Switch from local to remote server

Learn how to switch from a local to a remote license server.

In this scenario, two zPDT® systems, A and B, each use a different PC for zPDT. System A has a zPDT token with serial number 12345.
  1. The system A owner installs token 12345 in the PC and starts zPDT. When this is done, serial 12345 is recorded in the local system A UIM database. This scenario assumes no prior conflicting information was in the local UIM database. System A can be used in this configuration indefinitely until the token license expires with no reference to remote license or UIM servers.
  2. The token is taken from system A for some reason, and the system A owner now wants to use remote license and UIM servers. With zPDT not running and working as root, the owner configures a client as described in SHK client configuration or LDK client configuration.
  3. The remote UIM server with the SHK or LDK-SL server, whichever one is being used sees that system A has serial number 12345 recorded in its local UIM database. The server checks whether this serial number is assigned to any other system. If there are no conflicts, the server records serial 12345 in the server database as belonging to system A.
  4. Separately, the remote Software-based License Server serves a zPDT license based on a token present in the license server machine if it is using SHK, but the serial number of that token is not relevant.

    So far, system A retains a consistent serial number, 12345, when switching from a local token to remote token or UIM servers. It retains this serial number every time this zPDT instance is used. If Multiple zPDT instances run on the same machine, they must run under different Linux user IDs. The serial number for each of the instances uses the LPAR portion of the serial number to differentiate the instances.

  5. If token 12345 is transferred to the owner of system B, and the owner installs and uses it locally with no connection to the remote license or UIM servers, then both A and B have the same zPDT serial number. There is no way to avoid this.
  6. If the system B owner then connects to the license or UIM servers, the UIM server sees serial 12345 in B’s local UIM database and terminates the zPDT instance because 12345 has already been assigned to system A.
    This scenario is problematic because both A and B are attempting to use the same serial number, 12345, but the UIM server has it assigned to A. There are two ways to resolve this conflict:
    • The system B owner can issue uimreset -l to clear the serial number in the local UIM database. The owner can then connect to the remote servers and receive a new random serial number.
    • The system A owner can issue uimreset -r to clear the system A serial number from both the local and remote UIM databases. The next time system A zPDT starts, it requests a new random serial number from the server. System B can then use serial number 12345, which is stored in its local UIM database.