SUMMARY: DEC OSF/1 Problem

From: Rasana P. Atreya (Rasana.Atreya@library.ucsf.edu)
Date: Thu Jun 20 1996 - 11:52:52 CDT


Hi!

My problem was that not more than 2 people could login simultaneously.
Apparently it was a licensing problem. And since we are a university site, we
did not have to pay the big bucks either.

I'm overwhelmed that so many people took the time out to respond to me. I got
over 200 responses!! I've thanked everyone individually, but thanks again!!

I'm including a few responses that might help other people.

Rasana

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One of two things. Either he is not licenced to use more than two users
with his current OSF-USERS PAK (Product authorization key) or he has both
versions of the PAK (two-user and unlimited-user) installed simultaniously. If
this is the case remove them both with the License Management Facility from the
setup command.
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I would suggest that if the users have X capability that they not login,
but do an rsh host setenv DISPLAY:theirX:0.0;dxterm

rsh jupiter setenv DISPLAY:helios:0.0;dxterm

Machine does not count these.
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From: BENNETT@mpgars.desy.de

You can check this as follows: log in as root, then type the command

  # lmf list

which will probably show you something like this (plus some other licensed
products):

  Product Status Users: Total Active

  OSF-BASE active unlimited
  OSF-USR active 2 0

where the OSF-USR line shows in this case that there is only a two-user
license. Here is how an unlimited user licese would appear:

  OSF-USR active unlimited

One thing you should look for is a mixture of unlimited and fixed-unit
OSF-USR licences. The Installation Guide for OSF/1 V3.0, at least, was
emphatic on the point that if you should remove all fixed-unit OSF-USR
license before registering an unlimited (0 units) license ... I think if
you don't, the fixed-unit license(s) may take precedence; and it is quite
possible that you would have an unlimited user licence at UCSF, since you
would find one among the licenses included with DECcampus. (Disclaimer:
I don't know if this restriction to mixing fixed-unit and unlimited OSF-USR
licenses applies to later versions of OSF/1 aka Digital UNIX; see if you can
find the Installation Guide for your system.)

If you find that only the standard 2-user licence has been installed, you
need to look around and see if you can find a multi-user license, either
among the paper license PAKs that came with the workstation or, as I said,
try to determine if UCSF has DECcampus (hard to imagine they wouldn't) and
if this machine is covered. If you don't have DECcampus, and the owners
did not purchase an additional-user license, they will need to contact DEC
and do so.

Once you've found a multi-user license, you can use other lmf options
to register and activate it; for example, if you find an unlimited user
license on a DECcampus CD-ROM, you might do something like this:

delete the 2-user license (if needed in your version of DU!):

  # lmf delete osf-usr

register the unlimited-user license:

  # lmf register - < /path-to-DECcampus-licenses/osf-usr

at which point a listing of the licenses would look like this:

  # lmf list
  Product Status Users: Total Active
  
  OSF-USR enabled

then you load (activate) the new license with the command:

  # lmf reset

If, on the other hand, you find an additional fixed-user license PAK on
paper, you would just type

  # lmf register

which puts you in the vi editor with a license PAK template that you can
fill in from the paper PAK; you can also invoke lmf for this task from
the setup menu, /usr/sbin/setup. See the lmf man page and the Software
License Management manual (possibly available online and readable with
the Bookreader, if whoever installed the system chose to put the basic
online documentation on disk...

Regards,
Bill Bennett
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From: Eric Bennett <bennett@hpel.cees.edu>

If you compile your own login program to replace the one DEC provided you
can circumvent the restriction, but if you have more than two users logged
in at once you will still be violating your license.

man lmf
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From: Christophe DIARRA <diarra@ipno.in2p3.fr>

I think you have PAK (Product Authorization Key) problems.

Make sure you have the paper with the DECUNIX licence OSF-BASE.

What I do after installing DECUNIX, is the following:

lmf list
lmf delete osf-usr
lmfsetup
(here I answer the questions using the licence paper).

After successfully installed the PAK, type: 'lmf reset'

If you have DECampus PAKS CD-ROM, you will also need to load the OSF-USR
PAK:

mkdir /cdrom
mount -r -t cdfs /dev/rz4c /cdrom (4 is the SCSI #)
cd /cdrom/paks_unix (maybe /cdrom/paks_osf or just /cdrom/paks).
lmf register - < osf-usr
lmf reset

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Product Status Users: Total Active

OSF-USR active 2 1
OSF-USR active, multiple 2 1

You will probably see this limit as being too low, or terminated.

If not terminated you can change the value in the no of units section of
the license. To do that you need to know the ALN-******* number.

So, do a list full for osf-usr. And write down the number of the license
you wish to modify.

Then you do a "modify" or "lmf modify" from the prompt.
Usage : modify <product> [ <producer> [ <authorization> ] ]

           modify osf-usr dec ASP-SN-1996JAN25-5510 (for example)

This opens up the license in vi, just edit the number of units.

Then do a lmf reset to reset the licenses, if it doesn't work just change
it back.
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BTW: If you don't want to spend money, you might use one login for
all users. Two licenses means two _different_ users. User "john" can
log in a several times.

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This limit does not apply to rlogin or telnet or X seesions.

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From: Daniel Bowman <dbowman@sph.jhu.edu>

You system lacks a license for multiple users. It may be possible that
your University participates in the CSLG program, (Computer Services
Licensing Progam). You would be able to get the license for a small
administrative cost. Otherwise you need to speak with your Digital
sales Rep. about purchasing a User License PAK. Run setup on the
station, you will get a 17 option menu, one of those choices is for
"lmf" setup. This is where you install the PAK's. Or you can just run
"lmfsetup".

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If you are a participant in the CSLG, it includes the unlimited user
license PAK, so you don't need to purchase a license from Digital.
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You need a product authorization key (PAK) from Digital.
This is a set of codes you load into the machine
to permit more users.

If you are a university site, you probably have a campus-wide
agreement on PAKs -- suggest you track down your internal
campus systems support group and ask for an unlimited
user PAK for DEC Unix.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ Rasana Atreya Voice: (415) 476-3623 ~
~ Programmer/Analyst and Red Sage Administrator Fax: (415) 476-4653 ~
~ Library & Ctr for Knowledge Mgnt, Univ. of California at San Francisco ~
~ 530 Parnassus Ave, Box 0840, San Francisco, CA 94143-0840 ~
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