# Altair License Manager

# Introduction

Open iT supports Altair usage reporting. The following sections will guide you on the required configuration for license manager utility polling and log file parsing.

# Configuring License Manager Utility Polling

Open iT polls the license servers at regular intervals to get the current status of its license use and availability. This will produce the following aggregated data types used for historical reporting:

The following sections will guide you on the required configuration to collect the needed data and send it to the server.

# Requirements

# Getting the License Status Utility Binary Location

This configuration requires the path to the license status utility binary, almutil, to obtain the license status information. Get this by following these steps:

Through the Interface

  1. Open the Task Manager.
  2. Go to the Details tab.
  3. Locate almutil.
  4. Right-click and choose Open file location.
    The path of the binary will be displayed.

Through the Command Line

  1. Open a command prompt with Administrator level privileges.

  2. Run the following command to locate the binary:

    Command Syntax
     where /r <installation_drive> almutil

    where <installation_drive> is the drive where the license manager is installed.

    Example
     where /r C:\ almutil

    The path of the binary will be displayed.

After verifying the path of the polling program, make sure that it is running.
Open a command prompt in the directory of the license server executable or the polling program and run the following command:

Command Syntax
almutil -licstat -port <port-number> -host $license-server- collapse
Example
almutil -licstat -port 6200 -host $license-server - collapse

Make sure that there are no errors encountered.

Run the following command to locate the binary:

Command Syntax
find . | grep almutil

The path of the binary will be displayed.

# Configuring Data Collection

These are the required steps to activate and configure collection of Altair usage data.

  1. Go to the Components directory, which is by default in C:\Program Files\OpeniT\Core\Configuration\Components, and back up the licpoll.xml configuration file.

  2. Open a command prompt with Administrator level privileges.

  3. Go to the bin directory, which is by default in C:\Program Files\OpeniT\Core\bin, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     cd $BIN_DIR
    Example
     cd C:\Program Files\OpeniT\Core\bin

  4. Once in the directory, activate the collection of Altair data, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     openit_confinit -c "licpoll.license-types.altair-sample.active=true"

  5. Set the license server name and port used by the Altair License Server, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     openit_confinit -c "licpoll.license-types.altair-sample.license-server=<hostname:portnumber>"
    Example
     openit_confinit -c "licpoll.license-types.altair-sample.license-server=osl120win:27000"

  6. Set the path to the binary used by the Altair License Server, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     openit_confinit -c "licpoll.license-types.altair-sample.status-command=<binary_path>"

    where <binary_path> is the obtained path in Getting the License Status Utility Binary Path.

    Example
     openit_confinit -c "licpoll.license-types.altair-sample.status-command=C:\almutil\bin\almutil"

  7. Update the configuration file, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     openit_confbuilder --client

    Make sure that there are no errors encountered.

Refer to the Altair Data Collection Configuration table to learn more about Altair configuration in licpoll.xml.

Object Name Accepted Value Description
active Boolean (true or false) Setting this to true activates Altair usage data collection.
type String (i.e., Altair) The license manager type.
interval Timespan (e.g., P30S, P5M, P1H) The span of time between each polling round (it is recommended to set a value no less than P1M).
offset Timespan (e.g., P30S, P5M, P1H) The span of time the aligned poll time decided by interval is shifted.
options-file FileName (e.g., C:\Program Files\altair\altair-triad.cfg) The filename, including the path, to the Altair options file that contains the redundant server list. This file is provided by the vendor and is usually in the license manager installation directory.
product-name String (e.g., server;daemon) This object is defined if a vendor license name other than the default Altair=%server%;altair will be used.
license-server String (e.g., hou105lin) The Altair License Server name.
status-command FileName (e.g., ${OpeniT.directories.bin}/almutil) The binary used to obtain status from the license manager.
status-command.arguments String (i.e., -licstat -port 6200 -host $license-server -collapse) The arguments used for the status command. The -collapse option provides a collapsed output for each feature so there is only one line for each user for each set of leveled checkouts, showing the actual amount of leveled usage.
Altair Data Collection Configuration

  1. Go to the Components directory, which is by default in /var/opt/openit/etc/Components, and back up the licpoll.xml configuration file.

  2. Go to the bin directory, which is by default in /opt/openit/bin, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     cd $BIN_DIR
    Example
     cd /opt/openit/bin

  3. Once in the directory, activate the collection of Altair data, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     ./openit_confinit -r /var/opt/openit/ -d /var/opt/openit/etc/ -c "licpoll.license-types.altair-sample.active=true"

  4. Set the license server name and port used by the Altair License Server, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     ./openit_confinit -r /var/opt/openit/ -d /var/opt/openit/etc/ -c "licpoll.license-types.altair-sample.license-server=<hostname:portnumber>"
    Example
     ./openit_confinit -r /var/opt/openit/ -d /var/opt/openit/etc/ -c "licpoll.license-types.altair-sample.license-server=osl120lin:27000"

  5. Set the path to the binary used by the Altair License Server, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     ./openit_confinit -r /var/opt/openit/ -d /var/opt/openit/etc/ -c "licpoll.license-types.altair-sample.status-command=<binary_path>"

    where <binary_path> is the obtained path in Getting the License Status Utility Binary Path.

    Example
     ./openit_confinit -r /var/opt/openit/ -d /var/opt/openit/etc/ -c "licpoll.license-types.altair-sample.status-command=/var/opt/almutil/bin/almutil"

  6. Update the configuration file, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     ./openit_confbuilder --client

    Make sure that there are no errors encountered.

Refer to the Altair Data Collection Configuration table to learn more about Altair configuration in licpoll.xml.

Object Name Accepted Value Description
active Boolean (true or false) Setting this to true activates Altair usage data collection.
type String (i.e., Altair) The license manager type.
interval Timespan (e.g., P30S, P5M, P1H) The span of time between each polling round (it is recommended to set a value no less than P1M).
offset Timespan (e.g., P30S, P5M, P1H) The span of time the aligned poll time decided by interval is shifted.
options-file FileName (e.g., /var/opt/altair/altair-triad.cfg) The filename, including the path, to the Altair options file that contains the redundant server list. This file is provided by the vendor and is usually in the license manager installation directory.
product-name String (e.g., server;daemon) This object is defined if a vendor license name other than the default Altair=%server%;altair will be used.
license-server String (e.g., hou105lin) The Altair License Server name.
status-command FileName (e.g., ${OpeniT.directories.bin}/almutil) The binary used to obtain status from the license manager.
status-command.arguments String i.e., -licstat -port 6200 -host $license-server -collapse) The arguments used for the status command. The -collapse option provides a collapsed output for each feature so there is only one line for each user for each set of leveled checkouts, showing the actual amount of leveled usage.
Altair Data Collection Configuration

# Verifying Data Collection

After configuration, you can verify that the data is collected by following these steps:

  1. Open a command prompt with Administrator level privileges.

  2. Go to the bin directory, which is by default in C:\Program Files\OpeniT\Core\bin, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     cd $BIN_DIR
    Example
     cd C:\Program Files\OpeniT\Core\bin

  3. Run the command:

    Command Syntax
     openit_licpoll -# 1

  4. Verify that the temp directory, which is by default in C:\ProgramData\OpeniT\Data\temp, contains a LicPoll directory containing .data and status-*.log files.

  1. Go to the bin directory, which is by default in /opt/openit/bin, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     cd $BIN_DIR
    Example
     cd /opt/openit/bin

  2. Run the command:

    Command Syntax
     ./openit_licpoll -# 1

  3. Verify that the temp directory, which is by default in /var/opt/openit/temp, contains a LicPoll directory containing .data and status-*.log files.

# Configuring Log File Parsing

Open iT collects log files and converts them to Open iT format. This will produce the following aggregated data types used for historical reporting:

The following sections will guide you in setting up the necessary configuration to collect and send the required data to the server.

# Requirements

  • An Open iT Client connected to an Open iT Server or a coexistent Open iT setup
  • License server administrative rights
  • Full path to the debug log file

# Configuring Log File Collection

These are the required steps to configure collection of Altair log files.

  1. Go to the Components directory, which is by default in C:\Program Files\OpeniT\Core\Configuration\Components, and back up the logfilecollector-altair.xml file.

  2. Open a command prompt with Administrator level privileges.

  3. Go to the bin directory, which is by default in C:\Program Files\OpeniT\Core\bin, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     cd $BIN_DIR
    Example
     cd C:\Program Files\OpeniT\Core\bin

  4. Once in the directory, set the location of the Altair log files, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     openit_confinit -c "logfilecollector-altair.logfilecollector.source.dir=<altair_log_dir>"

    where <altair_log_dir> is the location of the Altair log files.

    Example
     openit_confinit -c "logfilecollector-altair.logfilecollector.source.dir=C:\Users\user1\Altair_Access\home\logs"

  5. Update the configuration file, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     openit_confbuilder --client

    Make sure that there are no errors encountered.

Refer to the Altair Log File Collection Configuration table to learn more about Altair configuration in logfilecollector-altair.xml.

Object Name Accepted Value Description
source.dir DirName (e.g., C:\Users\user1\Altair_Access\home\logs) Location of the Altair log files.
source.pattern String (i.e., *.log) The glob pattern identifying source files in the source directory.
source.seen String (collect, ignore, or tail) Seen files are the previously collected source files.
  • collect - Specify this option to collect from the start each time.
  • ignore - Specify this option to skip collecting from the same file again.
  • tail - Specify this option to continue collection from the end of the file last time (i.e., collect the ones added since last time).
source.cmplines Integer (e.g., 6, 10, 20) This is required if the value of source.seen is tail. This is the number of lines compared to source files collected before to determine where to start the collection.

Note: If this number is too low, you can end up with an incorrect position, and duplicate data may be in the log files. Usually, it is better to have a few lines more than strictly necessary than even a single line too little.
target.dir DirName (i.e., ${OpeniT.directories.temp}/LogFileCollector) This is the location of the directory containing the collected log data.
target.module String (i.e., license) The target type of module (in general).
target.datatype String (i.e., altair) The specific type of target data.
target.interval Timespan (e.g., P30S, P5M, P1D) The span of time between collector runs.
target.rotation-size Integer (e.g., 6, 10, 20) The log file rotates if it goes beyond the number (in mb) defined.
target.rotation-glob String (e.g., *) The glob pattern to match before the log file rotates.
Altair Log File Collection Configuration

  1. Go to the Components directory, which is by default in /var/opt/openit/etc/Components, and open logfilecollector-altair.xml.

  2. Locate object node dir and set its value to the location of the Altair log files.

    logfilecollector-altair.xml
     14|	<Object>
 15|		<Name>dir</Name>
 16|		<Description>Directory containing the log files</Description>
 17|		<Value type="DirName">%ALTAIRLOGDIR%</Value>
 18|	</Object>
    Example: logfilecollector-altair.xml
     14|	<Object>
 15|		<Name>dir</Name>
 16|		<Description>Directory containing the log files</Description>
 17|		<Value type="DirName">/root/user1/Altair_Access/home/logs</Value>
 18|	</Object>

  3. Save the changes.

  4. Go to the bin directory, which is by default in /opt/openit/bin, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     cd $BIN_DIR
    Example
     cd /opt/openit/bin

  5. Update the configuration file, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     ./openit_confbuilder --client

    Make sure that there are no errors encountered.

Refer to the Altair Log File Collection Configuration table to learn more about Altair configuration in logfilecollector-altair.xml.

Object Name Accepted Value Description
source.dir DirName (e.g., /root/user1/Altair_Access/home/logs) Location of the Altair log files.
source.pattern String (i.e., *.log) The glob pattern identifying source files in the source directory.
source.seen String (collect, ignore, or tail) Seen files are the previously collected source files.
  • collect - Specify this option to collect from the start each time.
  • ignore - Specify this option to skip collecting from the same file again.
  • tail - Specify this option to continue collection from the end of the file last time (i.e., collect the ones added since last time).
source.cmplines Integer (e.g., 6, 10, 20) This is required if the value of source.seen is tail. This is the number of lines compared to source files collected before to determine where to start the collection.

Note: If this number is too low, you can end up with an incorrect position, and duplicate data may be in the log files. Usually, it is better to have a few lines more than strictly necessary than even a single line too little.
target.dir DirName (i.e., ${OpeniT.directories.temp}/LogFileCollector) This is the directory location containing the collected log data.
target.module String (i.e., license) The target type of module (in general).
target.datatype String (i.e., altair) The specific type of target data.
target.interval Timespan (e.g., P30S, P5M, P1D) The span of time between collector runs.
target.rotation-size Integer (e.g., 6, 10, 20) The log file rotates if it goes beyond the number (in mb) defined.
target.rotation-glob String (e.g., *) The glob pattern to match before the log file rotates.
Altair Log File Collection Configuration

# Activating Log Data Collection

These are the required steps to activate collection of Altair log data.

  1. Go to the scheduler directory, which is by default in C:\Program Files\OpeniT\Core\Configuration\scheduler, and open collect_license_altair-logs.oconf.

  2. Locate and set root.scheduler.jobs.collect_altair_licenselogs.general.active to true to activate the collection of Altair log data.

    collect_license_altair-logs.oconf
     13|	}
 14|		general
 15|		{
 16|			active
 17|			{
 18|				type=bool
 19|				value=true

  3. Save the changes.

The collection runs hourly using a 5-minute sample interval by default. The primary data is then transferred to the server every night according to the client timezone for processing. To configure the intervals, locate the instances attribute under collect_altair_licenselogs, preprocess_altair_licenselogs-events, or transfer_altair_licenselogs in the same file and configure the attributes.

Refer to the Altair Log Job Scheduler Instances Configuration table to learn the attributes used to configure Altair data collection and transfer.

Attribute Name Accepted Value Description
max-instances Uint (e.g., 5, 8, 9) The number of instances allowed to run at the same time.
max-handling String (end-oldest, end-all-old, or end-new) The action done upon reaching the maximum number of instances:
  • end-oldest - Specify this option to stop/kill the oldest instance and starts a new one.
  • end-all-old - Specify this option to stop/kill all running instances before starting the new one.
  • end-new - Specify this option to prevent a new instance from starting.
end-timeout Timespan (e.g., P30S, P5M, P1H) The maximum waiting time before terminating a running instance.
quarantine Timespan (e.g., P30S, P5M, P1H) The waiting time before starting a new instance after a previous one.
Altair Log Job Scheduler Instances Configuration

  1. Go to the scheduler directory, which is by default in /var/opt/openit/etc/scheduler, and open collect_license_altair-logs.oconf.

  2. Locate and set root.scheduler.jobs.collect_altair_licenselogs.general.active to true to activate the collection of Altair log data.

    collect_license_altair-logs.oconf
     13|	}
 14|		general
 15|		{
 16|			active
 17|			{
 18|				type=bool
 19|				value=true

  3. Save the changes.

The collection runs hourly using a 5-minute sample interval by default. The primary data is then transferred to the server every night according to the client timezone for processing. To configure the intervals, locate the instances attribute under collect_altair_licenselogs, preprocess_altair_licenselogs-events, or transfer_altair_licenselogs in the same file and configure the attributes.

Refer to the Altair Log Job Scheduler Instances Configuration table to learn the attributes used to configure Altair data collection and transfer.

Attribute Name Accepted Value Description
max-instances Uint (e.g., 5, 8, 9) The number of instances allowed to run at the same time.
max-handling String (end-oldest, end-all-old, or end-new) The action done upon reaching the maximum number of instances:
  • end-oldest - Specify this option to stop/kill the oldest instance and start a new one.
  • end-all-old - Specify this option to stop/kill all running instances before starting the new one.
  • end-new - Specify this option to prevent a new instance from starting.
end-timeout Timespan (e.g., P30S, P5M, P1H) The maximum waiting time before terminating a running instance.
quarantine Timespan (e.g., P30S, P5M, P1H) The waiting time before starting a new instance after a previous one.
Altair Log Job Scheduler Instances Configuration

# Verifying Log Data Collection

After configuration, you can verify that the data is collected and sent to the server by following these steps:

  1. Open a command prompt with Administrator level privileges.

  2. Go to the bin directory, which is by default in C:\Program Files\OpeniT\Core\bin, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     cd $BIN_DIR
    Example
     cd C:\Program Files\OpeniT\Core\bin

  3. Run the command:

    Command Syntax
     openit_executor -r collect_license_altair-logs

  4. Verify that there are archiver*.in files created in the server in the archiver directory, which is by default in C:\ProgramData\OpeniT\Data\incoming\archiver.

  1. Go to the bin directory, which is by default in /opt/openit/bin, run the command:

    Command Syntax
     cd $BIN_DIR
    Example
     cd /opt/openit/bin

  2. Run the command:

    Command Syntax
     ./openit_executor -r collect_license_altair-logs

  3. Verify that there are archiver*.in files created in the incoming directory in your defined data_dir ($ROOT_DATA_DIR) upon Open iT server installation.

# Next Steps?

   Renaming Vendor License    Renaming Features    Create and Add Report    License Monitor

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