Installing and Updating License Files

The following sections explain how to acquire, install, and update your product licenses:

About BEA Product Licenses

BEA products use an XML-formatted license file called license.bea. This license file, stored in the BEA Home directory, applies to BEA products installed in that directory. Your BEA software checks this file at run time to determine which product components you are authorized to use.

Licenses are release specific. For example, to use WebLogic RFID Enterprise Server 2.0, you must have a valid 2.0 license file.

The types of license files that can be used as the license.bea file and the technical restrictions that they impose are described in the following table.

Table 6-1 WebLogic RFID Enterprise Server License File Types
License Type	Description
Evaluation	Used in a development environment to evaluate the software. Generated by the installer and expires after 30 days. Installed in the BEA Home directory as `license.bea`.
Production License	Used in full-scale production environments. Enables you to run your software on a single machine, even if it is running multiple instances of WebLogic Server or WebLogic RFID Enterprise Server. Must be purchased separately. For information about purchasing a production license, make contact with your sales representative or visit the BEA corporate Web site at http://www.bea.com.

When you install your software, a 30-day evaluation license file (license.bea) is installed on your system. By default, your software uses the evaluation license installed with the product so that you can start using it immediately. Subsequently, when you install additional BEA products that include a license.bea file, the installation program automatically adds the new product licenses to the license.bea file.

Updating Your license.bea File

When you install WebLogic RFID Enterprise Server, the installation program generates an evaluation license.bea file for use with the software and installs it in the BEA Home directory. If you are installing your software in an existing BEA Home, the installation program automatically adds the evaluation license included with your product distribution to the existing license.bea file.

In some cases, however, you must update the license.bea file separately, independent of the installation process. For example, you must update your license file if at least one of the following is true:

You purchase a product for production use and you receive a production license to replace your evaluation license.
You want to upgrade production systems to a new release of the software. After installing the current release of the software, you must upgrade your license to the current version. To do so, see Upgrading Licenses from Previous Software Releases.
You purchase additional WebLogic RFID Enterprise Server software with production licenses, and you want to add the production licenses for the new software to the production licenses for software already in production use on your system.
You want to transfer existing production licenses from one machine to another machine with a different IP address.

In each case, you will receive a new license file from BEA, the contents of which must be included in the license.bea file in the target BEA Home directory. To facilitate the license update process, BEA provides an UpdateLicense utility that merges the new license into the existing license in the BEA Home directory, and deletes any expired or duplicate entries.

The UpdateLicense merge process is not intended to modify the license attributes for any component or feature in the license files being merged. For example: if you merge a license for one version of the product on IP address A with a license for another version of the product on IP address B, the IP addresses for both license versions are retained. The merge process creates a single license file that can be used to run each version on its associated IP address. The merge process does not change the IP address or the product version associated with either entry. In order to change the IP address for a specific license, you must use the BEA eLicense system at


http://elicense.bea.com

Important Considerations for Updating Your license.bea File

When determining how to update your license.bea file, you should consider the following:

Updating license.bea by Using the UpdateLicense Utility

Save the license update file that you received through e-mail, with a name other than license.bea, in the target BEA Home directory. For example, save the file as new_license.bea. Use this file as the license_update_file in step 4 of this procedure.

WARNING: Do not overwrite or change the name of the existing license.bea file.

Perform the step appropriate for your platform:

On a Windows system, open an MS-DOS command window and go to the target BEA Home directory.
On a Linux system, go to the target BEA Home directory.

If it is not already included, add the JDK to your PATH variable, using the correct pathnames on your system for BEA_HOME and JDK:

On a Windows system:

set PATH=BEA_HOME\JDK\bin;%PATH%

On a Linux system:

PATH=BEA_HOME/JDK/bin:$PATH export PATH

In this command, JDK represents the directory that contains the JDK being used for this installation, for example, jdk150_06.

Merge the license update file into your existing license by entering one of the following commands:

On a Windows system:

UpdateLicense license_update_file

On a Linux system:

# sh UpdateLicense.sh license_update_file

license_update_file represents the name to which you saved the license update file in step 1.

Save a copy of your updated license.bea file in a safe place outside your BEA software and application installation directories.

Although no one else can use your license file, you should save a copy of it in a place that is protected from both malicious and innocent tampering.

Upgrading Licenses from Previous Software Releases

Customers who have installed a pre-2.0 version of the WebLogic RFID Enterprise Server software can call BEA customer support for assistance in upgrading to the current version. Mention that you are an existing Enterprise Server customer who is upgrading to WebLogic RFID Enterprise Server 2.0; doing so will help ensure that your request for assistance is routed to the correct people within customer support.