License management system

A licenses management system for software which drives a single computer or a plurality of computers, comprising:

• an application program requesting a decision of the number of licenses required to drive itself and receiving issuance of the licenses;
• a number of licenses decision unit included in the application program, determining the necessary number of licenses in accordance with the request from the application program, based on the following multi-nominal function:
• LK=f(x1,x2 . . . , xn)
• wherein, LK is the number of licenses, and x1 to xn are parameters for the LK, which are required to determine the number of licenses, and which are set in accordance with hardware resources used by a user;
• and
• a licenses management unit issuing the number of licenses determined by the number of licenses decision function,
• the application program being constituted so as to be able to start a plurality of processes in parallel,
• the parameters for the LK being, on the hardware resources, the number of CPUs, the capacity of memory, the capacity of vacant memory, the type of platform, and the size of a data file to be processed, and thereby determining the number of parallel processes that are able to be started in parallel by the application program on the hardware resources and finding the number of licenses based on the number of the parallel processes.

A licenses and software managing method in a license management system comprising a license management unit, an application program and a number of licenses decision unit, the software managing method driving a single computer or a plurality of computers and comprising:

• delivering parameters from the application program to the number of licenses decision unit which calculates a multi-nominal function in order to determine the number of licenses required to start the application program when the application program is invoked;
• determining a number of licenses by checking values of parameters required to determine the number of licenses based on the following multi-nominal function:
• LK=f(x1, x2, . . . , xn)
• wherein LK is the number of licenses, and x1 to xn are parameters for the LK, which are required to determine the number of licenses, and which are set in accordance with hardware resources used by a user, substituting the determined number of licenses for the parameters delivered from the application program, and returning the parameters to the application program;
• notifying the necessary number of licenses, from the application program to the licenses management unit, by delivering the parameters for the LK and requesting the licenses;
• and
• subtracting the necessary number of licenses from the number of licenses, held in the licenses management unit, when the licenses management unit receives a normal flag from the number of licenses decision unit and returning the normal flag to the application program when the number of licenses, held in the licenses management unit, is not negative and issuing the licenses to the application program,
• the application program being constituted so as to be able to start a plurality of processes in parallel,
• the parameters for the LK being, on the hardware resources, the number of CPUs, the capacity of memory, the capacity of vacant memory, the type of platform, and the size of a data file to be processed, and thereby determining the number of parallel processes that are able to be started in parallel by the application program on the hardware resources and finding the number of licenses based on the number of the parallel processes.

A licenses and software managing method in a licenses management system comprising an application program, a licenses management unit, and a number of licenses decision function provided in the application program, the software managing method driving a single computer or a plurality of computers and comprising:

• delivering parameters from the application program to the number of licenses decision unit in order to determine the number of licenses required to start the application program;
• determining a number of licenses by checking values of parameters required to determine the number of licenses based on the following multi-nominal function:
• LK=f(x1, x2, . . . , xn)
• wherein, LK is the number of licenses, and x1 to xn are parameters for the LK, which are required to determine the number of licenses, and which are set in accordance with hardware resources used by a user, substituting the determined number of licenses for the parameters for the LK delivered from the application program, and returning the determined number of licenses to the application program;
• notifying the necessary number of licenses from the application program to the licenses management unit by delivering the parameters, and requesting the licenses;
• and
• subtracting the necessary number of licenses from the number of licenses, held in the licenses management unit, when the licenses management unit receives a request from the application program, and returning a normal flag to the application program when the number of licenses, held in the licenses management unit, is not negative and issuing the licenses to the application program,
• the application program being constituted so as to be able to start a plurality of processes in parallel,
• the parameters for the LK being, on the hardware resources, the number of CPUs, the capacity of memory, the capacity of vacant memory, the type of platform, and the size of a data file to be processed, and thereby determining the number of parallel processes that are able to be started in parallel by the application program on the hardware resources and finding the number of licenses based on the number of the parallel processes.

A licenses and software managing method in a license management system comprising a license management unit, an application program, a number of licenses decision unit, and an external database, the software managing method driving a single computer or a plurality of computers and comprising:

• delivering parameters from the application program to the number of licenses decision unit in order to determine the number of licenses required to start the application program, when the application program is invoked;
• reading data from the database and supplying the read data to the number of licenses decision unit, determining a multi-nominal function and the number of licenses by checking values of parameters required to determine the number of licenses based on the following multi-nominal function:
• LK=f(x1, x2, . . . , xn)
• wherein, LK is the number of licenses, and x1 to xn are parameters for the LK, which are required to determine the number of licenses, and which are set in accordance with hardware resources used by a user, substituting the determined number of licenses for the parameters for the LK delivered from the application program, and returning the determined number of licenses to the application program, in the number of licenses decision unit;
• notifying the necessary number of licenses, from the application program to the licenses management unit, by delivering the parameters for the LK and requesting the licenses;
• and
• subtracting the necessary number of licenses from the number of licenses, held in the licenses management unit, when the licenses management unit receives a normal flag from the number of licenses decision unit, and returning the normal flag to the application program when the number of licenses, held in the licenses management unit, is not negative and issuing the licenses to the application program,
• the application program being constituted so as to be able to start a plurality of processes in parallel,
• the parameters for the LK being, on the hardware resources, the number of CPUs, the capacity of memory, the capacity of vacant memory, the type of platform, and the size of a data file to be processed, and thereby determining the number of parallel processes that are able to be started in parallel by the application program on the hardware resources and finding the number of licenses based on the number of the parallel processes.

A licensing and software managing method in a licenses management system comprising an application program, a license management unit, a number of licenses decision function provided in the application program and an external database, the software managing method driving a single computer or a plurality of computers and comprising:

• delivering parameters from the application program to the number of licenses decision unit which calculates a multi-nominal function in order to determine the number of licenses required to start the application program when the application program is invoked;
• reading data from the database and supplying the read data to the number of licenses decision unit, determining a multi-nominal function and the number of licenses by checking values of necessary parameters required to determine the number of licenses based on the following multi-nominal function:
• LK=f(x1, x2, . . . , xn)
• wherein, LK is the number of licenses, and x1 to xn are parameters for the LK, which are required to determine the number of licenses, and which are set in accordance with hardware resources used by a user, substituting the determined number of licenses for the parameters for the LK delivered from the application program, and returning the determined number of licenses to the application program, in the number of licenses decision unit;
• notifying the necessary number of licenses from the application program to the licenses management unit by delivering the parameters for the LK, and requesting the licenses;
• and
• subtracting the necessary number of licenses from the number of licenses held in the license management unit, when the license management unit receives a request from the application program, returning a normal flag to the application program when the number of licenses, held in the license management unit, is not negative and issuing the licenses to the application program,
• the application program being constituted so as to be able to start a plurality of processes in parallel,
• the parameters for the LK being, on the hardware resources, the number of CPUs, the capacity of memory, the capacity of vacant memory, the type of platform, and the size of a data file to be processed, and thereby determining the number of parallel processes that are able to be started in parallel by the application program on the hardware resources and finding the number of licenses based on the number of the parallel processes.

A method of communicating information between a private license daemon and a private application manager in a licenses management system for software comprising an application program requesting a decision of a number of licenses required to drive itself and receiving issuance of the licenses, a number of licenses decision unit determining the necessary number of licenses in accordance with the request from the application program based on a multi-nominal function (LK) operating with parameters to produce the necessary number of licenses, which are set in accordance with hardware resources used by a user and a license managing unit issuing the number of licenses determined by the number of licenses decision unit, the private license daemon being separately provided from a license daemon of a license management unit, and the private application manager being separately provided from an application program, the method comprising:

• sending a request from the application program to the license daemon in order to acquire an approval of execution of the license when a user starts the application program;
• generating a fork instruction in order to establish the private license daemon;
• and
• sending an approval of execution from the private license daemon to the application program in order to issue the license,
• the application program being constituted so as to be able to start a plurality of processes in parallel,
• the parameters for the LK being, on the hardware resources, the number of CPUs, the capacity of memory, the capacity of vacant memory, the type of platform, and the size of a data file to be processed, and thereby determining the number of parallel processes that are able to be started in parallel by the application program on the hardware resources and finding the number of licenses based on the number of the parallel processes.

A method of communicating information between a private license daemon and a private application manager in a license management system for software comprising an application program requesting a decision of a number of licenses required to drive itself and receiving issuance of the licenses, a number of licenses decision function included in the application program determining the necessary number of licenses in accordance with the request from the application program based on a multi-nominal function (LK) operating with parameters to produce the necessary number of licenses, and a license managing unit issuing the number of licenses determined by the number of licenses decision function which are set in accordance with hardware resources used by a user, the private license daemon being separately provided from a license daemon of a license management unit, and the private application manager being separately provided from an application program, the method comprising:

• sending a request from the application program to the license daemon in order to acquire an approval of execution of the license when a user starts the application program;
• generating a fork instruction in order to establish the private license daemon;
• and
• sending an approval of execution from the private license daemon to the application program in order to issue the license,
• the application program being constituted so as to be able to start a plurality of processes in parallel,
• the parameters for the LK being, on the hardware resources, the number of CPUs, the capacity of memory, the capacity of vacant memory, the type of platform, and the size of a data file to be processed, and thereby determining the number of parallel processes that are able to be started in parallel by the application program on the hardware resources and finding the number of licenses based on the number of the parallel processes.