Configuring HCL Z and I Emulator for Transformation with HCL License Server

Table of Contents

  1. I. Introduction
  2. II. Pre-requisites
  3. III. HCL Licensing Configuration Steps

I. Introduction:

HCL ZIE for Transformation (ZIETrans) product is license based, user must configure licensing to use the product.

This document describes the procedure to configure licensing with HCL License Server (HCL Software License & Download Portal).

II. Pre-requisites:

ZIETrans communicate to “HCL License Server" or “HCL Common Local License Server” (CLLS) for Licensing.
  • Registration to HCL Software License & Download Portal ( Click here )
  • User ID, HCL License Server device, Licensing Entitlements in HCL Software License & Download Portal ( Click here )
  • ZIETrans package
  • “HCL Common Local License Server” (CLLS) package
  • Public and Private SSH Key Pair
Note: User use Cloud deployed HCL License Server from the HCL Software License & Download Portal ( Click here ) or the CLLS installed in Windows or Linux Server.

Refer the below article download and install instructions for “HCL Common Local License Server”(CLLS),

Step-1 : Download the Product and HCL Common Local License Server from HCL Software License & Download Portal Operations

  1. Copy and paste the following link in a browser address bar to access the HCL Software License & Download Portal login page. https://hclsoftware.flexnetoperations.com/flexnet/operationsportal/logon.do

  2. Enter the authorized login credentials and click Login, it redirects to Home Page .

    Figure 1 : Home Page

  3. From the Downloads, click List Downloads. It redirects to Downloads page.

    Figure 2 : Products List

    Download Product

  4. Select HCL Z & I Emulator (ZIE) from the list of products. It redirects to the Download Packages page.

    The below image displays a keyword entered in the search field, to find the “HCL ZIE Family products”.

    Figure 3 : Products List

  5. Select the required Product package from the list (HCL Z and I Emulator for Transformation x.x).

    Figure 4 : Download Packages

  6. Click on File Name (hyperlink) to download the product files to a user defined location.

    Example: HCL ZIE For Transformation v1.1.1

    Figure 5 : HCL ZIE For Transformation

    Download HCL Common Local License Server(CLLS)
    Note: ZIETrans v1.1.1 and ZIETrans v2.0 supports “HCL Common Local License Server”(CLLS) 2.0
  7. Select Uncategorized Products from the list of products. It redirects to the Download Packages Page.

    Figure 6 : Products List

  8. Select the HCL Common Local License Server 2.0 from the list.

    Figure 7 : Download Packages

  9. Select the appropriate and required file from the list and click on File Name (hyperlink) to download the files to a user defined location .

    Figure 8 : Downloads

Step-2 : Configure the License Server and the Product for usage

2.a Setup the HCL Licensing

Once the download is complete follow the below procedures.

  • Extract the appropriate OS Specification package, which contains the required jars and .bat files.

  • The flexnetlsadmin.bat file which is used to connect to the HCL Licensing is present in : [Extracted CLLS package]\enterprise.

  • Once the installers are available, follow the below given steps and article URL to configure the HCL Licensing.

https://support.hcltechsw.com/csm?id=kb_article&sysparm_article=KB0073344&sys_kb_id=c75b269c1b79dc54f37655352a4bcb47

Note: User choose the Server deployment mode as Local or Cloud while setting up the license server.

Figure 9 : Server deployment mode

  • After completing the License server deployment, the user gets a custom HCL License URL.

  • Use custom URL to replace the following link given in the upcoming procedures.

<https://[license server host]/api/1.0/instances/[license server ID]>

  • "Set Password”, click “Action” for the newly created device, select “Set Password” option from the drop down and setup a password. This password is used to upload the “public” key for License Server auto SSH login.
Note: Throughout this document, the elements enclosed in the square brackets ( [ ] ) indicate the parameter name/example and it replaced with the actual value in the command according to the context.

For Example:

[license server host] is to be replaced with License Server http address and [license server ID] is replaced with License Server’s ID.

For further queries related to HCL License Server setup, contact the HCL Customer support team using the following link : https://support.hcltechsw.com/csm

2.b Configure the Product (HCL ZIETrans) with the HCL License Server

To configure HCL ZIE for Transformation with the License Server, follow the below steps.

Pre-requisite for Key-pair generation:
  • Install any open source key tool (like Open SSL or Java key tool) in the machine for key-pair generation.

Steps to Configure the product with the HCL Licensing:

  1. Configure the Key Tool

  2. Generate the Key-pairs

  3. Upload the public key to HCL License Server

Below are the detailed procedure to Configure ZIETrans with HCL License Server using Open SSL:

a.Key Tool Configuration (for Open SSL):
  1. After installing Open SSL, copy the open SSL folder under C:\ drive.

  2. Configure the Open SSL path in the system environment variables as shown:

Figure 10 : Configuring the Open SSL under system environment variables

b.Generation of Key-pairs (using Open SSL tool)

The Public/Private key pair generated is used for secure communication. The key pair must be in "RSA 2048-bit" format. The private key format must be "pksc8", and that of the public key must be "DER" format.

The following is the procedure to generate key-pairs using OpenSSL:
Note: If users are using any other third-party tool for key-pair generation, the user need to follow the instructions provided.)
  1. Generate Private Key.

    Open Command Prompt as an Administrator and enter the Open SSL path to change the path from the root directory (C:\OpenSSL\bin). Enter the below command, to generate the private key under C:\OpenSSL\bin,

    openssl genrsa -out private_key.pem 2048

  2. Get the Public Key.

    After the private key is generated, enter the below command to generate the public key also in the same path.

    openssl rsa -in private_key.pem -pubout -outform DER -out public_key.der

  3. Convert Private Key to pkcs8 Format to use it.

    The private_key.pem file must be converted into pcks8 format for strong encryption. To do this conversion, enter the below command,

    openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -inform PEM -outform PEM -in private_key.pem -out private_key_pkcs8.pem -nocrypt

    Figure 11 : Generated keys under C:\OpenSSL\bin

c.Uploading the Public Key to the HCL License Server
  1. To connect to the HCL License Server, the Extracted CLLS package must be available in the local machine. Navigate to the HCL License Server folder in the local machine. (D:\ [Extracted CLLS package]\enterprise)

  2. Open the Command Prompt and enter the below command. Set the password while creating the device in HCL Software License & Download Portal using the “Set Password” option or the default password for HCL CLLS is “HCLDefault1@”.

    flexnetlsadmin.bat -server https://[license server host]/api/1.0/instances/[license server ID] -authorize admin [license sever admin password] -uploadPublicKey [local path to public key (in DER format)]

    For Example:

    flexnetlsadmin.bat -server https:// hclsoftware.compliance.flexnetoperations.com/api/1.0/instances/FED321CBA -authorize admin xxxx -uploadPublicKey C:\temp\public_key.der

  3. If the public key is successfully uploaded to the HCL License Server using the above command, the user receives an acknowledgment as “Client public key has been uploaded successfully” from the HCL License Server.

    (For any queries related to the HCL License Server setup, contact the HCL Customer support team using the following link : https://support.hcltechsw.com/csm)

  4. Enter the below HCL License Server command to check the feature description and the total no. of licenses configured for that feature.

    C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\HCL License Server\Others\[Extracted CLLS package]\enterprise\flexnetlsadmin.bat -server <https://[license server host]/api/1.0/instances/[license server ID] / -authorize <username> <password> -licenses -verbose>

    For Example:

    C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\HCL License Server\Others\[Extracted CLLS package]\enterprise\flexnetlsadmin.bat -server https:// hclsoftware.compliance.flexnetoperations.com/api/1.0/instances/FED321CBA -authorize admin xxxx -licenses -verbose

    Figure 12 : HCL License Server command to check Feature description & count of configured licenses

2.c Configure the License Server with the product (HCL ZIE For Transformation)

Prerequisites

  1. The User must install HCL ZIETrans and Create a ZIETrans project in the Toolkit .
  2. Configure the supported Application server like WAS, WebSphere Liberty Profile or JBOSS in the toolkit.
Procedure
  1. Configure the “License Server URL” , “Private key path” and “BorrowInterval” time in the runtime .properties file of the project .ear. If the user wants to run his application in debug mode he need to configure the same in runtime-debug .properties file.

    Figure 13 : Configured HCL Licensing in runtime.properties file

    flx_PrivateKey_Absolute_Path= Drive\: \\Path\\PrivateKey.pem

    For Example:

    flx_PrivateKey_Absolute_Path =D\:\\Flexera\\private_key_pkcs8.pem

    flx_ServerURL= https://[license server host]/api/1.0/instances/[license server ID] /api/1.0/instances/Feature ID

    For Example:

    https\://hclsoftware-uat.compliance.flexnetoperations.com/api/1.0/instances/X9C0S4LR1E0E flx_BorrowInterval=30m(default)

    This parameter contains a numeric value followed by a unit-suffix letter, for example, flx_BorrowInterval value of 10h denotes 10 hours. The valid values for the unit-suffix letter for this parameter are : s, m, h, d and w (that indicates seconds, minutes, hours, days and weeks respectively).

    1. If the user does not set a value for this parameter, the default value is set to 30 minutes.
    2. This parameter is set in the license request to return license automatically after the borrow-interval is reached and will be useful in ensuring that any abnormal termination of ZIETrans will result in automatically returning the license.
  2. Run the project on the configured server and user can use preferred browser.

    Figure 14 : Home page

  3. Run below command and check the consumed licenses.

    Figure 15 : HCL License Server command to check Feature description & count of configured licenses

  4. Follow the preceding steps to open the application and connect to the configured host.