Hardware-based licensing

If you purchased hardware-based license or hardware-based license with Rational® Tokens, you need to enable a hardware license server to operate ZD&T Parallel Sysplex® and authorize the licensee to use the product or any of its components. To enable the hardware license server, you can follow the steps that are provided in the checklist.

Before you enable the hardware-based licensing, you need to know the terms that are used in the enablement process.

Serial number of the USB hardware device

Each USB hardware device has a unique serial number that is required during the activation process. To locate the serial number of a key, turn the key to the side opposite the colored label. You see three rows of numbers. The lowest or bottom row of numbers is the serial number. The serial number is always of the form 03-xxxxx or 02-xxxxx where xxxxx is five hexadecimal digits.
In figure 1, the entire serial number is 02-00222.

Capacity of the hardware device

While every release of the offering included a USB hardware device, the maximum number of CPs that can be activated by a single device varied over time. The two variations that are issued are high capacity devices and low capacity devices.
  • High capacity devices

    High capacity USB hardware devices can activate up to 100 CPs. These parts have a green label. Since an instance is usually 3 CPs, a high capacity device can typically enable up to 33 product instances of the offering. High capacity devices became available for order with Rational Development Unit Test v8.0.3 and subsequent releases. As of Rational Development and Test Environment for z Systems v8.5, only high capacity devices are packaged with the offering.

  • Low capacity devices

    Low Capacity USB hardware devices can activate up to three CPs. These devices have a blue label. As of ZD&T v8.5, low capacity devices are no longer available for order.

    If you are using a low capacity USB hardware device, you can successfully apply an update file that activates more than 3 CPs. However, you can use only three CPs due to the device limit. These hardware devices are intended for direct installation on the computer that hosts the offering. Only one instance of the offering is expected to run on the hosting machine.

Capability configuration of the USB hardware device

Based on details in the update file that is applied to the USB hardware device, the device is configured to make ZD&T capable of operating within only one of the following parameters:
  • Parallel Sysplex support is not enabled and you are not required to use Rational Tokens.
  • Parallel Sysplex support is enabled and you are not required to use Rational Tokens.
  • Parallel Sysplex support is not enabled and Rational Tokens are required.
  • Parallel Sysplex support is enabled and Rational Tokens are required.