PMOD supports two licensing schemes: stand-alone and network licenses.
Licensing, Stand-alone License
The PMOD software stand-alone licensing mechanism consists of two components:
During PMOD startup the license information encoded in the USB key is read and compared with that in the license file. Only if the two informations match, startup proceeds. Next is a check whether the PMOD version purchased allows running the currently installed version. If checking is successful, the PMOD ToolBox appears showing the purchased modules, and processing can start. Note that the USB key must remain in place while running PMOD.
Licensing, Network License
The PMOD network licensing scheme consists of a PMOD license server which manages a pool of purchased licenses, and an arbitrary number of PMOD clients which can check out unused licenses from the server. As soon as the PMOD program on a client is closed, the license is returned to the managed server pool. If the PMOD client crashes for some reason, the license is re-collected to the pool after a few minutes. On the other hand, if the license server is stopped, the clients show a warning message and allow to continue work for a few minutes. Then, the clients will be stopped, unless the server has been started again.
On the license server PMOD is installed in the same way as for a stand-alone license with the USB key, but the license file turns it into a license server. The license server PMOD installation is only intended for server purposes and not for data processing. Note that the USB key must be connected at all times.
On the clients PMOD is also installed in the standard way, except that
Note that the license server and the clients must run the same PMOD version.
Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
The entire PMOD software has been programmed in Java and therefore requires an appropriate Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to be executed. During PMOD installation on Linux and Windows systems, an appropriately configured JRE is extracted into the java sub-directory of the PMOD installation. This dedicated JRE will then be used for running PMOD. By this controlled environment, PMOD will remain unaffected from changes due to automatic upgrade procedures on Windows and Linux. Only on MacOSX systems, the built-in JRE will be used.
Installation Steps
The installation of the PMOD software consists of the following steps which should be performed in the proposed sequence. They are explained in detail in the system-specific installation sections.