The ReqView Floating License Server is a web service providing floating licenses for ReqView products. It communicates with client applications using secure HTTPS connections, so it must be started with a valid TLS/SSL certificate and its private key.
The ReqView Floating License Server comes with a self-signed SSL certificate so that it can be started out of the box easily. See TLS/SSL Certificates if you need to use a different certificate.
Note: The license server must run at the exact address (fully qualified domain name — FQDN) and port for which the ReqView floating license was generated. The server’s TLS certificate must be issued for this exact FQDN. For security reasons, wildcards are not permitted.
Basic Usage and Arguments:
reqview_license_server [-h] [--host HOST [HOST ...]] --port PORT --certfile CERTFILE [--adminpwfile ADMINPWFILE]
Option | Necessity | Description |
---|---|---|
-h , --help | Show help message and exit | |
--host | optional | Host(s) to bind to; defaults to all interfaces |
--port | required | Port to serve on |
--certfile | required | File in PEM format containing the server TLS/SSL certificate |
--adminpwfile | optional | File containing the password that protects the admin site (username is always admin ), the password will be set to admin if not provided |
Example: Start the ReqView Floating License Server on port 8000 with a TLS/SSL certificate stored in file server.pem:
$ reqview_license_server --port 8000 --certfile server.pem
You can run the ReqView Floating License Server as a Windows service using NSSM (the Non-S***ing Service Manager). At least Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 are required.
Follow these steps:
Run cmd.exe command prompt as Administrator and change the directory to a folder that will permanently contain the reqview_license_server.exe binary and the files needed by it.
Edit the password that will protect the Administration web page in the adminpw.txt file.
The default port number for the server is 8000. Edit the provided service.cmd script if you need to change this setting or other parameters:
...nssm set reqview-license-server AppParameters --port 8000 --certfile server.pem --adminpwfile adminpw.txt...
Notes:
AppParameters
setting will be used every time the server is (re-)started. The service will not be able to start unless they are correct. Do not move or delete the directory or any files in it after the service is installed. The file nssm.exe
must also be kept as it is the executable registered for the service.AppParameters
setting – we do not recommend using paths with spaces for this reason. Standard output and error streams are appended to the files given by AppStdout
, resp. AppStderr
parameters.netsh advfirewall
command. You must allow the reqview_license_server.exe binary manually if you use any other firewall solution.nssm set reqview-license-server ObjectName NetworkService
to the service.cmd file before installing the service. This account cannot access most directories unless it is explicitly allowed to – read, write, and execute permissions for the server folder must be granted manually to this account. For more information, see Service User Accounts.reqview-license-server
is not valid on certain Windows configurations. Remove the dashes from the service name in the service.cmd file if you encounter this error.After reviewing and updating the service.cmd script, start the service.
To review or edit the service configuration using the NSSM GUI after installing the service, run
$ nssm edit reqview-license-server
Use the provided service.cmd script to set up and start the service:
$ service.cmd
After the service is started, check the stderr.log file for errors. The service manager will keep restarting the server without success if invalid parameters or certificate files are provided, server database file cannot be created or a similar error occurs.
After you’ve configured and started the service successfully, import the server license(s) into it.
The service starts automatically after system boot. Afterwards, you can manage the service (start, restart, stop, or query its status) using the following commands:
$ nssm start reqview-license-server$ nssm restart reqview-license-server$ nssm stop reqview-license-server$ nssm status reqview-license-server
The server outputs access log messages into stdout.log file and logs all errors into stderr.log file. These file are never overwritten, they are always appended to, check them in case of any issues.
If necessary, stop the service and then uninstall it using the following command:
$ nssm remove reqview-license-server confirm
You can run the ReqView Floating License Server in a Docker container using Docker Compose.
Follow these steps:
Make sure that Docker is configured to start on boot – see Docker post-installation steps for Linux. Run a console with sufficient privileges and change the directory to the location of the reqview_license_server binary, certificate, and license files needed by it. This directory will be mounted as a volume in the Docker container and must be writable for the server instance.
Edit the password that will protect the Administration web page in the adminpw.txt file.
The service is defined in the provided docker-compose.yml file. Change it based on your needs, if necessary.
version: "2"services: reqview-license-server: image: debian:bullseye-slim ports: - "8000:8000" restart: unless-stopped volumes: - .:/app working_dir: /app entrypoint: ["/app/reqview_license_server", "--port", "8000", "--certfile", "/app/server.pem", "--adminpwfile", "/app/adminpw.txt"]
Note: We do not recommend building your own image using a custom Dockerfile and copying any of the license server files into it or into an existing container.
Use the provided service.sh script to set up and start the service:
$ ./service.sh
After starting the service, execute docker-compose logs
to see that the service is running correctly. Docker compose will keep restarting the server without success if invalid parameters or certificate files are provided, server database file cannot be created or a similar error occurs. Make sure that your firewall and antivirus software are not blocking access to the license server.
After you’ve configured and started the service successfully, import the server license(s) into it.
You can manage the service (start, restart, stop, or query its status) using the following commands:
$ docker-compose start$ docker-compose restart$ docker-compose stop$ docker-compose logs
The server outputs access log messages to standard output (stdout) and errors to standard error (stderr) streams. Use docker-compose logs
to check logs in case of any issues. To see only the stderr stream, use docker-compose logs 1>/dev/null
.
If necessary, you can stop and uninstall the service (i.e. stop and remove the docker container) using the following command
$ docker-compose down
With the service up and running, you can check the server status or import licenses using the administration web page located at
https://<hostname>:<port>/admin
:
hostname
field in the server certificate./admin
, the root URL without this will only show 404: Not Found.https://
.The administration web page is protected by a login form where the only correct username is “admin” and the password is taken from the file supplied by the --adminpwfile
argument. The password is set to “admin” if no password file is provided.
The Licenses page shows the served licenses and current checkouts/borrows by ReqView users. If a ReqView user cannot check in a floating license (in exceptional circumstances), the license administrator can manually cancel the checkout/borrow by clicking the ❌ button. The number of cancellation requests in a given amount of time is limited.
Click Import or update a license button to choose the server license file (server-license.lic) that should be imported. If a license with the same ID is already present, the submitted license will replace (update) it.
The client license doesn’t need to be replaced after updating the server license if the license ID and the server’s address haven’t changed. The clients will check out the new license automatically right after it’s updated.
The Log page shows all server events that have occurred during the last two weeks. The most recent event is listed at the top.
To refresh the website for updated information, press F5.
You should renew your SSL certificates before they expire. See Using Existing Certificates if you are using a different certificate than the default one provided with ReqView.
To update the TLS/SSL certificate after a renewal, follow these steps:
$ nssm restart reqview-license-server
$ docker-compose restart
The following steps are necessary to update the license server binary to a newer version:
$ nssm stop reqview-license-server
$ docker-compose down
$ nssm start reqview-license-server
$ chmod +x reqview_license_server$ docker-compose pull && ./service.sh
Note: The above instructions might not be suitable if the service was configured differently than using the provided defaults, e.g. a custom Dockerfile might require rebuilding of your image.
If the need arises, the license server can be migrated to a different server.
DNS records in your network will probably have to be updated if you wish to keep the same URL. If you intend to change the server’s URL, both server and client license files will need to be regenerated – please contact us.
To migrate, follow these steps:
$ nssm stop reqview-license-server$ nssm remove reqview-license-server confirm
$ docker-compose down
You can query the server status in the console using curl
tool on the https://<license-server-url>/status
URL:
$ curl -k https://reqviewlicense.intranet.mycompany.com:8000/status
which will produce the following output in JSON format:
{ "my-reqview-floating-license": { "issued": 10, "in_use": 3 }}
You can easily implement a script processing the JSON output and run it periodically. For example, the following Python script status.py outputs a message stating the currently available number of licenses:
import sysimport json
try: data = json.load(sys.stdin)except Exception: data = {}issued = 0in_use = 0for lic in data.values(): issued += lic['issued'] in_use += lic['in_use']print("Total %d issued, %d in use" % (issued, in_use))
You can run the status.py script and curl command in a pipe:
$ curl -s -k https://reqviewlicense.intranet.mycompany.com:8000/status | python status.py
which will print:
Total 10 issued, 3 in use
If you’re seeing only 404: Not Found when accessing the Administration web page, please ensure that the input address is correct.
Error messages can be seen in ReqView application when using a floating license, see below for their explanations and tips on what to do:
ping <location>
.