Setting up an HTTP License Server (Floating or Named-User Licenses)
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The HTTP License Server is available in several distributions, tailored for covering a variety of deployment configurations:
  • Windows installer - Easy-to-use Windows installation wizard. Requires elevated permissions to run it.
  • All-platform distribution - Script-based deployment that does not require elevated permissions to run it. Provides scripts for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
  • Web Archive (WAR) distribution - Provides more flexibility in your deployment configuration, but it requires an existing HTTP server (such as Apache Tomcat).

Installation Steps for the HTTP License Server Installer Distribution for Windows

  1. Download the HTTP license server installer from the HTTP License Server website.
  2. Run the installer and follow the on-screen instructions.
  3. You need to configure two sets of credentials:
    1. Administrator credentials - Used for accessing the Oxygen XML Web Author license server administrative interface.
    2. Standard user credentials - Used by an Oxygen XML Web Author application to connect to the license server.
      Note: It is possible to configure the credentials for users after the installation. Once the installation is complete, there will be a password.properties file located in the license server's installation directory. You can edit this file and follow the instructions at the top to assign admin, manager, or user roles to each user. There is also a readme.txt file in the same directory that has more information.
  4. You can choose to change the default 8080 port the server will run on. If you need to change the port after the installation, you can do it by editing the following vmoptions file: oXygen HTTP License Server\Windows Service\oXygenHTTPLicenseServer.vmoptions.
  5. Optionally, you can choose to install the server as a Windows service. In this case, you can choose the name of the Windows service.
Tip: In case you run into issues, the license server log file is located in: [Installation_Directory]\temp\logs\oXygenLicenseServlet.log.

Installation Steps for the HTTP License Server All-Platform Distribution

  1. [Prerequisite] Java 8 or later must be installed.
  2. Download the HTTP license server all-platform archive from the HTTP License Server website.
  3. Unpack the archive.
  4. Run the license server scripts suitable for your operating system (licenseServer.bat for Windows or licenseServer.sh for Linux and Mac).
    Note: To specify a different port (other than the default 8080), you can pass the new port number as an argument to the scripts (for example, licenseServer.bat 8082). You can also change the port by editing the following vmoptions file: oXygen HTTP License Server\Windows Service\oXygenHTTPLicenseServer.vmoptions.
  5. On the first run, you will be prompted to set two sets of credentials:
    1. Administrator credentials - Used for accessing the Oxygen XML Web Author license server administrative interface.
    2. Standard user credentials - Used by an Oxygen XML Web Author application to connect to the license server.
      Note: It is possible to configure the credentials for users after the installation. Once the installation is complete, there will be a password.properties file located in the license server's installation directory. You can edit this file and follow the instructions at the top to assign admin, manager, or user roles to each user. There is also a readme.txt file in the same directory that has more information.
      Tip: If you want to manually install, start, stop, or uninstall the server as a Windows service, run the following scripts from a command line as an Administrator:
      • installWindowsService.bat [serviceName] - Installs the server as a Windows service with the name serviceName. The parameters for the license key folder and the server port can be set in the oXygenLicenseServer.vmoptions file.
      • startWindowsService.bat [serviceName] - Starts the Windows service.
      • stopWindowsService.bat [serviceName] - Stops the Windows service.
      • uninstallWindowsService.bat [serviceName] - Uninstalls the Windows service.

      If you do not provide the serviceName argument, the default name oXygenLicenseServer is used.

      If the license server is installed as a Windows service, the output and error messages are automatically redirected to the following log files that are created in the install folder:
      • outLicenseServer.log - Standard output stream of the server.
      • errLicenseServer.log - Standard error stream of the server.

Installation Steps for the HTTP License Server WAR Distribution

  1. Make sure that you have Java Servlet Container installed on the machine you have selected to be the license server. Apache Tomcat 5.5 or higher is recommended (available at http://tomcat.apache.org).
    Important: By default, the license server stores the statistics database and other data in the Java Servlet Container's temporary directory. If you are not using Apache Tomcat, this directory may be deleted when the server is stopped or restarted. However, you can set the oxygen.license.server.work.dir system property to specify a different path for the directory where the database is stored.
  2. Download the HTTP license server Web Archive (.war) from the HTTP License Server website.
  3. Configure three user roles in your installation of the Java Servlet Container (such as Apache Tomcat):
    1. One user with the role user, used by an Oxygen XML Web Author application to connect to the license server. In the subsequent example, this user name is John.
    2. Another user with the role admin, used for accessing the HTTP License Server administrative interface and the management interface. In the subsequent example, this user name is Mary.
    3. Another user with the role manager, used for accessing the HTTP License Server main page and the statistics pages. In the subsequent example, this user name is Henry.
    For example, in Apache Tomcat, a typical way to achieve this is to edit the tomcat-users.xml file from your Tomcat installation (if using a Tomcat zip/tar.gz distribution, by default this configuration file is found in the /TomcatInstallFolder/conf/ directory). After adding the three users, the configuration file might look like this:
    <tomcat-users xmlns="http://tomcat.apache.org/xml"
              xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
              xsi:schemaLocation="http://tomcat.apache.org/xml tomcat-users.xsd"
              version="1.0">
  <!-- ... other user and role definitions ... -->
  <role rolename="user"/>
  <role rolename="admin"/>
  <role rolename="manager"/>
  <user username="John" password="user_pass" roles="user"/>
  <user username="Mary" password="admin_pass" roles="admin"/>
  <user username="Henry" password="admin_pass" roles="manager"/>
</tomcat-users>

  4. Deploy the WAR file.

    For example, in Apache Tomcat, go to the Web Application Manager page and log in with the user you configured with the admin role (Mary in the example above). In the WAR file to deploy section, choose the WAR file and click the Deploy button. The oXygenLicenseServlet application is now up and running, but the license key is not yet registered.

  5. Go to the HTTP License Server administration page. By default, the address of this page is http://<server-address>/oXygenLicenseServlet. In Apache Tomcat, you can also open this page by clicking the oXygenLicenseServlet link in the manager page.

    You will need to authenticate with the user configured with the admin role (Mary in the example above).

  6. Activate the license key. This process involves binding your license key to your license server deployment. The browser used in the activation process needs to have Internet access.
    Note: If you cannot access the internet during the deployment, you can manually activate the license key.
    Once the process is completed you cannot activate the license on another license server. Follow these steps to activate the license:

    1. Paste your license key into the form and click Register/Activate.

      Step Result: You will be redirected to an online form hosted on the Oxygen XML Web Author website. This form is pre-filled with an activation code that uniquely identifies your license server deployment, and your license key.

    2. Click Register/Activate.

      If the activation process is successfully completed, your license server is running. Follow the on-screen instructions to configure the Oxygen XML Web Author client applications.

  7. The application's log file location is specified by the log4j.appender.R2.File property from the WEB-INF/lib/log4j.properties configuration file.

    For example, in Apache Tomcat, the configuration file is located at TomcatInstallDir/webapps/oXygenLicenseServlet/WEB-INF/lib/log4j.properties and the default log file location is TomcatInstallDir/logs/oxygenLicenseServlet.log.

Manual License Activation Procedure (For Users Whose License Server is Offline)

If your license server is not connected to the internet (therefore, the license cannot be activated automatically during the installation), you can manually activate the license by following these steps:
  1. Access the HTTP license server management page in a web browser.
  2. Copy the license server machine signature code.
  3. Go to the activation page at: http://www.oxygenxml.com/activation/.

  4. Enter or paste the license server machine signature code and the license key, then click Activate.

    Step Result: The activated license key is displayed on-screen.

  5. Copy the activated license key and paste it in the license registration page of the HTTP server.

Subscription Renewal

If your subscription expires, you need to purchase a new subscription and Manually replace the license key.

Backup License Server Information

If you want to use a backup license server, the setup instructions are the same as the procedures for a main license server, but it will require its own separate license key. You do not need to purchase the separate license if it is to be used for a backup server, but you will need to request a separate license key by contacting the Oxygen support team.