Get a Floating License Seat in a Private Network
Notice
This page is related to the new SmartBear ID-based licenses that we've introduced in ReadyAPI 3.8.1.
In this version, we included support for SmartBear-hosted ID-based (online) licenses. Furthermore, from version 3.40.0, we added support for on-premise hosted and offline ID-based licenses.
About
SmartBear offers a special license type – offline – that can be used on computers that have no access to the SmartBear license servers. The word offline means the license is controlled by the licensing subsystems on your side, not by SmartBear license servers available online.
To use a Floating offline license, you can install the On-Premises License Server in your network. ReadyAPI running on user workstations will connect to this server and consume license seats from it. Below is a step-by-step instruction on this. If you are a licensed user (the person who will run and use ReadyAPI), you will need assistance from your license administrator to perform some steps.
1. License administrator actions
Log in to the SmartBear Licensing Portal as a license administrator.
Download, install, and configure the On-Premises License Server in your network. This will be your local Licensing Portal and separate from the SmartBear Licensing Portal which will have access to the internet.
Your license must have no users assigned to be converted. Unassign any users before requesting conversion.
To download, click on ‘Export License to On-premises License Server’.
If you do not have an On-Premises License Server installed, follow the instructions and click on ‘download’ or download from here.
Once installed, go to http://localhost:40892/#.
The license administrator logs in and selects ‘Add License’ in the On-Premises License Server.
Copy server fingerprint data to the clipboard.
The license administrator goes to the SmartBear Licensing Portal and exports the license to the On-prem License Server.
The license administrator uploads the server fingerprint to the SmartBear Licensing Portal and downloads the License File.
The license gets exported.
The license administrator uploads the license file to the On-Premises License Server.
The license administrator selects Add License.
License administrator either assigns a user to a license or shares the license by a link from the On-Premises License Server so the user can click and accept the license assignment.
The user clicks on the link to accept the license.
The user will return to ReadyAPI and the license will be activated.
For more information on these steps, see the SmartBear Licensing Portal documentation.
Note
On-Premises License Server can handle multiple SmartBear licenses. If you already have it in your network, you can skip the downloading, installation, and configuration steps, and deal with converting and activating the license.
2. User actions
Start ReadyAPI
Go to Help > License Manager
Click Install License.
Select License from Server. ReadyAPI will invoke the following dialog box:
Enter the Server IP and Port (request from your License Administrator).
Enter the IP address and port of the On-Premises License Server, for example:
40892is the default port number. If you run ReadyAPI on the computer, where this License Server is installed, you can uselocalhostas the computer name. In other words, the address will look likehttp://localhost:40892.Click Finish to connect to the specified License Server and consume a license seat from it. The user should have accepted the license already or it should have been assigned by the license administrator.
Further actions depend on how your On-Premises License Server is configured. To configure the On-Premises License Manager, you can use either LDAP or OIDC.
You may need to enter your domain username and password, or ReadyAPI can try authenticating you by using your Windows account automatically (that is, ReadyAPI will not ask for any credentials). Ask the On-Premises License Server administrator about the server settings configured.
To learn how to configure the on-premises license manager, refer to this page.
Note
An offline Floating license is bound to the computer, where the On-Premises License Server is running, not to user machines.
Simply close the ReadyAPI to release a license on a user's computer.