (not checked). With Skip Confirmation disabled, the device must prove to FNO that the capability response with the license reduction was indeed processed. So let's take a look at both scenarios (first let's assume that the device is offline and does not have an internet connection)
1. Return initiated in FNO Portal.
a. The license is first removed from the device in the FNO Portal. The status of the license on the device in the portal will be set to "Waiting for confirmation". The license has not yet been credited back to the entitlement for use by another device.
b. The capability response with the license removal is then downloaded from the FNO Portal and manually loaded onto the device.
c. A confirmation capability request then needs to be generated from the device which will be used to prove to FNO that the capability response for the license reduction from FNO was processed on the device. This is sometimes called a "sync" capability request which is a standard activation request with no Activation ID or Quantity specified.
d. Once generated, this sync capability request is then manually uploaded to the FNO Portal. This will remove the license from the device and free it up for use by another device.
2. Return initiated on Host.
a. The device creates a capability request to return the existing license which includes the desired Activation ID with quantity 0.
b. This capability request is then uploaded in the FNO Portal. The capability response with the license removal is downloaded from FNO and loaded on the device.
c. A confirmation capability request then needs to be generated on the device and uploaded to the FNO portal to prove the capability response was loaded so the license can be freed up for use on another device.
If the device has an internet connection the capability requests & responses can be done programmatically.
If Skip Confirmation is enabled (checked) then you trust that the customer will always load the capability response file on the device when a license is returned. The license will immediately be freed up in FNO once the license is removed from the device in the FNO portal. This is not as secure and is a potential area for license abuse, however it prevents the need to generate and upload/send the additional confirmation request. This can be accomplished transparently if the device is online but requires additional manual steps if the device is offline.
Best regards,
Jim