Reserve or limit access to concurrent use license seats for specific users

Golden Software provides the flexibility to reserve seats on a concurrent license server for designated users or groups using a reservation file. This ensures that specific departments or individuals always have access to the software when needed. This guide elaborates on this process, ensuring clarity and ease of implementation. Additional information about reservation files can be found in the Sentinel RMS License Administrator's Guide.

Introduction to reservation files

A reservation file, named lsresrv, allows seats to be reserved for specific users or groups based on criteria like user name, computer name, IP address, or IP subnet.

For instance, if the GIS department at Alpha Company needs 7 out of 10 available seats, a reservation file ensures these 7 seats are exclusively available to them, leaving the other 3 for general company use.

Create and store the reservation file

The reservation file can be crafted manually using text editors like Notepad or with the WlsGrMgr.exe utility from Sentinel. Once created, it should be placed in the default installation directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\SafeNet Sentinel\Sentinel RMS License Manager\WinNT

Reservation file format and guidelines

• Both the product and maintenance features must be included in the reservation file to reserve the seats (Surfer and Surfer-Maint for example).
• The "version" value is always "A" for Golden Software's products.
• A user, PC name, or IP address must only exist in one group for each license feature
• Each license feature and group combination is on a separate line in the file.
• The total reserved seats must be less than or equal to the number of seats in the license. You cannot reserve more seats than the license allows.
• The reservation file can include a group where the seat reservation is 0. Users or PCs in this group will be disallowed from using a seat.
• When the seat reservations in the reservation file are equal to the number of seats in the license, only users or PCs that are included in a group will be able to access the software. All other users will receive the Network License Unavailable dialog because there are no unreserved seats to allocate.
• The format for each line in the reservation file is as follows:
  • <feature>,<version>:<groupName>:<seats>:[user $PC ...]
  • i.e. feature name, feature version, group name (can be anything), number of seats reserved for this group, and a space-separated list of user names, PC names (PC names preceded by a $), or IP addresses/subnets.
  • Precede a user name or PC name with ! to exclude them from the software (e.g. !John or !$PC-10).
    Note, excluding a user or PC in a group disallows the user access to reserved AND unreserved seats.
• A maximum of 256 groups, each with up to 1000 members, can be added to the file
• Group/member names cannot exceed 64 characters
• The reservation file does not support Active Directory group names.  Reservations can only be defined by a user name, PC name, or IP address.

Examples of reserving seats

For specific users

Surfer,A:Group1:1:John
Surfer-Maint,A:Group1:1:John

Graph,A:Group1:2:John Mary $Desktop1
Grapher-Maint,A:Group1:2:John Mary $Desktop1

Reserving seats for a group based on IP information

Surfer,A:Group1:5:172.16.*.*
Surfer-Maint,A:Group1:5:172.16.*.*

Strater,A:Group1:0:172.16.*.*

Additional support

For further clarity or assistance regarding the reservation file and its implementation, please reach out to our dedicated Customer Success Team. We're here to ensure you maximize the benefits of Golden Software's licensing flexibility.

Updated August 2023