A new serial number hostid type is available. This hostid type takes a single string argument, and is valid on all machines, similar to the STRING hostid type. This is useful when ISVs want to simply mark licenses uniquely without restricting the license to a particular machine.

Licenses can now be locked to a list of hostids. The hostid on a node-locked license line can now be a space-separated list of hostids - the application will be allowed to run if it is running on any of the listed hostids. Note that hostid lists cannot be used on HOST (or SERVER) lines. This is useful because it frees the user to being tied to only a single hostid type.

The RLM activation server now verifies the clock on the requesting machine. If the system time/date setting on the requesting computer differs by more than 7 days from the clock on the activation server, the activation server will refuse to issue a license. This feature was added to make certain that licenses created with an off-set to the current date could not be given additional time by users setting their clocks back at the time the license was first activated.

RLM now ships with a license generator with a graphical user interface. The Reprise License Center or "rlc"  as it is now called, is a web-based application that allows you to:

• create and edit product definitions for fulfillment,

• create individual licenses for in-house or customer use, or

• generate activation keys that, when used by your customers, enable them to activate their own licenses after purchase using the built-in RLM activation capability.

RLM servers now detect that they are running on a virtual machine. If an RLM license server is run on a virtual machine, it will refuse to operate (by default). This behavior is controlled by a setting in rlm_isv_config.c. The disable= specification now accepts the VM parameter to disable individual licenses used on virtual machines. See the v5.0 Programmer's Manual for more information.

Licenses can now have ISV-defined optional attributes. The new options= license attribute allows an ISV to specify optional attributes, or sub-features, for a license. To maintain an important design goal of RLM (to design licenses that are as clear and as meaningful as possible) we recommend that ISVs use special care to clearly identify what is being specified in this field. For example: options="max_capacity=20" is preferred over options="mc=20".

---

ISV servers no longer exit on a reread if there are no licenses to serve in the newly read license file. These cases include when the license file is temporarily removed or if the last license expires. In v5.0, the ISV server will remain running, giving the end-user administrator a chance to fix the problem (in the case of a misplaced license file). While running in this state, the server continues to serve old clients that had licenses checked out, however it will accept no new license requests. While in this state, applications will receive no server support (RLM_EL_NO_SERV_SUPP) errors instead of connection failure errors (such as RLM_EL_COMM_ERROR).

The RLM web interface now has refresh buttons for several status pages. ISV status, ISV license status, and the debug log output in the web interface now have "refresh" buttons so that their contents can be updated without going back to the previous page and re-selecting the operation.

A NOPROJECT keyword is available for use with the EXCLUDE and EXCLUDEALL options.. This new option allows you to reject checkouts of products when the RLM_PROJECT environment variable is not set. End users requested this to ensure that all use of license managed applications are billable against a relevant project name.